- Omar Vizquel is the Rolling Stones of Major League Baseball shortstops. He’s been around longer than he should have lasted, isn't quite as effective as he once was, yet keeps doing enough to hang around a little longer. Vizquel, who turns 45 on April 24, will play his 24th season in the majors after playing well enough in spring training to make the major league roster for the Toronto Blue Jays. He found out the good news a month before his 45th birthday, making him the oldest active position player in the big leagues. The 11-time Gold Glove winner signed a minor league contract on Jan. 23 after spending the previous two years with the Chicago White Sox as a utilityman. "We knew what his character was and what kind of guy he was going to be in the clubhouse," Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopolous said. "So that obviously came out the way it was expected. Omar just had a very good camp and he deserved to be on the team." In 15 exhibition games, Vizquel batted .433 and on the day he officially made the roster, he had a bunt single and scored a run in a 9-3 victory over Baltimore. Following the game, the Blue Jays optioned Mike McCoy, Vizquel's primary competition, to Triple-A Las Vegas. "McCoy had to be that much better than Omar and (Luis) Valbuena just because he had options and they had the ability to keep him," Anthopolous said. "Mike knew he didn't have a great camp, he's a lot better than he played. He's going to be back, like he was last year a lot, and I expect him to be back again. It's just one of those things that Omar had the best camp." Vizquel will be used primarily as a backup and utilityman for the Blue Jays and should offer roughly the same sort of production (.251 with eight RBIs) he churned out in 58 games for the White Sox last year…………
- Props to General Motors for attempting to continue its financial resurgence by conning consumers out of $50 for a smartphone application that could replace their dashboard navigation system. GM announced the app, called GoGo Link, Wednesday and showed off its features for the masses. The app will project smartphone navigation systems onto a dashboard touch screen and users can control the system with the touch screen and listen to voice directions through the car's speaker system. Oh, and there will be maps too. The app will work with iPhone or Android systems and it will be available later this year on Chevrolet's 2013 subcompacts, the Spark and Sonic. The concept of smartphones with global positioning systems and navigation apps that give turn-by-turn voice directions is not new, but such apps are difficult to use in a car because the maps are small and it's sometimes hard to hear the voice directions. It may actually have cost-saving value for those who don’t yet have an in-dash car system, which can cost more than $1,000. However, to gain these benefits, consumers will have to own a car with have Chevrolet's MyLink touch screen system, which is coming out in new models. GM has not yet announced how much MyLink would cost the system comes standard on some more costly models but is only an option on lower-level models. The decision to sell the app came after research on potential Spark and Sonic buyers, said Sara LeBlanc, GM's global infotainment manager. GM figures that 90 percent of these potential buyers own smartphones but many of them informed surveyors that they don't have the money to pay for a car system. LeBlanc refused to say if the app will be available in more GM vehicles. "This is new territory for us here at Chevy," she said. "Navigation is going to continue to evolve." In other words, if we can make money off of it, then absolutely………..
