Tiger Woods, an ordinary golfer?

A clever Associated Press headline writer writes, "Meet the new Tiger Woods, just an ordinary golfer."

What does this headline say? That the Tiger is now just one of the team.dressed like his team mates "in matching long sleeve blue shirts and red sweater vests," or that his game has become "ordinary" and he is no longer doing super things on the golf course?

Tiger Woods has had a bad season, so far, but he remains the number one ranked player in the world, because no one else has come along and knocked him out of the spot. No one is being "super" on the gold course. With the fans, the Tiger still his far from ordinary.

Reports the Associated Press --"A small group of fans greeted the (American squad) with the kind of polite applause typically reserved for the opposing side in the Ryder Cup, but Woods got an extra shout out as well.

"Tiger, we're pulling for you!" one fan yelled out.

"All right," Woods replied with a smile.

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Bullfight: 3 people dead, 37 injured

The Bulls' Revenge in Colombia

Why won't human beings quit torturing animals?! This past Sunday in Sabanalarga, Columbia, at a bullfight, an event where human beings torture bulls for sport, for fun and entertainment, the bulls struck back. People were chased and gored by the bulls.

"A 20-year-old man was killed instantly while two other men, both aged in their 40s, died later in a hospital. At least 37 other people were seriously hurt." See the video.

The Sabanalarga mayor, Carlos Roca, said the event turned tragic "due to drunkenness among the participants, but he did not say if any measures would be taken to avoid such incidents in the future."

To avoid these kinds of events, stop the sick sport of torturing animals. If not for the deaths, I would probably be among those who are sitting back, pointing the finger and having a good laugh on the fools who think bullfighting is macho. People died and that is tragic. This is another avoidable tragedy.

'Don't Do This At Home' T-Shirt - $8.98

Have you ever gotten the urge to try something when you were told explicitly not to - because you know those warnings are only for the weak of heart? Well, this shirt from Tanga is for you! It can be a badge of honor for all those things you have accomplished even when you were told it could cause grave bodily harm. I salute you my dear reader for your actions to make this world more exciting for the rest of us - and this shirt is a must for your action packed, death defying days of crazy.

I personally love when "Don't try this at home" becomes a catalyst for "I'm on fire!" - you know, because the laughs just keep on comin'. I bet this shirt would look great on that Johnny Knoxville guy - but then again what doesn't?

Just image it: "Hello everyone and welcome to Stunts Gone Wild TV.  Today, we are going to watch semi-professional stunt man, Glen Jones. attempt to pour gasoline on himself, light himself on fire and run through a Los Angeles Costco, all while Tweeting on his iPhone. This will be the first time that a professional will tweet while he is actively on fire! And you will get the blow-by-blow action of exactly how he feels.  But remember kids, DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! It’s extremely dangerous and Glen is a professional. Well, uh, at least he appeared once on Jackass 4, the Movie."

Hello - you can get this awesome shirt for only $6.99 plus $1.99 shipping! Get yours today - before they sell out (speaking of sell outs - I love Johnny Knoxville)!

New Campaign Video for Campus Progress Uses Cutie-Pie Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber is a nice-looking young man who just happens to dominate social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. As Technorati reported, Justin Bieber fans may account for an amazingly high 3% of all Twitter traffic at any one time. TV shows like CSI and Saturday Night Live are not the only ones to try and capitalize on the young stars fame- now a Democratic group for college students is trying to encourage Justin Bieber fans (and Democrats) to make videos using the stars name to help get the Democrats through the mid-term elections.

Campus Progress selected this video as their absolute favorite. As Technorati pointed out, Campus Progress is hoping the video will go viral because of video’s loose attachment to Justin Bieber. I liked it, but Technorati didn’t because they thought the video’s arguments were lame; namely, that he is too young to vote so we should vote for him (despite the fact that he is Canadian) and that the celebrity didn’t really give his permission for the video. The writer of the post also mentioned a strong preference for Justin Bieber  to represent a creepy young Republican instead of the Democrats- personally, I think the Dems could use a few clean-cut young Canadians in their ranks.


I’m a little unsure, however,  about how effective the Campus Progress Justin Bieber video will be even if it does manage to go viral. For one, I’m not sure how many fans eighteen and over Justin Bieber actually has- the video will likely mostly be seen by those too young to vote.  For another, while the video does have some of the charm of many of the Moveon.org videos, there is nothing in the short ad that even compares to the force of an Obama girl who hasn’t had a crush on Obama since at least the beginning of the year and definitely pales in comparison the Paris Hilton response to John McCain last year to announce her candidacy for president.

No reasons for concern, says NASA

Item from the Associated Press -- "NASA says two small asteroids discovered just days ago will zip harmlessly past Earth on Wednesday ..."

Yup. Discovered just a few days ago.

What else would they tell us? I don't ever expect to see a bulletin like this: 'Issuing non-bulletins from an abandon mine shaft, NASA brass have no comment on that giant shadow covering our planet earth.'

The AP item concludes -- "Asteroid 2010 RX30, thought to be 32 to 65 feet long, will pass within 154,000 miles of Earth shortly before 3 a.m. PDT Wednesday. The second one, dubbed 2010 RF12, will fly by about 11 hours later at a distance of about 49,000 miles. NASA says the second one is 20 to 46 feet long."

Huh, huh.

