WTF. Is this like some kind of strategy or something to psych out her opponent? Why do they make everyone the spectators stay silent when the players can make such a ridiculous screeching racket?

Players don't have the same focus as other athletes? I've read that hitting a ball thrown by a major league pitcher is the most difficult single action of all sports, and those stadiums are really &#!@$! loud. A loud crowd is considered one of the advantages the home team has in the NFL. Soccer stadiums: really, really loud. The crowd is expected to wave those thingies around and bang them together during free throws in the NBA (imagine some guy in a funny hat trying to get everyone to be quiet). A race car driver surely can't hear anything except the raucous scream of their engine.

Anyways, I consider it my god given right to shout "You suck!" at the opposing players. Golf, I can maybe understand the expectation of silence, but not Tennis. Perhaps it has something to do with "gentleman's sports" where god forbid the lowly peasants in the audience should annoy the players.

Upvote for such an annoying video? Sure, because this nonsense needs to be stopped much like the videos where police officers kick old ladies in the face.

^Why do people shut off their ability to reason when discussing teachers? Could it be that right-wing think tanks have been at the throat of every social service that doesn't directly benefit the super-rich for 3 decades now? Probably, and apparently they've been successful, since it is generally acceptable to bash an entire profession without any empirical evidence or even basic logic.

So let me simplify:

More Experience > Less Experience
Professional > Non-Professional
More Competition > Less Competition

Do you disagree with this?

Logically, here is how teachers would be ranked in terms of general quality based on this (hopefully) uncontroversial logic.

1. High level Prep Schools
2. Public Schools/Charter Schools
3. Private Schools/Catholic Schools
4. Home-school

That's not to say that there aren't good home-school teachers and terrible prep school teachers, but generally, the more you pay a position, the more competitive that position becomes. Major League baseball players > minor league baseball players. No controversy there, right?

I have no doubt that swampgirl is a great teacher. She has all of the qualities that make a teacher great: smart, thoughtful, inquisitive, confident, principled, good with words, quirky and funny. I would guess that she has probably grown to respect teachers more, rather than less over the course of her own teaching. Teaching just a handful of kids poses plenty of challenges, let alone dealing with hundreds. I'm thankful to have read her writings on home-schooling, as I'd only been familiar with the 'religious shut in' variety before.

Anyway, I didn't really want to jump into this conversation until I saw the teacher bashing. It's a noble profession that is under assault from the same people that brought you the Iraq War, Wiretapping, torture and the biggest national debt in history. Whether they teach home-school or school-school, teachers are the good guys.

LOL drugfree.org advertisement before hand with the Major League Baseball trademark next to it. You have to REALLY laugh your ass off on that one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_tar_incident

From Wikipedia:

"In Major League Baseball lore, the Pine Tar Incident (also known as the Pine Tar Game) refers to a controversial incident that took place in an American League game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees on July 24, 1983.

Playing at New York's Yankee Stadium, the Royals were trailing 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth and U. L. Washington on first base. In the on deck circle, George Brett was heard remarking to a teammate, "Watch this baby fly" as he shook his bat. He then came to the plate and connected off Yankee reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage for a two-run home run and a 5-4 lead.

As Brett crossed the plate, New York manager Billy Martin approached home plate umpire Tim McClelland and requested that Brett's bat be examined. Earlier in the season, Martin and other members of the Yankees (most notably, third baseman Graig Nettles who, as a member of the Minnesota Twins, recalled a similar incident involving Thurman Munson) had noticed the amount of pine tar used by Brett, but Martin had chosen not to say anything until the home run. According to Nettles' autobiography, "Balls," Nettles claims that he actually informed Martin of the pine tar rule, as Nettles had previously undergone the same scrutiny with his own bat while with the Minnesota Twins.

With Brett watching from the dugout, McClelland and the rest of the umpiring crew inspected the bat. Measuring the bat against the width of home plate (which is 17 inches), they determined that the amount of pine tar on the bat's handle exceeded that allowed by Rule 1.10(b) of the Major League Baseball rule book, which read that 'a bat may not be covered by such a substance more than 18 inches from the tip of the handle.'

