The Ugly American
Sounds like a little good news and a little bad news...
I read this morning that Joe Girardi has been offered the managers job for my Yankees. This isn't really a bad thing...Joe comes from the right blood line...he played for the Yankees a few years ago and he was recently named manager of the year for the job he did down in Florida. So, I guess we can call this good news.
I also heard yesterday that the slug known as A-rod has opted out of his contract. What a shame! He may just be one of the greatest regular season hitters in history...but if we give him that title then he also has to hold the title of greatest playoff choke artist of all time.
I did that special olympic thing early during the baseball season...you know...arguing on line...I told some A-rod fan that I'd take Mike Lowell, the 3rd baseman for the RedSox over A-rod any day...now, just look at where A-rod finished the season and remind me...who was the World Series MVP???
I heard somebody on ESPN say he thought Alex would end up in Detroit. Good luck Tiger fans. A-rod might even get you to the playoffs. Just tell your manager to bench him in October 'cause he SUCKS after the regular season!
So...that's the good news...what's the bad news? I heard this morning that Joe Torre may be headed to LA to manage the Dodgers...that's good for Joe. I'm happy for him...but I also heard he's taking Donnie Baseball with him! That kinda makes it official that my choice for the next Yankee manager was completely ignored! Who do these people think they are anyway???
Maybe it's good news in disguise. The more time Donnie spends with Joe the better he'll learn all the nuances that made Joe Torre the greatest Yankee manager ever! And when Joe Girardi pisses off the Steinbrenners enough, then they can bring back Donnie to show everyone what Joe Torre taught him!
Seeya Joe...thanks for the memories...
George finally did it. It took a lot longer than it did for Billy Martin, Or Buck Showalter...or any of the other Yankee managers that have been around in my lifetime.
The problem is, it's uncalled for...Joe Torre has taken the Yankees to the playoffs every year that he's managed them. Twelve years in a row the Yankees have been in the post season. Half of those years the Yankees went all the way to the World Series and they won two thirds of those.
It amazes me...players can do things right thirty percent of the time and they're considered great. Think about it...a baseball player with a .300 batting average is a pretty good hitter. A manager with the same winning percentage would be canned in a heart beat.
A manager leads his team to an over .600 average for twelve years and he gets canned. In 1998, Joe led the Yankees to a 114 win season. 1173 wins over twelve seasons. Do the math, that's almost a 100 win season average! And he's gone...
I guess George and his sons, Hank and Hal, can try to tell everyone...we didn't fire him. They did make him an offer. An offer I wouldn't have refused, but when you compare it to what he makes now and then stand it up against what he's done for the franchise, it really was a shit offer. I thought you only had to take a pay cut if you weren't performing...
Who is this A-hole Randy Levine anyway? It's my understanding that he has a problem with Torre for some reason. Some people just hate a winner I guess. He's supposed to be the president of baseball operations...to me, he's just an ass.
As a Yankee fan, I guess the only thing I can really hope for is that they give the job to Donnie Baseball and he gets that ring he should have had a long time ago...I've always been a big Mattingly fan...since his days at first base.
According to the Yankees web site, Don Mattingly has the highest career fielding percentage of ANY first baseman in American League history! A .9958 fielding percentage! That's a better percentage than the purity of Ivory Soap! When he was the batting coach for the Yankees a year ago, they led the majors in just about everything for batting...
I have faith in the Yankees...they'll be back on top in no time. It's a shame really...Steinbrenner bought that team for a relative song back in the day and now they're almost priceless. I've read that the Yankees and the YES network together are worth over $2 billion. How many of us long for the good old days, when they weren't priceless and they played on WPIX???
The Problems with Airline Travel Flight Delays...
These days it seems like every trip to the airport will have some unexpected situation that has to be dealt with in order to maintain some sanity. Flight delays, lost luggage, misplaced or lost reservations, and even accidents on the way to the airport can cause heartburn to a weary traveler. What causes these problems, and is there anything that the traveler can do to avoid them?
