awakeWhen I was a kid, had no cable, and lived in rural PEI, I didn't exactly see a whole lot of baseball. But I'd heard of this guy. Then he left the Jays, and the next thing I heard about was the spitting incident. So I was left with a negative impression of the guy.
But it turns out, even though this is no surprise to most people, he's a class act. It's likely that voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame, election for which he was eligible last year, weren't cognisant or gave little weight to the fact that Alomar and umpire John Hirschbeck had since mended fences and become friends. (That's a bigger deal to me than the mere fact that Alomar predictably apologized.)
Today has the makings of a pretty good sports day. I'm probably going to sleep through Slovakia / Paraguay, but Italy / New Zealand followed by Brazil / Ivory Coast* might by more interesting.
* - They want to be known as "Republic of Côte d'Ivoire" in English. I don't get it.
You've probably heard (about) the vuvuzelas. They gave away vuvuzelas at the Marlins game today where they played Tampa Bay in an interleague meeting. Judging from the replays, it's as annoying in a partially-empty stadium as it is in a loaded stadium. I'll give them a pass for South Africa for cultural reasons, but am hoping they don't take root here. I heard that North American and European teams and leagues are moving to preemptively ban them. I hope that's true. I get having a loud stadium, and there being lots of crowd noise and music, but this incessant buzzing is something else.
Then we have the US Open, and Tiger is 5 shots back, but he shot a 66 yesterday to get back in it, so if his hot play continues it could be truly terrific television.
I think Mother's Day and Father's Day should switch places. That way Father's Day would seem less like a caricature of Mother's Day. But I don't care a lot for either day. They impart this notion that motherhood and fatherhood - parenthood - is some kind of "sacred" thing. Looking at all the lousy parents and wrecked homes, it's clear that nothing could be farther from the truth. A lot of people are idiots, all parents are ordinary people, therefore a lot of parents are idiots - but you already knew that. Hopefully yours had bouts of reason and sanity and harmony at the time that you were growing up. Then they'll have earned the respect that these calendar dates merit.