McClelland signaled that Brett's home run was nullified and the game over. An enraged Brett stormed out of the dugout to confront McClelland, and had to be physically restrained by Kansas City manager Dick Howser and his teammates. (As one commentator stated, 'Brett has become the first player in history to hit a game-losing home run.') Despite the furious protests of Brett and Howser, McClelland's ruling stood. The Royals protested the game ('TAR WARS!' blared a New York Post headline), and their protest was upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail. MacPhail (who coincidentally had once been the Yankees' chief executive) ruled that while the bat was illegal, it didn't violate the 'spirit of the rules.' He added that the bat was not 'altered to improve the distance factor,' and that the rules only provided for removal of the bat from the game, not calling the batter out. Baseball writer Bill James concurred, saying that, unlike other sports, 'in baseball, when you hit a double, that's a double.'

MacPhail ordered the game resumed with two out in the top of the ninth inning with the Royals up 5-4. He also ruled that Brett was to be ejected for his outburst.

On August 18 (a scheduled off day for both teams), the game was resumed from the point of Brett's home run, with about 1,200 fans in attendance. Martin symbolically protested the continuation of the game by putting pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and first baseman Don Mattingly at second base. Mattingly, a lefty, became the majors' first southpaw second baseman since Oakland's Gonzalo Marques [1] a decade earlier; there has been one only lefty middle infielder in a big-league game since (Thad Bosley, in 1987).[2]

Before the first pitch to Hal McRae (who followed Brett in the lineup), Martin challenged Brett's home run on the grounds that Brett had not touched all the bases, and maintained that there was no way for the umpires (a different crew than the one who worked July 24) to dispute this. But umpire Davey Phillips was ready for Martin, producing an affidavit signed by the July 24 umpires stating that Brett had indeed touched all the bases. An irate Martin continued to argue with the umpires and was ejected from the game. Yankees reliever George Frazier struck McRae out to finally end the top of the ninth, twenty-five days after it had begun. Dan Quisenberry then got New York out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the Royals' 5-4 win.

The bat is currently on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where it has been since 1987. During a broadcast of Mike & Mike in the Morning, ESPN analyst Tim Kurkjian stated that Brett used the bat for a few games after the incident until being cautioned that the bat would be useless if broken. Brett sold the bat to a collector for $25,000, had second thoughts, repurchased the bat for the exact same amount from the collector and then donated the bat to the Hall of Fame.


The winning pitcher for the Royals was reliever Mike Armstrong, who went 10-7 that year in 58 appearances, notching career highs in wins and games. In a 2006 interview, Armstrong said a angry Yankees fan threw a brick from an overpass at Kansas City's bus cracking the windshield as the Royals were leaving for the airport after the make up game. 'It was wild to go back to New York and play these four outs in a totally empty stadium' Armstrong said. 'I'm dressed in the uniform, and nobody's there'. Mike was still pitching baseball as recently as 2006 at age 52 in the Athens Area Men's Baseball league in Athens Ga, where he still has a fastball in the mid 80's."

Basically, this was a totally unprecedented event, in that (a) a super-old, completely outdated rule was dug up by an opposing manager, (b) it was upheld by the umpire, (c) the ruling was overturned and the game was resumed later on in the year. This has become the most famous event in George Brett's career, something he doesn't mind at all, considering that before this, he was most famous for suffering with hemorrhoids during the playoffs.

Thanks for the info.



In reply to this comment by tagomi77:
^Contagion:
This would be similar to say, a first baseman faking a throw back to the pitcher so the baserunner relaxes and steps off the bag. Then tagging that baserunner. The difference here is that the penalty for not being aware is much higher.


Illegal in baseball? Variations of the Hidden Ball Trick are still done... although they arent that common in the major leagues anymore, cause people have learned to look out for that sort of thing more often, they are still done.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=brfWfv53uNs>>

^Contagion:
This would be similar to say, a first baseman faking a throw back to the pitcher so the baserunner relaxes and steps off the bag. Then tagging that baserunner. The difference here is that the penalty for not being aware is much higher.