The biggest and probably most common problem is the flight delay. A few different things can cause flight delays. Bad weather here, bad weather there, bad weather yesterday, bad weather tomorrow, or even bad weather in between here and there can be the cause of an airline weather delay. At the airport in Philadelphia, panic arises when someone mentions bad weather. This seems to be some major airlines’ number one excuse for flight delays and cancellations. It’s also a reason for delay that requires no compensation to the passenger. One wonders how often it really is bad weather. There’s really no way to avoid these types of delays. One shouldn’t fool with Mother Nature.
Another reason for flight delays is a maintenance issue with the plane. The airlines are required to compensate passengers for these types of delays. Compensation can be a meal or a nights’ stay at a local hotel, depending on the situation. For a flat out cancellation that requires an overnight stay, the traveler will be given a hotel voucher. They’re usually at a local airport and they’re usually nice; for example, I’ve never been put up at a local Motel 6 by any airline. These types of delays are less frequent than weather delays, but they still happen regularly.
Recently, I ran into another reason for flight delays: missing crewmembers. Apparently, planes can’t fly without flight attendants on board, and some of them don’t know how to read a schedule. This can be very frustrating. Passengers sitting around wondering if the airline only has the exact number of flight attendants required for every plane flying that day; or if there might be an extra flight attendant lying around that could be propped up inside the plane for moral support or whatever it is that flight attendants do besides show passengers how to put on a seat belt.
This happened to me the last time I flew out of Norfolk International Airport. The planes lone flight attendant was missing. We could hear the calls for her over the gate attendants’ radio. It was obvious they were trying to do something about it, but nothing was happening. After we were already thirty minutes late, she finally showed up. She was a much older woman and very small. So small, she almost seemed frail. I had to wonder what kind of assistance I would receive from this tiny woman in the event of a real emergency. Could she even open the oversized emergency exit row door? Luckily, I didn’t have to find out.
Then there’s the excuse that there are just too many planes in the air today. Like a highway full of rush hour traffic at eight in the morning, airports get to full of planes. There are only so many gates for so many planes. It always strikes me funny when my plane lands, on time, and the gate the airline said was the gate for my plane isn’t available. I guess they just weren’t expecting us. This might be acceptable if you’re flying “Fly-by-night Airlines”, but when you’re flying a major carrier in to one of their hubs, I can find no excuse for it.
Flight delays can be a big problem or a small problem. If you’re heading to Charlotte, Philadelphia, or some other place that’s a major airline hub then it’s not that big a problem. If you have to make a connection to get to your final destination, a flight delay can ruin all your travel plans. Airlines typically set up connecting flights with around an hour in between flights. This makes catching the next plane easy. If the first flight is delayed for whatever reason, it may be impossible to catch your connection. Then trying to reschedule can be almost impossible.
The airlines are holding travelers hostage and there really is nothing that can be done about it. Congress has attempted to pass legislation in the past to hold the airlines responsible for their obvious mistreatment of passengers, but for some reason, there just aren’t enough congressmen that feel this is necessary. There isn’t much that a traveler can do to avoid flight delays, but one suggestion I would make to any airline traveler is that if you do end up involved in a delay and have the need to reschedule a flight, be nice to the people at the counter.
But I really like this one!!!
MySpace Layouts &
MySpace Graphics
MySpace Layouts &
MySpace GraphicsI was wondering if myspace stuff would work on my blog...so...since the Giants did such a good job laast night, I figured I'd put this up...
Charlotte in the fall...
I went to the Nascar race this weekend. As usual, there's plenty to see at a NASCAR eent.
The Goodyear blimp is almost always there...
There was a nice tribute to the late Dale Earnhardt...
A few of the fans that are fun to look at...
But I guess the closer it gets to Halloween, the more bizarre people get! I bet he got cold later on!
And I just have one question....
WHO CALLED THE PLUMBER???
The Goodyear blimp is almost always there...
There was a nice tribute to the late Dale Earnhardt...
A few of the fans that are fun to look at...
But I guess the closer it gets to Halloween, the more bizarre people get! I bet he got cold later on!
