- Props to the Tampa Bay Rays for finding an original gift
to give to Derek Jeter on his way out the door. Every team in Major League
Baseball has trotted out some sort of lame, localized giveaway for The Captain
when it has played him for the last time before he retires at the end of the
season, but no one has given him something like the Rays dished out Tuesday
night. That’s because inexperienced
reliever Steven Geltz gave Jeter a nice bruise and welt on his left hand when
he dotted the star shortstop with a pitch in the eighth inning. The beanball
continued a painful trend of late because the two teams and it was the fifth
time a Yankee had been hit by a Ray in the past four games, while the Yankees
have not hit any Rays. Jeter has been pegged twice and the Rays also did a
hospital job on Chase Headley by hitting him with a pitch on the chin. The
multiple hit batters have raised the ire of Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who
blew up after the 6-1 loss to the Rays. "If you are going to pitch inside,
pitch the right way," Girardi said. "If you can't pitch inside, don't
pitch inside. We are not pincushions." In defense of Geltz, he’s in the
majors for the first time and was up 0-2 in the count when the 95 mph fastball
got away. With a five-run lead, he clearly wouldn’t have been looking to bring
an early end to the career of one of the greatest players in the history of the
game. "If you are going to pitch inside, learn how to pitch inside,"
Girardi said. "You pitch down in the zone. You don't pitch up. This is not
practice. This is guys' livelihood." Rays manager Joe Madden agreed with
some of what his counterpart said, but insisted that the sport “is called baseball;
sometimes hitters get hit,” and said there would be no apology……….
- Congratulations to Barcelona, Spain. The unofficial
capital of Catalonia has captured the grand prize in a competition that spurs
cities to develop novel approaches to improve urban life, contest sponsor Bloomberg
Philanthropies announced Wednesday. The city, which just so happens to sit
within a massively cash-strapped nation, was awarded 5 million euro ($6.5
million) as top finisher. The four runners-up awarded 1 million euros ($1.3
million) each: the metropolitan area of Kirklees, England, and the cities of
Stockholm; Warsaw, Poland; and Athens, Greece. Yes, all of the winners are from
Europe and that seems a bit biased, but it’s not as if the winners, selected
from 21 finalists, were announced in Paris….oh wait, they were. But the Euros
bribed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with a trip to Paris so the
billionaire businessman-turned-politician’s own personal foundation for
innovative ideas that could also potentially spread to other cities could have
its black-tie event. "To meet the biggest challenges of the 21st century,
city leaders must think creatively and be unafraid to try new things, and the
Mayors Challenge is designed to help them do that," Bloomberg said in a
statement. Entrants were tasked with dreaming up creative solutions to critical
urban issues, such as youth unemployment, aging populations, civic engagement,
environment and public health and safety. Barcelona’s proposal aims to boost
the quality of life for its expanding elderly population with the creation of a
support network that would include relatives, friends, social workers and
volunteers. "The Mayors Challenge inspired Barcelona to address the issue
of isolation among elderly residents, and this prize will enable us to achieve
a more connected and inclusive society,” Barcelona Mayor Xavier Trias said. Stockholm’s
near-miss of a plan zeroed in on climate change and the notion of fighting
climate change by encouraging residents to produce biochar, an organic material
that increases tree growth, isolates carbon and purifies storm runoff. Well
done, everyone. You can pick up your ribbon on the way out the door……..
- Bond is back. It doesn’t have a title, but the 24th James Bond
film will begin shooting on Dec. 6 and director Sam Mendes will be back, along
with leading man Daniel Craig. Craig is a solid choice by virtue of not being
Pierce Brosnan and has actually done a serviceable job in the three Bond movies
he has starred in. Principal photography will commence on Dec. 6 and Mendes is
reportedly preparing Craig and the main cast members for a script read through
in late November at Pinewood Studios. Work was originally slated to start in
October, but multiple script rewrites set the process back for the sequel to
“Skyfall,” which was released in 2012 and is the most successful Bond film yet
with more than $800 million in worldwide earnings. What’s interesting about the
project at this point is that the movie’s villain hasn’t yet been cast,
although the search for Bond’s next archenemy is "focused on someone extremely
physically fit and over 6-foot-2," with a decided preference for someone
who is a drastic departure from any previous Bond villains. Mendes is
reportedly seeking the same sort of physical presence on screen as a villain
such as Jaws, who battled Roger Moore's Bond in “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977. Having Craig back for his fourth
Bond flick is a solid score and he will be joined by Naomie Harris, who
reprises her role as Moneypenny, along with Ralph Fiennes as M, Ben Whishaw as
Q and Rory Kinnear’s Bill Tanner. The budget is once again immense and the
earnings will likely follow suit whether the revised script is good or not, so
let’s all buckle in for more fast cars, hot chicks and clichéd lines from
007…….
- What school district doesn’t need a good, solid armored
vehicle from time to time? Los Angeles Unified School District police officials have
a blessing that any other district would kill for, even if they’re pretending
they don’t by “debating” whether they need the armored vehicle and grenade
launchers they received from the U.S. military. It’s a good show for the
crowds, but no one is buying the idea that LAUSD police officers are going to
pass up a chance at a 20-foot-long, 14-ton armored transport vehicles, much
like the ones used to move Marines in Iraq combat zones. The gem of a vehicle
is worth $733,000, and the school district’s police force got it from the
government for free. F-R-E-E. Simply put, if it’s free, it’s for me. One could
ask how LAUSD would ever use such a vehicle, but one would be an idiot. “For
us? That vehicle would be used for extraordinary circumstances,” LAUSD police
Chief Steve Zipperman said. “It’s something that we believe is a life-saving
vehicle (and) certainly we realize we need to take a look, is this the best
alternative right now for us until we find something else that is more
conducive to a police-type of rescue.” Keep pretending, chief. Making the
situation all the more kick-ass, the vehicle is stored at a secret location,
just like the Batmobile. To top off its arsenal, the district also has a supply
of grenade launchers, which it received for free from the military after 9/11. While
neither the armored vehicle nor the grenade launchers have ever been used
and the district is pretending it might get rid of them, any right-minded human
being knows that Zipperman is a poor liar and those weapons are staying right
where they are………
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