Friday, July 25, 2008

The boys of summer need to grow up

In a minor league brawl, pitcher Julio Castillo threw a ball - as hard as he could - towards the opposing teams dug out. It ended up missing that dugout, went into the stands, and hit an onlooker.

Castillo was arrested and is going to be charged with felonious assault.

Meanwhile, if you watch the video...it was a heckuva lot worse than the WNBA brawl, every player was involved in it - as happens whenever there is a benches clearing brawl in baseball... so much testosterone going on you could cut a knife with it.

And of course, if any player does NOT get involved in that brawl, he'd be branded a coward and would definitely never play again. But those who do get into the brawls, even if they hurt someone else, are probably heroes and their jobs are safe...


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The Proof is in the Video?

It has long been known - by those of us who watch cop shows - that eyewitnesses are notoriously unreliable. Everyone sees something different, and when they tell their stories they forget things, add things (in all honesty) etc. etc.

But you'd think that when video of an incident exists, it would be easy to tell exactly what happened.

Well, yesterday, I posted the video of the WNBA scuffle between Candace Parker and Plenette Pierson.

And its funny, but the different fan bases (the Tennessee Lady Vols, who love Candace Parker, and the UConn Huskies, who dislike her ) each of whom are seeing the same video, each have diametrically opposed opinions of what happened.

The Lady Vol fans think Candace Parker was the victim all the way. Plenette Pierson threw her to the ground, then got up and started to walk across her as if she intended violence (which ensued when Candace tried to get up even though Plenette was halfway across her.)

The UConn fans claim that Candace threw Pierson to the ground, and that when Pierson was walking over her Candace deliberately brought her to the ground again.

As for myself... In the initial incident, Pierson goes to box out Parker and hits her hard with a hip. PArker seems to react by putting her arms on Pierson and pulling her down - which seems to be why Pierson jumps up so angrily and heads for Parker.

But when it comes to Pierson deliberately trying to walk over Parker...I can't blame Parker for trying to get up to be in a position to defend herself should Pierson start swinging or kicking...or just not want the ignominy of allowing herself to be stepped over. Bad for street cred, I suppose.

This is reminiscent of the many basketball games those two fan bases have argued about in the past. Invariably, invariably, the Lady Vols fans say that their team is being shorted on the personal fouls, and equally invariably, the Husky fans say theirs are. And yet their each watchign the same game from the same feed....

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Candace Parker and Plenette Pierson in scufffle

In the last few seconds of the Los Angeles Sparks/Detroit Shock game, a scuffle broke out. Plenette Pierson, a violent player who has been in trouble before, either tried to run over or was pulled down by Candace Parker. (It is really impossible to see which way it was). Pierson, however, went off the deep end and went after Parker - causing one of her own players to be injured in the process.


From Youtube


http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?categoryId=2378529&brand=null&videoId=3501154&n8pe6c=2