First, my buddy Andy, who's a Yankees fan often talks about one of his favorite Manny-in-the-outfield meltdowns. A little background: It happened a couple of years ago against the Orioles with David Newhan hitting a ball off the centerfield wall with Johnny Damon in hot pursuit. Damon finally corrals it, and attempts to get the ball back in the infield. Inexplicably, Manny has positioned himself as the Lone Cut-off Man, halfway between Damon and 2B Mark Bellhorn. Damon makes a typically weak throw, but it's a bit off-line, at least as far as Manny's concerned, which leads to Ramirez doing his best Brad Friedel power-dive in order to make sure the throw doesn't reach its intended target (Bellhorn). Of course, it's clear to no one why Manny is where he is, but he manages to make the play. (It's kind of like wondering why the hell Jeter was half way up the first baseline during that A's playoff game a couple of years ago that led to him backhand-tossing the other Giambi out at home.)
Not surprisingly, Newhan goes on to score because of Manny's antics, and that's probably why Andy likes it. I remember this play well since I watched it live, and I would've been less surprised if a dinosaur busted through the Green Monster and started picking off players than to see Manny make that ill-advised cut-off. And this is the team that won the World Series. Either way, you too can relive the moment over and over thanks to YouTube. So knock yourself out.
***
Topix.com is a news aggregator and for some reason these people occasionally get "newsworthy" stuff from this site. Yeah, I thought it was pretty funny too. Anyway, under the topic "Baltimore Ravens," they're still linking to the April Fool's story I put up on, well, April 1(and again, thanks to Eric for that) about the Ravens trading for Javon Walker. Well, some poor unsuspecting sap didn't take time to read the actual post and left the following comment in one of the Topix.com forums:
"Who ever [sic] posted thus [sic] article needs to get there facts straight. I checked nfl.com today and walkers [sic] still on the packers. For all you packerfans this story is NOT TRUE. Check nfl.com if u dont believe me."Or you can just read the whole post. All 150 words of it. Either way, it's up to you.
***
One more thing ...
I just saw this on the Post-Gazette's website and it might be the worst headline ever written: "Taylor probably will stay with Steelers". By itself, the headline's okay, but once you read a few sentences of the story you realize there's basically no way in hell Taylor won't be in Pittsburgh this season (or, if you didn't read the story and generally have paid attention to what's been going on this offseason):
"Cornerback Ike Taylor has until 4 p.m. today to sign as a restricted free agent with another team but has no prospects and, in all likelihood, will play for the Steelers at least one more season.We can't blame this one on Bouchette, unless he now writes headlines, but it's still pretty lame. Just not CPW-lameworthy.
Taylor has drawn some interest from other NFL clubs but not enough to visit any of them. A big reason is the fact the Steelers tendered him a one-year contract for $1.57 million. Another team would have to forfeit a first-round draft choice to sign him, and that has been done only once in the past 13 years in the NFL."
|