Nats Fans Boo On Opening Night ... But Not Their Team For Once

Opening day is finally upon us. Technically, the MLB season began last week, as Boston and Oakland played two games in Japan, but who was actually up to watch those games anyway?

North America's version of opening day was last night, as the Nationals took on the Braves in their brand new, beautiful ballpark.



The new stadium was christened with boos, as President Bush took the mound to throw the ceremonial first pitch to Nats manager Manny Acta. This time, Washington fans were not booing their home team, but instead, the leader of the free world and the very man who runs this country. The President's throw was a bit high, perhaps due to a lack of concentration caused by 40,000 booing citizens. Immediately after delivering the pitch, Bush bolted off the mound, evidently trying to leave the field as quickly as possible. You would too if you were being booed mercilessly.

Later in the game, President Bush joined Joe Morgan and Jon Miller in the ESPN booth and spent some time talking baseball. Throughout his entire stay, Bush sounded and appeared as if he did not want to be there, giving brief and shallow answers to most of the questions he was asked.

One of his few long winded comments involved the need to bring baseball to inner-city youths across the nation. These words seemed insincere and very much planned, as though the President was told to talk about it (and he probably was). The insincerity of the comments was affirmed during the very next commercial break, which included several spots for RBI, an organization predicated on spreading the sport to children living in inner cities and urban areas. Coincidence? I think not.

Another notable moment occurred when Jon Miller asked the President if he had any interests in rejoining the Rangers organization after leaving office. Bush responded by saying he would most likely focus on being a fan, and that's all. No kidding. Something tells me George is going on a long and much needed hiatus once his term is complete. The last thing he wants to do is remain in the public eye, especially in the form of running a major league baseball team, and a really bad one at that.

All in all, Opening Night wasn't too bad. The game ended up being pretty good, as the Nationals beat the Braves on a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. Plus, we got to see the most memorable ceremonial first pitch since Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory put on one of the worst displays of athleticism the world has ever witnessed. What a way to kick off the brand new season.

The Drunken Yankee Fan

The baseball season is almost upon us ... Let's not forget what the sport is really about ... Consuming massive amounts of alcohol and being too inebriated to watch your team attempt to make a ninth inning comeback in Game 4 of the ALDS ... but ultimately fall short, again. Priceless.

(*Notice the rally cap)

Politicians And Prostitutes: It Just Sounds Right

What is it about politicians that compel them to partake in lewd, wrong, or just plain illegal acts? Is it the money? Is it the fame? Is it the power? The answer to this question very well may be all three of these things, considering many a politician have money, power, and fame and for the most part, cannot stay out of trouble. These days, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find a politician that is acting in an acceptable manner and in accordance with the law. Case and point; Gov. Eliot Spitzer. While it's true the Governor made a living putting away wrong-doers as attorney general, it still comes as no surprise that Spitzer has been caught up in a prostitution ring. After all, politicians and prostitutes are like peanut butter and jelly, you can't have one without the other.

Spitzer, however, won't be the first powerful politician who could be dethroned by scandal, particularly in the Tri-State area.

The Democrat joins a list that includes politicians and officials from Rockland and Westchester counties, as well as New Jersey and Connecticut.

Who can forget the exploits of former President Bill Clinton? The Chappaqua resident saw his tenure as Commander-in-Chief severely tarnished following a fling with infamous White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton's exploits, which include allegations of adultery with other women, go back to his years as Arkansas governor.

In Rockland County, former Assemblyman Ryan Karben, D-Monsey, resigned while being accused of having improper relationships with male interns. What's more, Karben was recently arrested for driving while intoxicated. His lawyer for the DWI charge is Kenneth Gribetz, the former Rockland district attorney felled by scandal in the 1990s after more than two decades as the county's top prosecutor.

While Gribetz pleaded guilty to minor federal charges of tax invasion and misusing money in 1995 after a long corruption investigation, he was taken down by his sexual relationship with a woman.

The woman provided federal prosecutors and the media with documents and salacious photos and tape recordings involving her and Gribetz, who is married with adult daughters.

Another prosecutor smeared by scandal was former Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro. Many like to blame Pirro's downfall on her husband. Al Pirro, who seemingly could not stay out of trouble during his wife's tenure as DA, boasted a laundry list of troublesome issues, including connections to organized crime, tax evasion, and driving while intoxicated. As if all this wasn't enough, Mr. Pirro also fathered a child with another woman while still married to Jeanine.

