It's been a Hard Blog's Night...

MOTHER NATURE’S COLORS WERE SHOWING…
…at Coors Field in Denver yesterday, when the Rockies-Phillies game was rather rudely interrupted by a violent little storm that overcame the ballpark so fast that the ground crew struggled to get the tarp down on the field.  One poor guy (long about the 4:00-mark of the above video clip) gave new meaning to the term "dragging the infield" by hanging on to the tarp for dear life.  It got so bad that even the Philadelphia players and the umpires came out to lend a hand, and it was rather comical to watch.  And in typical Colorado weather fashion, an hour later it was bright and sunny again, and they were able to finish the game.

In a semi-related story, an afternoon rainstorm on the 4th of July put the kibosh on the Kansas City Royals' super-megawatt postgame fireworks display which they had heavily promoted.  The weather cleared out in plenty of time to get the game in, but even though the display apparatus was covered before it rained, moisture literally short-circuited some of its electronic boards and the show was no-go.  To their ultimate credit, the Royals immediately sought to make good on it by giving out vouchers to those in attendance for a free ticket to another home game, but that didn’t stop the local über-whiners from bitching up a storm (pun intended) about the whole thing.  Sample the following from one letter-writing pyrotechnics expert in today's K.C. Star:

"Were the Royals so incompetent that they hired a company that couldn’t cover the fireworks or work to solve the problem during the game?  The paper reported that a power failure caused the problem…Whatever happened to just using a match?  Our Fourth of July memories were ruined, and even with the extra game ticket, we won’t return."

Ruined?!?  Oh, GET OVER IT, already!!!  As if this is the only time the Royals do fireworks?  They do fucking fireworks after every Friday night home game, for crimeny's sake!  As if no one else in K.C. had a fireworks display (for free, unlike the Royals game) on the 4th?  People like her are just the kind I want to run over with my car (repeatedly).  This letter writer’s address was Shawnee, KS, so I’m not at all surprised that it came from a whiny Johnson Countian.  This bloody idiot had plenty of time to hop in her Hummer and drive about five minutes north of the stadium and see Worlds of Fun’s fireworks display, which is perennially one of the best in the city.  Failing that, she could’ve driven ten minutes to my street in Raytown and seen plenty of pyro for well over two hours—and people using matches, to boot!  And good gravy, the Royals did the best they could under the circumstances by trying to make amends, and I applaud them for it, so if you don’t want your free ticket, lady, then give it to me!

WHY I AIN’T VOTING FOR RUDY
According to Rudy Giuliani, "When I left, it (New York) was the safest large city in America.  I reduced homicides by 67 percent.  I reduced overall crime by 57 percent."  Yes, Rudy, I respect you for the way you handled 9/11, and those statistics may in fact be true, but if you have the balls to take full credit for single-handedly accomplishing all that, then you’re just a tad too big for your britches there, bud.  Now, if you'd used the word "we" in place of "I", then I might be a bit more inclined to listen to you…

MAYBE LIMBAUGH AND CO. WERE CORRECT (FOR ONCE)
Seems that in spite of having no practical political experience whatsoever, anti-war rabble rouser Cindy Sheehan is now threatening to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2008 unless Pelosi gets the ball rolling on impeaching Dubya in the next two weeks.  Hmmm, I thought Sheehan said she was done with all her protesting and such.  Not that I disagree with her original cause—let alone the idea of impeaching Dubya—but now I think maybe her detractors were right about her after all.  Sheehan has obviously become addicted to being a celebrity and has turned into a publicity hound and spotlight junkie, not unlike Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and their ilk.  I’m sorry she lost her son in the war, but now her protests are starting to ring hollow and phony with me, and she sounds every bit like the radical liberal wingnut that Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Hannity, et al, accused her of being.

AS LONG AS I’M BEING CYNICAL…
…what exactly did this weekend’s Live Earth concert series accomplish, other than to feed Al Gore’s ego?  What’s the bet most of the Live Earth performers (and Big Al) arrived at the venues in gas-guzzling limousines, eh?  It’s a safe bet that many of them drive Hummers, too.  Not that I have anything against the environment or looking for energy alternatives and all, but I’m so sick of this current phony "go green" crappola with all these celebrities and corporations jumping on this political bandwagon simply because it’s so fashionable now.  I’m not buying their sincerity any more than I’m buying Wal-Mart’s claims in their commercials that "if X-number of Americans bought our tank tops each year, then the rain forests would be saved."  Okay, I’m being facetious with that last bit, but that’s how it all comes across to me—pure hooey!

WORLD’S DUMBEST SONG LYRICS—Vol. VIA few more that I dug up…
"You’re All I Need"—MOTLEY CRUE (1987)  "I loved you so I set you free...I had to take your life."  Yeah right, Vince, Nikki, whoever—that makes a whole lotta sense.  This might’ve been an even bigger hit than "Home Sweet Home" if it weren’t for such empty-headed lyrics and macho bullshit violent imagery.  What a waste of a great backing track for a power ballad, too...
"For A Rocker"—JACKSON BROWNE (1984)  "I’ve got a shirt so unbelievably right…I’m gonna take it out and wear it tonight for a Rocker!"  Gee, one can only hope the Rocker was totally overwhelmed by J.B.’s choice of waredrobe!  "Don’t have to feed ‘em—they don’t eat. They got their power supplies in the soles of their feet…"  Huh?  Exactly what kind of mutant creatures did they invite to this party?  They sound like the Cantina Bar cretins in Star Wars to me…
"Long Stick Goes Boom"--KROKUS (1981)  The title alone is so asinine here, I won't even bother with the lyrics.
"Kids In America"--KIM WILDE (1982)  "New York to East California..."  East California?  What, did Lake Tahoe secede from the Union?  Whoever wrote this song needs to brush up on his/her American geography."Beatin’ The Odds"—MOLLY HATCHET (1980)  "And when it all was over, we won it in the end."  Yet another entry from the Department of Redundancy Department…