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| None The Series' fifth game was different. October 25, 2011 11:33:00 AM Entry ID: 1926609 | ARLINGTON, Texas -- It was fitting that the final out of Game 5 was recorded after a dropped third strike. Each of the first four games of this World Series had been a classic, the first two tense and tightly played one-run affairs, the third and fourth won due in large measure to transcendent and sustained individual performances, by Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols and then Rangers starter Derek Holland. The Series' fifth game was different. It was sloppy. It was chaotic. It was riddled with the inexplicable -- balls that were flung and deflected all over the place, balls that would normally have been picked up by sure-handed players that were not picked up, balls that would normally have been hit in important at-bats by productive batters that were not hit, odd miscommunications and strategic decisions by a manager, the Cardinals' Tony La Russa, who will one day enter the Hall of Fame. It ended with a 4-2 Rangers victory, one that gave them a 3-2 series lead and put them on the cusp of their first championship. "We definitely had to fight through that game," Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland said. "It's not going to be clean every time. The end result was what we wanted." It was, but the Rangers' attainment of that result came after a slog through the muck. The game featured a total of 13 bases on balls, six of them intentional. C.J. Wilson, the Rangers' starter, walked five batters in his 5 1/3 innings. It featured three errors but several more strange misplays that did not officially qualify as such. The Cardinals took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second thanks, in large measure, to the Rangers' bungles. A wild pitch by Wilson allowed Matt Holliday, who had led off the inning with a walk, to advance to second and then to score on a one-out single by Yadier Molina. But David Murphy simply could not pick up the ball in leftfield after Molina's hit, allowing Lance Berkman -- who had also walked -- to advance to third. Then Skip Schumaker hit a sure double-play grounder to Moreland at first, but Moreland, too, mishandled it, meaning that he had time only to step on first as Berkman crossed home plate. Then it was the Cardinals' turn to play below their abilities. Molina's single would prove their only hit of the night with runners in scoring position -- and they had 12 opportunities, repeatedly putting runners on base only to strand them there. The Cardinals left 12 men on base and could never strike a fatal blow. "We had a lot of chances -- what did we have, nine or 10 times to add a run?" La Russa said. "It's a very disappointing, frustrating loss." |
| None Role Models for our Children. October 24, 2011 9:59:33 AM Entry ID: 1925986 | Joe Torre, MLB executive vice president of baseball operations, said Sunday that his office will look into drinking that went on in the clubhouse during Boston Red Sox games, according to the Boston Globe. “It’s something we’re concerned about, just to make sure that we get all the facts and that’s my area,” Torre said. “I know I have plans just to talk to some people.” Four pitchers — Jon Lester, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, and Josh Beckett — have either admitted to drinking or making mistakes during games. Boston is one of 12 teams that permit alcohol in the clubhouse. Torre insinuated that a possible league-wide ban could be in the works. “If we do happen to bar alcohol from the clubhouses, you have to understand the intent of this thing and what it looks like,” Torre said. “We’re up there and we’re role models, or we should be role models for the youngsters and how they behave. Torre has not specified how he plans to approach the issue, just that there will be some action from his office. “It’s something we’re going to look at and find the best way to approach it, let’s put it that way,” he said. “That’s one thing where I feel comfortable, the fact that I played and I managed. I have no problem talking to someone in regards to baseball, whether it’s behavior or otherwise.” |
| None "Competition at its finest." October 21, 2011 7:55:44 AM Entry ID: 1924898 | ST. LOUIS -- Late in World Series Game 2, as the Cardinals were trying to win a 1-0 game for the first time in their 107-game World Series history, and every pitch and managerial move carried the consequence of legendary disaster or fame, St. Louis first base coach Dave McKay turned to Texas first baseman Michael Young and said, "Competition at its finest." Replied Young, "It's fun, isn't it?" The Cardinals and Rangers have succeeded in giving us the best kind of World Series possible: the one you didn't see coming that keeps you on the edge of your seat. After whiz-bang League Championship Series in which runs came by the boatload, there hasn't been a lower-scoring two-game start to a World Series in 61 years. Only eight runs have crossed the plate -- fewer than what Texas put up in a 38-minute barrage in just one inning in its ALCS clincher. It ties the 1967, 1969 and 1972 World Series as the lowest-scoring two-game start since 1950. The two teams have taken 36 turns at bat, and 35 of them have ended with them either tied or separated by a single run. What this tautness means is that we have a series in which the managers have been put on stage as much as the players. And the day after St. Louis outlets were referring to manager Tony La Russa as La Genius, La Russa's postseason run of rolling hot dice came to a cold end. Game 2 put La Russa in the cross hairs that had been trained on Texas manager Ron Washington after Game 1. La Russa's magic touch with his manic bullpen usage finally came under question. The Cardinals were in position to win when the trap door finally opened on their charmed bullpen. |
