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I’m utterly speechless tonight.

VIDEO: DeWayne Wise Drops Fly Ball, Umpire Calls it a Clean Catch Anyway

Yes, this is a baseball post. It’s incompetent umpire time! The New York Yankees hosted the Cleveland Indians tonight and in the top of the 7th with two outs, a difficult fly ball heading into the stands was dropped by left fielder DeWayne Wise. An out was called by umpire Mike DiMuro. Inning over. Wait what?

That’s right. Wise clearly doesn’t catch the ball upon replay but DiMuro calls an out anyway thinking he did catch it. What this video doesn’t show you is the guy in the red shirt who not only picks up the ball right in front of security, but proudly holds it up with DiMuro soon coming towards Wise to see if he did indeed catch it. DiMuro never asked to see the ball and pretty much figured it was a catch because Wise clutched his glove into a position where he made it seem as if he had the ball in his hand.

You would think the very first thing they tell you in umpire school in these situations is to actually see the item in question. NOPE! Mr. Umpire here is convinced enough from Wise’s empty (but folded!) glove and the top of the 7th is complete. It was probably inconsequential since it was a foul ball and the Indians lost 6-4 anyway, but holy crap is that gross incompetence. DiMuro should be suspended just for making such an obvious boo-boo.

I now leave you with our red-shirted friend on the far left of this screenshot. There was no second ball, he just caught the one DiMuro believed was in Wise’s glove.

Out.

Miami Heat Up 2-1-1 in Best of 7 After Tying With Boston Celtics Last Night

There was no overtime last night in Boston. Your eyes were playing tricks on you. Portland, Maine’s WMTW has sorted everything out for you! Sports anchor Meghan Torjussen and her equally dimwitted producer deduced that like any other NBA game, an even score after four quarters of basketball means it ends in a tie!

The Heat avoid going back to Miami tied 2-2, instead they take their talents back to South Beach up 2-1-1. But wait! Game 2 also ended in overtime didn’t it? So that means this series is DEADLOCKED at 1-1-2 and if it even reaches the 2-2-3 line after game 7, they might have to go to a game 8, 9, and beyond until they find a winner!

And no, there is no defending a SPORTS ANCHOR for not having the immediate common sense to know no NBA game can end in a tie. I’m not passing that off as a Donovan McNabb-esque mistake, that entire clip reeks of not knowing the game. This is another one of several high-profile goofs by local TV stations across the country, including an LA anchor who was certain the Kings had the ball in the NHL playoffs, and a New York affiliate believing the New York Islanders are playing the Kings in the Stanley Cup Final.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the Oklahoma City Sonics are playing the San Antonio Spurs in game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Final……

Jose Canseco Thinks Al Gore is Dead For Some Reason

Former baseball great, known steroid user, and all-around wacky man Jose Canseco has built up a good history of saying crazy things. Hell, just the other day he wanted to fight Shaquille O’Neal in a mixed martial arts match! Well I think he’s topped that, and anything involving his steroids intake with this actual tweet where he declares former Vice President Al Gore dead.

Wow. I’ve read his other tweets in his profile and there appears to be no context at all for him to defend that genius statement. He went on a half-coherent rant about global warming earlier today and capped it off with the false killing of Mr. Gore. Predictably this gem has spread all over the internet and should be in the news in no time.

Other things Canseco believes include:

- Tupac was never shot.
- The Patriots won Super Bowl XLVI.
- All of the maple syrup in Canada has dried up.
- Gas prices are at an all-time low.
- Jose Canseco is a sane human being.

 

RIP Al Gore. This is an inconvenient truth indeed.

ESPN Wins Race to Make Racist Jeremy Lin Headline

Caught up in all of the hoopla over New York Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin was the race (heh heh. Get it?) to see which major news website would make some stupid headline based on Lin’s Asian background. If you had ESPN in your office pool, you won.

Late last night ESPN’s wisecracking writers needed to find a way to sum up Lin’s nine turnovers in the Knicks’ 89-85 loss to the awful New Orleans Hornets. Well sure enough they picked the worst possible racial slur to use.

I’m sorry, but this is intentional. The whole mystique of Jeremy Lin being good at basketball and Asian seems to be throwing these journalists off. Just the fact that this headline didn’t go through any checks and balances and was actually published should result in a firing. “Chink in the Armor” is a fairly common phrase, but the slur “Chink” is one of the worst racial slurs for people of Chinese descent. The headline couldn’t have possibly been a remark about a potential flaw in Lin’s game. It reeks of pure ignorance and insensitivity if you ask me.

ESPN apologized for this “gaffe” and removed the title earlier this morning, but it’s a fairly empty apology when you think about it.

If it’s not Jason Whitlock making “Asian men have tiny penises” joke, it’s ESPN trying to write a clever headline and turning it into a racist statement. This is the kind of thing that comes when a player of a certain race/ethnic background comes into a sport where their race/ethnicity does not traditionally perform well, and then proceeds to play impressively. Tiger Woods being a golfing star in a predominantly white sport to this day still brings out racist remarks from people like his ex-caddie Steve Williams. And golf is probably the most exclusionary sport on the planet. Black hockey player Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers had a banana thrown his way in a preseason hockey game in Ontario last October in the middle of a penalty shootout. Lin is an Asian-American playing guard –as opposed to many other Asian basketball players who have played center — in a sport now dominated by black players, and is performing beyond anyone’s expectations for an undrafted player out of Harvard. It seems to be stupefying to people because they have a preset stereotype that Asians aren’t good at basketball.

It’s not a shock that this kind of issue is now being discussed because chances are most Americans seem to skirt around talking about the racial issues we still have today. No, it didn’t go away just because we elected Barack Obama as President. This is still an ongoing problem and needs to be addressed as such. And it applies to every race from black to white to Asian to purple people eaters.

The media needs to lay off of Jeremy Lin for just one second. They act so childishly and that’s exactly why you can’t even blur the line from what bloggers write compared to credentialed, supposedly qualified journalists. Drop these dumbass “Linsanity” puns and actually write something interesting about him for once. Let his impressive play in a revived career speak for itself instead of trying to force-feed lame jokes and cheap puns and pass it off as reporting.

Between Tebowmania and Linsanity I think it’s evident to me that American mainstream media is just too incompetent to actually report. These last few months are exactly why the average person looks towards blogs and other outlets for their news and sports information. The media is not good at their job and they’ve shown zero signs of improvement.

GIF OF THE DAY: Luis Suarez Refuses to Shake Patrice Evra’s Hand

 

Stay classy, Luis. First it was the racial slur used against Evra and now a refusal to do the pre-match handshake all because you were banned for umpteen matches by the FA. Tired of his antics. At least Manchester United got a crucial 2-1 win against Liverpool, so I guess the best revenge is a victory in my book. If you notice, after Suarez skips over Evra, Rio Ferdinand withdraws his handshake after Suarez’s clear showing of disrespect. What happened to the respect and honor campaign? Went up in flames today.

Enough of Suarez. And enough of Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish pretending that he didn’t notice this incident and that the ban for Suarez earlier was not justified. I hope you enjoy another season of no European football, Liverpudlians. We’ll be too busy counting up the number of Premier League titles we have over you after May is finished.