When baseball players fight, they call it a "brawl"

This week's fight/brawl between San Diego Padre Carlos Quentin and Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Zack Greinke (which left Greinke with an injured shoulder), reminded many baseball fans of other fights/brawls from the past. One of the most famous has to be the fight/brawl that took place on August 12, 1984 between the Padres and the Atlanta Braves.



This next one's not so famous-- in fact, I don't remember it at all. But it has the Cardinals in it and, more importantly, a rare instance of Ozzie Smith losing his cool.

World tennis update-- a correction

Back in 2008, Ape Canyon News Service reported that French Open tennis champion Ana Ivanovic (pictured below making a fist) had spent her childhood years learning to play tennis in an empty swimming pool due to the 1999 NATO bombing of her hometown of Belgrade.

Below: A building damaged by NATO bombing

However, it has recently come to our attention that this frequently-repeated story is not entirely accurate. Apparently, while it is true that Ivanovic and other young Serbian tennis players trained in a facility converted from its former use as a swimming pool, the mental images that many of us had formed of her actually playing in an unchanged, empty swimming pool were not correct.

Below: The facility where Ivanovic practiced. For more photos, click here.

While it is certainly hard to image many of today's top tennis stars practicing in conditions such as this, it is a far cry from the slippery, dimly-lit, empty swimming pool in which we were led to believe Ivanovic was forced to train. Ape Canyon News Service asks that you accept our sincerest apologies for having perpetuated this particular piece of mis-information. We always do our best to provide accurate information to our readers, and, in cases such as this, to correct any mistakes we have made.

Above: A photograph of Ivanovic making a fist

Below: One more photograph of Ivanovic making a fist

Finally: A bonus video for you to enjoy in which Ivanovic discusses the contents of her gym bag.

FA Cup Update - 3rd round: Middlesbrough 0 - Manchester City 1

Manchester City defeated Middlesbrough today in FA Cup third round play. The match was played in a snow storm. Man City had several players missing due to the African Cup of Nations, and manager Roberto Mancini chose to field a team that did not include many of the regular starters. The match was basically boring from beginning to end.

One interesting note, however-- for each of the last five years, the team* which eliminated Middlesbrough from the FA Cup went on to lose in the FA Cup final. (*Manchester United, West Ham, Manchester United, Cardiff City, and Everton)

Below: Benjani receives congratulations from his teammates for scoring the game's only goal.

What I have been reading lately #15

I just finished reading Michael Dobbs' One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War. I learned the following interesting facts about the Cuban Missile Crisis:

1. Premier Khrushchev was really short - only 5'3".

2. President Kennedy swam in the White House pool twice a day for exercise.

3. The Soviet ships carrying the missiles never were "eyeball to eyeball" with U.S. Navy vessels enforcing the quarantine. In fact, Khrushchev ordered them to turn around almost immediately after the U.S. announced the blockade.

4. Kennedy's greatest accomplishment was not facing down the Soviets but his own generals, almost all of whom wanted to launch a massive pre-emptive strike against Cuba.