- The
one thing a professional athlete never wants said about them is that they quit.
Quitting on your team or even quitting as an individual sport athlete is one of
the worst things you can say about any athlete because it means you don’t have
the competitive fire or integrity it takes to succeed. With that in mind, lots
of luck to Detroit Tigers closer Bruce Rondon in shaking the quitter rap now
attached to his name after his last-place team sent him home for the final two
weeks of the season because he stopped trying. Don’t believe it? Just as Tigers
manager Brad Ausmus, who cited the reliever's "effort level" as the
reason for giving him two weeks of paid vacation to wrap up the year. Ausmus
refused to comment beyond that cryptic remark, but it came after a bizarre appearance in Monday's game
in which Rondon's fastball velocity was markedly lower than usual. When asked
after Game 2 of Monday's doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox, he said
only that Rondon was not injured. He was also asked if Rondon was trying to
scale back his velocity to improve command and said the team was against the
pitcher taking that approach. He was obviously going to get additional
questions about the decision to rip a previously valuable piece from a bullpen
that has been one of the premier areas of disappointment for one of baseball’s
most underwhelming teams this season, but Ausmus was having none of it. "Other
than saying that [general manager] Al Avila and myself completely agreed on it,
there will be no other details or comment," Ausmus said. Maybe the quitter
himself will have something to say about all of this in the near future………
- Score
one for blatant overreaction, University of
Delaware. No one wants their campus to be the scene of a hate crime, but the
Wilmington-based school showed a healthy disdain for observation and rational
thought this week when remnants of paper lanterns left over from a campus event
were mistaken for nooses and set off a hate crime investigation. Interim
university President Nancy Targett showed why she probably isn't a great choice
to guide the university on a long-term basis when she went knee-jerk on the
story and called the appearance of the
pieces of string with metal hangers at the end a "deplorable act" and
"hateful display" when they were found by a student hanging in trees
in front of a campus building. That hot take cooled off considerably hours
later when Targett came back and said the investigation found that the items
weren't instruments of a hate crime, but were left over from an event on The
Green, a campus open space. How can none of you check the event schedule and
see that there was a special event in that area, one that used paper lanterns
to create a festive atmosphere. In trying to cover her own ass, Targett said
the incident revealed the campus' sensitivity to the potential issue and shows
a need for "continuing dialogue." Potential issue? For what? For
someone to find the severed papier mâché head of a piñata horse and claim that
it’s promoting violence against animals? That this story caused a minor social
media stir wasn’t surprising, not when your overreacting interim president
issuing statements in which she says she’s “saddened and disturbed that this
deplorable act has taken place on our campus.” Nicely played, tools……….
- Duuuude,
Keanu Reeves is about to kill some more suckers and he might not even need kung
fu to do it. Sure, Reeves hasn’t pretended to be a kung fu expert for the vast
majority of his roles, but his terrible acting has spanned roles from “Bill and
Ted’s Excellent Adventure” to “The Matrix” and more recently, the hitman action
flick “John Wick.” The latter of those three movies was a huge success earlier
this year, made on a $20 million budget and raking in $78 million worldwide.
That sort of return on investment is definitely enough to earn a sequel and so
it shall be. Reeves will start shooting “John Wick 2” this fall, studios
Lionsgate and Thunder Road Pictures have announced. To keep continuity
high, co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski
are returning for the sequel with Reeves back as a former hitman who comes out
of retirement after a rich brat played by Alfie Allen kills the beagle puppy
left to him by his late wife. Throw in writer Derek Kolstad also being back to
pen the script and the gang it back together for what could be a solid action
movie. “With such tremendous fan and critical support for John Wick, we knew that there was
still so much more of this story to tell,” Lionsgate executive Jason
Constantine said in a statement. “We are thrilled that Keanu, David and Chad
have re-teamed with us and promise to bring audiences even more excitement the
second time around." The rest of the cast is a work in progress, so
the returns of John Leguizamo, Adrianne Palicki and
Ian McShane are question marks at this point……..
- Voting
is near and the threats are a-flyin’ in España. This
weekend's local elections in the disputed region of Catalonia are important
because they could result in the region declaring its long-awaited independence
and breaking away from the rest of the country. Enter Spanish Foreign Minister Garcia
Margallo, who wants those involved to know what’s on the line when they head to
the polling station. He said Catalonia's 7.5 million residents would
automatically lose their Spanish nationality if the regional government that
emerges from this weekend decides to declare independence. As Margallo tells
it, when one splits with a country, one loses the benefits of that country. It
sounds really simple when you lay it out that way, but of course in the real
world it’s not going to be anywhere close to that easy. The prime minister was
having none of the claim that Catalans could maintain Spanish nationality after
independence, shooting it down like a cheap clay pigeon. This may or may not
have a lot to do with the fact that Catalonia is an economically powerful
northeastern region that Spain really can't afford to lose given the country’s
shaky economy. When Catalan voters elect regional lawmakers Sunday, they could well
set the table for pro-secession parties saying they will establish independence
within 18 months if they win a majority. The national government has ruled out
any possibility of the region becoming independent, saying secession would be
unconstitutional. Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, disagrees and wants to
take its 18 percent of Spain's economic output and become a free agent………
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