| None Senators push for tobacco ban on players during Wo October 19, 2011 1:30:26 PM Entry ID: 1924121 | A group of senators is urging Major League Baseball to use the World Series as a chance to step up and change a fairly recognizable scene at baseball stadiums: a group of players in the dugout chomping on chew and spitting tobacco juice. Not only is it unhealthy, the senators said, but it sends the wrong message to children who look up to the players. "An expected 15 million viewers, including many children, will tune in to watch the first game of the series," Sen. Dick Durbin and other senators said in a letter to the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. "Unfortunately, as these young fans root for their favorite team and players, they also will watch their on-field heroes use smokeless tobacco products." It's a scene that's caught often on TV, as a camera pans the field during batting practice or the dugout during the game: Some players chew gum, others spit out sunflower seed shells, and others spit out tobacco juice. With the first game of the World Series set for Wednesday night, the senators are trying to use that national platform to urge players to opt for the sunflower seeds rather than the tobacco. Sens. Durbin, Frank Lautenberg, Richard Blumenthal and Tom Harkin, who is the Senate Health Committee chairman, said the World Series is such a big stage that it would be a good opportunity to right a wrong as well as set a good example. The senators cited the 2009 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which showed a 36% increase in use of smokeless tobacco products among boys in high school since 2003. The survey also showed that 15% of high school boys now use the products. "When players use smokeless tobacco, they endanger not only their own health, but also the health of millions of children who follow their example," they said in a letter. Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, echoed that sentiment wholeheartedly. “Major League Baseball and the players union should follow the senators’ leadership and get smokeless tobacco out of the game,” Myers said in a press release. “The calls for tobacco-free baseball have come from hundreds of diverse voices that have grown louder over the course of the 2011 season. Now it is time for baseball to act to protect the health of current players and millions of kids who look up to them.” The senators had earlier in the year petitioned MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to ban tobacco in the major leagues, as the minor leagues already have. "It is time for the players to take the lead and support extending this policy throughout MLB," the senators wrote. Selig has said that he intends to propose the ban as a part of the players' new contracts next year. |
| None AT&T CEO Lost His Leg, but Gained His Wife October 18, 2011 1:45:38 PM Entry ID: 1923510 | John DeButts was the CEO of AT&T just prior to its breakup in the 1980’s. At the zenith of his power, he had more than 1,000,000 employees around the world. DeButts retired as a very wealthy man. Not long after that, he needed to have a leg amputated. He later said, “In spite of all that money, power, prestige and influence, do you know that as I lay there in my hospital bed, not one person came to see me, called me on the phone, or dropped me a card? But, there at my bedside, tending to my needs day-by-day, was the woman I had ignored for 30 years.” If you haven’t let your wife know lately how much you love and appreciate her.................... |
| None Nelson Cruz- October 18, 2011 7:52:59 AM Entry ID: 1923310 | His 100-mile-per-hour offering had not just been hit for a home run but pulled down the leftfield line, and Tigers ace Justin Verlander could only laugh. He admitted later that he had "out-thunk" himself by throwing another fastball to Rangers rightfielder Nelson Cruz, rather than pitch to his weakness with another breaking ball, but recently there have been few pitches the 31-year-old Dominican hasn't driven with authority. That home run in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series was Cruz's fifth of the ALCS, with a postseason-series record sixth on its way in Game 6, leading the Rangers to the World Series and himself to the ALCS MVP award. Cruz finished with eight hits against Detroit, all for extra bases (two doubles and those six home runs), good for a 1.273 slugging percentage that is the highest ever in an LCS in the best-of-seven era, which started in 1985. Cruz, whom Detroit catcher Alex Avila called a "man-child," is the Rangers' No. 7-hitting sensation -- no, really, he bats seventh -- whose major league success was born in the visiting batting cage at Triple-A Albuquerque's Isotope Park, a makeshift laboratory where Rangers coaches learned to unleash Cruz's late-arriving nuclear power. "It was a reminder that not only do they come in all shapes and sizes," Texas general manager Jon Daniels said, "but, if they come at all, they come at their own pace too." |
| None a tribute from one worthy combatant to another. October 17, 2011 8:13:20 AM Entry ID: 1922907 | MILWAUKEE -- A standing ovation had greeted him in the batter's box, but now Prince Fielder looked confused. Umpires' arms arose around the field. Someone had called time -- who wasn't immediately obvious -- and the sold-out Miller Park crowd continued to serenade the Brewers' All-Star first baseman. Whether it was an enticement for him to re-sign as a free agent or just a farewell tribute thanking him for his service, didn't quite matter at the moment, given the numbers on the scoreboard. The Cardinals were, after all, leading 12-6 in the eighth inning and this in all likelihood would be Fielder's final at-bat in a Brewers uniform, but it soon became clear that the opposing first baseman, none other than the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, was the man who asked for the stoppage in play, a tribute from one worthy combatant to another. ("That's cool," Fielder said later. "I appreciate it.") In that at bat, however, Fielder grounded out weakly to second, finishing the National League Championship Series on a 1-for-14 skid after starting 3-for-6 with two home runs. Pujols, meanwhile, Fielder's counterpart as a corner-infield cornerstone in the NL Central, never slowed down, going 11-for-23 with two homers in the series -- including a solo shot on Sunday night in the four-run third inning the Cardinals used to break the Brewers' back -- as St. Louis advanced to its third World Series in the last eight seasons, all with Pujols as its focal point. "Albert's a truly great player," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "People sometimes take that to mean that he's a great stat-producing player. Albert is a great winning player. You watch him play defense, run the bases -- he does so much to help a club win." |
