- The choice was a tough one for disgraced San Francisco
Giants slugger Melky Cabrera: win a tainted batting title no one would view as
legitimate or take the unprecedented step of self-ejecting from the National
League batting average race. Cabrera had the last 50 games of his season ripped
by Major League Baseball after testing positive for a banned
performance-enhancing substance. He admitted his mistake, accepted his
punishment and quietly went away. However, he remained eligible for the NL
batting title and he r entered Friday with a league-leading .346 average, seven
points ahead of Pittsburgh's Andrew McCutchen. Being suspended for a positive
test for testosterone and missing the final 45 games of the regular season as
well as the postseason (because the Giants don’t want him back even when he is
elgible to return) didn’t disqualify him from the race and Cabrera had 501
plate appearances, one short of the required minimum, but would have won the
title under section 10.22(a) of the Official Baseball Rules if an extra hitless
at-bat were added to his average and he still finished ahead. Rather than
accept the tainted title that now looks to be a sure thing, Cabrera was
disqualified from the NL batting honor at his own request when Major League
Baseball and the players' association agreed Friday to a one-season-only change
in the rule governing the individual batting, slugging and on-base percentage
champions. His agent, Seth Levinson, sent an email to union head Michael Weiner
with an attached letter from Cabrera in English and Spanish asking for the
change. "I ask the Players Association to take the necessary steps, in
conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner, to remove my name from for the
National League batting title," Cabrera wrote in the letter. "To
be plain, I personally have no wish to win an award that would widely be seen
as tainted, and I believe that it would be far better for the remaining
contenders to compete for that distinction.” No credit for any of the above
because MLB should have already had a rule in place for this very situation,
what with PEDs being omnipresent in the game despite increased testing. After
making plenty of wrong choices, it’s nice to see a disgraced cheater making the
right one……..
- Some problems have easy solutions. The overturning of a
beer truck on the I-35 southbound exit ramp onto I-10 west in San Antonio this weekend
was one such problem. According to San Antonio police, the accident was as simple
as the driver taking the exit too fast, causing the truck to overturn and spill
most of the 7,990 pounds of Bud Light, Natural Light and Busch beer that it was
hauling. The crash left blue cans of booze all over the highway and cleanup
crews worked quickly to clear the site, but the real answer authorities should have
selected would have been much more effective and beneficial for everyone. Instead
of cordoning off the exit ramp and having a bunch of government employees and
civil servants, why not place a call to the fraternity council for any one of
the dozens of colleges and universities in the greater San Antonio area and ask
if any of their frats would be interested in a community service project. The
rules would be simple: You keep all the beer you clean up. Those cans would
have been removed from the highway in less than an hour and the only possible
problem would have been the beer-loving frat dudes potentially causing traffic
accidents in their rush to get to the site. Of the many food and beverage items
that have been spilled on highways across America – milk, fruits, vegetables,
yogurt – this was arguably the one spill that should have created the most
eagerness among the masses to volunteer their time, effort and talents to help
clean up the mess and provide an assist to their community………
- Movies have the potential to inspire. Movies starring Tom
Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio can definitely challenge individuals to step their
life game up and attempt extraordinary feats. For one intrepid Italian man, the
film “Catch Me If You Can” was just the source of inspiration he needed to
attempt a stunt most people would never have the kahones to try. For anyone who
has never seen the movie, it is based on the real-life tale of a man named
Frank Abagnale, who ran away from home as a teenager and became one of the best
forgers and con artists the FBI has ever encountered to support himself and
build an extravagant lifestyle. He was eventually captured in a small town in
France on Christmas Eve and was eventually released from prison to serve out
his term as special consultant for the bureau. That example led an unidentified
Italian man to pose as a pilot and gain free access to the cockpit and a free
trip from Munich, Germany, to Turin,
Italy in April. He was arrested Saturday at Turin's airport after police
received a tip on his whereabouts. When he was arrested, the man was once again
wearing a pilot's uniform, but investigators say it was unclear if he intended
to try the ruse again. In April, he allegedly used fake IDs, a cap and uniform
to convince an Air Dolomiti flight he was a pilot and let him fly for free
inside the cockpit. Two real pilots flew the plane that day, but having a fake
pilot of questionable mental stability in the cockpit for the flight, free to
potentially wreak havoc, would seem to pose something of a hazard. After his
aerial hijinks, this brave man was able to get off with only a citation. Police
did not release his identity and let him off with a slap on the wrist. Contrast
that with the absolute panic and uproar that would have resulted if this
incident had occurred in the United States and it’s clear that air security is
not taken at quite the same level of seriousness everywhere in the world……….