We are really exposed. We hang out in space with no real defenses against anything that happens along, that might smack into our planet.

Tiger Woods -- The Ryder Cup

Tiger Woods is going to play on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. His sixth Ryder. The first in which he was chosen as a captain's pick. The three other captains picks are Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink and Rickie Fowler.

Mr. Woods had an off year, but he remains the number one ranked golfer in the world, because no one has been able to replace him at the top. See the video.

"It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Woods headed up (the) four captain’s picks, filling out the 12-man team that will defend the Ryder Cup Oct. 1-3 at Celtic Manor in Wales, " reports the Boston Herald. "Leaving Woods off might have produced even more outrage in Wales than in the U.S. Whether he is any longer the game’s best player is open to dispute, but that he remains its most visible is not. Tiger Woods puts people in the seats. Sir Harry Matthews, the British tycoon who spent $400 million transforming Celtic Manor from a quaint, if somewhat decrepit, country hotel into a state-of-the art golf resort, was at the NYSE yesterday. Had Woods’ name not been among the four advanced by (the team captain Mr.) Pavin, Sir Harry might have taken matters into his own hands."

The eight golfers who qualified for the team are Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and Jeff Overton.

Go, USA.

getting down with the Air Guitar?

SUMMER MADNESS

It might look dumb. It might sound dumb. It might be something dumb to do, but it looks like fun -- air guitar playing. And there's a world air guitar championship!

A championship for invisible strumming, for just doing the faking out stuff --

Faking out stuff, now that is something politicians have been doing for years.

I digress. Back on topic. This air guitar stuff may be something that I can participate in. I can't play a real guitar, but I can get on stage and jump around, and boogie, with the rest of them. Maybe not keep up, with the rest of them, but I could get up there.

Air Guitar -- maybe I should give it a practice? Or I could try out for lip singing. I wonder if they have a world championship?

Any way, the World Air Guitar Championship was held in Oulu, Finland. There were contestants from twenty countries, and the winner was a dude from France.

Paris Being Paris

What is Summer News Without Paris?

Paris Hilton has been arrested again, and she is out on bail. The charge is powered cocaine possession. The buzz across America and the gossipy world is: Will Paris Be Going Back to Jail?

My response is: What for? Paris is only being Paris.. She is America's premier naughty princess. What are you going to do America? Spank her? Please!

The Associated Press reports on America's naughty princess' explanation to the police:for the content of her alleged purse, which, according to the Vegas police, included a small bag of white powder. Princess Paris said -- quote the AP -- "The rolling papers, $1,300 in cash and several credit cards were hers, but not the purse they were in. And definitely not the bag of white powder that fell out of it." See the video.

Of course people will believe what they will. She is Paris. Didn't the Vegas police department have something better to do? Like staking out one of the strip's casinos? They might have missed a chance to pounce on some nerdy dude counting cards?

Nick Franklin - Rollin th Dice on Projections (9)

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Q.  What's yer point?  That the draft is a only a crapshoot?

A.  So ... as amigos kick around thoughts like "this guy is a #5-10 overall but that guy's only a #20 overall," keep in mind that they're trying to measure atoms with yardsticks.

ML teams don't even know who is a 1st-rounder and who isn't.  Not on draft day, they don't.  So how are they going to know whether Nick Franklin is a #27 or a #7?  They're not.

That's not an indictment of the people doing the ammy drafting, who are the best in the world at what they do.  It's a simple observation that it isn't possible, on draft day, to tell who the best players in a draft are.

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Q.  Can they tell how good low-minors players are?

A.  Not really.  Not in the first year or two.  Not usually.

Look, if you can't tell whether a 22-year-old college superstar (like, say, Dennis Raben) is going to be good -- and you can't -- why would you think that you can tell whether teenage minor leaguers are going to be good?

............

But some guys stand out like coal piles in ballrooms.  A few truly special guys become obvious, even at 19.  Nick Franklin is one of these.  Not only the scouts, but also the fans, are aware that he's going to be an impact player in the bigs.

Fun thing for the baseball fan, is to spot these guys ahead of time.  Michael Pineda was regarded a top-100 prospect this April; it was fun to realize that he was a top-10 and watch the rest of the country come up to speed.

Franklin's in that boat.  One of the great underrated spects in baseball right now.

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Q.  What's the prognosis for Franklin in the bigs?  What kind of player will he be?

A.  Amigos asked about another post ::shower of crinkled Dixie cups:: comp'ing Franklin to each of these guys:  the Michael Young 2.0 template, the Craig Biggio 2.0 template, and the Troy Tulowitzki. 

We'll remember to Mano-a-Mano Franklin vs these three, but .... Bill James was once asked about what kind of hitter the Royals needed at first base.  His reply, "They need a good hitter anywhere."

There are many routes to 6.0 - 7.0 runs per 27 outs.  Doubles hitter, HR hitter, .320 hitter, etc etc.

I've got an inkling that Franklin could hit sort of like this 165-lb. shortstop did, with AVG first and (plenty of) PWR into the bargain -- and note that Franklin at age 19 is a better player than Nomah was at 19.

But of course, that guy had a Fenway-aided Mannyesque 1000 OPS+ in his prime, and Cranklin doesn't need to be quite that good to help us.  But remember that guy's .600 OPS next time you're wondering whether a smaller guy can ever get to .500.

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Cheers,

Dr D

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