Illegal in baseball? Variations of the Hidden Ball Trick are still done... although they arent that common in the major leagues anymore, cause people have learned to look out for that sort of thing more often, they are still done.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=brfWfv53uNs>>

I didn't get the J.T. Snow reference, either - until I read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.T._Snow#Two_memorable_moments_with_the_Giants

In the 2002 World Series as Snow was scoring in Game 5 off a Kenny Lofton triple, he swooped up by the back of the jacket and carried off the batboy, 3-year-old Darren Baker. The young batboy and son of then Giants’ manager Dusty Baker was at home plate to collect Lofton's bat before the play was completed. This turned into a touching and memorable incident but easily could have resulted in disaster with a small child wandering into the path of Snow and David Bell as they both barreled home to score. Following the incident with Darren Baker, Major League Baseball required batboys and girls to be at least nine years of age.

BrknPhoenix

I didn't say you didn't have a right to your opinion because you're not in Iraq. Look closely and you'll see I said it was idiotic to say someone's opinion is invalidated because they are not a participant of the thing they support, which is what this video is trying to do.

This video is in no way invalidating the opinions of the college Republicans. The video *is* pointing out the inconsistency of supporting the war yet not actively seeking out their local enlistment agency. I'm sure the filmmaker was well aware of the opinions these individuals hold, but his intent was not to INVALIDATE them. It was to point out that the most direct way in which they could follow through on their views would be to actively enlist and serve, and yet none choose to do so.

I support having professional baseball, yet I am not a professional baseball player. Why? I am not that good at baseball and there are others that are much better suited for it than I. I'd just get in the way. War isn't quite as fun as baseball but there's an unlimited number of comparisons that could be made that indicate that not being in the war is not a valid reason to say someone is wrong for supporting it.

That is a fallacious comparison. Only a tiny percentage of people are qualified enough to become a major league baseball player, while the military has no problem training anyone who is of age and of sufficient health. Even if you have medical problems (as some of these individuals cite), the military is always in need of individuals in a supporting role. Even simple clerical jobs are available at home. That would still be an act of "doing one's part" in the war effort, thus lending credibility to their words.

And as far as your opinion "saving lives"... Not so fast. They're still over there as far as I can see. You can armchair quarterback all you like but claiming someone's opinion of the war doesn't matter because they aren't there, while you yourself aren't there, isn't going to be getting the soldiers home any time soon.

1. I am of the opinion that the Iraq war should never have been fought.
2. Had the Iraq war never been fought, a MINIMUM 67,265 Iraqi civilians (NOT combatants) would not have died. An additional 3,623 (and rising) American service men and women would not have died.
3. Therefore, had the American public, press, and administration held the same "dove" opinion that myself and many others across the nation had, it is unlikely that the war would have occurred.

Point being: Yes, the armed forces are over in Iraq. Except I didn't put them there. I didn't support putting them there. I did my duty as a citizen - I wrote my congressmen and senators. I attended protests and demonstrations. I discussed/argued with my friends that this is an unjustifiable war... and I was not listened to.

Now look where we are.

Eh, major league players get paid enough money to help with the tarp.

Still, it was nice to help out.

13 times in major league history, deserves a toast....

Fascinating look at Dice-K's mysterious pitch. I can't wait to see if it works in the MLB. The 'Major League' sound bites towards the end are priceless.

But I don't think Matsuzaka is going to win 20 games this year, but I also think that he won't suffer from Chan Ho Park syndrome.

1949

* Harry Truman is inaugurated as US president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
* Doris Day enters the public spotlight with the films My Dream Is Yours and It's a Great Feeling as well as popular songs like "It's Magic"; divorces her second husband.
* Red China as the Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People's Republic of China.
* Johnnie Ray signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he won't become popular for another two years.
* South Pacific, the prize winning musical, opens on Broadway on April 7.
* Walter Winchell is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.
* Joe DiMaggio is injured early in the season but makes a comeback in June and leads the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

1950

* Joe McCarthy, the US Senator, gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech.
* Richard Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate.
* Studebaker a popular car company, is beginning its financial downfall.
* Television is becoming widespread (in black and white format) and becomes the most popular means of advertising.
* North Korea, South Korea engage in warfare as North Korea attacks on June 25, beginning the Korean War.
* Marilyn Monroe soars in popularity with five new movies including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and attempts suicide after death of lover Johnny Hyde. Monroe would later (1954) briefly marry Joe DiMaggio (the rhyme in the previous verse).