| None Standing Tall in the Midst of Your Adversaries October 14, 2011 8:21:57 PM Entry ID: 1922436 | There will always be critics in your life, and some that will create some conflict. Critics often love it when you engage with them and will use antagonistic antics to get you off your course and on to theirs. Jesus did not waste His time defending Himself to the naysayers and neither should you. Whatever they may think or say does not define you, determine your value, and they cannot keep you from your destiny. Stand confident in the midst of your adversaries. |
| None 'Baseball' lives up to its name in Tigers' Game 5 October 14, 2011 6:58:56 AM Entry ID: 1922010 | DETROIT -- The very name of the sport is baseball, a juxtaposition of two of its most important ingredients. Early writings of the sport first referred to it as "base ball" -- with a space -- and rarely does the nine-inch-round cowhide ball collide with a 15-inch-square base except in the modernized spelling of the word. A ball field, especially one as expansive as Detroit's Comerica Park, is more than three acres of manicured landscape, so the odds are minimal that one of the three inanimate bases might intercept a batted ball's trajectory. In the sixth inning of ALCS Game 5 on Thursday, however, the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera turned on a cutter slicing over the inside corner of the plate and struck the ball on the ground down the third-base line. The ball bounced once not far down the line with the ball's spin and angle combining just right so that its second landing site was the front edge of the base itself. The ball skipped off the roughly four-inch lip of the bag, over Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre's head and into the leftfield corner for a double rather than a potentially rally-killing double play. "Thank God," Cabrera said after the game, recalling his reaction. That double was the second hit in a four-batter sequence of ascending value -- single, double, triple and home run -- for the first natural cycle in postseason history and, more pertinently to this series, a four-run inning that sprung the Tigers to a 7-5 win behind another workhorse outing from Justin Verlander. Detroit cut the Rangers' series lead to 3-2, as the ALCS now returns to Texas on Saturday night. Justin Verlander Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander became just the fourth player in postseason history Thursday to throw 94 strikes in a game. Kirthmon F. Dozier/ZUMAPRESS.com Tigers Rangers 7 5 Box Score Recap Photos "When the ball was hit, I said 'double play,'" Texas manager Ron Washington said. "Hit the bag. They caught a break." The Tigers needed that break, given the untimely injuries they've suffered and the close nature of their losses. The Rangers have outscored them by two runs over the five-game series, but seven of those runs were plated on extra-inning home runs from Nelson Cruz, exaggerating the margins of victory. With the game tied, Beltre was even shaded deep and along the line to prevent the very double Cabrera lucked into. After a foul ball a moment later, Cabera and Beltre shared a brief exchange on the field: "He said I was lucky," Cabrera said. "I said, 'Yeah, I was lucky.' The contribution of third base was inadvertent the production of the Tigers' walking wounded was not. The team's Nos. 4, 5 and 8 hitters -- Victor Martinez, Delmon Young and Alex Avila, respectively -- entered with a hurt ribcage, strained oblique and sprained knee, maladies that had threatened to take Martinez and Young out of the lineup and that prompted Detroit manager Jim Leyland to acknowledge before the game that the Avila may have been suffering from the wear and tear of having played too much this year. Entering Game 5 the three were a combined 3-for-39, a .077 average with one extra-base hit (a solo homer by Martinez). But in Thursday's late-afternoon tilt Young homered twice, Avila homered once and Martinez tripled, going a combined 4-for-11 with nothing but extra-base hits. "If you see guys like that play hurt, it means a lot," Cabrera said "It means they want to win and do anything to get ready for the game and play. That's special." Martinez was moving well enough to leg out a triple after rattling the ball into the rightfield corner and able to take some ribbing from teammates afterward. Raburn called it the "craziest part of the game" -- despite the unnatural hop on the tide-turning double -- and when a reporter asked Cabrera about his teammate's triple, Cabrera yelled across the clubhouse, seemingly in disbelief, "Victor, you hit a triple today?" Martinez yelled back, "Believe it, baby." Still, the most unlikely performance was Young's. He didn't even make the preliminary ALCS roster due to his oblique injury and was a late addition as an injury replacement, ironically enough, for Magglio Ordoñez, who fractured his ankle. Young also hit only four home runs in 84 games with the Twins before his August trade to the Tigers, after which he hit eight regular-season homers and now five postseason homers. "I've been able to get my timing back the last couple of games," Young said. "This is my first game playing back-to-back so I didn't lose my rhythm." All of those unexpected happenings clouded an outstanding outing from the near-sure thing. Verlander threw 133 pitches over 7 1/3 innings to get the win, going deep against a difficult lineup to save the bullpen on a day when Leyland pronounced his two top relievers, Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, as unavailable given their recent heavy workloads. Verlander threw 94 strikes, becoming only the fourth pitcher in postseason history (since pitch counts were tracked) to throw that many, a doubly impressive number given how few starters in this year's playoffs have even thrown 94 pitches. But given the state of the bullpen -- and a Detroit defense whose poor plays cost him additional pitches -- the Tigers needed such an outing from the AL's presumed Cy Young. "You can't let yourself think about that when you're out there," Verlander said, "but I knew that was the case. Therefore, I knew that he would let me ride out there for 130, 140 maybe. . . . It had been a battle all day. I made some big pitches when I needed to get out of some jams. Made one mistake to a hot hitter." That mistake was Cruz's two-run homer in the eighth inning, knocking Verlander out of the game and setting an LCS record for either league with five home runs. Though Verlander said he didn't want to think about his pitch count during the game -- and Avila, his catcher, said he let it influence his game-calling less than during a regular-season game -- the Rangers' ignorance of it may have cost them a big inning. Verlander's 109th through 112th pitches all missed the strike zone to walk Mitch Moreland, loading the bases in the sixth with one out for Ian Kinsler. But Kinsler swung at the first pitch, rather than force the pitcher to throw a strike after a bit of wildness, and grounded into an inning-ending double play, his ball to third avoiding the bag and settling into the glove of third baseman Brandon Inge instead. The Rangers remain in control, one game away from the World Series with two home games to play, and they now can rest assured the Tigers will never hit another grounder off that base again. "I have that bag in my office right now," Leyland said. "And that will be in my memorabilia room at some point in my life, I can promise you." Sometimes these things happen. After all, it's baseball. |