- Rarely are the day-to-day actions of Congress interesting. Boring speeches, self-important blow-hardeness and general incompetency simply are not compelling. That was not the case Wednesday as Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Illinois, was removed from the House floor Wednesday after giving a speech about Trayvon Martin while wearing a hoodie. Rush, a former Black Panther who was active in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, told his fellow House members that "racial profiling has to stop." He then channeled his inner gangsta, taking off his suit jacket, pulling a gray hoodie on over his head and putting on sunglasses. "Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum," he said. He spoke during the morning session, in which members are allowed to address any issue. Rush’s issue of choice was saluting young people across the country who are wearing hoodies to make a statement about Martin, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when he was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla. Rep. Greg Harper, R-Mississippi, who was presiding over the House floor, was having none of Rush’s social consciousness. He immediately began to gavel Rush down, saying he was out of order. To Rush’s credit, he gave Harper a psychological middle finger and continued to speak, citing the Bible as Harper continued to bang the gavel. "The gentleman will suspend. The member is no longer recognized," he said. "The chair must remind members that clause 5 of rule 17 prohibits the wearing of hats in the chamber when the House is in session." Harper apparently does not realize the distinction between a hat and a hoodie and so a floor clerk approached Rush as he finished his remarks and led him away from the podium. Rush understood the difference and later remarked, "this is not a hat, this is a hoodie.” Rush remained defiant afterward, pointing out that he was wearing a tie and was thus was appropriately dressed for the House floor. His message, he explained, was for young people "to stand their ground, stand up and don't stand down." He went on to liken the public debate over Martin's death to the movement in which he participated during the 1960's. "This is just another part of the struggle. I've never left those days. Those days are deep down in my soul. I don't mind being out of order if it means standing up for truth and justice." In a noble gesture, Rush conceded that Harper and the clerk who moved him off the floor were doing their jobs and did allow him to finish his speech. It was the first of two possible times this week Rush would don a hoodie this week, as he and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-California, are gathering of House members wearing hoodies on the East Front of the Capitol later this week…………
- Los Angeles-based indie rockers The Submarines released an album in 2006 titled “Declare a New State.” A Libyan tribe apparently took that album to heart. The Tabu tribe in southern Libya has threatened to declare its own state after days of bloody battles. Fighting between Tabu and the Arab Abu Seif tribe led to the proclamation from Tabu leaders, who along with other African tribes are the original inhabitants of south Libya. Their skirmishes are the latest example of the chaos that has gripped Libya after the fall of longtime despot Muammar Qaddafi last year. The fighting has left scores dead in the southern city of Sabha and Tabu leaders believe unless they break away and form their own state, the violence and killing will continue. Eissa Abdul-Maged, a Tabu leader, spoke Wednesday about the "genocide" his tribe is subjected to without any help from the Libyan government in Tripoli. Paris-based Tabu leader Jomode Elie Getty piled on from afar, accusing the National Tribal Council of siding with Arabs in attacks on Tabu. Getty called for U.N intervention, which seems unlikely given how long it has taken the U.N. to make any real efforts in other conflicts across Africa and the Middle East. Regardless of whether or not international forces intervene, the idea of secession is always an inspiring one because a group of people breaking away to declare their own state is a move of boldness, assertiveness and eff-you-edness………….
- Speaking of Los Angeles-based rockers…..the All-American Rejects are no longer Los Angeles-based rockers. With the release of their new album, "Kids in the Street," the Rejects have broken free of the plastic world that is SoCal and it was apparently frontman Tyson Ritter's "lost weekend" that led him "far out in every aspect to make this record." Ritter admitted that escaping L.A. (eat your heart out, Snake Plischkin) led him to the darker, edgier sound of “Kids” and helped the creative process immensely. “Self-discovery is such an important thing," Ritter said. "I feel like in music you're a virtual Magellan as you discover new, vast territories, sonically and lyrically. If you're not discovering something new, you're not doing it right. I knew we needed to find a different place, and I guess in this accidental sort of...I don't know man, in the journey I found a different way and a new voice for our music and even a new voice for me to sing with. He actually moved to Los Angeles after the group finished touring in support of 2008's gold-certified "When the World Comes Down" and fell into a cycle of women and excess... getting into trouble... pouring too much Jameson's into the ol' noggin, a lot of people I could've done without.” In other words, he lived like a rock star without actually having the cred and chops of a real rock star. For the writing of the new album, guitarist and co-writer Nick Wheeler brought him up to the Sequoia mountains in northern California. The resulting sound is very dark and autobiographical, but it also has a totally poppy and non-rock edge with guest spots from pop hacks like Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson and OneRepublic. Ritter admits keyboards (never a good sign for a rock band) played a much bigger role on the album but insisted the Rejects are "still a rock band. There's still guitars all over this thing. Whatever you say, bro. The Rejects say the recorded nearly 25 songs for "Kids in the Street,” but they made a typically bullsh*t band move by including only 11 on the album so they can jam fans later for a re-release with previously unreleased bonus tracks. To promote the album, they will kick off a spring tour on March 31…………
No comments:
Post a Comment