Last year my family and I went to Rangers home series right before the All Star break.  I remember asking my son, who was almost four at the time, who his favorite Rangers were (his favorite player is Roberto Clemente).  He told me Mark Teixeira, Kenny Loftin, and Eric Gagne.  Last year was the first season that my son was really old enough to have favorite players.  Before that every time a player with a darker skin was up he thought it was Soriano and all the white players were Hank Blalock.  Needless to say, last year was a tough trading deadline for him.  It was not easy telling him his guys were traded away.  I remember how I felt being 12 and the Rangers trading away ruben Sierra, but at least he was my favorite Ranger and as a kid I was excited about Jose Conseco coming to Texas.  This year if you ask him who his favorite player is, he would quickly tell you, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  He says it quite well, I must admit.  As you know, it is looking like Salts days may be numbered.

I know there are some other dads here with kids of all ages.  Have any of you experienced anything like this?  How have yall explained it to your kids?

By the way, I am hoping he doesn't start rooting too hard for Ian Kinsler or Josh Hamilton.  I may have to make up some stuff about them, like they kick dogs and they hate Star Wars.

If you are looking for a Father Son activity this video may give you some inspiration. Get your tissues ready, unless you are a stone.

You could probably figure it out from the video, but the event is the Ironman race; three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island.

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I realize the majority of the Lone Star Ballers have written off ESPN and don't subject themselves to the over-the-top factually deprived broadcasting that is ESPN, but I did so this morning.  I don't often sit down and watch Sportcenter all the way through anymore, but I was bored this morning and wanted to hear some of the All Star talk.  It didn't take long before I thought my head was going to explode.

(-1) Maybe some of you caught this.  This may seem minor, but it is evidence of the general over looking of the Texas Rangers.  In their discussion of the All Star lineups they say Josh Hamilton's name, call it a great story, and say his homerun total and RBI total.  Then the finish the listing the starters.  After this they show us the names of the four Red Sox starters and then the two Yankee starters.  After all of this East Coast-love, they put up the list of AL reserves.  The Talking East Coast Head says, "AL reserves, a heavy dose of AL Central.  Of the eleven players, seven of them hale from the Central.  The only AL West player, Milton Bradley,  at DH and he his likely to start in place of the injured (pause for drama) 'Big Papi'."  THE LIST IS ON THE SCREEN!!!  I was able to read all the names and see that Ian Kinsler and Michael Young are on it.  I am guessing he wasn't sure who they were or who they played for and just assumed they were AL East guys.  Since they are All Stars and his researcher didn't include them in the list of AL Central players they must play for the East and since he didn't recognize them them they must play for Toronto or Baltimore.  Just to rub some salt in the wound, when "revealing" the NL Reserves he mentions Cristian Guzman's NL leading 118 hits.  Hmm, "NL leading"?  That means someone in the AL must have more, right?  I wonder that is?  If ESPN wants to know who that guy is, all they need to do is look at the top of the list for batting average or at the top of the list for runs scored.  I will stop before my blood pressure gets too high.

(-21)  In their "Quest for Title Town USA" they featured the city of Pittsburgh.  In their video montage of the Pittsburgh's championship history, there is no mention of Roberto Clemente.  He was responsible for two of their titles, MVP of one series, had a base hit in every single playoff game he played in and is a legendary figure in baseball as a whole.  He was 10 times the player the mentioned Stargell was and he was 1000 times the player the mentioned Mazeroski was.

Ok, I stole that title from The New York Post, but it was just too perfect.  I am not intending to make any political statements about this I just had to point out some things from the video.  I leave the "What if George W. Bush did this rants to Sharky."
Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpEckWHSvXk

I think we could we could all learn a few things from this video.
First off, if you find yourself fighting heavy eyelids it is not a good idea to lean on an elbow.  Game over at that point.

Then there are the ever so near flawlessly executed cover-up maneuvers Slick Willy utilizes.  

1. The first one is easy to miss.  He is leaning on two fingers and when the grip slips and his head dips he very seamlessly moves his hand back as if he is cupping his ear to hear what the speaker is saying.  Problem, Bill you are sitting 5 feet directly behind a rather loud speaker, who is speaking into a microphone.  Think; location, location, location when incorporating this move.
   
2. Then he initiates a two perfect "falling asleep head nod into a nod in agreements".  The second is better than the first.  His head tips forward and instead of jerking back up he effortlessly brings it up and then right into bobbing his head in agreement.