| None If you don't like baseball October 13, 2011 8:20:04 AM Entry ID: 1921702 | DETROIT -- The Fox and the Fillmore, two of the city's storied theatres, stand on adjacent downtown blocks, but the real venue for drama is the modern ballpark one parking-lot block away. The Rangers and Tigers played 11 innings of white-knuckle baseball at Comerica Park on Wednesday, pushing the length of their American League Championship Series to 40 innings over four games and three rain delays, and for only two top-and-bottom innings this series has a team held a lead of more than two runs. There was no such luxury in Game 4, until Texas' Mike Napoli singled home the go-ahead run in the top of the second extra frame and Nelson Cruz followed suit with a three-run homer, setting up closer Neftali Feliz to pitch the game's denouement. His three comparatively pressure-free outs were the only ones, as the Rangers won by a deceiving 7-3 margin to push their series lead to 3-1 and move within one win of a return trip to the World Series. "It's been a great series," Napoli said. "If you don't like baseball, you probably like it now watching these games." Adding to the stressful intrigue were the game's offensive stars first needing to shine defensively and a bit of unconventional thinking from Texas' manager. Most notably, Ron Washington intentionally walked Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera with the bases empty (only the 10th such intentional free pass in postseason history) with one out in the eighth inning. VERDUCCI: SI VideoCruz carrying Rangers in ALCS Cabrera was, of course, the AL batting champion with 30 home runs and a 5-for-13 batting success rate this series, with four of those hits going for extra bases. Still, putting the go-ahead run on base with potentially only one more inning to recoup the damage was a dicey move, made trickier by a Victor Martinez single that pushed Cabrera to third and set up a possible sacrifice fly. Delmon Young seemed to oblige with a deep fly down the right-field line, but Cruz took a textbook arcing path to the ball, setting himself up for a perfect one-hop throw to the plate that beat Cabrera by 10 feet. Napoli withstood the collision for the inning-ending out. "We tried to pitch around Cabrera twice, and he got us," Washington said. So this time I wasn't taking any chances. And it almost came back and bit me. But he's the best baseball player out there." Napoli got his own chance to exercise his arm in the 10th when Tigers leadoff hitter Austin Jackson was hit by a pitch -- or, more accurately, a pitch grazed his jersey, which is all the rulebook requires for a free base -- and then attempted to steal on the delivery to the plate. Napoli, who was long ago tagged as a poor defensive catcher because of his former Angels manager Mike Scioscia's disinclination to play him regularly, gunned him down, denying Cabrera a chance to bat in the inning. "I know Nap takes a lot of pleasure in that, considering the rap on him over the years, which was totally unfair," Rangers first baseman Michael Young said. Napoli received an offensive slight in the 11th. After Josh Hamilton doubled and Young struck out, the Tigers intentionally walked Adrian Beltre to face Napoli, who singled home what proved to be the game-winning run off Detroit closer Jose Valverde. The next batter, Cruz, eliminated the remaining drama of a one-run game, as we should have expected given his track record. Not only did he the postseason's first official walk-off grand slam in Game 2, but he also tied a record with five extra-inning homers last season. With this insurance blast, he became the first player in history with two extra-inning home runs in the same playoff series and now has four homers among his five hits in the ALCS. "Nelson Cruz is a guy who loves the spotlight, and he's good in the clutch," Texas left fielder David Muprhy said. "It's almost a guarantee that when he gets up in big situations that he's going to get a hit, and if he has a chance to make a big defensive play, he's going to get it done." Not bad for a No. 7 hitter. That's right, Cruz, who ranks fifth all time in postseason slugging percentage bats seventh for this stacked Rangers lineup. It's so deep that Tigers starting pitcher Rick Porcello praised it on Tuesday as deeper than the Yankees'. The lineup also featured a curiosity: Washington filled out a lineup card with his designated hitter, Yorvit Torrelaba, in the No. 9 spot, making him only the second AL DH to bat ninth in playoff history. "I don't think our lineup is necessarily about what's traditionally correct," Young said. "We do what we feel like works. We feel like this is the best way to score runs. I don't think I'm a prototypical [No.] 4 hitter, but it works. Nellie is not a seven-hole hitter, but it works." That's what happens when the Rangers have so many good two-way players -- nearly all of their best hitters are also good fielders, helping the club rank in the top five defensively each of the past two seasons. The game had far more action than next-day readers will be able to glean from the headlines. For one, there was the redemption of Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge, the veteran hit so poorly this year that, at the age of 34, accepted an outright demotion to Triple-A for 29 late-summer games, only to rebound with a game-tying seventh-inning solo home run off a 98 mph fastball from Rangers reliever Alexi Ogando. There was a near recurrence of the shorthand term PFP, which entered the baseball fan's lexicon during the 2006 World Series, thanks to these very same Tigers. That abbreviation -- for Pitchers' Fielding Practice, a staple of spring training -- became common slang after Tigers pitchers made five errors in as many