Reddit Frontpage!

Well here is a first, for me at least. I try to submit interesting stories and usually none that I see have already been submitted and this is the first time a story has made it to the front page. I have also been commenting more often and the Reddit score jumped from 1 to 18, a score which hadn’t changed for the past five months since I joined Reddit. You can go check out the site now at http://www.reddit.com/info/6ossg/comments/ or view the screenshot below. My username is cuptocanada.

By the way, the story that I submitted Terry Bradshaw admits using steroids in ’70s which he came out and admitted yesterday saying it was doctor prescribed and was administered to make him heal faster. You can argue either side on this issue whether he cheated to get an advantage or just took something that was not illegal at the time.

Me on Reddit Frontpage

Anyways, congrats to me 😛

P.S. Yes that is me using a Windows 2000 computer at work and MS Paint to highlight my story.

Has PETA Become Useless?

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization really needs to start picking and choosing which battles it wants to fight. Yes, everyone knows they are passionate about their animals and absolutely everything needs to be done in order to preserve their natural homes, their safety when they interact with the human world as well as any other action deemed reasonable without going overboard. But they have fought so many ‘unnecessary’ battles that when a real case might even present itself, no one seems to give a care in the world about the issue they are standing up for.

I am writing on this because just today, as Wimbledon started yesterday, there is a news report that Wimbledon officials brought in marksmen to shoot down dive-bombing pigeons that were causing havoc on the player’s lawn and the open-air media restaurant.

The tournament employs two hawks to scare away pigeons who had become a pest swooping down on Centre Court and distracting players in the middle of tense matches.

But the hawks failed to keep the pigeons away from the players’ lawn and the open-air media restaurant so marksmen were called in.

“The hawks are our first line of deterrent, and by and large they do the job,” Wimbledon spokesman Johnny Perkins said.

“But unfortunately there were one or two areas where the hawks didn’t deter the pigeons, so it was deemed necessary to take a harder approach,” he explained.

The marksmen were summoned by Wimbledon as pigeon droppings on the restaurant tables were thought to be a health hazard. – Article

Although it seems a little bit excessive to bring in marksmen to take out the birds rather than finding an alternative method of relocating the pigeons elsewhere, they will more than likely get a pass in the general media because most people probably won’t even consider the move very cruel and they will justify that since it was causing people inconvenience as enough cause to do it. Another reason is that PETA clearly misconstrues the word said by the Wimbledon officials.

As quoted above, the Wimbledon official clearly says they employ two hawks to scare away the pigeons which has usually done the trick in years past and had done so on days leading up to the second day of the tournament, here is what the PETA official had to say:

“Since the use of marksmen to kill pigeons appears to have been carried out as a first, rather than a last, resort and not out of a concern for public health but rather because the animals were deemed inconvenient by players, you appear to be in clear violation of the law”

That coming from PETA vice president Bruce Friedrich clearly shows they will say Wimbledon did this as a first resort even though they had other measures in place such as the hawks to keep the pigeons away. I am sure Wimbledon could have done more if they saw that the hawks were not being very effective this year instead of bringing in the marksmen but the blatant spin on the words by PETA loses any credibility and probably support that they had amongst some people on their issue.

Yea, there will still be PETA supports who will fight for this cause – and they have every right to fight for this one as they did for the bird that was killed by Randy Johnson’s 100 MPH pitch but they need to be more effective in how they fight. The more they get ridiculed for fighting cases that clearly were not animal cruelty, will only lead to more cruel acts in the future that will go unheard and will not be fought justly because people will not associate PETA with anything reasonable but rather just an organization trying to make noise in the media and not standing for anything credible.

Gatorade: Ball Girl

Gotta hand it to Gatorade for pulling off another great commercial.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syDQu_MzX_I

On a totally unrelated note, I had been looking for this video for over two years now and I finally found it through “related videos” from the one above.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJoxGpEswOI

New York Rangers vs. NHL

So I’ve been meaning to write about this silly ongoing saga between the New York Rangers and the National Hockey League. I finally got around to it this morning and I have a feeling this isn’t going to be a one and done issue, so I have started a series for it, in anticipation for future posts being devoted to the issue.

It has been centered around who actually owns the rights to the team’s website and how to run its promotions. The NHL is considering to kick the owners of the New York Rangers out of the NHL or force them the owners to sell their team as punishment for accusing the league and its officials of violating antitrust laws. Madison Square Garden (the owners of the Rangers) sued the NHL last fall saying that it violated antitrust laws by monopolizing control of team promotions. A judge ruled this past November that the league was within its rights to seize control of the team’s website.

This all seems much ado over nothing as the 29 teams in the league do not seem to have a problem having over access to the NHL to control promotions but the Rangers seem to be making a big deal. On one hand, NHL should have the rights to control their website considering they run the league but I think threating to kick a team out of the league is a little excessive. As the MSG spokesman said, “The NHL shouldn’t be afraid of the judicial system. We will pursue our case vigorously and will not be intimidated by the NHL’s bullying tactics.”

If the NHL is willing to kick a team out of the league for not listening, is it because they don’t think they have as solid of a case as they are leading us to believe or are they afraid there is a possibility that the law might rule in favor of the New York Rangers.

MSG first went to the courts just as the league was preparing to fine the organization US$100,000 per day if the company did not give the hockey league complete control over the Rangers’ website and other promotions.

Madison Square Garden had accused the hockey league of having “veered into unlawful behavior” by seeking to control the licensing of teams for all commercial purposes and to stop teams from marketing apparel, merchandise and memorabilia.

I wonder if this is the NHL’s way of generating hockey interest in the tri-state area. Even though hockey ratings have steadily increased across the hockey, New York has been one of the most lagging markets in terms of television viewership and certainly with the owners of Cablevision at the head of this problem – that might not bode well for the games being broadcasted in this area.

Maybe it is time for the NHL in this New York region to wake up and make their voice heard on the issue for or against either side. Although it is bound to make very little to no difference in the overall outcome of the case, I think it time the fans stopped being dormant and woke up a little bit. Spark a little life into the team and the league in the off season.

Personally I wouldn’t mind the MSG being removed as owners of the Rangers and there have been interesting rumors that there is an expansion team in Manhattan waiting to jump into the league if given the opportunity. There is a small logistical problem of where they would play but I am sure the rest of the league owners wouldn’t mind kicking the Rangers out, splitting the massive expansion fee from an owner in Manhattan and just split it amongst themselves. But maybe I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. There are still plenty of hoops for the NHL to jump through before that could happen and one ruling from the courts could change everything.

Switch Hitter vs. Switch Pitcher

Well the Yankees just seem to be on a roll drafting unique pitchers. Yesterday I had the story of the Yankees signing the pitcher with six fingers. Now here is Pat Venditte, a pitcher they drafted in the 45th round who can pitch with both hands. So obviously this was bound to happen as he faced a switch hitter as neither side could decide which side of the plate the batter wanted to bat from and then which hand the pitcher wanted to pitch from. Chaos ensues.

As one blogger stated perfectly and sums up my thoughts exactly.

This story doesn’t deserve a 30 second blurb at the tail end of Baseball Tonight. This story deserves a 5-minute ‘Tim Kurkjian recites baseball history’ voiceover that we get with every other monumental baseball milestone. This story deserves further footage.

Here is the SportsCenter clip: [0:35]

Here is the live SNY clip, chaos as it unflods in front of your eyes: [5:29]