A parliamentary committee this week backed the government’s proposal that in future members of the House of Lords should be restricted to a maximum 15 years’ service.
But in his submission on Lords reform, the Chief Rabbi Sacks says that those chosen to represent faith communities should be made life peers “so as to encourage continuity of contribution”.
Source: http://www.thejc.com/blogs/simon-rocker/keep-me-a-seat-lords
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MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT AAA Columbus Clippers Clippers 5, Indians 4 RF Chad Huffman (.364) had two hits, including his second homer of the season, and host Columbus on Thursday beat Indianapolis in an International League game. RHP Corey Kluber (2-0, 3.60) started and pitched five innings. He allowed four earned runs on three hits and two walks while striking out...
MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT
AAA Columbus Clippers
Clippers 5, Indians 4 RF Chad Huffman (.364) had two hits, including his second homer of the season, and host Columbus on Thursday beat Indianapolis in an International League game.
RHP Corey Kluber (2-0, 3.60) started and pitched five innings. He allowed four earned runs on three hits and two walks while striking out eight.
View full sizeCorey Kluber improved to 2-0 on Thursday as Class AAA Columbus beat Indianapolis.
RHP Frank Herrmann (3.60) pitched two innings, LHP Nick Hagadone (0.00) pitched the eighth and RHP Chris Ray (3.60) worked the ninth for his second save.
AA Akron Aeros
Aeros 6, Thunder 1 Aeros left-handed starter T.J. McFarland (2-0, 0.82) threw six shutout innings as Akron beat Trenton in an Eastern League game at Canal Park.
McFarland allowed three hits and one walk. He struck out four.
3B Kyle Bellows (.214) hit a three-run homer.
A Lake County Captains
Hot Rods 5, Captains 2 SS Francisco Lindor (.353) had three hits and C Alex Lavisky (.389), a Lakewood native, had two doubles, but Lake County lost the Midwest League game to visiting Bowling Green.
Left-handed starter Elvis Araujo (0-2, 4.00) allowed four runs (three earned) in five innings.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/04/cleveland_indians_farm_report_5.html
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French frontrunner 'best solution' for Greece, says Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos, as rift grows over EU approach to austerity
The leader of Greece's socialist party says the country is pinning its hopes on the election of François Hollande in Sunday's French presidential election, with the socialist frontrunner being seen as the best guarantor of the growth policies the EU's austerity-wracked southern periphery so desperately needs.
With the Greeks also going to the polls, the socialist Pasok party leader, Evangelos Venizelos, said in an interview with the Guardian: "We are very much hoping that he [Hollande] will win. He is by far the best solution."
Support for the French socialist is the most glaring reflection yet of the growing rift in Europe over Berlin's Calvinist approach to resolving a crisis that many believe could have been contained had austerity not been so remorselessly pursued when it first broke out in Athens.
"This is undoubtedly a war, the war of our generation," said Venizelos, who was a teenager during Greece's 1967-74 military regime. "Our generation after the dictatorship never had difficulties. They were 38 very happy and prosperous years."
Vowing to end the relentless emphasis on austerity that EU powerhouse Germany has advocated in response to the continent's debt woes, Hollande told a rally in Paris on Sunday: "the people of Europe are looking to us." If elected, he promised to write to fellow eurozone governments with a call for a growth package that would focus on job creation and development.
Hollande, who last week pledged to help Greece "regain a level of development" if he beats President Nicolas Sarkozy, has promised to renegotiate the fiscal pact German chancellor Angela Merkel has made single currency nations sign up to. The treaty, the embodiment of restrictive monetary policies pursued by Germany, obliges EU member states to keep within stringent budget targets.
For countries like Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain the relentless focus on austerity has led to historic levels of unemployment and worsening poverty. Greeks – who look set to abandon mainstream parties in droves in Sunday's elections, the first since the crisis erupted – have seen wages drop by an average of 25% over the past two years. Pensioners are forced to survive on as little as €500 a month.
Voters in Greece will elect a 300-strong parliament, from which a government should be formed.
Venizelos, whose Pasok party has participated in an emergency coalition government under technocrat prime minister Lucas Papademos since last November, said it was time the "one-dimensional" approach ended.
The focus had to be on growth and rules had to be relaxed if Athens was to get out of the "vicious cycle" it was now in.
"We need to be helped. I propose that [our] fiscal adjustment program be extended by a year … this somewhat softer adjustment, from two to three years, will help us a lot," he said in the interview. "And of course we must also continue very intensely with structural changes, changes that will liberalise and improve the economy's competitiveness."