games, and on Wednesday an errant pickoff attempt by Porcello nearly cost the Tigers a chance to return to another World Series. In the sixth, Porcello threw away a ball while trying to hold Elvis Andrus on first, allowing him to reach second. Two batters later he scored on Young's single, which he wouldn't have been able to do had he not advanced due to the error. And there was Washington's all-too-conventional use of the closer, saving Feliz to protect a possible lead (which came in the 11th) rather than use him earlier in extras to make sure the game stayed tied. It proved moot after Scott Feldman threw a scoreless 10th, setting up Feliz to finish the game in the 11th, but maybe only because Napoli gunned down Jackson on the basepaths. The action has been tense, but at the end of the day it's been worth it for the club now one victory from a return to the Fall Classic. As one Rangers official quipped in the postgame clubhouse, "Elation is a tremendous stress relief." |
| None St Louis Cardinals October 7, 2011 11:28:39 PM Entry ID: 1920363 | The NY Yankee$ Boston Red $ox and the Philadelphia Phillie$ are planning a big announcement. In talks about a possible three way merger, the pain is to great$. 1 run, 2 hits, 1 error St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0 * Furcal tripled to center. * Schumaker doubled to right, Furcal scored. Phillie$ & Yankee$ choke one up playoffs continue 2011 a year to remember. |
| George must be rollin over October 7, 2011 12:17:38 AM Entry ID: 1920021 | Way to go Yanks, who needs teammates like AROD and bone head AJ? You couldn't give those bums away, I don't think any decent contending team would want either and the baggage that comes along. The mindset of a few local teams that couldn't manage a tee ball club and it shows. Role models? Accomplishments? Can't put it together zero leadership skills can't win if you can't teach and coach. Looking like it's time for a make over and some new blood, bring in the hungry youth, or maybe they can reach out and merge with the Red Sox? Can't build it so we can try and buy it? Money can't buy you love. |
| None October 6, 2011 7:34:08 AM Entry ID: 1919736 | "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice." ~Steve Jobs You have to know who you are and what you want to be – and vigorously pursue that. It’s not about pleasing everyone, it’s not about being loved; it’s about accomplishing goals |
| Texting while driving more dangerous than thought: October 5, 2011 11:58:06 PM Entry ID: 1919709 | SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texting or emailing while driving is more dangerous than previously thought, according to a new study of the behavior. "Essentially texting while driving doubles a driver's reaction time," Christine Yager, who led the study at Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute, told Reuters on Wednesday. "That makes a driver less able to respond to sudden roadway dangers." For the study, 42 drivers between the ages of 16 and 54 drove on an 11-mile test track course while sending or receiving text messages, and drove it again while focusing completely on the road. Drivers were asked to stop when they saw a flashing yellow light, and their reaction times were recorded, Yager said. The typical time it took a driver who was not texting to respond to the flashing light was one to two seconds. But when the driver was texting, the reaction time extended to three to four seconds, and the texting motorist was 11 times more likely to miss the flashing light altogether. Yager said the reaction time was the same whether the driver was typing a message or reading one. "The act of reading and writing a text message are equally impairing and equally dangerous," she said. Yager said the research differed from previous studies in that it involved participants driving actual vehicles, not driving simulators. A previous well-respected study done on a lab simulator showed drivers reacted in less than one second when they were not texting and to stimulus while texting in 1-2 seconds, Yager said. The 3-4 second lag time in the actual driving study is significant because in that period at highway speeds one can travel the length of a football field, she said. Institute spokesman Rick Davenport said texting drivers were less able to stay in their lane and unable to maintain a constant speed. The closed course contained no other vehicles, no pedestrians, and no hills, Davenport said. Texting drivers were more likely to swerve in their lane, Yager said. "Even though we had participants drive at 30 miles an hour with very wide lanes on the test track, we still had many close calls," she said. "We had participants strike barrels, and it is very scary to think that this is happening on our public roadways." Yager said the study findings extend to other driving distractions, such as checking e-mail and Facebook. U.S. Transportation Department statistics indicate distracted driving contributes to as much as 20 percent of all fatal crashes, and that cell phones are the primary source of driver distractions. At least one in five motorists has admitted to texting while driving, according to the department. Text messaging while driving is banned in 34 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. An additional seven states ban texting while driving for some motorists, such as those under 18 or bus drivers. In addition, many cities and counties have banned texting while driving. |
| None Role Models for our Children? October 5, 2011 7:31:38 AM Entry ID: 1919273 | Ben Roethlisberger is making controversial headlines again. So is Allen Iverson. The sports page has more scandal than People magazine. But so what? I have never in my life heard a grownup say his role model was an athlete. I've heard people pick Warren Buffett a bunch of times and Mandela, of course. When I ran with a more pretentious crowd, Bob Dylan and Holden Caulfield were once offered up, but never Joe Namath or Magic Johnson. And you know why? Because any adult with a social IQ greater than a 10-year-old knows that athletes are hothouse flowers—worshiped, but isolated, from cradle to grave for their talent with a ball. In an interview with Nerve.com, Steven Ortiz, a sociology professor at Oregon State and the author of several published studies on athletes' bad behavior, explained: "Spoiled-athlete syndrome begins early in sports socialization. From the time they could be picked out of a lineup because of their exceptional athletic ability, they've been pampered