Month: September 2008

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Amendment XX, Section III

So an interesting question was raised the other day when it was asked what happens if someone is elected President on election day but dies before the inauguration takes place. It seems like the answer lies in the 20th Amendment, Section 3.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

So the Vice President would become President but I’m curious about the next part where it says “Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified “. What is the definition of qualified? Does that just mean be eligible to become President or is it a subjective matter that the Congress at the time shall determine whether the Vice President is qualified enough?

Also, take a look at Section 4:

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Just something to ponder.

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Don’t Forget To Turn Off The Lights

Somewhere fans are happy, somewhere children shout,
but there is no joy in Ruthville, this Yankee team is almost out.
We mourn the closing of this ballpark and honor the great stars of the past,
they now remain as memories as long as memories last.
Next year there’ll be a brand new home but no guarantee of Series play,
it should be a majestic place for those with means to pay.
Yes we can rely on TV where sponsors pay the dough,
but only if a team keeps winning, if not the ads are first to go.
Change is ever constant in the what’s-new world of sports,
but no one calls the park a winner in giving nightly sports reports.
It’s the folks who put the team together who deserve the major part of the glory,
but above all it’s the players, their talent is the story.
I thank the Yankees for the thrills I’ve had here through the years,
and wish them well in 2009, may their wins bring back the cheers.
May I suggest a final salute to express emotion at its peak,
there’s only one to do that job, let’s hear Bob Sheppard speak.

– Bob Wolff (he called Don Larsen’s World Series Perfect Game)

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ABG Picks: Week 2 Results

Well here are the standings after Week 2 (which is technically Week 1 for this contest). 

Faraz: Green Bay, Pittsburgh, New Orleans (9)
Mike D.: New York Giants, Pittsburgh, Kansas City (9)
Mike C.: New York Giants, Green Bay, Kansas City (8) 
Sabih: New York Giants, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys,  (7)
Ayaz: New York Giants, Cincinnati,  New York Jets (5)

Those are the top 5 after this week. All picks are due 5 minutes before the start of your first game. Remember to pick three teams and spread out 10 confidence points amongst them.

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NFL’s Worst Blown Call? … I Disagree

Well a lot has been made of the Ed Hochuli blown call this past week in the Chargers/Broncos game but let’s not forget that the Chargers might have wanted to play some sort of defense all day. When you allow a team to score 39 points in merely 48 minutes, you can tell what kind of a day they were having. Yea the call came at the absolute worst time and certainly took a victory out of their hands but they still had to play for another minute and 20 seconds or so.

They could have stepped up once to make a stop on a 4th-and-4 with 24 seconds left in the game to stop the Broncos from scoring. How about playing some more defense on the 2-point conversion where Cutler slices up 3 people in the end zone and completes a pass Royal to go up by 1.

How about some sort of double or extra coverage on Brandon Marshall who has 18 receptions for 166 yards? How about getting some pressure on Cutler who went 36 for 50, passing for 350 yards and 4 touchdowns? How about converting 3 drives of over 65 yards into touchdowns instead of field goals? How about three drives inside the opposition 30 yard line that only led to field goals? How about two drives inside the 20 yard line that were only a field goal? How about converting a 1st-and-5, 2nd-and-5 or even a 3rd-and-3 into a touchdown instead of settling for a 4th-and-3 field goal?

You convert any of those and you don’t leave the game hanging in the balance and the let the outcome be determined by a bad call. Yea it was a bad call but the game should have been over before then so it would not have even mattered.

Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and feeling self-pity that you are 0-2 on two last minute losses because you have a New York team coming in fresh off a game they felt they should have won too and before you know it, you’ll find yourself 0-3 with no shot at the playoffs.

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One Heck Of A Baseball Fan

I know YES showed footage of the same guy in the stands today signing his autograph on balls and papers to other fans… really? This is just a fan but are people that desperate to get someone’s autograph?

Anyone wanna calculate the odds of this happening? I can say I have been a fair share of baseball games and I did catch a batting practice homerun but nothing during a game, nevermind on back-to-back days.

I took a further look into this guy (Zack Hample) online and turns out he is quite famous regarding his ball-getting ability at baseball games. Too bad he had to get all sophisticated over the ball-catching otherwise it would have been quite a feat.

Here are some of his stats:

• 7 balls at this game

• 481 balls in 62 games this season = 7.8 balls per game.

• 558 consecutive games with at least one ball

• 124 consecutive games at Yankee Stadium with at least one ball

• 11 game balls this season (not counting game-used balls that get tossed into the crowd)

• 3 game home run balls this season (all of which were caught on a fly at Yankee Stadium)

• 122 lifetime game balls (115 foul balls, 6 home runs, 1 ground-rule double)

• 20 lifetime game balls at Yankee Stadium

• 3,758 total balls