A note to visiting baseball players and front-office personnel about pedestrian safety in Seattle

Many visitors to Seattle (and other west coast cities) do not realize that expectations for pedestrians are different here than in other cities. Specifically, police officers will give tickets to people who cross at the middle of the block or against the light at the crosswalk. Yesterday, Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams (pictured above) found this out for himself when he was stopped outside Safeco Field before his team's game against the Mariners and given a ticket for jaywalking.

However, this is actually not the most important baseball/pedestrian safety event to ever take place in Seattle. The most important baseball/pedestrian safety event to ever take place in Seattle is the time in 2008 that a police officer stopped Manny Ramirez for jaywalking outside the stadium after a game and did not even know who Manny was.

Update (later that same day): White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen expressed interest in also getting a ticket for jaywalking.

I have a Franklin Gutierrez bobblehead doll

Last night my wife, daughter, and I went to see the Seattle Mariners lose 9-0 to the Cleveland Indians. It was also Franklin Gutierrez Bobblehead Night (see picture, above). Earlier this week, Manny Ramirez hit a pinch-hit grand slam for the Dodgers at Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Night, and we were hoping for something similar from Franklin Gutierrez. It didn't happen, though-- he went 0-for-2 with a walk (see picture, below).

Gutierrez also tried, but failed, to catch a home run hit by Travis Haffner in the 7th inning. (see picture, below).

Also at the game were such celebrities as Flo Rida and members of the Everton FC squad, including Tim Cahill (below, holding the baseball), who has the same birthday as I do.

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #3

Sometimes when you are reading a book, you realize that you want to stop. Sometimes that happens with movies, too. Here are some recent examples:

Peeling the Onion by Gunter Grass. Famous German author admits that he voluntarily signed up for the Waffen-SS as a youth during World War II.

The Black Arrow by Robert Lewis Stevenson. Adventure story set in England during the War of the Roses. I read it once as a kid. I have tried (and failed) twice as an adult.

Rebels Without Borders by Marc Vachon. True story of a Canadian hoodlum who becomes a logistics expert for an international medical relief organization. Not as interesting as it might sound.

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Slugger by Jean Rhodes and Shawn Boburg. Discussed elsewhere.

The Italian Job. Boring movie from 1969 that was remade into another boring movie in 2003. I actually have watched the 2003 version twice but could not quite make it through the 1969 one.

Escape from New York. Way back when, movie director John Carpenter needed to find a place that looked like Manhattan would look if they turned it into an island prison colony run by the prisoners and then the prisoners went wild. He chose downtown St. Louis, which is the only reason I would ever watch this movie. I fell asleep on the couch about halfway through.

Below- downtown St. Louis

The Sixth Man: A Season Inside the NBA Playground by Chris Palmer. Do you know those little, tiny square candy bars that are about two centimeters across? This book has the same relationship to a real basketball book that a little, tiny square candy bar has to a real, full-size candy bar. (The "season" in question is 2004-2005.)

Abandoned Books and/or Movies #2

Becoming Manny: Inside the Life of Baseball's Most Enigmatic Slugger; written by Jean Rhodes (professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts in Boston) and Shawn Boburg (reporter at The Record in Bergen County, New Jersey); authorized by Manny Ramirez (leftfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians).

Fun facts you might learn if you read this book:

• As a child, Manny Ramirez suffered from an "intense fear of the dark." (page 23)
• Manny Ramirez's great-grandmother worked as a nanny for the children of the Dominican Republic's "tyrannical dictator, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo." (page 15) (Trujillo pictured below)

• In high school, rather than attend class, Manny Ramirez enjoyed hanging out in the lunchroom and talking to his girlfriend Kathy, friends, baseball fans, security guards, and cafeteria workers. (page 73)

Above, Manny Ramirez versus a fly ball

I read up to page 91 (out of 304) in this book, when Manny Ramirez was a junior in high school. At that point, I stopped reading, because I decided that the book was boring.

Note: Becoming Manny was published in early 2009, so it does not cover Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. Manny Ramirez returns from his suspension tonight, in a game against the San Diego Padres.

Manny Ramirez makes a catch to start a double play

I'm not much of a fan of the Red Sox, but even I can't resist Manny Ramirez. Here's a clip of him making a nice running catch and then throwing the ball back in to get a double play last week against the Baltimore Orioles. Why is this so interesting? Notice how he makes sure to give the Red Sox fan in the bleachers a high-five in the middle of the play!




For more info, check out:

http://deadspin.com/5009336/talking-to-mannys-high-five-friend

and

http://www.thelostogle.com/2008/05/16/a-lost-ogle-q-a-the-manny-ramirez-high-five-guy/