He said the decision to reduce the country's privatisation programme from raising €50bn to €19bn over the next three years was "much more realistic."
With polls showing no party winning a clear majority and mounting fears of political instability exacerbating Greece's economic plight, Venizelos said it was vital that desperation was contained among a population that appears poised to vote for extremist fringe parties, including the far-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn).
"It is very important that we are able to inspire people under very difficult conditions, under conditions which normally provoke pessimism and despair," Venizelos said.
Negotiations to shave the country's debt by forcing the private sector to accept massive losses on Greek government bonds – the biggest bond exchange in history – were "the most important" since the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne which precipitated the massive exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey after the disastrous campaign of Greek forces into Asia Minor in 1922.
Germany, he added, like every other EU country had not "lost out financially" by giving rescue loans to Greece.
"They are getting a small, reasonable interest rate and Greece is serving the loans. The issue, more generally, is that the eurozone has to have a strategy and we believe the [political] balances in Europe have to change. Europe has to begin to think in other ways. Its approach is quite one-dimensional from the perspective of how it has handled the economic crisis."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/30/greek-socialists-francois-hollande-win
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When we think of Hollywood, we think of bright lights, red carpets, emotional speeches and fast-talking agents. We think of sparkly dresses and glamour, of put-upon-screenwriters and waiters waiting for their big breaks. We don't really tend to think of rabbis.
But perhaps we should. Because, despite sounding like a contender for the "film pitch that is least likely to see the light of day award", have you heard the one about George Clooney and Rabbi Steve Gutow?
Gorgeous George and Rabbi Gutow were among the motley crew of politicians and activists who were arrested last week during a demonstration outside the Sudanese Embassy.
Now, fresh from his experience of sharing a cell with George, rabbi Gutow has blogged about the experience:
"What I think surprised us was that the police were not particularly gentle with us and that we were going to be together for hours in this hell hole of a jail cell where the only place to urinate was in almost plain sight.
"We did what boys, men (not much difference when you are in a jail cell) do. We told stories and jokes and just got along quite well. It was fun. George Clooney's very impressive dad, Nick, a journalist from Kentucky, was probably the classiest guy in the room."
You can read the whole thing here. And who knows, perhaps, coming to a screen near you, a comedy retelling, with Brad Pitt playing Rabbi Gutow.
Source: http://www.thejc.com/blogs/jennifer-lipman/when-george-clooney-met-a-rabbi
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The Clippers, Captains and Mahoning Valley Scrappers all lose on Friday night.
View full sizeAkron Aeros catcher Chun Chen.AAA Columbus Clippers
Indians 2, Clippers 1 RH Corey Kluber (7-10, 5.65 ERA) struck out seven and allowed two runs in seven innings, but host Columbus lost to Indianapolis in International League play. Kluber gave up three hits and two walks. SS Luis Valbuena (.304) and LF Tim Fedroff (.269) each had two hits. CF Jerad Head (.280) and DH Nick Johnson (.204) each doubled, and Johnson had an RBI.
AA Akron Aeros
Aeros 7, Flying Squirrels 5 C Chun Chen (.259) had three hits, and 2B Cristo Arnal (.199), SS Juan Diaz (.258) and DH Michel Hernandez (.348) each had two as host Akron held off Richmond (Va.) in Eastern League play. Arnal drove in two runs. Chen, Diaz, Hernandez, 3B Kyle Bellows (.222) and CF Ben Copeland (.264) delivered one RBI each. RH Steven Wright (2-3, 5.66) allowed five runs in 6 innings but still got the victory. Cory Burns (2.18) pitched 1 scoreless innings to earn his 33rd save.
Advanced A Kinston Indians
Indians vs. Hillcats, ppd. Kinston's Carolina League game against visiting Lynchburg (Va.) was postponed due to weather.
A Lake County Captains
Whitecaps 4, Captains 2 LH J.D. Reichenbach (7-2, 3.34) allowed four runs -- three earned -- in five innings as Lake County lost to host West Michigan.
A Mahoning Valley Scrappers
Jammers 6, Scrappers 3 RH Nathan Striz (3-5, 3.86) allowed four runs in 3 innings as host Mahoning Valley lost to Jamestown (N.Y.) in New York-Penn League play.
Independent Lake Erie Crushers
Crushers 4, RiverHawks 0 Jereme Milons homered, RH Josh Roberts (9-6) got the victory as host Lake Erie four-hit Rockford (Ill.) in Frontier League play.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2011/08/chun_chen_has_three_hits_in_ak.html
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Another Northern Ireland golfing talent was helping to make headlines on the PGA Tour on Sunday night.
