Fausta's Blog

Via Tree Hugging Sister.

How rare is that? It’s the 21st perfect game in MLB history.

The White Sox beat the Mariners 4-0.

… predicted ahead of time that the Giants would win.

@recipesforlife Giants, by 4 points

— Fausta (@Fausta) February 5, 2012

Too bad I didn’t place any bets!

Jim has the graphic. You can watch the ads here.

Abducted major leaguer Wilson Ramos was rescued last night by Venezuelan police and national guard:
Abducted major leaguer Wilson Ramos rescued

The kidnapping ordeal of Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos ended after two days when Venezuelan police commandos swooped in to rescue him in a flurry of gunfire and arrested five alleged abductors.

Ramos said he was happy and thankful to be alive, and that the final moments had been hair-raising as police and the kidnappers exchanged heavy fire in the remote mountainous area where he was being held.

Video:

Abductions and kidnappings have become a huge security risk to all Venezuelans; however, the impact of this kidnapping on the future of Venezuelan sports will last for many years.

UPDATE
Linked by All American Blogger. Thanks!

Adam Kilgore reports,

More than 36 hours after four gunmen abducted Wilson Ramos, the kidnappers have still made no contact with the Ramos family

Police now have sketches of two of the kidnappers based on eyewitnesses’ descriptions.

Ramos’s agent, Gustavo Marcano, described the kidnapping,

Last night at 7, three men disrupted his arrival at the house, he was coming out of his car along with his dad and his brother.

They took him at gunpoint and forced him into their SUV.

Video in Spanish,

Wilson Ramos was kidnapped at gunpoint from his mother’s home in Venezuela last night.

Wilson Ramos, one of the Washington Nationals’ most promising young baseball players, was kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday night from his family’s home in Venezuela, leaving the team in a state of shock and raising questions about the safety of playing in a country ravaged in recent years by kidnappings and street crime.

The 24-year-old Ramos, the starting catcher for the Nationals, had returned to his native country for the winter and planned to participate in roughly 10 games for his Venezuelan winter league team, the Aragua Tigers, starting Thursday.
…
Wednesday evening, four armed men arrived at Ramos’s mother’s house in the Santa Ines sector of the central city of Valencia, and took Ramos away, according to multiple news reports out of Venezuela.

While Ramos is the first major league player to have been kidnapped,

Ramos is believed to be the most high-profile baseball player kidnapped in Venezuela, but the rash of abductions has touched the baseball world there before. In 2008, the brother of Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Henry Blanco was kidnapped and killed, his body found a day after he was taken. In 2009, Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba paid a ransom to get his son back, and pitcher Victor Zambrano’s mother was rescued in a raid.

Additionally (h/t Obi’s Sister),

There has been an alarming increase in the number of kidnappings in that country since 2006, when the Venezuelan National Counter Kidnapping Commission was founded. Violent crime is pervasive in Venezuela, where the per capita murder rate ranks it among the top five in the world, according to the U.S. State Department Consular Affairs Bureau.

In 2009, kidnappings increased 40-60 percent from the preview year, the State Department says, a majority of which are not reported to the police.

Venezuela’s minister of the interior stated that the kidnapper’s car was found. The investigation continues.

Even my mom was talking about this one:
Halladay throws no-hitter as Phils win playoff opener

Halladay pitched the second no-hitter in postseason history. He stands beside the Yankees’ Don Larsen, who pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, as the only ones to do it.

Here’s the video, via TigerHawk,

Bingley asks,

WHO was the STIFF that did THIS?

…A button-down shirt and tie to play softball in? Really?

Everyone else wore baseball tee shirts and shorts.

I’ll give you ONE clue: it was a contest between US Senate office teams from the same state and the bosses were on hand. No CHEATING!

HillBuzz has the answer: John Kerry,

Massachusetts Sens. Scott Brown (R) and John Kerry (D) are developing a healthy rivalry, but it’s not over partisan politics. It’s all about sports.

The athletic lawmakers faced off on the National Mall on Tuesday for a friendly softball game between their office teams, which Brown’s team, the Great Scotts, won handily, 11-6. Brown, wearing a team jersey and shorts, played a very capable first base for eight innings and went 2 for 3 at the plate, scoring two runs.

Kerry, who arrived in a shirt and tie, had one at-bat and grounded out to third.
But before he batted, the senator took off his tie — to whooping cheers from his staffers.

When it was Brown’s turn to bat, however, Brown asked to wear Kerry’s tie at the plate. Kerry was happy to oblige and Brown batted in “business attire.”

Glad to see that Scott Brown, while behaving like a Dem, has not taken up yet the sartorial statements. Next, Brown and Lurch will be going out for bike rides. Let’s hope Kerry wears a helmet.

In nepotism news, the Kennedys are still working on a Capitol Hill dynasty: the article also mentions that

In a twist of fate, Brown was tagged out once, at first base by Kerry intern Jack Schlossberg, son of Caroline Kennedy and the great-nephew of Brown’s predecessor, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

I humbly pray, “Dear Lord, no more Bushes, Clintons, or Kennedys in politics, ever. Amen.”

Vuvuzela: an ugly name for an ugly instrument of torture.

Well, not that it’s any consolation, but one of the torturers got hurt by it:
Vuvuzela injures South African woman’s throat after she blew the horn too hard at World Cup game

The vuvuzela really blows.

We know the plastic horns trumpeted by World Cup fans are annoying. Now they’ve become a health hazard.

A South African woman ruptured her throat by blowing the horn too hard, doctors told her.

The 3-foot noisemaker has become the unofficial symbol of the 2010 World Cup.

The horns have riled thousands of fans, players and commentators with their ear-piercing sound that resembles a beehive about to burst.

For 29-year-old Yvonne Mayer, the horn proved dangerous, too.

She said a co-worker gave her the horn and she brought it along to watch South Africa’s opening match with Mexico. She admits she was “blowing it as hard as I could.”

“At first I thought I’d gone down with a bug, but the next day it was worse. When I went to the doctor, he took a look and then laughed,” she told the Daily Mail.

“He said I’d ruptured my throat by blowing too hard, and that perhaps I had been doing it all wrong.”

The forceful blowing put a tear in her throat, but no long-term damage is expected.

In the meantime, the Vuvuzelas a gold mine for China manufacturers. Ugh.

Good news: All England Clubs bans vuvuzelas from Wimbledon.