If you’re snorting a white powder of any sort, it’s obvious you have some substance abuse issues and need to get some help.
We take you to the friendly skies where someone thought it would be prudent to open up a bag of white stuff on a JetBlue flight from New York City to San Francisco and fire some of it up his nostrils. He then proceeded to make racist comments and some rather suggestive comments toward female passengers while marching up and down the aisle without any shoes on. The flight was diverted to Minneapolis, where our hero was taken into custody. Heading to San Francisco, you say? Hmm …
Anyway, speaking of racists:
Keyboard warriors unite!
There is one group that burns my backside more than any other: the trillionaire leftists. The cadre of Learjet liberals who claim that they’ll change the world even if means spending every last buck of your money and mine to do it.
But then there are the keyboard warriors, that brave bunch of trolls who most likely eat Hot Pockets while sitting around their parents’ house at the age of 28 or so and acting tough on social media with a handle resembling something like FirstNameBunchofNumbers and giving us their incredibly crappy opinions.
Some of these drill bits thought it would be cool to take shots at Ethan Bear of the Edmonton Oilers after the Oilers were swept out of the NHL playoffs by the Winnipeg Jets. Yes, it sucked for us Oilers fans but there is absolutely no need for people to head on over to their device or their keyboard and regale us with bigoted vernacular all because they think Bear was the reason the Oilers lost.
Here’s a hint: he isn’t.
Bear released a video through the team to call out what was said and he shouldn’t have had to do that. Good on him for doing so because there’s absolutely no place for this – you’d think we’d all have a handle on this racism horse fertilizer by now and that it’s wrong – and everyone who has half a functioning brain cell is on his side. There will come a day when we won’t have to watch people like Ethan Bear deliver statements like the one he did and there will also come a day when the racist keyboard warriors of the world will do us all a favour by implanting their head within their own personal colonic cavity.
Cowboy Joe is the king
Joe West is one of the most recognizable people in baseball mainly because he’s been around the game for so long. He is the longest-serving active umpire in Major League Baseball but he now has a rather lofty goal to put in his ball bag.
West is now the all-time games worked leader for umpires in MLB history when he stood in for his 5,376th regular-season game on May 25. He broke the long-time record held by Bill Klem, who had the set the mark in 1941. In speaking about the new record, West said he was the luckiest guy in baseball to have worked for as long as he has. It is an impressive feat when you think about it because you have to stay healthy for a long time in order to do it.
West has been on MLB umpiring crews since 1973 and has had his share of great moments and controversy and because he’s an umpire, almost no one likes him. One of my favourite ejections was the time he ejected Mike Rizzo, general manager of the Washington Nationals, while Rizzo was watching a game from the upper deck of his home stadium. That’s a trick I never got to do while I umpired but sounds like I would totally do if given the chance.
In any event, well done, Joe. Very well done.
And finally …
Good Idea: Getting the third out to end an inning.
Bad Idea: Absolutely botching the third out to end an inning.
If you haven’t seen this yet, you must because it is perhaps the greatest example of why fundamentals need to be taught at a very young age.
We take you to Pittsburgh where the Pirates are taking on the Chicago Cubs on May 27. Javy Baez of the Cubs is up with one on and two out. He hits a ground ball to short and it’s an easy play to end the inning as the throw goes to first, right? Well, not so fast.
Baez stopped short of first base and ran back toward home plate. For some reason, Pirates first baseman Will Craig decided to chase Baez back toward home plate and not simply go back to first base and touch the bag, which would have been the third out.
You all know where this is going, right? Wilson Contreras, who was on third, is now heading for home and beats the soft toss from Craig to Pirates catcher Michael Perez. Now, Baez sees first base empty and sprints down the line. He beats the throw from Perez, who was charged with an error in trying to gun Baez down at first as his throw went into right field. Baez gets up and heads for second and is safe.
What a absolute dog pile of errors from the Pirates but all of this was legal. You see, Baez was entitled to backpedal to home because there was no force on at any other bag. But Contreras’ run would not have counted had Craig simply gone back to first and tagged the bag like he should have all along. And yes, for those of you wondering, the umpires got it all right.
Until next time, folks …