- Being a gamer dork is an expensive and often lonely
existence. Spending hours in a man cave or dark basement playing online
first-player shooter or fantasy games with like-minded, friendless dorks tends
to cost a solid chunk of change for games, new consoles and Internet
connections. There aren't many hours left to hang out with real, flesh-and-blood
friends, which is good because gamer dorks tend not to have many of those. Being
a loyal gamer is about to become more expensive for Nintendo devotees after the
company revealed that its upcoming Wii U system will be region locked, meaning that Wii U games
will only work on hardware sold in the same region. That means gamers need to
be prepared to buy multiple international editions of the Wii U if they want to
play every game available for the system worldwide. Nintendo made the
announcement after reports of the change surfaced online in Japan. While the
policy is nothing new for Nintendo, its portable systems have historically been
able to play games from all regions. All of its home consoles since the
original Nintendo Entertainment System has featured a similar region lock,
though various hardware and software workarounds exist for users looking to
“jail break” many of those systems. A similar lock went into place on the
Nintendo 3DS when it launched last year. The policy is slightly different than
the ones in place for Microsoft and Sony, which both allow publishers to decide
whether to implement a region lock on specific game discs for the Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3. Because of that relaxed standard, almost every PS3 game is sold
without such a lock, while international compatibility for Xbox 360 titles
varies. Region locks became a huge issue among gaming dorks last year among
when Nintendo refused to release North American versions of Xenosaga
Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. A grassroots effort eventually led to
the first of those two games becoming available in the North American Wii
library………
- You didn’t need to say a word, Gwen Stefani. Thanks for
letting everyone know that your solo albums were "never meant to
be taken seriously,” but we all kind of knew that. How? Because most of us were
subjected to listening to part or all of them, that’s why. We saw the terrible
music videos, were heard the abysmal singles while sitting helplessly in
restaurants where we regrettably had no control over the music and we were
pissed because of it. For anyone fortunate enough to miss them, Stefani
recorded two of what could loosely be described as albums with high-profile
producers such as Dr. Dre and the Neptunes while her equally crappy band, No
Doubt, was on a decade-long hiatus. Coincidentally, the band recently admitted
it really doesn’t have a clue what it is doing when in the studio making albums
and with Stefani’s admission that her solo efforts amounted to an extended
"art project,” the clear message here is that no one involved with the
musical abortion that is No Doubt has any clue what they are doing and that the
world would be better off without their music, be it their five previous albums
or their sixth studio album, “Push and Shove,” which drops this week. "It
just feels so much more natural being back in this mode. The solo records
allowed me to indulge my girly side but it was never meant to be taken
seriously,” Stefani said of the new album. "It was just like an art
project that kept going longer than I expected. The group never ended – we
always knew we’d come back to make this album.” And the world always dreaded
the day you would, G. Do you want to know who else feels that way? Stefani’s
own husband, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale. Stefani admitted her better half
isn't a fan of hers or No Doubt’s music. “Oh, he's never been a fan of what we
do," she said. "He's more into dark, indie stuff. But I’m not saying
he doesn't think I'm amazing," she said. Umm…hot, sure. A talented fashion
designer? Maybe. But nothing about Stefani’s or No Doubt’s music is amazing………
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