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One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker that reads: Pickleball Let's Play. A few times a month I see a news link with claims that Pickleball is becoming the fastest growing sport.
If you don't know the game, it's a cross between tennis and ping-pong. The court is smaller than tennis, the racquets/paddles are larger than ping-pong. Often played as a doubles game. It gives the quick reaction to a familiar sport with less injury than conventional tennis.



Drew Brees vs. John McEnroe

I haven't seen John McEnroe in years. He's 64 years old now and looks terrible!!

Wow, it was a bit off a shocker when I heard this sad new this morning. He had just signed with Pittsburgh about two weeks ago.

I think the body lines are more obvious. I was just thin before, and it was still far away from the lordosis and back warping. The easiest thing for girls to overlook when shaping is that they always feel that they will be stunned when they practice their shoulders. In fact, this is not the case. The sturdy waist is caused by high body fat, not by muscles. Therefore, it is recommended that young ladies who have this illusion use more grease. The sculpted sisters boldly and confidently practice as long as the trapezius muscles are not stretched (not shrugging), usually a little line can be seen on the shoulder at three months. Right-angled shoulders are like walking clothes racks, okay? It is highly recommended for girls to practice shoulders. Very, very good-looking in clothes, very very good-looking, and undressing

After a year or two of fitness, I went to practice fighting.

His physical strength and endurance are even explosive, not losing to boys (learned through actual combat)

Your body can compete with someone who is three or four levels older than yourself

I think this is the most obvious change that fitness has brought me apart from appearance.

And these changes are all obtained through the accumulation of hard work.

Fitness-oriented

Sisters must master the method before practicing.

I used to think that running is a way to keep fit and the leg shape of running is ugly, but now I can hardly repair it after so many years.

Two weeks ago, I encountered an obnoxious and overly aggressive club member at the model airfield. He harassed me stating helicopters cannot fly at the main field. While it's normally used for airplanes, there are no rules stating helicopters cannot fly there. He stalked me from the minute I showed up... before he knew I had helicopters in my car.

I stood my ground, but his threats continued to the point of him calling the Sheriff and Park Ranger. I heard enough from this guy's mouth and put my phone on video to record the event. It was nearly 6pm and nearing sundown. That was enough for me to start packing up while he shouted profanities and stated I was the kind of person who was killing this hobby.

On the weekend, I met with the club president and filed a formal request. Since the video caught him mouthing off, he was easily identified. In an earlier blog I mentioned this event earned him warning number two. Another gets him ejected from the club and banned from flying at the park.

Last week, I had a day off before starting another job so I went to the field in the morning. I met a guy at the helicopter field who I haven't seen before. I introduced myself and he asked if I was the guy who had a 'run in' with another member the previous week.


Yeah, that must make me famous...

Mentioned a few times, taking advantage of Daylight Savings, I sometimes go to the model airfield to catch a few flights before dusk. Because it's 'dinner time' the fields are usually 1 or 2 people, where on a weekend, you can see 20 pilots waiting to fly.

The county park is huge with 3 separate fields: air strip for planes, grassy area for helicopters and a smaller area for drones or control-line airplanes. The car and dune buggy track is a few hundred yards away.

Airplanes usually need a runway (to takeoff and land) and fly in long circuits, they can stay in one area. Helicopters can fly with less restriction usually in a boxed area.
There are no written club rules that say a helicopter cannot fly at the airplane field, but in the interest of safety, all pilots must notify the others when they are going up, flight pattern, encroaching on the space of another pilot and shout out for any landing, especially emergency.

I showed up one afternoon and as I carried my flight box out to the field one guy approached me asking if I had AMA. The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) is the voice of anyone wanting to fly models. They have strict safety guidelines and offer liability insurance for members who fly at registered parks/fields and sanctioned events. AMA is a requirement and I put my equipment on the table to take out my card along with the club membership card and asked if he wanted to see it up close. He declined.

Back to my car and I carried 2 helicopters heading the the table where he tells me I cannot fly there. My statement was "That's not true" and he followed me back and forth to my car where I picked up more gear and another helicopter as he continues to tell me it's against club rules for a helicopter to fly at the airplane field. I stated "Are you saying I cannot fly here?" He 'blubbed' a few words and say's in the the rules posted at the gate.
So... I stand at the sign, read it out-loud. Nope, no helicopters mentioned.

2 guys with small planes in the sky and when I was ready to go up. One was on the far right side and the other finished. I advised both I'd be flying a helicopter. Both said no problem. Walking to the opposite side of the strip, probably 100 yards away from the other pilot.

This didn't stop the man who was now arguing about club rules. He threatened to call the police and park ranger. I invited him to do so. I placed my model on the edge of the runway and as I stepped back to the safety zone he's still 'barking at me' for not following the rules. Just then the guy from the opposite end of the field crash lands near me and his plane tumbles end over end off the runway. It's the pilot's responsibility to shout out a warning, especially since he flew until the battery died and had no power to control the landing. He didn't. By then I was being blamed for some safety violation and that I could have been decapitated by that 'crashed plane' for stepping on the runway.

