Manny Machado’s long wait is over. The San Diego Padres signed the 26-year-old free-agent to a 10-year, $300 million contract.
New York Yankees
John Wetteland arrested for sex abuse of a child
Police in Texas arrested former Major League Baseball pitcher and World Series MVP John Wetteland. Authorities charged Wetteland with continuous sex abuse of a child under age 14.
The Baltimore Sun thinks I want to see child actress crotch shots
I went to the website of The Baltimore Sun this morning to read about how the Orioles lost to the New York Yankees last night. I pay $7.96 a month for the privilege of unfettered access to their website without limitation. As I was finishing the article explaining how the Orioles lost in the 10th inning to the Yankees, I noticed a weird photo at the bottom of the article.
It’s a sponsored link that shows Marcia Brady (played by Maureen McCormick) from The Brady Bunch with her short skirt bunched up. If one looks hard enough, one can almost sort of see her underwear.
I do not want to see crotch shots of child actresses
Why is The Baltimore Sun showing this to me? I have absolutely no desire to see a crotch shot of a child actress from the 70s. Is this what they think about one of their own subscribers, that I would want to see this? What kind of creep do they think I am.
There’s a reason print journalism is a dying. It’s because of things like this. The Baltimore Sun has no respect for their readers, nor themselves. I’m sometimes approached by advertisers who want to pay me to include links to their products. I would never include a link like this, no matter how much money I was offered as payment. I don’t even want to know where the link goes to. Does this mean I have more ethics than The Baltimore Sun?
I would seem I do. How sad is that?
Manny Machado on the precipice of going to the Dodgers
It appears Manny Machado will be wearing Dodgers blue, at least until the end of the season. The Baltimore Orioles and the Los Angeles Dodgers are close to working out a trade that would send the 2018 Orioles’ lone All-Star to the Dodgers for the rest of the season. Machado becomes a free-agent in 2019 meaning he will be the starting shortstop for the 2019 New York Yankees.
I am a fan of both the Dodgers and the Orioles
I’ve been afraid of this trade for a while now. There are two teams I support, the Dodgers and the Orioles. I support the Dodgers because they’re the team of my youth. I grew up in Los Angeles County and even though I haven’t lived there since I joined the Air Force in 1984, I still have nothing but love for the Dodgers. My other team is the Baltimore Orioles. I’ve lived here in Maryland since getting out of the Air Force in 1994 and I’ve watched them on TV and gone to Orioles games since then.
I do not like Manny Machado
I’ve been afraid of this trade because I knew the Dodgers needed a shortstop and because I do not like Manny Machado. I’ll be glad when he’s no longer with the Orioles, but I don’t like the idea of him being with the Dodgers.
My dislike for Machado was a gradual thing that took years to build up into the crescendo of contempt that it is today. First, there was the time he got pissy and threw a bat at Oakland Athletics’ fielders during a game. Machado acted like an asshat the entire series with Oakland, but it was the throwing of the bat that earned him a 5-game suspension. As far as I was concerned, he was on my own personal double-secret probation for that public display of dickishness.
Manny Machado turned his back on his country
The final straw was when he chose to play for the Dominican Republic instead of Team USA in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Machado is an American. He’s as American as I am. How he could choose to forsake his own country and play for another country is disgusting.
With that disloyal, un-American decision, Manny Machado became dead to me. You can cheat on your girlfriend, cheat on your taxes, or even cheat at Magic: The Gathering, but you can never, ever cheat on our country. That’s what Machado did, he cheated on his country.
I guess this is why you should never root for two different baseball teams. It’s not like I chose to have two favorite teams, it just happened.
‘The Force is Female’ is not about Star Wars
There’s a picture floating around the Internet, as pictures often do, that shows Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucas Films, standing with three women. They’re all wearing t-shirts that say, “The Force is Female.”
What the photo means depends on who you ask. Some say it’s proof that Kathleen Kennedy is a militant feminist who wants to kill all men. Either that or take away men’s child visitation rights and make them all pay more in child support.
Others are saying it’s an indicator why Disney’s Star Wars movies have more female characters, especially in positions of leadership. Others aren’t saying anything because they’re just t-shirts.
I’m in the latter group.
I was watching a YouTube video this morning where the host was bringing up the photo and trying to make a big deal about it. The video drove me to take six minutes and conduct a proper Internet search. My goal was to find the source of the t-shirts. This is what I was able to find.
“The Force is Female” is from Nike
The t-shirts were part of a marketing campaign by Nike. They had nothing to do with Star Wars. They were part of a campaign to get more women to wear Air Force One shoes, probably the greatest athletic sneaker ever made.
Of all the photos, the one shown above is the most offensive. Who in their right might wears Air Force Ones in bad weather? There’s snow on the ground. The ladies in the above photo don’t seem to care about their shoes. I’d go barefoot before I’d wear a pair of Air Force Ones in the snow.
This is what it says on the official “The Force is Female” page on Nike.com:
Nike’s campaign has nothing to do with Star Wars
Nike’s “The Force is Female” has nothing to do with Star Wars. If it did, they would have a photo of Aunt Beru wearing a pair of minty fresh Air Force Ones. They don’t. I’ve looked.
If memory serves, Adidas released Star Wars themed shoes when the awful prequels came out. I think Vans is making Star Wars shoes now. I don’t really know because I don’t really care.
Let not yourself be offended by the t-shirts of others
If you allow someone’s t-shirt to offend you, you’re doing something wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever been offended by the actions of a stranger, let alone by a t-shirt they were wearing, so it’s hard to put myself into the mindset of someone who has. The closest I get is when I see someone wearing Jimmy Buffett clothing or anything to do with the New York Yankees. Like most moral and rational people, I hate Jimmy Buffet and I hate the New York Yankees. When I see someone wearing that filth, I just turn my head and don’t look.
It works for me.
Kevin Gausman throws first ‘Immaculate Inning’ of 2018
Kevin Gausman of the Baltimore Orioles threw an immaculate 7th inning in a loss to the Cleveland Indians Monday night. An immaculate inning is where a pitcher faces three hitters and strikes them out on three pitches each.
If an immaculate inning sounds silly, that’s because it is. It’s not even all that impressive when you think about it. He had to throw a total of nine quality pitches to get the three outs. A much more impressive feat would have been if he got the three outs on three pitches. Baseball is a team sport and Gausman had eight other players helping him get outs. If Gausman somehow got each batter to pop up or ground out on the first pitch they faced, then I’d be impressed.
Three outs on three pitches. That would be immaculate, mother of Jesus type of stuff.
The Orioles lost the game. Something they’re probably going to do a lot this season. This year’s squad has all the markings of a losing Orioles team. God knows I’ve seen enough of them since moving to Maryland in 1994.