Portrush native Ricky Elliott, a former Irish boys and youths international, was bagman for Ben Curtis en route to his Texas Open victory at San Antonio. Elliott, nicknamed ‘Rocket Ricky’, was regarded as one of the finest prospects in Irish golf in the late 1990s. He was a member of a team that competed in the European Youths Championships that also included Michael Hoey, Colm Moriarty, Tim Rice and Danny Sugrue.
Elliott and Rice later went on a golfing scholarship to the University of Toledo where the Ulster man enjoyed his first taste of life in the USA. He went caddying subsequently and worked with Holland’s Maarten Lafeber before turning professional and plying his trade in the exclusive Lake Nona area of South Florida.
Elliott returned to the role of caddy when teaming up with 2003 British Open champion Curtis in August 2010. They were introduced during their college days when rivals on the Mid-American Conference and Sunday’s triumph in Texas was the first for Curtis in six long years.
He was 285th in the world going into the event and had qualified for only four of twenty tournaments on the PGA Tour prior to San Antonio but he is now exempt for the next two and a half years.
Curtis and Elliott will be a lot busier over the coming weeks and months with the Portrush man already working hard on convincing his boss to play the Irish Open over his home links in June!
The other big winner at the weekend was South African Branden Grace, a little known 23 year-old at the beginning of the year. But after landing his third title of the season in the Volvo China Open at the weekend, he has improved from 271st to 66th in the world rankings. And Curtis has jumped from 310th at the start of 2012 to a current status of 156th.
All eyes this coming week will be on Bubba Watson who makes his first appearance since his spectacular triumph in the Masters in the Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Watson defends the title from a field that also includes Luke Donald, who will be attempting to reclaim his world number one spot from Rory McIlroy who remains competitively inactive for the sixth week in seven. Also in New Orleans, though, will be Justin Rose, Peter Hanson and Graeme McDowell.
Like Watson, McDowell has taken things easy since Augusta but now plans to take in five successive events — New Orleans, Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow, Tournament Players Championship at Sawgrass; the Volvo World Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesin, Spain and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
The European Tour remains in Asia with the fifth staging of the 2.205m Ballantines Championship in Seoul, South Korea. The recently married Darren Clarke returns to the fold in an event that has attracted top Australian, Adam Scott, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Miguel-Angel Jimenez along with four other Irish golfers, Shane Lowry, Damien McGrane, Gareth Maybin and Paul McGinley.
However defending champion Lee Westwood is not competing. The Englishman captured the Indonesian Masters on the Asian Tour at the weekend but remains third in the world rankings behind Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/l0QyyoJr7AE/post.aspx
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MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT AAA Columbus Clippers Indians 8, Clippers 6 Former Indians Matt LaPorta (.333) and Lonnie Chisenhall (.357) hit ninth-inning home runs, but the Clippers' rally came up short in an International League loss in Columbus. It was LaPorta's fourth homer of the season and Chisenhall's third. Trevor Crowe (.389), Chad Huffman (.250) and Gregorio Petit (.235) also went deep...
MINOR-LEAGUE REPORT
AAA Columbus Clippers
Indians 8, Clippers 6 Former Indians Matt LaPorta (.333) and Lonnie Chisenhall (.357) hit ninth-inning home runs, but the Clippers' rally came up short in an International League loss in Columbus.
View full sizeLonnie Chisenhall is hitting .357 (10-for-28) with three homers and five RBI in seven games for Class AAA Columbus. Kevin Slowey (1-1, 2.45 ERA) started and took the loss.
AA Akron Aeros
Aeros at Curve, ppd. Akron's scheduled Eastern League game at Altoona, Pa., was postponed due to inclement weather.
Notes: The Aeros host the Trenton Thunder in their home opener today at 7:05 p.m. The scheduled starters are RHP Brett Marshall (1-0, 3.60 ERA) for Akron and LHP T.J. McFarland (1-0, 1.80 ERA) for the Thunder.
Advanced A Carolina Mudcats
Mudcats 5, Blue Rocks 3 The Mudcats' bullpen threw 3-1/3 shutout innings and Carolina pushed across two runs in the bottom of the eighth to beat visiting Wilmington in a Carolina League game in Zebulon, N.C.
A Lake County Captains
Loons 5, Captains 4 Catcher Alex Lavisky (.357) of Lakewood had two hits and drove in all four runs, but it wasn't enough as Lake County lost in 14 innings to Great Lakes in a Midwest League game in Midland, Mich.
