I’m out sick today. Nothing serious, but needless to say if I’m going to use the sick day, I’d rather be watching The Price is Right on my couch than sitting in front of my computer. So it’ll probably be quiet here for the rest of the day.
Sandwich of the Week coming this weekend. For now, enjoy Mitchell and Webb:
Note: If you’re going to write a single-source story, you should probably make sure that source is less delusional than Isiah Thomas.
Neat idea. Hat tip to Stephen Kinnell.
Because you don’t get enough of it here. I made a guest post for Bronx Banter’s Million Dollar Movie series again. This time the theme is scary movies, so I went with the O.G. slasher pic, Halloween.
Mets clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels is under investigation by the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s office for allegedly betting on baseball and other sports as part of an organized gambling ring, providing inside information and tips for friends who also placed bets on games and for using his Mets accounts to cover gambling debts, according to law-enforcement sources close to the probe into the longtime Mets employee….
Samuels, who has not been arrested, is believed to have told Major League Baseball that he bet on baseball games, a strict violation of baseball rules. Samuels, the Mets’ clubhouse manager for 27 seasons, was described by a source as a “spider who sat in the middle of a money web,” a man who earned about $80,000 a year from the Mets but whose tax returns showed about $600,000 to $700,000 in income. He has homes in Huntington, L.I., and Port St. Lucie.
If you’re looking for a way to get canned from your job in Major League Baseball right quick, bet on some baseball games. The league and its teams take gambling very, very seriously, and for good reason: Any threat of a fixed outcome would severely jeopardize the integrity of the sport, which is predicated on the notion that both teams are always trying to win. I’ve written before that gambling in sports is potentially worse than steroids, since for all the bluster about performance-enhancing drugs, they’re used in the effort to better the player and help the team win.
No one has suggested that Samuels tried to fix any games or anything like that, but it’s impossible to fault the Mets for not taking chances (and I don’t think anyone has). No one with that much access to the players should ever be so caught up in high-stakes gambling, and Major League Baseball is vigilant about it. This is why I have no sympathy for Pete Rose: It is made abundantly clear to all players, coaches and managers that you do not bet on baseball games.
Gambling problems are a sad and terrifying thing, and if Samuels is addicted, I hope he finds help. But he probably should not be allowed back into a Major League clubhouse anytime soon.
One note, though — the Daily News story makes it sound vaguely like Samuels is raking in $520,000 to $620,000 a year through gambling, and that’s almost certainly not the case. Clubhouse personnel earn the large part of their wages through tips at the end of each season, and a figure as popular and important to the team as Samuels probably gets a ton of them.
Tommy Bennett passes along this link, to an article in Wired that examines the difference between American and Mexican Coca Cola and the way the brain responds to the power of suggestion in regards to taste. It’s basically scientific proof of exactly what I was talking about earlier in the Taco Bell post.
That’s right, the Mets did a bit of roster housekeeping today and dispatched Extra-Base Omir, Eddie Kunz, Jesus Feliciano, Raul Valdes and Mike Hessman from their 40-man roster.
All have been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. Presumably Hessman has long since been institutionalized in Triple-A — like the characters in Shawshank Redemption — and hit so poorly in his 55 at-bat stint with the Mets on purpose so he could get back to the familiar confines of the International League, where he has starred since 2002.
I still think Raul Valdes might make for a passable bullpen arm. His ERA and struggles with Major League lefties seem to suggest otherwise.
Predictably, Joaquin Arias was claimed off waivers by the Royals, meaning the Joaquin Arias Era in Flushing is over. Long Live Joaquin Arias!
The Mets now have 34 players on their 40-man roster, which gives them flexibility to add any additional Minor Leaguers they feel need protection from the Rule 5 draft.
Taco Bell has been quietly testing a reduced-sodium version of its menu at 150 units in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the past two months, the chain’s president said Tuesday….
“The first place we actually tested this is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So 150 restaurants over the last few months have been eating great-tasting Taco Bell food with 23-percent less sodium,” he said. “And the great news is: No one even knows we’ve done it. That’s when you know you’ve been successful.”…
Doolin said Creed is a great example of “conscience capitalism.”
“They are not doing this as a PR stunt,” she said. “They are doing it to make the world a better place…”
– Ron Ruggless, Nation’s Restaurant News.
As if Taco Bell hasn’t already done enough to make the world a better place, they’re now sneakily swapping low-sodium items for their traditional foods to see if anyone notices. And in Dallas, no one has.
We should consider the possibility that Dallas-area Taco Bell consumers, presumably jacked up on mesquite barbecue, do not have the most distinguishing palates.
Plus, if someone swapped in some new recipe when you expected old-fashioned Taco Bell and didn’t tell you about it, I’d say it’s even-money your brain is so thoroughly accustomed to the way Taco Bell is supposed to taste that if the new stuff tastes anything like the old stuff you wouldn’t notice the difference. The power of suggestion being what it is and everything.
So should Taco Bell begin rolling out these new low-sodium replacements nationwide, know that I will remain vigilant and do my best to remain unbiased so I can best review, for you, the newer, healthier Taco Bell.
Unless, of course, they just kind of do it without telling anybody.
Hat tip to Mike for the link.
Hat tip to Dangerous Minds.
Apparently the Mets have suspended popular longtime equipment manager Charlie Samuels indefinitely and without pay for what they’ve deemed “an ongoing personnel matter.” Weird.
Tedquarters 