- Minor league baseball is supposed to be a low-rent,
travel-heavy, bus-ride-laden endeavor for all involved in the daily on-field
product, but one party involved in the process is about to upgrade its quality
of life. Big ups to you, minor league umpires, for negotiating your way to an
upgrade in hotel accommodations, family leave, refrigerators at ballparks for
concussion headgear and pay raises as part of a five-year labor contract. This
new deal guarantees an improvement in hotels, which now must include interior
access to the rooms, the Association of Minor League Umpires said. It’s quite a
coup for Tim Brunswick, vice president of baseball and business operations of
the National Association of Professional Leagues, who did fail to secure that
all-important promise of an indoor ice machine as part of the agreement.
According to Brunswick, the previous
agreement called for management to make its "best efforts" to avoid
hotel rooms with entrances onto parking lots and that just two were used last
year. Oh, and those fridges are actually to store the headgear so that the ice
is frozen and can be applied immediately in the case of suspected concussions.
It is nice that umpires will get five paid days of family leave for the birth
of a child and additional days at the discretion of management, along with a
new limit of 30 consecutive days worked. Those looking to buy secondhand gear
on eBay will be jazzed to know that a part of the agreement, umpires at Class A
and above will receive a cash credit for uniforms rather than being provided
the clothing. Salaries will go up small increments at each level of the minors
and per diems increase by $2 annually across the board. Next deal, let’s hold
out for unlimited concessions at the stadium……..
- Now THAT is how a legislature is supposed to work. Forget
all the grandstanding, filibustering and following of whatever the hell decorum
is; focus on Turkey, where a series of all-out brawls erupted between ruling
and opposition legislators in Turkey's parliament during deliberations over a
controversial package of constitutional amendments that would greatly expand
President/dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan's powers. It was an inspiring scene of
lawmakers who actually give a damn, so much so that they were seen pushing each
other and exchanging blows during a round of voting, proving that a vote with
your fist sends a much louder message than hitting some lame button on your
desk to register your opinion. The chaos came because the opposition accuses
the ruling party of breaching constitutional rules that call for a secret
ballot, a fact have been flouting by displaying their votes, leading to accusations
that the party is pressuring them to vote in favor of the amendments and is
curbing their ability to vote independently. These lap dogs are following along
with Erdogan’s long-running push for the amendments, insisting that a strong
leadership will make Turkey stronger. Yes, an iron-fisted despot with total
autonomy always makes a nation stronger and more stable….or, as critics fear,
the changes will give Erdogan too many powers with few checks. But let’s go
ahead and ram these measures through because the odds that things will get
worse aren’t quite at 100 percent yet…….
- Bring back the “Bad.” While AMC’s successful spin-off
series “Better Call Saul” has worked hard to ensure that while it builds on its
following from “Breaking Bad” that it carves out its own identity, the
lawyer-centric series may be pulling a card from Walter White’s deck for its
upcoming third season. Based on a mock ad for “Better Call Saul” making the rounds
online, a major “Breaking Bad” character could make an appearance in the third
season of its spin-off. The image shows chicken chain/undercover drugs
operation Los Pollos Hermanos, as well as the character of Gus Fring, spurring
fans to speculate that Fring could show up in the world of lawyer James “Jimmy”
McGill, a.k.a. Saul Goodman. Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, made his mark as
the legal eagle for “Breaking Bad” protagonist Walter White and has done well
with his own series, which is set six years before the start of the original
show. One of the reasons fans are so hyped on a possible Fring return is the
existing rumor that the character had a cameo in the Season 2 “Saul” finale,
only to have that cameo axed at the last minute. Other promotional materials
for the coming season showed Saul seemingly behind bars, along with the
taglines “Criminal. Lawyer.” All of this talk about the season, regardless of
how much of it turns out to be true, is good news for AMC, which is trying to
combat declining ratings for some of its most popular properties, including “The
Walking Dead.” More hype for a lawyer with dubious ethics and a known affinity
for helping out meth dealers is always useful……..
- It’s a recipe for disaster. Take a bunch of out-of-touch,
middle-aged politicians and throw them into the thick of trying to draw a major
tourist attraction to their respective cities by crafting clever pop culture
references. The attraction in question is the George Lucas Museum, a.k.a. the Museum
of Narrative Art, a monumental ode to the creator of “Star Wars” and demigod to
dorks around the world. The bidding is open to potential host cities for the
new venue and the general consensus seems to be that it will ultimately land
somewhere in California. The opening salvo was fired by San Francisco Mayor Ed
Lee, who then tried to fortify his case on the eve of a final decision on the
site with a few lame tweets designed to win the race. Lee gathered people on
Treasure Island to pose for a photo he then tweeted out with the lame ass,
pathetic Yoda rip-off, “The wisest choice for the George Lucas Museum, San Francisco
is.” Verrrrry clever, mayor. Not at all the most trite and unimaginative phrase
you could have turned in trying to bring Lucas’ billion dollar Museum of
Narrative Art to Treasure Island. Lee is fighting an uphill battle due to Presidio
officials saying no to the Star Wars creator a few years back, a regrettable
decision that sent Lucas to Chicago in search of a new location for the
facility. “I kept calling,” Lee said. “I kept in touch saying, ‘Hey, if things
don’t work out…'” Now that the chance has come around again, San Francisco is battling
a familiar rival, Los Angeles, where the offer on the table is seven acres of
downtown land for just $20 a year compared to the $23 million San Francisco is
asking for the Treasure Island site. “He gets to own this place. That’s one big
thing,” Lee added. He went so far as to tweet out an artist’s rendering of the
museum site on Treasure Island, but it all reeks of too little, too late from a
politician who’s not nearly as clever as he likes to believe he is, as Lucas
museum representatives have questions about the island. They’ve expressed
concerns that the building will withstand a rising sea level and also, Lee’s
plan for museum visitors to have to take a ferry to reach the site…….
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