1951

* Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29 for espionage.
* H-Bomb is in the middle of its development as a nuclear weapon, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952.
* Sugar Ray (Robinson) the boxer obtains the world's Middleweight title.
* Panmunjeom, the border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the Korean War.
* Brando (Marlon) is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the first time for his famous role in A Streetcar Named Desire
* The King and I opens on Broadway on March 29.
* and The Catcher in the Rye is a controversial novel by J. D. Salinger.

1952

* Eisenhower (Dwight D.) is first elected as U.S. president by a landslide.
* Vaccine for polio is privately tested by Jonas Salk.
* England's got a new Queen as George VI passes away and Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne of United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms.
* Marciano (Rocky) defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world Heavyweight champion.
* Liberace has a popular 1950s television show for his musical entertainment.
* Santayana, good-bye as philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist George Santayana dies on September 26.

1953

* Joseph Stalin dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.
* Malenkov (Georgy Maksimilianovich) succeeds Stalin for six months following his death.
* Nasser (Gamal Abdel) acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as Muhammad Naguib's minister of the interior.
* and Prokofiev (Sergei) the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.
* Rockefeller (Winthrop) moves to Arkansas, the state where he will be elected governor.
* Campanella (Roy), a baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the National League's Most Valuable Player award for the second time.
* Communist bloc is a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time.

1954

* Roy Cohn resigns as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy.
* Juan Perón spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup.
* Toscanini (Arturo) is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.
* Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester.
* Dien Bien Phu falls as Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap take over the Vietnamese village, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
* "Rock Around the Clock" is a hit single released by Bill Haley & His Comets in May, spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll.

1955

* Einstein (Albert) dies on April 18 at the age of 76.
* James Dean achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30.
* Brooklyn's got a winning team as the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the only time. (There is cheering in the background of the song during this line.)
* Davy Crockett is a Disney television series about the legendary frontiersman of the same name.
* Peter Pan is broadcast on TV live and in color from the 1954 version of the stage musical starring Mary Martin on March 7.
* Elvis Presley signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.
* Disneyland opens on July 17 as Walt Disney's first theme park.

1956

* Bardot (Brigitte) appears in her first mainstream film And God Created Woman and establishes an international reputation as a French "sex kitten".
* Budapest is the site of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
* Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
* Khrushchev (Nikita) makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin's "cult of personality" on February 23.
* Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) releases her last film High Society and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
* Peyton Place, the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, is published.
* Trouble in the Suez boils as Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29, beginning the Suez Crisis.

1957

* Little Rock is the site of an anti-integration standoff as Governor Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School, and President Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.
* Pasternak (Boris), the Russian author, publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.
* Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous New York Yankees' outfielder and American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.
* Kerouac (Jack) publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.
* Sputnik is the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4.
* Chou Enlai is in the middle of his reign as Premier of the People's Republic of China.
* Bridge on the River Kwai is released as a film adaptation of the 1954 novel and receives seven Academy Awards.

1958

* Lebanon is engulfed in a political and religious crisis.
* Charles de Gaulle is elected first president of the French Fifth Republic following the Algerian Crisis.
* California baseball begins as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They are the first major league teams west of Kansas City.
* Starkweather homicide captures the attention of Americans as serial killer Charles Starkweather kills eleven people before he is caught in a massive manhunt in Douglas, Wyoming.
* Children of thalidomide are born with birth defects caused by the sleeping aid and antiemetic, used to treat morning sickness as well (although not in the USA).

1959

* Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, "The Big Bopper". (As an intro to this stanza, Billy Joel mimics Buddy Holly's trademark "hiccup" style, singing a-UH-uh-oh...).
* Ben-Hur wins eleven Academy Awards as a film based around the New Testament starring Charlton Heston.
* Space monkeys Able and Miss Baker are the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.
* Mafia are the centre of attention for the FBI and public attention builds to this organized crime society with an historically Sicilian/American origin.
* Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales as the latest toy fad.
* Castro (Fidel) comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.
* Edsel is a no-go as production of this car marketing disaster (Ford spent $400 million developing it) ends after only two years.