and catered to by coaches, classmates, teammates, family members and partners. As they get older, this becomes a pattern. Because they're spoiled, they feel they aren't accountable for their behaviors off the field. They're so used to people looking the other way." But our sports-crazed society knew this long before Tiger became a wolf. Despite all the adulation and money they get, few professional athletes get elected to political office and fewer still inspire national holidays or granite monuments. I love the Dallas Cowboys but I wouldn't let them date my friends. A fan's love is intense but ultimately self-serving—we love athletes who win. But we're not loony enough to give them any real power after they retire. Why then do so many columnists waste time complaining that athletes aren't good role models? Who's asking for that? Sure, kids look up to sports heroes but that's because children can't help but conflate an athlete's behavior on the field with all the hagiography their sponsors offer. When allegations of Woods's cheating first became public, CNN reported that "A golfing phenomenon almost from the cradle, he inspired countless young people with his multicultural background and effortless athleticism. Nike, one of his major sponsors, seized on the theme for a commercial in which children of various ages and races uttered the phrase 'I'm Tiger Woods.' " But only a child would believe that Nike loves Tiger for his multicultural background. Nike loves him because he wins. If sportswriters really wanted to do their readers a service, they would stop nagging the athletes to live up to childrens' expectations and start encouraging us fans to grow some scruples. Because that's what the big sports sponsors like Nike understand about our love of athletes that the media doesn't—a good image is better than a bad one, but it's talent that sells sneakers. Of course there are exceptions, O.J. Simpson being the most famous. But for the most part, fans will condone the criminal exploits of an athlete as long as he continues to perform on the field. As Stanley Teitelbaum, author of Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols told USA Todayin explaining why Tiger's reputation will heal, "We the fans have created that kind of climate…It's what I call 'hero hunger.' It makes people feel better about themselves if they latch onto a hero who does well." Which means we don't really care when athletes screw up—unless that is, they screw up with the ball in their hands. Remember when all the pundits said fans would never accept Michael Vick back into the NFL after he served time in prison for running a dog-fighting ring? They did. I suspect Tiger will be greeted with open arms (platonic, of course) upon his return to golf despite the world wide web's consensus that's he's a cheating, lying creep with questionable taste in women. Indeed, stories bemoaning his absence (for the good of the game) are already popping up. This is the kind of thing sportwriters should be chastising us for—I want to be told there wouldn't be so many convicted felons in the NFL if the fans didn't write off all their bad behavior as a cost of winning. We know we're captive to a group of prima donnas who know they can get away with almost murder just because they can hit a 90mph fastball out of the park. Not even diehard groupies confuse an athlete's statistics with the content of his character, but you need to remind us from time to time that such moral relativism isn't a good thing. Please, I'd forgive Tony Romo for mugging my mother if the Cowboys won the Super Bowl, but that doesn't make it right. What if one day we become unable to tell the difference between cosseting divas and suborning felons? And if Ben Roethlisberger has done even 20 percent of what he's been accused of doing, that day has already come. Sports journalists should make it their mission to show sports fans our part in all this. The average nonfan is appalled by the alleged exploits of athletes like Ben Roethlisberger or Tiger Woods. But aside from Bryant Gumbel and his team over at HBO Sports, you don't hear much from ESPN or Sports Illustrated about the dark side of this national obsession. More of them need to do just as Christopher Hitchens did here at NEWSWEEK when he wrote, in a piece about the Olympics, "Whether it's the exacerbation of national rivalries that you want—as in Africa this year—or the exhibition of the most depressing traits of the human personality (guns in locker rooms, golf clubs wielded in the home, dogs maimed and tortured at stars' homes to make them fight, dope and steroids everywhere), you need only look to the wide world of sports for the most rank and vivid examples." So if we really want to create role models for our kids, why not start with ourselves? Because only children confuse sports stars with humanitarians the rest of us know better. |
| None Who’s Ready for Kindergarten? September 28, 2011 5:41:45 AM Entry ID: 1917077 | Who’s Ready for Kindergarten? THIS fall, one in 11 kindergarten-age children in the United States will not be going to class. Parents of these children often delay school entry in an attempt to give them a leg up on peers, but this strategy is likely to be counterproductive. The practice, called redshirting — from the term for allowing college athletes to delay participation in sports to prolong their eligibility — also has a connection to children’s sports. As sports-minded parents know, physical maturity allows older children to perform better. Coaches often mistake this difference for natural aptitude and respond by giving the older children on their T-ball or soccer teams more opportunities to improve their skills. And those athletes tend to gain a lasting competitive advantage. Does a similar approach work for academic achievement? Teachers may encourage redshirting because more mature children are easier to handle in the classroom and initially produce better test scores than their younger classmates. In a class of 25, the average difference is equivalent to going from 13th place to 11th. This advantage fades by the end of elementary school, though, and disadvantages start to accumulate. In high school, redshirted children are less motivated and perform less well. By adulthood, they are no better off in wages or educational attainment — in fact, their lifetime earnings are reduced by one year. In short, the analogy to athletics does not hold. The question we should ask instead is: What approach gives children the greatest opportunity