Little Aziz Ansari?

Sorry that I haven't posting anything lately (I'm incredibly lazy), but I saw this photo and needed to share it with the world. This is apparently Aditya Dev, the worlds smallest bodybuilder, who is 2'9 and weighs 20 pounds.

Now this is Aziz Ansari of Parks & Recreation fame. Is this the same person, why don't you decide for yourself.

How the History Channel Lost Its Way

Turn on the TV right now. Close the computer, stop whatever you are doing and go to the History Channel (if you don't have the History Channel then just keep reading). Chances are if you did happen to turn on the History Channel than you are watching Swamp People or Monster Quest. Maybe if you are really lucky Ancient Aliens will be on. In fact here is a schedule of the History Channel's fine programming, one that is filled with intellectually stimulating shows such as Axe-Men or Full Metal Jousting. These days it seems that the History Channel isn't so much history as it is reality T.V and shows built upon pure speculation. Last time I checked Ancient Aliens wasn't history, mainly because none of it is real. As the clip explains ancient aliens actually came to Earth to mine gold and according to ancient Inca legend they saw the sky gods appear. Maybe I need to read a dictionary, but since when does legend mean a real occurrence? I was under the assumption that a legend, despite often being perceived as truth, actually wasn't true. The truth is no one can really know for sure whether or not aliens visited humankind in the past until we have some sort of contact with them. Until that day comes programs like Ancient Aliens have no business being on a channel that is supposedly dedicated to history, for the simple reason that it isn't history. This is also why Top Shot, Top Gear (This is coming from a gear head, someone who has seen every episode of the British version Top Gear and who actually enjoys the American version), Monster Quest, Axe Men and Swamp People don't belong on the History Channel.

It is hard to blame the History Channel for their new programming, after all they are a television channel and they need to generate some sort of revenue. To peak interest a show needs to have sort of drama, humans thrive off of drama. No matter what anyone tells you people love drama, as a species we are obsessed with it. This is the reason why reality TV is so popular, it shows drama happening in "real life". The problem with history is that there is no drama in it, mainly because it already happened. There is no suspense in a program detailing how the Constitution was formed because we, the viewer, already knows (hopefully) what happened. So the History Channel changed its programming and instead, cleverly I might add, focused on attracting a large amount of viewers. This means less specials and documentaries about historical events and more of this. This is not because the people at the History Channel have stopped caring about history, but it is a reaction to the changing culture that we live in. The cold, hard truth is that people just don't care that much about history.

There have been numerous studies about Americans apparent apathy for their own history. A New York Times piece last year pointed out some rather alarming statistics. Overall only 20% of fourth graders, 17% of eight graders and 12% were deemed proficient at history. In fact 38% of Americans last year wouldn't be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test. That means almost 4 out of 10 people wouldn't be able to become a citizen in their very own country. All one needs to pass the test is a 60%, that wouldn't even count for a passing grade anywhere else. When 38% of Americans cannot identify the basic workings of our government then this country is in serious trouble. As a nation it should be our duty to educate voters and especially children on how the government actually works (it may not work well, but it does work). Instead this country is producing more and more ignorant Americans each year, which leads to more ignorant voters, which in turn leads to this.

History is so important because it gives us a a detailed account of why our world is the way it is. One cannot fully understand relations between countries, classes or parties without knowing the story behind it all. This makes the History Channel so crucial to our society. Most kids are more apt to sit down and watch a TV show than they are to read a book, so when a channel which is supposed to be about history instead shows crappy reality TV then there is a problem. Kids today, hell every person in this country needs to become better informed about not only our country, but also the world. We need more documentaries, more specials that can help explain the world that we all share. Now in no way shape or form am I suggesting that the History Channel is responsible for our ignorance, its not, but I am saying that they should hold themselves to a higher standard. Now higher standards usually mean less profit, I understand this, but for once I would love to see anyone do the right thing. The world really needs someone to place the greater good over the greater rate of profit. So I beg the History Channel to leave the ratings chasing for the the other stations and instead give the people what they need, an idea of how and why we ended up here.

Why Managers Matter

Baseball, more than any other sport, can be won or lost by the manager. Sure football and basketball coaches make bad decisions, but baseball when boiled down is a game of individual match ups. Baseball is a chess match, managers use pitchers when they have a significant advantage over a particular hitter. This is why there are lefty specialists, their jobs are to get out a lefty hitter and that's it. Much like a goal line back in football or a 3 point specialist in basketball, left specialists should only be used in small durations when the flow of the game demands it. Tonight in the Yankees loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, made a surprising decision in the bottom of the 7th inning that cost his team two runs.

In a 6-2 game Girardi left in lefty specialist Clay Rapada in to face Evan Longoria after Rapada walked Carlos Pena. Longoria ended up hitting a ground rule double (a fan reached over the fence and snagged the ball thus reversing what was called a home run) to move Pena to third. Girardi left in Rapada to face Matt Joyce who promptly singled to left field driving in both runners and putting the game effectively out of reach. 