Top Cleveland prospect shortstop Francisco Lindor (.300) added two hits in the losing cause.
Captains reliever Jordan Cooper (0-1) took the loss. Starter Felix Sterling (0-1) didn't factor in the decision after going five innings and allowing four runs (one earned) on four hits.
Notes: The Captains will open their home season today at 6:30 p.m. at Classic Park in Eastlake.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/04/cleveland_indians_farm_report_4.html
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*June* The meteorological first month of summer, should see high pressure in control and some semblance of summery weather for all areas, these very warm and settled conditions should extend through the first week to ten days of the month. High pressure atop the UK at first should slowly drift westward with a cooler and showery regime then establishing into the middle of month, a noticeable temperature drop for all areas as a northerly flow develops. The middle of the month sees a more westerly orientated flow then establishing, low pressure potentially ramping up the breeze, rain and windier weather affecting all areas and feeling much cooler beneath the cloud and rainier spots. This unsettled weather looks as if it'll be continuing through the remainder of June, only at the close of the month does it potentially settle once more, temperatures recovering as pressure builds in from the west, southern and eastern areas seeing the best of the conditions. *July* High pressure remains tantalisingly close to the UK, but just too far to the west to settle the weather into what one would normally expect for high summer. Cool with a breeze from the north or northwest, showers mainly for all areas but some indication of destabilisation at times into rather more organised showery bands. The west seeing fewer showers closest to high pressure established to the west. Through to the middle of the month sees a reversal of fortunes with high pressure building across the UK and then to the settling to the east, a much warmer regime establishing across the bulk of the country as a southerly flow develops for a time. Then unfortunately it's all downhill low pressure to the west encroaching eastward, showers breaking out widely then more organised rain as the Atlantic influence kicks in once more. Showers or longer spells of rain for all for a time through to the final week of July when the pattern attempts to redeem itself but I have my doubts whether it'll really make it, 'indifferent' would be the best term? Simon Email me at simon.keeling@weatheronline.co.uk
Source: http://feeds.weatheronline.co.uk/~r/weatheronline/~3/AuxhXNR56-Y/reports
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The Dashers last spoke with Roberto Hernandez. They've tried to reach him since the scandal broke, but the phone number isn't accepting messages.
View full sizeJim Dasher (left) was the team chaplain for the Lake County Captains when his brother and sister-in-law -- Bob and Bonnie Dasher -- housed the pitcher known as Fausto Carmona while Carmona pitched for the Captains in 2003.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Fausto Carmona was just a shy, polite 19-year-old who barely spoke English and loved hanging with the kids -- but preferred the family dog stay outside -- when he lived in Bob and Bonnie Dasher's house in Highland Heights.
In 2003, Carmona was a promising right-hander with the Indians' Class A Lake County Captains. The Dashers were his host family that season, and on and off for the next two years as he was shuffled back and forth through the Tribe's minor-league system.
They had no clue the reserved young man who toted a single duffel bag into their house was actually Roberto Hernandez and three years older -- at least not until Dominican Republic authorities arrested him last month for trying to get a U.S. visa with a false I.D.
"You can't believe how many people called us, [saying] 'Hey Bob, you had to know about this!'" Bob Dasher said. "We just laughed when we heard it. We had no idea."
The Dashers last spoke with their former guest last summer. They've tried to reach him since the scandal broke to tell him they love him, but the phone number isn't accepting messages.
Carmona and a lineup of other Captains, including Tribe reliever Rafael Perez, wound up living with the Dashers and with Bob's brother, Jim, who was chaplain for the first three years of the team's existence. Jim, a former coach and athletic director at Mayfield High School, found the boys places to live and drove them back and forth to the ballpark in Eastlake, to the Western Union window to send their paychecks home, and anywhere else they needed to go.
Sometimes, late at night after games, he would let them drive the van around the school parking lot just for fun.
To communicate with Fausto, Bob and Bonnie kept their Spanish dictionaries handy. He would talk about his family, but with never a hint of his real identity. He always signed baseballs, shirts and his baseball card as "Fausto."
To make Fausto and the other Latin players feel at home, they made sure to prepare the boys' favorite staple -- chicken and rice -- with every meal. Nurtured on such home cooking, Carmona tore it up with the Captains in 2003, going 17-4 with a 2.06 ERA. He was named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year, and his 17 wins were the best at any level of the Indians' organization that season.
Three years later, he become the first Captain to play for the Indians.
