Retro Opening Day Tweets: Let's Go Mets, Orioles, Nationals and Reds...

Yes, these tweets from a week ago were meant to be posted by April 2nd, oh well!

1) Anthony Orisses: "Happy Opening Day! A day for hope and optimism and a changing in the season. Let's Go Mets!" (Image at the top is of Mr. and Mrs. Met)

2) Baltimore City Paper: "Two hours to game time...get psyched for some Orioles Magic! O-R-I-O-L-E-S.......!"

3) Joe Sheehan: "Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball!!! Baseball! Baseball! Baseball!! Baseball!!!"

4) CMich Crushes: "If you're reappin' the Detroit Tigers then you're my crush."

5) Brian Murphy: "I like America. And, by that, I mean I like hamburgers, Bruce Springsteen and baseball. Happy Opening Day, everyone...!)

6) Cincinnati Reds: "There's no party like a Reds Opening Day Party!" (the bottom image is of Reds' great Dave Concepcion, now age 65)

7) New York Mets: "HOME RUN! Andrew Brown crushes a 3-run HR! 3-0 Mets!" (the Mets were playing the Washington Nationals. The middle image Capitol Hill is located in Philadelphia.....just seeing if you were paying attention! Of course, it's in Washington, DC!)

8) Washington Nationals: "Andrew Brown sends a 2-2 pitch from Stephen Strasburg into the left field center seats and the Mets take a 3-0 lead.

9) Keith Olbermann: Man down. Bryce Harper kicked in the head. (Harpers plays for the Nats).

http://www.baseballamerica.com/

http://espn.go.com/mlb/

http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb

http://cincinnatizoo.org/

http://citypaper.com/

http://thehill.com/

Before We Take a Week Off: Top 10 Embarrasing Ways to Die

Greetings to our friends in the Netherlands, Turkey and Mexico.

We went back and forth on this, but we decided it would provide relief from a subject matter that makes sitting through episodes of "Six Feet Under" difficult to sit through. Speaking of which if actor Michael C. Hall has time on his hands and visits this blog, we just have to ask: "What the expletive are you gonna do after 'Dexter'"? Hopefully, those of you in Utrecht, Gaziantep and Puebla got the joke (those are cities in Holland, Turkey and Mexico).

Here we go with the Top 10 Most Embarrassing Ways to Die:

1. Drowning while fishing in the New River in West Virginia.

2. Choking on a Pay Day candy bar.

3. Trying to take a photo of Gustave the man-eating crocodile while vacationing in Burundi (We heard about him through "Mental Floss" magazine)

4. Tripping into an on-coming DC Metro subway train (a DC-Metro map is our middle image)

5. Getting hit in the head by a foul ball at a Detroit Tigers baseball game.

6. Getting hit by an on-coming car after shopping at K-Mart.

7. Smoke inhalation from smoking Camels in bed.

8. Getting struck by lightning while trying to fix satellite tv.

9. Getting run over by your very own car or truck (Alas, this did actually happen to a mail carrier in Charlotte, NC)

10. Slipping on a banana peel

http://www.wvtourism.com

http://www.vistwv.com

http://www.wmata.com (DC Metro web site)

http://www.goturkey.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

For a link on our sister blog about 10 more embarrassing ways to die:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Gerald Ford

Today, we continue quoting the last eight American presidents with a quip from Gerald Ford (1913-2006) who was the 38th president and the one who lived in the longest. At the present time, the oldest living American president is George H.W. Bush with a Jimmy Carter (both born in 1924), who defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election, being a close second.

There has been quite a political shift in the South since Carter, who was from Plains, Georgia, won over Ford, who was from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his presidential library is located. In 1976, Carter won ever southern state except Virginia. All southern states had voted for George W. Bush in his two narrow elections, but in 2008, both Virginia and North Carolina voted for President Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain.

In pop culture, Ford was frequently parodied by "Saturday Night Live" actor Chevy Chase, who ironically became addicted to pain killers because of the prat falls he made while impersonating Ford.

Here is Ford's quote:

"I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio." http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.org

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention last week that the answer to our April 17th edition of "The Rabbit Ear Quiz" was A) Robert Vaughn; he hosted the initial pilot episode of "In Search of...." which was hosted by Leonard Nimoy for the rest of the documentary tv show's run.

Special Quote of the Week- Muhammad Ali

For Black History Month, we are going to be quipping famous African-American athletes, both past and present, on Tuesdays.

We will start off with a quote from the great boxing legend Muhammad Ali. I recall as a child in 1978, during the years we were living in Turkey, that I got up at 5:30 a.m. to see Ali fight Leon Spinks on the TRT (Turkish Radio and Television).

Initially, we had contemplated a quote from another boxer Mike Tyson, who made a hilarious cameo in the film "The Hangover." But, Tyson's somewhat infamous image made us go with Ali instead.

Interestingly enough, I came across a 1981 Topps baseball card I have from a Mike Tyson, who was a white guy originally from Rocky Mount, NC, who played second base for the Chicago Cubs back in the day. That Tyson turns 61 on Jan. 13.

I must profess that there is a politically perverse side of me which would love to see the Chicago Cubs, the favorite team of conservative pundit George F. Will (my favorite team too though I am to the left of the columnist), play the Detroit Tigers in a World Series on the off-chance that it might lead to Will running into the very liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, who is from Flint, Mich.

On his web site, Moore is wearing a cheesehead so we can confirm that he is rooting for the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl (for those in Uzbekistan, they are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers) as am I, even though I am not quite as to the left as Moore is. He is also promoting the fact that a Wikileaked document revealed George W. Bush's feelings about his films (apparently, there was no White House screening of "Bowling for Columbine").

We have no idea who Will is rooting for in the Super Bowl, but it would be ironic if it were the Packers.

Oh, before we forget (and we did this on a Salvador Dali quote), here is the quip from Ali:

"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and I was in bed before the room was dark."

Paid Political Commentary (Regarding Detroit Tigers Pitcher)

For the very first time ever on this blog, someone has asked me to post an entry about a matter which concerns them!

This does not really pertain to be a political issue, but my friend Renaldo Hernandez (pse) of Richmond, Va. (not really where he is from) wanted me to complement Detroit Tigers' pitcher Armando Galarraga (pictured here).

The Tigers pitcher apparently came very close to throwing a perfect game last night, but a bothced call by the umpire in which a player for the opposing Cleveland Indians was called 'safe at first' blew the perfect game opportunity for Galarraga.

'Hernandez' said that Galarrage exemplified classiness as he merely said that while he thought the Indians play was out that umpires make mistakes.

Apparently, the umpire looked at a video replay of the incident and he realized that he did in fact make a mistake. He called Galarraga to apologize and the Tigers pitcher was gracious in his response.

Hernandez also feels that this is a postive story which shows that athletes can display good sportsmanship, and that not all of them are spoiled rich guys on ego trips.

Hmmm....I wonder if he was refering to Tiger Woods?!

On Twitter, the RedSoxFanClub also praised the pitcher's grace even though the Boston Red Sox are rivals with the Tigers.

Now for a weather reporter in the greater Richmond-Petersburg area we turn to our meteorologist Matt Denardo.*

*-This is an actual weather reporter for a TV station in Richmond. Apparently, there is a Youtube video of him cursing on camera!