to learn? Parents who want to give their young children an academic advantage have a powerful tool: school itself. In a large-scale study at 26 Canadian elementary schools, first graders who were young for their year made considerably more progress in reading and math than kindergartners who were old for their year (but just two months younger). In another large study, the youngest fifth-graders scored a little lower than their classmates, but five points higher in verbal I.Q., on average, than fourth-graders of the same age. In other words, school makes children smarter. The benefits of being younger are even greater for those who skip a grade, an option available to many high-achieving children. Compared with nonskippers of similar talent and motivation, these youngsters pursue advanced degrees and enter professional school more often. Acceleration is a powerful intervention, with effects on achievement that are twice as large as programs for the gifted. Grade-skippers even report more positive social and emotional feelings. These differences may come from the increased challenges of a demanding environment. Learning is maximized not by getting all the answers right, but by making errors and correcting them quickly. In this respect, children benefit from being close to the limits of their ability. Too low an error rate becomes boring, while too high an error rate is unrewarding. A delay in school entry may therefore still be justified if children are very far behind their peers, leaving a gap too broad for school to allow effective learning. Parents want to provide the best environment for their child, but delaying school is rarely the right approach. The first six years of life are a time of tremendous growth and change in the developing brain. Synapses, the connections between brain cells, are undergoing major reorganization. Indeed, a 4-year-old’s brain uses more energy than it ever will again. Brain development cannot be put on pause, so the critical question is how to provide the best possible context to support it. For most children, that context is the classroom. Disadvantaged children have the most to lose from delayed access to school. For low-income children, every month of additional schooling closes one-tenth of the gap between them and more advantaged students. Even without redshirting, a national trend is afoot to move back the cutoff birthdays for the start of school. Since the early 1970s, the date has shifted by an average of six weeks, to about Oct. 14 from about Nov. 25. This has the effect of making children who would have been the youngest in one grade the oldest in the next-lower grade it hurts children from low-income families the most. Some children, especially boys, are slow to mature emotionally, a process that may be aided by the presence of older children. Kindergartners show age-related differences in social acceptance and self-perceptions, but these differences usually even out by first grade. The benefits of interacting with older children may extend to empathetic abilities. Empathy requires the ability to reason about the beliefs of others. This capacity relies on brain maturation, but it is also influenced by interactions with other children. Having an older (but not younger) sibling speeds the onset of this capacity in 3- to 5-year-olds. The acceleration is large: up to half a year per sibling. Although nearly all children reach a mature level of understanding by age 6, there may be lasting social advantages to developing this ability earlier. Parents concerned about a child’s emotional maturity might consider that frequent interaction with more mature classmates could help the developmental process along. The initial redshirt advantage may disappear because children are not on a fixed trajectory but learn actively from teachers — and classmates. It matters very much who a child’s peers are. Redshirted children begin school with others who are a little further behind them. Because learning is social, the real winners in that situation are their classmates |
| None The Tie Is Cast September 28, 2011 5:36:27 AM Entry ID: 1917076 | This will be the eighth consecutive year at least one playoff entrant is decided on the regular season's final day. In each of the last seven seasons, at least one playoff spot remained up for grabs on the final day of the season, and that streak is now eight, as neither wild card has been clinched. The Rays and Red Sox are tied in the AL the Braves and Cardinals are tied in the NL. The great appeal of both March Madness and the NFL playoffs is their one-game, winner-take-all approach, and baseball could have a taste of that this week. In 2007, '08 and '09 baseball saw a 163rd game added to the regular season, twice to decide the AL Central and once to determine the NL wild card. Such a scenario is in play this season, with a twist -- if the AL teams both win or both lose and the NL teams also remain in sync, then baseball could have two one-game playoffs on Thursday. It could be a preview of what's to come every year if a second wild card is added to each league, as has been rumored to happen in the upcoming new collective bargaining agreement. (Major League Baseball announced Tuesday afternoon that, if necessary, the AL one-game playoff would be 4 p.m. Eastern at Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field and the NL game would be at 8 Eastern at St. Louis' Busch Stadium both sites were determined by head-to-head record.) |
| Money is the root of all evil Mighty oaks from little acorns grow September 27, 2011 6:03:02 AM Entry ID: 1916713 | Give it Time, it will all take care of itself... |
| Desperation A drowning man will clutch at a straw September 27, 2011 5:47:27 AM Entry ID: 1916711 | Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery |
| None 'That's how we roll' - Watch it . September 22, 2011 1:45:30 PM Entry ID: 1915499 | http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/moving-documentary-of-911-evacuation-by-boat-shows-resilience-of-cities/881?tag=nl.e660 |