The pitcher referred to his host parents as "Mama Bonnie" and "Roberto." "Which is really funny," Bob said, "because that's his name. Next time I see him, I'm going to call him Bob."
Carmona enjoyed watching Spanish TV, goofing off with two sons of Bob and Bonnie who were teenagers and living at home at the time, and shopping at nearby Richmond Town Square with Jim's 13-year-old son. They were teenagers after all, or so it seemed.
"We thought he was 19," said Bob, who finds it hard to believe the false identity was the pitcher's idea. "Greatest kid in the world."
"We never doubted it," said "Mama Bonnie."
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/02/roberto_hernandezs_ohio_host_f.html
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More settled this week After that horrible day yesterday we see some improvement today for much of England with a warmer, sunnier day, but south west England and Wales will see some heavy rain, especially in the morning with gales. Some rain too for Scotland. Expect top temperatures of 10 to 17C.
Through the evening and tonight, we may see some heavy rain into south east and south west England. Expect minimum temperatures 6 to 9 Celsius north to south.
If you're heading abroad, south eastern parts of Europe are looking hot and sunny. Be sure to check out the Weatheronline Week Ahead forecast for more information on the weather across the United Kingdom for the next seven days. Have a good day. Simon Email me at simon.keeling@weatheronline.co.uk
Source: http://feeds.weatheronline.co.uk/~r/weatheronline/~3/vLEyipgFGxQ/reports
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More than twice as many secret cannabis factories were found in past year as four years ago, chief constables' report reveals
Clandestine cannabis factories are booming in Britain, with the police detecting more than 7,800 in the past year – more than double the number found four years ago.
Chief constables say the rise in illicit cannabis production is being fuelled by the increasing involvement of organised crime groups, who see it as a "low-risk and highly profitable criminal business".
But the police also acknowledge that the recession and pressure on household budgets has led to a rise in a "grow your own" trade, with intelligence reports showing an increase in sales of seeds and equipment from local "head shops" to customers wanting to grow a few plants at home for their own use.
The third "problem profile" of UK commercial cultivation of cannabis, published on Monday by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), says police have seized more than 1.9m plants with an estimated street value of £207m in the past two years.
The survey, published every two years, confirms a majority of the cannabis used in Britain is now home-grown rather than imported, with some claiming more than 80% is intensively cultivated domestic herbal cannabis.
But police chiefs say there is a shift away from large-scale cannabis factories in disused industrial and commercial buildings such as empty cinemas, shops and banks back to smaller houses and flats, often on suburban streets. The organised crime gangs behind the trade in home-grown cannabis are reacting to police crackdowns by moving away from large-scale premises to employing a large number of "gardeners" to operate small-scale "grow sites" or factories across several residential areas. "This spreads the risk and minimises the potential for detection and financial loss," says the report.
It acknowledges there has been a proliferation of users claiming to be involved in growing plants at home for personal use. It says the economic downturn and a fall in the weight of the average street cannabis deal have been accompanied by a rise in the amount of home-grown cultivation for personal use.
This has also led to a rise in the amount of home-grown cannabis being supplied to friends and acquaintances through "social dealing".
But the report says in many cases the number of plants seized in raids is well above 25, which is regarded as the legal minimum to be prosecuted for commercial cultivation and for which the indicative minimum sentence is two to five years.
The police say they assume anyone who grows more than 10 plants is likely to have a surplus and therefore to be supplying others.
Police say 7,865 cannabis farms or factories were detected in Britain in 2011-12, compared with 6,866 in 2009-10 – a 15% rise since the last time the UK problem profile was published. Just over 3,000 were detected in 2007-08.
Police chiefs estimate the crime figures for the year to March 2012 will show 16,464 offences recorded for commercial cannabis production compared with 14,982 for 2010-2011.
The report plays down previous claims that so much cannabis is being grown in Britain that it has become a net exporter. "Intelligence indicates that UK organised crime gangs may supply drugs to the continent to fill a gap in the market but there is no evidence of widespread export," it says.
The Acpo report admits that tackling cannabis factories is not considered a priority for most British police forces, with operations to tackle the supply of class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine a higher priority. The police also see the dismantling of cannabis factories as a short-term solution which misses opportunities for further investigation into other potentially linked factories.
Allan Gibson, of Acpo, said: "Commercial cannabis cultivation continues to pose a significant risk to the UK. Increasing numbers of organised crime groups are diverting into this area of criminality but we are determined to continue to disrupt such networks and reduce the harm caused by drugs.