I stated his constant harassment to me was a safety distraction in violation to the rules.

So now I want him, the pilot who crashed and me to meet with the park ranger as I insist on filing a formal complaint. Asking his name he replied with profanity. That's enough, I set my phone to record the rest of the event, started packing my things. As I got a half mile away from the park, I see the ranger turning in. Too late, the party is over!

On our usually Saturday flying session, I told my story, to another club member who was the vice-president for 3 years and he calls the current president who comes right over to hear my story. I played the video and he's recognized. Trouble maker at best this guy has an attitude that gets him ejected from club meetings. A previous episode he was formally placed on a 90 day restriction... not allowed to fly. Three violations the member is banned from the club for good. His harassment and use of profanity to another member got him strike two.

Today at 15h15. UK time.

In Cardiff.



My prediction: Dragons: 28 Springboks: 46

Former Minor League catcher Dave Bresnahan didn't talk much about it on the phone, but the man known as the "Potato Caper" comes from baseball royalty.

His great uncle, Roger, was the first MLB catcher to wear shin guards. He also developed the first batting helmet after getting hit in the head by a pitch.

So, back in 1987, when Dave had to call his dad, nephew of Roger, and tell him he'd been kicked off Cleveland's Double-A team for trying to use a potato to pick off a baserunner, he was terrified.

"Great, awesome dad and very dialed in to my baseball career," Bresnahan told me. "And I was thinking, 'Goddammit, now I don't want him to hear that his son got released for throwing a potato.' I had this fear and concern, and I always wanted to make him proud. I had to make the phone call, and that was a nerve-wracking call."

"I thought, 'What if we snuck maybe a rosin bag (or for some reason, maybe because I'm Irish) a potato into the game?'" Bresnahan recalled. “It was just talk, but then it got picked up the next day and my teammates thought it was funny. They said, 'Well, why don't you do it?' I go, 'What are you talking about?'"

Bresnahan barely even played, so for him to finally get some action and then start throwing a potato around the field seemed like a risky move. One of his teammates reminded him there was a doubleheader the next week against the Phillies and he'd definitely be behind the plate for one of the games.

"I said, 'Alright, I'll do it,'" Bresnahan told me, laughing.

So, the plan was set: when a runner reached third base during the game against the Phillies, Bresnahan would grab the potato, throw wildly over the third baseman's head in an attempted pickoff and then tag the runner out with the actual ball as he came strolling into home plate. Most of the team would be in on the play -- the pitching coach (whom he told over a couple of beers a few days before and was ecstatic about it), the pitchers and most of the fielders.

"The day before, people were like, 'Hey, tomorrow's Potato Day,'" Bresnahan said. "It just seemed to give people a little life, you know, something to talk about. That's all it was."

The one person who had no idea about Potato Day? Bresnahan's manager, Orlando Gomez, who had been demoted from the Triple-A team to the Bills midseason. He was already unhappy about his relegation and would likely not take too kindly to the move.

"No, of course I couldn't ask him for permission," Bresnahan said.

Bresnahan also checked with a friend, Tim Tschida, who was a Major League umpire at the time (you may remember him as the crew chief for this ejection), to see what kind of blowback there might be from introducing a potato into the game. Tschida said if he were the crew chief, he would likely just send the runner back and have a do-over. He'd also possibly kick Bresnahan out of the game. The catcher could live with that. He just didn't want the runner to be allowed home because of his prank.

Rest if the story:

I went to the model airfield this morning to fly helicopters. Miserable winds gusting to 20 miles per hour made it better to sit under the shade and BS with the other pilots there. Two guys had their scale models out today, both were of the Aérospatiale Gazelle and one was in the yellow rescue paint scheme.

They only fly them once or twice doing very conservative scale-like maneuvers... nothing risky as a few completed models are valued upwards of $20,000.

One guy packed up early and I said "Are you leaving?"
His response was "Yeah, I gotta get home to watch the game"

My first thought was 'the game? you must mean the president and republicans refusal to accept the certified elections results?'

When I got home and turned on the TV, I see it was the Miami Dolphins football game he must have been talking about.

Different game.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Churchill Downs has suspended trainer Bob Baffert from entering horses at the track and suggested that it would invalidate Medina Spirit's Kentucky Derby victory if the results of a failed postrace drug test are upheld.

The announcement from Churchill Downs came shortly after Baffert held a news conference to announce the failed drug test, which the Hall of Fame trainer vowed to fight "tooth and nail."

Medina Spirit is Baffert's fifth horse to fail a drug test in a year.

The colt won the Kentucky Derby on May 1 by a half-length over Mandaloun.

The only horse to be disqualified for medication after winning the Derby is Dancer's Image in 1968.

I can't believe a player on my favorite team the Cincinnati Reds missed a 44mph pitch from an infielder while batting.