Pirro's husband certainly did not help her cause. However, he was not the entire problem, considering Pirro was not exactly a model citizen. I would know on a more personal level. When I was in high school, an otherwise normal day ended in tragedy after an inexplicable power outage forced school officials to close school early. As a result, a great deal of students with the means to leave campus went to various unsupervised houses to celebrate the impromptu day off from school. Several students, including some acquaintances and classmates of mine, attended a party hosted by the daughter of one of Pirro's family friends and campaign contributors. The day resulted in tragedy, as a young man was killed following a series of unfortunate events. The story contains considerable depth and detail, but that is the very basic summary of what had happened on that terrible day.

What followed, was nothing short of a cover-up, as Pirro looked to preserve her own reputation, the integrity of her child, and the image of the DA's own good friends and campaign contributors. To this day, no real severe consequences were felt by any of those people at fault, teens or adults, involved in the incident and it's subsequent actions. Shocking, considering Pirro was the acting DA in charge of the case.

Not to be outdone by Clinton, Karben, Pirro and fellow misbehaving New York political figures, former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey resigned in 2004 when his affairs with men became public. McGreevey, governor for nearly two years, was married and had two children.

His successor, former Sen. John Corzine, has fought off accusations of favoritism and payments to a lobbyist who had been his lover. He was divorced at the time.

Former Waterbury, Conn., Mayor Philip Giordano was convicted in 2003 of using an interstate device, his cell phone, to arrange sexual contact with two girls and of violating their civil rights. He is serving 37 years in prison.

This list can go on for a while, but there is only so much one can write on this subject. Mr. Spitzer is certainly not alone during his time of crisis. When this is all over, perhaps he can get in touch with any of the aforementioned politicians and get some advice on how to handle a tainted and/or destroyed career.

In the end, Spitzer's actions, along with those actions of his peers, shows that maybe the process by which we select politicians is not succeeding in choosing the most honorable, trustworthy, and law-abiding people.

Perhaps we should use comedian Lewis Black's method of selecting the next American president, something he devised in light of the current dope residing in the oval office. It goes as follows: Have the American Idol winner throw a dart at a map of the United States. Then, put a monkey on an airplane and have him parachute down on the town or city the dart landed on. The first person the monkey holds hands with upon landing will be the new president. Maybe Black is on to something.

Chris Berman Flips Out ... Hilarious

Chris Berman Loses His Cool - Watch more free videos

I actually can't believe how funny this video is ...

Desperate Times ...

So, I think the fact that Barack Obama's name sounds very much like Iraq Osama is a dead horse that's been beaten mercilessly. As is the case with his middle name, Hussein, which completes his entire name as a sort trifecta of taboo Middle East/Muslim/terrorist sounding words. It amazes me that this is still an issue being discussed. Even Jon Stewart got in on the act while hosting the Academy Awards, joking about the Presidential candidate's name. He referenced back to a fictional candidate in the 1944 election, Gaydolph Titler, who "had good ideas", but suffered because of his name. That was pretty hilarious.

Still, as I said, the joke is getting old. No doubt, though, the Clinton camp if not perpetuating this name calling, is certainly loving it. And whether this sort of smear campaign is working or not, sadly enough, there may be people out there that will not vote for Barack simply because of the sound of his name, among other things.

Clearly, the Democratic White House race has detoured into name-calling and accusations of "fear-mongering". As if the Obama name thing wasn't enough, Monday, Hillary Clinton scrambled to save her teetering campaign from annihilation by allegedly leaking a photo of Barack dressed in traditional Somali dress during a trip to Africa in 2006. The average person, when viewing this photo, makes an immediate connection to the Muslim faith, and some might draw a direct line to people like Osama bin Laden, who dresses in a similar fashion. Obama has already been dogged by false rumors that he is Muslim. If it really matters, he is actually of the Christian faith.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, Monday accused Camp Clinton of stooping to a new low in an increasingly desperate attempt to keep her campaign upright by circulating the photo.

Naturally, Hillary's people denied doing such a thing. What's next? Maybe Hillary and company will claim Obama is a member of Al-Qaeda and his campaign for president is the group's attempt to insert a terrorist into the White House. If that's the case, who will his first political appointee be, Osama bin Laden as Secretary of Defense? Somehow, I don't think the Senate will approve.