Now why would Girardi leave in Rapada, especially when Cory Wade was already warmed up? As noted earlier Rapada is a lefty specialist and rarely faces right handed pitching. Rapada has only faced a total of 95 right handed hitters all time and has just absolutely horrid numbers against right handed batters. For his career right handed hitters bat .359 against with 6 home runs, three times as many as left handed batters have against him. He issues 8.5 walks per 9 innings and has a 8.4 strike out percentage. In fact he didn't strike out a single right handed batter last year. With these less than impressive numbers one would think a number savvy manager like Girardi would know better, but instead he left him in against one of the best hitters in the game with very good numbers against lefty pitching. Last season Longoria had a wOBA of .392 against lefty pitching, compared to a .356 wOBA against right handed pitching. Even during an off year like Longoria had last year he still managed to hit 10 home runs against lefty's and had a .310 isolated power. He has a career .549 slugging percentage against left pitching and a .942 OPS. In a game all about match ups Girardi left in a pitcher who cant get out right handed batters in against a batter who kills lefty's, this decision may have very well cost the Yankees the game. 

Now World Series aren't won or lost in April, but it is troubling to see a manager not utilize his advantages when the time comes. Tonight's game was won at the managerial level, especially on the Rays side. Joe Maddon proved once again why he is the best manager in the game. Time and time again the Rays shift picked up huge outs on what would usually be hits. The shift saved a couple runs in the 8th and got the last out in the 9th. This game was an excellent example of how much of an impact a manager actually has on the game. 

Down Memory Lane on Opening Day

Its April and that can only mean one thing, baseball is back. After a long winter America's pastime has returned, with it bringing hopes and memories back to millions of fans across the country. Baseball is able to give us a nostalgia that beckons a fan back to the days of Little League or playing catch in the backyard. I have always felt a special bond with baseball, it was the first sport that I was able to understand and my first love. Like most children my love of baseball stemmed from my father and the games we played next to our house. With baseball's Opening Day I am immediately taken back to those memories and my single favorite baseball moment.

My favorite memory in baseball isn't any particular Yankee win (although there has been some amazing ones) or any game in high school, instead my favorite baseball moments happened in the front lawn. The first memory happened at my fathers house when I was 8 years old. At that time my parents had been divorced for almost 3 years and subsequently I didn't see my father all that much. Whenever I did see him our interactions almost centered entirely around sports, especially baseball. As a young boy, like most other boys, I idolized my father, everything he liked I liked. This was doubly true about sports. I like the New York Giants because of my father, I liked Syracuse basketball because of my father and most importantly I liked the Yankees because of my father. I remember memorizing the line up and pitching rotation and then demanding a quiz from my dad to show him how much I knew about the Yankees. Whenever we played a game I would always try to emulate the different batting stances of Yankee players. We played in a lot next to his house owned by our elderly neighbor, there we would play games with just the two of us. Any ball hit on the ground by the pitcher was a single, a ball hit in the air 100 feet was a double, 150 feet was a triple. About 200 plus feet away was a parking lot of a nursing home, any ball hit in the air into the parking lot was a home run. Now being an eight year old I never even got close to a home run, in fact I was lucky if I hit a single. All of the games where close, mainly because my dad didn't want to discourage me from playing. He wouldn't throw hard, he mostly threw change ups, but he did have a particularly nasty knuckle ball that was impossible to hit. I was lucky if i could manage to foul off that pitch most of the time I would swing widely at it, hoping to make contact. 

This brings us to that memorable day. The year was 1998, the Yankees were in the middle of a historic season and Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa slugging it out for the home run crown (with a little bit of help). It was the dog days of August, just weeks before school started up and baseball games would be replaced by soccer practices. My dad and I set up the diamond like usual, setting up the backstop and placing the bases, just in case anyone hit a home run. We played with ghost runners, but the rule was if you hit a home run then you had to take your victory lap. Up until that point I hadn't even sniffed a home run, but I was feeling confident that day. It was the third inning and I was down 5-3 with two ghost runners on. Looking back I realize that my dad was going easy on me that day, a couple weeks before I struck out four time in my first Little League start, and was throwing mainly meatballs. With a rare swagger I loudly proclaimed that I wanted heat. My dad laughed and obliged me throwing a fastball right down the center of the plate. At that time he could probably throw around 75, but to an 8 year old it seemed to be traveling the speed of light. I swung about two seconds to late and ended up falling over. With my dads laughter ringing in my ear I dusted myself off and stood up, defiantly looking at him. With anger and humiliation coursing through my veins I yelled "Is that all you got?" My dad reared back and threw again, this time harder. I watched it go by trying to get the timing down in my head. After I threw the ball back to him I dug in at the plate. I chocked up on the bat and tightened my grip, gearing up for another fastball. Whether it was fate or pure luck I managed to connect with the ball and I sent it flying in the air. It seemed to keep rising and rising, going farther and farther. After what seemed to be an eternity it landed in the parking lot of the nursing home, bouncing two times before nestling under a red car. The second the ball landed I took off, not to first but to where the ball had landed. The excitement was overwhelming, it was my first home run. After finding the ball I demanded a tape measure for my blast, the final distance was 235 feet. We decided that it would be best if it was a walk-off home run so we called it a day.

 I never hit a real home run in any game I played in high school and never turned out to be that good of a ball player. That doesn't matter to me at all though, because even though my greatest baseball moment came over a decade ago I still remember it like it was yesterday. This is the what makes baseball truly great. Baseball is so cemented into our culture, especially that of the father and the son. What really matters isn't who wins, but instead its the bonds that the game makes. I may have not seen my father as much as I would have liked growing up, but I will always have that memory and countless others that we shared watching the game that we both love. Someday I will buy a glove for my son or daughter and the tradition will be extended. As I enter the adult world many of the things I used to love have fallen by the wayside. This isn't a bad thing, its just growing up. but I always find solace in the fact that no matter where I end up baseball and those memories will always be there reminding me of what's important.