| None life September 22, 2011 10:25:09 AM Entry ID: 1915435 | “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson We all need second chances. This isn’t a perfect world. We’re not perfect people. I’m probably on my 1000th second chance right now and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Because even though I’ve failed a lot, it means I’ve tried a lot too. We rarely get things right the first time. Almost every major accomplishment in a person’s life starts with the decision to try again and again – to get up after every failed attempt and give it another shot. The only difference between an opportunity and an obstacle is attitude. Getting a second chance in life is about giving yourself the opportunity to grow beyond your past failures. It’s about positively adjusting your attitude toward future possibilities. Here’s how: 1. Let go of the past. What’s done is done. When life throws us nasty curveballs it typically doesn’t make any sense to us, and our natural emotional reaction might be to get extremely upset and scream obscenities at the top of our lungs. But how does this help our dilemma? Obviously, it doesn’t. The smartest, and oftentimes hardest, thing we can do in these kinds of situations is to be more tempered in our reactions. To want to scream obscenities, but to wiser and more disciplined than that. To remember that emotional rage only makes matters worse. And to remember that tragedies are rarely as bad as they seem, and even when they are, they give us an opportunity to grow stronger. Every difficult moment in our lives is accompanied by an opportunity for personal growth and creativity. But in order to attain this growth and creativity, we must first learn to let go of the past. We must recognize that difficulties pass like everything else in life. And once they pass, all we’re left with are our unique experiences and the lessons required two make a better attempt next time. Everything is a life lesson. Everyone you meet, everything you encounter, etc. They’re all part of the learning experience we call ‘life.’ Never forget to acknowledge the lesson, especially when things don’t go your way. If you don’t get a job you wanted or a relationship doesn’t work, it only means something better is out there waiting. And the lesson you just learned is the first step towards it. Negative thinking creates negative results. Positive thinking creates positive results. Period. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. The mind must believe it can do something before it is capable of actually doing it. Either you take accountability for your life or someone else will. And when they do, you’ll become a slave to their ideas and dreams instead of a pioneer of your own. You are the only one who can directly control the outcome of your life. And no, it won’t always be easy. Every person has a stack of obstacles in front of them. You must take accountability for your situation and overcome these obstacles. Focus on the things you can change. Some forces are out of your control. The best thing you can do is do the best with what’s in front of you with the resources you do have access to. Wasting your time, talent and emotional energy on things that are beyond your control is a recipe for frustration, misery and stagnation. Invest your energy in the things you can change. You’ll be running on a hamster wheel forever if you never decide where you want to go. Figure out what’s meaningful to you so you can be who you were born to be. The harder you work the luckier you will become. Stop waiting around for things to work out. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. While many of us decide at some point during the course of our lives that we want to answer our calling, only an astute few of us actually work on it. By “working on it,” I mean truly devoting oneself to the end result. The rest of us never act on our decision. Or, at best, we pretend to act on it by putting forth an uninspired, half-assed effort. If you want a real second chance, you’ve got to be willing to give it all you got. No slacking off! This means you have to strengthen and maintain your self-control. Remember, life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Achieving your dreams can be a lot of work, even the second time around. Forget about impressing people. So many people buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know. Or some variation thereof… Don’t be one of these people. It’s a waste of time. And it’s probably one of the reasons you need a second chance in the first place. Just keep doing what you know is right. And if it doesn’t work, adjust your approach and try again. You’ll get there eventually. |
| None September 15, 2011 1:18:33 PM Entry ID: 1913648 | First off, let’s take a moment to acknowledge that discouragement can be a routine part of life—no matter how “Cool,” “Successful,” or “World’s #1 Dad” you happen to be. Fact is—in a “big Picture” sense—we live in a world that’s populated by people we can’t influence and stacked with circumstances we’ll never control. Plus, on the “macro” level, we live in homes populated by people with minds of their own and circumstances that often surprise us. The good news—and there’s always good news—is this: Discouragement is something we should never bow to, and it’s also something that doesn’t have to be inevitable. |
| None 9/11/2011 September 11, 2011 8:06:23 AM Entry ID: 1912363 | "America is stronger than ever. We will forever remember those we lost on September 11, 2001. In honoring their memory, we will remain true to our commitment to freedom and democracy". ~Evan Bayh |
| Defense, Defense,Defense and Defense Second baseman Scott Wingo September 10, 2011 11:22:42 PM Entry ID: 1912337 | OMAHA, Neb. — Second baseman Scott Wingo was Mr. Clutch for South Carolina during the College World Series. • On Tuesday night, he got another title: Most Outstanding Player. As the Gamecocks slipped out of bases-loaded jam after bases-loaded jam during their five-game run to their second straight national title, Wingo was almost always in the middle. He kept USC alive in the bottom of the ninth inning on Monday, snagging grounders on consecutive plays and throwing strikes to catcher Robert Beary to cut down Florida runners as the Gamecocks escaped a no-out situation. South Carolina went on to win that game, 2-1 in 11 innings. “He loves to play,” said South Carolina coach Ray Tanner. “He has a good time doing it. He works so hard at practice, you know I look out sometimes at practice and think maybe he’s doing a little bit too much. But part of it is he’s having fun.” |
| PG- Matty Vogel September 10, 2011 9:36:05 PM Entry ID: 1912323 | 9/10/2011 3:21:40 PM Baseball U Pitcher Matthew Vogel (Medford, NY) is lighting up the radar gun in the early innings. His fastball has touched 91, and he's pitching in the 88-90 range. He has a fast and quick arm from a high 3/4 arm slot. Vogel is only a 2013 grad, so the consistency in his mechanics is still developing. |