All this being said, Bill makes a fatal error just before the video ends.  He just cannot resist checking his watch.  I am not aware of any move that this can be done without it looking like you are checking your watch.  Sure, you could do it and not be seen (unless you are sitting directly behind the speaker), but if it is seen it is what it is.

I just wanted to write a word of encouragement to all the "bloggers" that have recently attacked by some of the paid "journalists".  One such attack was a comparison of todays bloggers to the pamphleteers of colonial America.  As a teacher and fan of American history I have to point out that this is not such a bad thing to be.  I don't know much about colonial pamphleteers, but I do know that one of those referenced colonial bloggers wrote a pamphlet call "Common Sense".  His name was Thomas Payne.  Kind of an important pamphlet.  I wonder how long he stood on the street corner trying to get anyone to read it.  To learn more about Thomas Payne you could go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine.  Since, wiki can be a bit unreliable you may want to visit Philadelphia.  This is where Thomas Payne was living when he wrote "Common Sense".  I assume that if you lived and worked in Philadelphia, you already knew this.

Great work Adam.  Keep the chin up, we could use a revolution of sports media.  You just may be the pamphleteer to do it.

I realize you closed comments on a related topic, but I had to mention this.  I don't know if this has already been said.  I am sure the people who got to read the comments of the other thread will let me know if it has.

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/26432
Those who fail to know history are destined to repeat it.

I wonder if the Yankees realize they just rehired Buck Showalter.  Maybe they have a four year plan.  3 years of Joe Girardi, fire him, hire a relatively unsuccessful veteran manager and then win 4 straight World Series.

For those of you that want to discuss something other than trades.  There is another commercial that is bugging.  I hate misinformation.  Factually incorrect advertisement is ruining America (this may be hyperbole).  The commercial that is ruining America is the Capital One commercial that has the lady with a chimpanzee on her back.  Why does she have a chimpanzee on her back?  Well, I would guess Capital One would like you to think that she has a monkey on her back.  IF she had a monkey are her back the commercial would make sense and be kind of funny, but she has an ape on her back.  It makes zero sense except for the fact that people are mislead to believe she has a monkey and they think it makes sense.  Teaching is hard enough, I don't need Capital One working against me.

Monkeys have tales and climb trees.
Apes have no tales and live on the ground.

BTW - Curious George has no tale so is most likely a "curious little" ape.  He does climb trees so he is really neither.  It is a cartoon/book so I will overlook this.

I just thought I would go ahead and get this up.  I figured now that he is traded we can all start kicking ourselves in the crotch every time Tex hits a home run, hits a double, hits a sac fly, etc.  It is not like we are going to be happy with the trade.  I would bet money that Jared does not even put a ball in play today. :)

makes a stop at the Angus Glen Course in Ontario.  Can you believe they would play a tournament at the Angus?  I mean who would name their golf course after that part of the cow?  What has come of this world where that is appropriate?  I bet the Angus growers of Canada have the golf course in their back pocket.  Write you local Jack in the Box and tell them you want to see them buying their own golf course.  I want to see a Sirloin Golf Course and PGA better be willing to take the tour there.

I realize this is a total waste of a diary, but is there really anything new to say about possible trades and or our feelings for JD?  Feel free to put me in the penalty box.

And yes, for those that are not aware of my awareness of what Angus really is and that the name of the course is someone's name, I am aware. (that may be a run on sentence)

I wonder if this will get the coverage baseball and Chris Benoit have received or if it will be brushed over and forgotten like Shaun Merrimen.

"Gary Player put steroids at the forefront of the British Open on Wednesday, saying golf has its head buried in a bunker if it thinks the sport is clean and he knows of one player using performance-enhancing drugs."

Gary Player said, "Whether it's HGH, whether it's Creatine or whether it's steroids, I know for a fact that some golfers are doing it."

He also said, "I took an oath prior to him telling me -- I won't tell you where -- but he told me what he did, and I could see this massive change in him, and somebody else told me something, that I also promised I wouldn't tell, that verified others had done it."

Of course all the other big names at the British Open are saying they no of no one using anything illegal.  Gary Player is not Jose Canseco.  This guy is very well respected and does not have a history of running his mouth.  There is no reason for him to make this up and there is no reason for people not to believe him.

The USGA or PGA have no rules against performance enhancers that I know of, and I am fully aware of some of our board that feel that there is nothing wrong with it if it is not against rules.  That is fine, I understand that, but there should be rules against it.
Sorry, I don't know how to do box quotes.