Hank Steinbrenner: Steroid Problem Worse in the NFL

Hank Steinbrenner is fed up with all the scrutiny that the MLB is under these days regarding steroids and HGH. The NFL, Hank claims, has a much higher frequency of players taking banned substances. For the New York Yankee exec, it's fairly obvious. "Look at the speed and size of those players," he told the AP.

Steinbrenner may have a point that steroid and HGH use in pro baseball is talked about and investigated far more than steroid and HGH use in pro football. People forget that one of the NFL's premier linebackers, Shawne Merriman, was suspended four games for failing a test. Rodney Harrison, the notorious New England safety sat out the first four games of this past season, and yet few, if any, remember or mentioned this minor detail during the Patriots' run at a near perfect season.

What Hank failed to mention, however, is that the NFL has had random, year-round testing since 1990, complete with numerous suspensions since that year. Steroid testing in the MLB, on the other hand, was not a major issue until 2005. Prior to that year, testing was ineffective and punishments were light, at best. In the 1990s and early 2000s, while the NFL was cleaning up its image and at least attempting to rid its sport of steroids, the MLB, its commissioner, and its owners turned away as baseball players took performance enhancing drugs. The league began to prosper, as home runs became plentiful, and MLB continued to avoid the subject. That is, until the matter began to spiral out of control.

Hank also has to come to grips with the fact that football players contain a sort of anonymity that baseball players simply do not have. Furthermore, because of their natural size, violent nature, and covered faces, NFL players are not as easily relatable to fans as baseball players, who enjoy plenty of face time during games and appear to be normal people like you and me. Naturally, when these players start to exhibit bulging biceps and growing heads, people are going to notice and begin to wonder what is going on.

So, Hank Steinbrenner has two things to realize. First, the massive problem that is steroids in MLB is partially the fault of people like his father, who turned a blind eye in the late 90s and on as revenues increased along with players hat sizes. Secondly, the immense scrutiny experienced by baseball simply comes with the territory. Seems like someone is just jealous that the NFL has become far and away the nation's most popular sport.

Congress ... Investigate Zeke and Dolan

There's a serious scandal going on in professional sports today. No, it's not Roger Clemens and the rampant steroid and HGH use occcurring in the MLB. No, it's not Spygate and the NFL's handling of the situation. The scandal is the New York Knicks and maybe Isiah Thomas and James Dolan should be summoned to Capitol Hill to testify why they are ruining a franchise with so much history in a city that was once considered the basketball town.

For one, Dolan hasn't been to a Knick's home game in weeks, a sign that maybe he really doesn't care what happens to the team. New York fans are so loyal and devoted, they still pay the ridiclous ticket prices and fill seats in MSG. So what does Dolan have to worry about?

Thomas, a horrendous GM, may very well be an even worse coach. We'll give him the recent talent he's drafted in the past several years: Lee, Robinson, Balkman, but you cannot overlook the mistakes: Jerome James (who's contract is 5yrs $30 mil by the way), Steve Francis, Jared Jeffries, and so on. You can even begin to question Eddy Curry, who lacks any type of energy or defensive presence. As a 6'11" center, the guy is averaging 4.8 RPG this season. Just to put that in perspective, Jason Kidd, a 6'4" point guard, is averaging 8.1 RPG. Let's not even talk about Curry's blocks per game.

You can question Zach Randolph all you want, but the fact is, he gives a great effort every night, though he may lack defense at times. He is a double-double machine and has a knack for scoring around the basket.

Curry, take notes.

At 15-37, I think it's safe to say the season is over for the Knicks, despite being in the Leastern Conference (only five teams have a winning record). With nothing to lose, then, Isiah should test out some of his younger players. For all we know, they may be able to make a late season run and steal the 8 seed. If not, they will gain valuable experience. So let's see a line-up that resembles this: Mardy Collins, Crawford, Wilson Chandler, David Lee, and Zach Randolph. It's small, but it has to be better than what is on the floor now. With Nate, Balkman, and Fred Jones coming off the bench and seeing decent minutes.

Or maybe Isiah and Dolan should be called into Capitol Hill to speak before some obscure congressional committee filled with politicians that don't know what they're talking about and just want to showcase their power. That'll work.