Infield Fly Rule Called By Outfield Umpire? Braves Fall to Cardinals, 6-3 After Controversial Call

This was the scene at Turner field on Friday night.  If you're familiar with sports, you have probably seen the replay of the controversial call during the one-game Wild Card playoff game between the Braves and the Cardinals more times than you can count.  And even if you're not that familiar with the rules of baseball, you still can't believe what you saw.

Don't even try to make sense of this, because it just defies everything you've ever learned in your entire life.  To make a call like this, an "infield fly" call, when the ball is very clearly past even shallow left left, is just plain absurdity.

This could have been a bases loaded situation for the Braves with one out and Brian McCann coming to the plate.  Instead, there were two outs, with the should-be runner on first sitting in the dugout, while McCann looked towards the field as beer bottles and trash reigned down from the entire stadium.  Its a disgusting sight to see, but I can understand the fans' frustrations.  But, come on, guys, Chipper Jones' last game and this is how you act?

Any way you slice it, the ridiculous call did account for some entertainment in the Twittersphere.

Insane Dodgeball Flip/Spin/Jump/Dodge/Insanity/Kill

I mean, what words can I really use to describe this?

Scrumtrulescent is the only one that comes to mind, really.

Michael Phelps Sinks 159-Foot Putt

That ball rolls for 17 seconds. How, I ask you?  How?

Michael Phelps, playing in the Dunhill Links Championship, a pro-am tournament held in October at Kingsbarns Golf Links in Scotland, nail a monster 159-foot putt on one of the biggest greens I've ever seen.  Guy can do it all, apparently.

NFL Quarterbacks Trash Talk Via Facebook

The back-and-forth is a little hard to read, but you can download the images, or check the link here to see them a little better.

This is easily one of the funniest things I've seen in a long damn time.  Its fake, for anyone wondering, but some of the insults thrown around, and the way the elite's squash the rest of the league is absolutely classic.  Philip Rivers jumping in is a highlight mostly because of Tom Brady's response.  Peyton and Eli Manning have some good lines in there, and Aaron Rodgers dishes out some solid smack talk.

My biggest question mark?  Where's Ryan Fitzpatrick?!?

The Best Pet to Ever Have Besides a Declawed Bear Cub

I'm sad to say we live in a world where I can't hang out with this guy or a miniature domesticated bear but we do have Teacup Shih Tzu's.  Get it together scientists. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

Too Close to Home: Students threatened at Ledyard High

Proud(?) alumni on the day we said goodbye to 'Yard High

Pictured above are some of my best friends and I in the middle of making our last meaningful memories at our Ledyard High School in summer 2007. The guys and I still hang out and if I'm not too mistaken our 5 year reunion should be coming up pretty soon.  Last week, news of the following story was posted by friend and fellow alumni, Zak Davis, and it's got me thrown for a real loop.

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At 1:09 p.m. Tuesday, police arrested 18-year-old Ledyard High School student R--- L. D-------- after an investigation confirmed that he had threatened to harm students and then himself at Ledyard High School.

The police report says that “a concerned witness” informed an assistant principal that D--------- had plans to harm students at school. Evidence was found at his house that corroborated the concerned witnesses’ description. No weapons were found at the residence.
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It’s been a tough year with these kinds of stories happening.  This July, news media was ablaze with images of an orange haired maniac calling himself the Joker and scores of copycats plaguing show times of “The Dark Knight Rises.”  In the south this spring, there were images of cannibalism on video and reports of zombie attacks all over Florida. In response to this, gun owners can now defend themselves against the undead with specifically designed “"Zombie" bullets; available in 9mm, .45 cal, and shotgun capable shells.  Just yesterday, a teen was arrested in Katy, Texas for posting plans online that detailed his intent to harm children in a nearby elementary school.

Even as events grew more and more grisly, until last week, I naively entertained the notion that while things were happening in the US, they weren't happening near me.  I shook my head when friends said they hadn't gone to see the new Batman movie because of what happened in Colorado and I joked about bath salts while crime labs analyzed the toxicity of Rudy Eugene’s body.  New England has been thankfully lacking stories like this in the past and it seemed the trend would continue indefinitely.  At least I’d hoped it would.

