San Francisco Giants manager Felipe Alou was thinking about batting Barry Bonds second this year in order to give him more at bats. But rather than being a team player, Bonds decided to pitch a little fit about it:
“I am going to speak with Felipe, because at this point in my career it doesn’t work for me to be second bat,” Bonds said.
Way to do what’s best for your team, Barry.
The two weeks of hype surrounding the Super Bowl sickens me, so — aside from this post about the Super Bowl explaining why I’m not posting about the Super Bowl — I’m deliberately not going to say anything else about the game this week. Maybe next.
Why can’t they simply take one week off between the conference championships and the Super Bowl? Two weeks is crazy.
Kobe Bryant scored 81 points yesterday — the second highest point total ever (behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points).
Jeff Wright at The Pooch Kick offers his analysis here, and says it was the “single greatest individual athletic performance of this generation.”
By the way, let this serve as my endorsement for The Pooch Kick. Jeff and a couple of his buddies — Terry Felton and Kenny Fields — have put together an excellent sports blog that I read regularly, and I encourage you to check it out.
Pittsburgh at Denver
Carolina at Seattle
Make your picks. I’ll say Denver and Carolina.
Google won’t turn over data to the U.S. government about what people are searching for on the Internet.
The Justice Department asked a federal court this week to force Google to turn over a trove of information on how people use the Internet. A subpoena, first sought over the summer, seeks activity on Google’s search engines for a single week, a request that Google says could lead to identifying millions of people and what they were looking at.
The government, which says its request will not result in identifying individual computer users, wants to use the information to resurrect an online pornography law shot down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. It wants to search Google queries to see how often users inadvertently run across sexual material.
What do you think about this? Is Google right to refuse this demand from the feds? In my opinion, the government is becoming more and more intrusive, and I’m glad to see Google fighting on this.
Since last week’s Open Blog seemed so popular, here it is again. Talk about anything you want.
Though his role is still unspecified, former Boston Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein is back with the team in a full-time position.
“As you know, we have spoken frequently during the last 10 weeks,” the team and Epstein said in a joint statement on Thursday night. “We have engaged in healthy, spirited debates about what it will take over the long term for the Red Sox to remain a great organization and, in fact, become a more effective organization in philosophy, approaches and ideals.
“Ironically, Theo’s departure has brought us closer together in many respects, and, thanks to these conversations, we now enjoy the bonds of a shared vision for the organization’s future that did not exist on Oct. 31. With this vision in place, Theo will return to the Red Sox in a full-time baseball operations capacity, details of which will be announced next week,” the statement continued.
That gust you just felt was Jeff Rushing’s sigh of relief. Maybe Theo can work some magic to get the Red Sox the leadoff hitter and center fielder they’re still lacking.
The NBA suspended New York Knicks forward Antonio Davis five games for entering the stands to protect his wife during last night’s game in Chicago.
“At the end of the day, what we had to decide on was the issue of Antonio breaking the barrier from the court into the stands,” NBA vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson said during a conference call. “At the end of the day, that was the most important aspect of making that decision.”
I think it’s good that the NBA took the circumstances into consideration when handing down the suspension, and I still say Davis did the right thing.
Unfortunately, the fan involved in the incident, Michael Axelrod, claims he did nothing wrong and is planning to sue Davis.
Of course he is. Litigation — it’s the American way. Let’s hope that lawsuit goes nowhere. Davis didn’t assault this guy and he was harmed in no way.
This completes the NL Central. Up next will be the NL East.
Additions: 2B Tony Womack; LHPs Dave Williams, Chris Hammond; RHP Grant Balfour
Losses: 1B Sean Casey
Analysis: Not much to talk about here. The trade of Casey opens up first base for Adam Dunn, and in return the Reds get a decent lefty in Williams who will move into the rotation. Hammond is a decent enough setup man in the bullpen. The team needed to upgrade its pitching more, but didn’t.
Grade: D
My column this week is more about Meadowlark Lemon, former member of the Harlem Globetrotters who is now a preacher.
The Church Report has compiled a terribly depressing list of the 50 most influential Christians in the country.
T.D. Jakes, who tops the list, doesn’t believe in the trinity. The rest of the list includes heretics, charismatics, new agers, prosperity gospel proponents and others who most certainly do not belong anywhere near a list like this. At least John Piper and Chuck Colson are present. What a discouraging collection that represents the present state of Christianity in the United States.
Daniel Randle has also posted a fine analysis of this matter.
A story in Sunday’s New York Times examines the growing popularity of the prosperity gospel in New York City, thanks to the influence of Creflo Dollar, pastor of World Changers Church New York.
“Remember,” said Mr. Dollar, a familiar figure across the country because of his “Changing Your World” television show and best-selling books, “if you sow a seed on a good ground, you can expect a harvest.”
Mr. Dollar, whose Rolls-Royces, private jets, million-dollar Atlanta home and $2.5 million Manhattan apartment, furnish proof to his followers of the validity of his teachings, is a leading apostle of what is known as the “prosperity gospel.”
It is a theology that is excoriated in many Christian circles but is becoming increasingly visible in this country, according to religious scholars. Now, it is beginning to establish a foothold in New York City, where capitalism has long been religion.
This is heresy, pure and simple. What’s alarming is that Dollar is recognized by The Church Report as one of the top 50 most influential Christians in the country.
May God help us.
If you didn’t know it already, Fidel Castro is delusional. The Cuban dictator has suggested that the United States is afraid to play Cuba in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
“We aren’t afraid of anything,” Castro said in a wide-ranging speech late Tuesday. “It’s very difficult to compete against us in any area … not even in baseball do they want to compete with Cuba.”
Thanks to Scott G. and Joel for pointing me to the story.
And, as Scott so accurately observed in another comment, “I say, let them play so we can kick some Commie butt.”
New York Knicks forward Antonio Davis rushed into the stands in Chicago last night to protect his wife from a drunk fan who was threatening her.
“Concerned his wife was in trouble, the New York Knicks forward reached her in the seats but remained calm, never took a swing at anybody and willingly walked away when security arrived,” according to the story.
“I witnessed my wife being threatened by a man that I learned later to be intoxicated,” Davis said in a statement issued after the game. “I saw him touch her, and I know I should not have acted the way I did, but I would have felt terrible if I didn’t react. There was no time to call security. It happened too quickly.”
Davis ascended about 10 rows of seats to reach his wife. There was no physical confrontation after he got there, but several people were pointing and shouting for a few moments before security arrived.
Davis, president of the NBA players’ association, returned to the bench and took his seat before being ejected with 1:04 left.
Davis may have been ejected from the game for entering the stands, but he did the right thing in looking out for his wife. NBA commissioner David Stern would be wise not to punish Davis any further for the incident.
Check out the third review on Amazon’s page for Max Lucado’s new book, The Cure for the Common Life. Here’s what it says:
“I was very disappointed to find that this book is extremely Christian and bible-oriented (bible phrases proliferate every page), despite the fact that that is not disclosed in the description anywhere.”
That’s like saying you’re disappointed in Rush Limbaugh’s books because you didn’t know they were conservative-oriented. Duh.
Oh, and just a word of explanation — I’m not much of a Lucado fan. I came across this only because I’m doing a work-related story about the book.
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