1960

* U-2: an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.
* Syngman Rhee: was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than twenty million U.S. dollars.
* Payola: was publicized due to Dick Clark's testimony before Congress and Alan Freed's public disgrace.
* and Kennedy (John F.): beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election amongst allegations of vote fraud.
* Chubby Checker: popularizes the dance The Twist with his song of the same name.
* Psycho: an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism. The screeching violins heard briefly in the background are a trademark of the film's soundtrack.
* Belgians in the Congo: The Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared independent of Belgium on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961

* Hemingway (Ernest): commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.
* Eichmann (Adolf): is captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and tried for crimes against humanity.
* Stranger in a Strange Land: written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.
* Dylan (Bob): after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton, Dylan is signed to Columbia Records.
* Berlin: The Berlin Wall, which separates West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany, is constructed.
* Bay of Pigs Invasion: failed attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962

* Lawrence of Arabia: the Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O'Toole premiers in America on December 16.
* British Beatlemania: The Beatles gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI's Parlophone label.
* Ole Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi.
* John Glenn: flew the first American manned orbital mission termed "Friendship 7" on February 20.
* Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a round-one knockout.

1963

* Pope Paul (VI): is elected to the papacy.
* Malcolm X: makes infamous statements about agreeing with the Kennedy assassination, thus causing the Nation of Islam to censure him.
* British Politician Sex: the Profumo Affair.
* JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?: President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22.

1965

* Birth control: in the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as "the pill", first go on the market and are extremely popular. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 challenged a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae which declared most birth control a sin.
* Ho Chi Minh: a Vietnamese Communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969.

1968

* Richard Nixon back again: Nixon is elected in the 1968 presidential election of the United States.

1969

* Moon shot: refers to the Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing.
* Woodstock: famous rock and roll festival of 1969 that came to represent the epitome of the counterculture movement.

1974

* Watergate: political scandal involving a hotel break-in, eventually leading to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.
* Punk rock: the Sex Pistols and their new sound become popular.

1977 (Note that these two items, while later chronologically than the two 1976 items, come immediately before them in the song)

* Begin (Menachem): becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt's president in 1978.
* Reagan (Ronald): President of the United States from 1981 to 1989; attempted to run for president in 1976

1976 (Note that these two items, while earlier chronologically than the two 1977 items, come immediately after them in the song)

* Palestine: the Palestine Liberation Organization is admitted as a member of Arab League; see history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
* Terror on the airline: Numerous aircraft hijackings took place, specifically, the Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 and the subsequent rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, 1976.

1979

* Ayatollahs in Iran: during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the West-backed and U.S.-installed Shah is overthrown as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains power after years in exile.
* Russians in Afghanistan: Soviet forces fight a ten-year war in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989.

1983

* Wheel of Fortune: a hit television game show which has been TV's highest-rated syndicated program since 1983.
* Sally Ride: in 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space.
* Heavy metal, suicide: Billy Joel himself had previously stated on his website that even though the two terms are separated by a comma they are collectively one item (like "North Korea, South Korea" above). In the 1980s Ozzy Osbourne and the bands Metallica and Judas Priest were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.
* Foreign debts: Persistent US trade deficits lead to substantial foreign debt in the eyes of the 1980s period, particularly to Japan.
* Homeless vets: Veterans of the Vietnam war are homeless and impoverished.
* AIDS: A collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is first detected and recognized in the 1980s, on its way to becoming a pandemic.
* Crack: Refers to crack cocaine, a popular drug in the mid-to-late 1980s.

1984

* Bernie Goetz: On December 22, Goetz becomes a vigilante after being mugged four times; he shoots four young men who he believed to be threatening him on a New York City subway. Goetz was charged with attempted murder, but was acquitted of the charges.

1988

* Hypodermics on the shore: medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea.

1989

* China's under martial law: On May 20, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms to end the Tiananmen Square protests.
* Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore!: soft drink giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using popular music stars to reach the young adult demographic.