Interactive link here

I don’t have the luxury of ignorance anymore; you can’t get much closer to home than your high school alma mater.  The same hallways I used run laps around during track season are the same that this kid thought about when he began planning violence.  I've pooped where he pooped.

In as curious and creepy a move as I've ever made, I searched for the suspect on Facebook and found him though our high school network.  It’s hard to believe the neighbors of people like the Aurora shooter when they say things like “he was such a normal guy,” but looking at this kid’s profile it’d be hard to write anything different. Admittedly, listing John Dillinger, G.W. Bush and Robert E. Lee as inspirational figures must’ve raised a few eyebrows after the fact but nothing else jumps out on the public page.

My two youngest sisters are still in middle/high school and live in Ledyard.  They've both transferred from the home town school district to a private Catholic academy not far from the house but they could have just as easily been on track to graduate from LHS, like my other sister and myself, when all this happened last week.  That thought stops my blood cold.  The only consolation I take from the story above is that it hadn't progressed to a point where the suspect had access to weapons.

There’s no way for me to say what was going through this kid’s head before he got caught, that’d be impossible.  What I can speak to is LHS.  Even though it’s a medium to small sized school in semi-rural southeastern Connecticut I can remember being around for some doosies in the last 2 years before graduation. 

We've had brawls recorded then uploaded to Youtube and I can remember hearing about one catfight where silicone bra enhancers became dislodged during the scuffle and flopped onto the cafeteria floor with a soft “pfuft.”  I even saw the aftermath of the hallway the day the attempted manslaughter charge came down on someone in Katherine’s class.  A charge well deserved, anyone who was in school when the victim came back from the hospital will be able to tell you. Those lucky enough to have heard the “Jolly Rancher” story know that things can get weird in my part of the state.

Everything prior pales in comparison with the latest addition to LHS hallway lore.  Like I said before, I don’t know what was going on with this kid, but I’d hope that something could’ve been done to prevent things from getting this drastic.

This past fall I scored 2 free tickets to a CoolidgeCorner showing of the then controversial documentary “Bully.”  It’s an eye-opening and heart-wrenching but not entirely balanced, account of what happens actually happens the hallways of schools bigger than mine. In the film, or the Q&A after the credits, the topic of the recent trend of school focused violence was broached and discussed.  From what I remember, there wasn’t a clear answer addressing how to prevent these type of occurrences more than to promote empathy as early as possible.

I don’t know how much I can do personally to help prevent this type of violence from happening. That being said, when I walk down the hallways of LHS for the 5 year, and I find myself thinking about what could’ve happened, at least I’ll know did a little something to expand awareness somehow.  If you made it this far into the post, I thank you for following through and ask that maybe you do a little something nice to someone who looks like they need it.

The Real Superman vs. Dwight Howard

"We as players, we always watch people before us," Shaquille O'Neal said.  "When I came in, it was Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon, guys who played like true centers who played inside.  What we have now are centers that are going to the European style, which is a lot of pick-and-roll.  Dwight Howard, who's a pick-and-roll player, some people say he's the best center in the league, but me being an old-school center, I'm going to go with [Brooke] Lopez and Andrew Bynum because they play with their back to the basket."

Shaq was speaking in a roundtable discussion for NBA.com when he made these comments.  Since they were made, Howard hasn't been handling them well, apparently.

"He hated the fact when he played that the older guys were talking about him and how he played and now he's doing the exact same thing," Howard said.  "Just let it go.  There's no sense for him to be talking trash to me.  He did his thing in the league.  He's one of the most dominant players to ever play the game.  Just sit back and relax.  You did your thing.  Your time is up.  So, I don't really care.  I don't really care.  He can say whatever he wants to say."

Easy, big fella.  Howard has been compared to Shaq in the past after playing for the Orlando Magic and using the nickname "Superman."  Everybody knows Shaq is basketball's only Superman, and Howard should have been out of the running as soon as he threw that ball in wearing the cape during the All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest.  And now, Howard's career path mimics Shaq's to the T at this stage in his career, starting in Orlando and moving to Los Angeles.

Shaq, never one to let anyone get the last word, all but closed the book on this "feud."

"You have to care to have a reaction," O'Neal said. "I've got businesses to run. I always tell people that in order to step in my shoes you have big shoes to fill. For him, he's going to have to at least win three [titles] to get people's respect."