THAT CRABBY OLD MAN IS BACK

 I can be really old fashioned, but sometimes, I not only enjoy it, but I insist other people act like that, too.

**What is with all the cursing? Why is a curse word a better adjective than the hundreds that are available that aren't profane. I understand that you're passionate about things, so am I. Read some of my blogs. You won't find one use of the "F" word. Oh, I've said it, but at home or alone and then very sparingly. CC Sabathia is a prime example of a celebrity who can't get through a sentence without profanity. Now, it's spread in stadiums and arenas. Do they think it's cute? A friend of mind owns a pub and I visited one time and noticed a couple of signs behind the bar. "Use of the F-Bomb will cost you a fine of 25 cents each time" I asked him if it was just a way to make a little extra money and he said, "No. It got so bad, I was embarrassed to be in my own bar. People laugh when they read it, but the cursing has pretty much stopped." Unfortunately, that won't work with these overpaid celebrities even if the fine was $100,000.

**If you buy a ticket to a sporting event, you have the right to cheer for a team or a player or to jeer for them (no cursing) if it's not the team you root for. You can wear clothing emblazoned with your team logos or names maybe even display a sign. But, you DO NOT have the right to throw things at the players. Anything! Would you dump a beer on your son because he made an error? Would you throw a battery at your daughter because she let in a goal? Of course not. However, the player you dumped a box of popcorn on is someone else's son.Would you do it if you were sitting next to the mother of that girl you threw a half-eaten hot dog at? It's just a game, it's not life or death. 

**We travel around the country on vacations and try to see baseball games in the cities we're in, and sometimes wear Yankee paraphernalia whether the Yanks are playing or not, because we like the sport. When people ask if we're Yankee fans, we like to respond, "No, we're baseball fans who happen to root for the Yankees."  People react well to that. My Dad once told me not to root against the other team but cheer for yours instead. I slip up sometimes, but it remains good advice.

**We have a problem, boys and girls. Jacob DeGrom, arguably the Best Pitcher On The Planet. was taped actually touching his belt on the mound after throwing a pitch. He then touched his glove. Do you know what this means? Yeah, I don't either. He doesn't need any artificial means when he pitches, but the use of stick-ems of some kind is in the news, so let's find somebody doing something and suggest some wrong-doing. This is what I call a "media blow -up." They can't just broadcast a sporting event, they have to create some major controversy so viewers won't become bored.  They tried the same tactic in the NY-Minn.game on Wednesday. Josh Donaldson of the Twins suggested the Gerrit Cole (another BPOTP) was using some illegal substance but quit for one game and got hammered, so obviously, in Donaldson's mind at least, he must have been cheating before. Broadcasters couldn't wait for Cole to pitch to Donaldson, suggesting that Cole would throw at him and benches would empty and there would be a brawl. How silly. Minnesota would love for that to happen so they could get Cole thrown out of the game. When that didn't happen and Cole struck out Donaldson, the clowns (sorry, don't mean to insult clowns) in the booth claim that Cole stared down Donaldson as he walked back to the booth. Listen David Cone, that didn't happen. no matter how many replays you show, there was no stare down.   I guess you're going to have to come up with different fake controversy.

***THEY SAID IT***

"Sign of returning to normalcy – Sunday night baseball Yankees -Red Sox."  -- Janice Hough

"Among the funniest things I’ve read was stenciled to a door in old Tiger Stadium. It read, “Visitors Clubhouse, No Visitors.”"  -- Phil Mushnick 

"Floyd Mayweather is expected to make between $50 million and $100 million tonight fighting a reality TV star whose record is 0-1, having lost to another reality star. Is this a great country or what?"  -- Brad Dickson

"MLB has 6 no-hitters all ready. Normally,they only have two no-hiters a year and sometimes none. Who would have guessed that a symptom of COVID-19 would be batters hitting like one of the Kardashian sisters.?"  -- Alex Kaseberg

"Show me a guy who thinks baseball statisticians are the most likely to throw obscure and irrelevant facts into an argument, and I'll show you a guy who's never had a wife."  -- RJ Currie 

"You’ll recall that Mark McGwire, questioned by Congress about steroid use, played dumb. Sammy Sosa came to the sudden, comical realization that he could no longer speak nor understand English, not even the plain kind."  -- Phil Mushnick

"NY Knicks are out, LA Lakers and Clippers each one game from elimination. ABC and ESPN now beginning to feel like FOX feels when the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees and/or Red Sox aren’t in the World Series?"  -- Janice Hough

"The Cleveland Browns reportedly are passing on the prospect of Odell Beckham being joined by Julio Jones. Or as one veteran diva-watcher put it, ‘Why add Madonna when you already have Mariah Carey?’  -- Bill Littlejohn

 "The USA reportedly has the most billionaires of anywhere in the world. A close second is the New York Yankees clubhouse."  -- RJ Currie

"Finally, let me close with an observation from the noted satirist, Jonathan Swift, that may relate to those players in the NBA Draft pool who will end up undrafted:“Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.”"  -- Jack Finarelli

"Stop complaining about the regional the Nebraska baseball team was assigned. All they gotta do is beat Arkansas, the N.Y. Yankees & the Cuban Olympic team and they're in the College World Series."  -- Brad Dickson

 Chad Picasner