"This profile provides a detailed analysis of the current threat from commercial cultivation of cannabis and the work undertaken by law enforcement agencies to combat the threat. It provides a framework to facilitate future planning and decision-making for preventative, legislative and enforcement activity to make the UK a hostile environment for cannabis cultivators."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/30/cannabis-production-booming-britain-police
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It’s not quite baseball season, but some of the top prospects in the Indians’ organization are in town now for the 15th edition of the team’s winter development program. Watch video
It’s not quite baseball season, but some of the top prospects in the Indians’ organization are in town now for the 15th edition of the team’s winter development program. The program runs Jan. 16-27 in Cleveland and in Goodyear, Ariz., and is designed to help acclimate the players to Progressive Field and Cleveland. Along with various workouts, they hear speakers such as Cavaliers General Manager Chris Grant, Browns coach Pat Shurmur, former Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona, former Indians pitcher Jason Bere, Peter Gammons of the MLB Network, St. Ignatius football coach Chuck Kyle and Vanderbilt baseball coach Tim Corbin.
Players participating are: right-hander Austin Adams, right-hander Rob Bryson, catcher Chun Chen, outfielder Aaron Cunningham, infielder Juan Diaz, outfielder Tim Fedroff, outfielder Jordan Henry, left-hander T.J. McFarland, outfielder Thomas Neal, catcher Roberto Perez and right-hander Tyler Sturdevant.
Plain Dealer photographer Chuck Crow spent Thursday with the prospects. On this day, they started with yoga and stretching followed by a session with a speaker. The prospects then traveled to Case Western Reserve University for fundamental, agility and conditioning work, including a throwing session. After lunch, they heard two more speakers before calling it a day.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/01/indians_hold_winter_developmen.html
Lindor, the Tribe's first-round pick (eighth overall) in last year's draft and potential heir apparent to Asdrubal Cabrera, will bat third for the Class A Lake County Captains.
View full sizeLake County's Francisco Lindor, 18, has played only five professional games. The Indians have high hopes for the shortstop, their first-round pick in 2011.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- By extending All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera's contract through 2014, the Indians secured the position short term.
Long term, look 20 miles east of Progressive Field. Francisco Lindor, the Tribe's first-round pick (eighth overall) in last year's draft and potential heir apparent, will bat third for the Class A Lake County Captains.
He just turned 18 last November. At a signing bonus of $2.9 million, that's roughly $160,000 for every year of his life. More, actually, because he was 17 when they drafted him out of Montverde Academy in Florida.
Lindor has played five professional games. He hit .316 with two RBI for Class A Mahoning Valley last season. But at the Captains' media day Tuesday, he sounded almost like a seasoned vet, acknowledging what a mind game the sport can be -- and how that's the thin line between a career of bus trips and budget inns or charter flights and first-class hotels.
"The toughest part will probably be the mental side of the game. That's what every player in the minor leagues has to work on, because it's tough," he said. "It's going to be a grind, like our coach said."
Mental, Lindor said, as in dealing with failing seven out of 10 times at the plate, if you're lucky, when you're used to hitting .600 in high school.
As a senior, Lindor, a 5-11, 175-pound switch-hitter, hit .528 in just 53 at-bats. That was apparently enough to tickle the Indians and Florida State, where Lindor was headed on scholarship if the Tribe hadn't signed him minutes before the deadline.
So far, they like what they have seen, especially his confidence at the plate and how he handles himself.
"You can see it right away. He has his head on straight and his feet are on the ground," said David Wallace, the Captains' first-year manager, who managed Lindor at Mahoning Valley last season. "And, sadly to say, that's not all that common with first-round guys."
MLB.com ranks Lindor 32nd among its top 100 prospects. But Lindor, who came to the United States from Puerto Rico with his father at age 12, said he feels no extra pressure being a first-rounder and such a big investment.
"It doesn't really matter what round I was going to be," he said. "It could have been the 50th round. I have to go out there and prove myself, prove to the organization that I can play and let them know that they made the right decision in picking me."
The Captains open the season Thursday at Fort Wayne, Ind. Their home opener is April 12 against Bowling Green (Ky.), an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Catching up: Lakewood native and St. Edward High School standout catcher Alex Lavisky will start the season in Lake County again, splitting time -- again -- with All-Star Alex Monsalve. They will rotate behind the plate, at DH and maybe even at first base to keep their bats in the lineup, Wallace said.
Lavisky, whom the Indians drafted in the eighth round in 2010 (240th overall), struggled with the adjustment from high school ball to the minor leagues last season. He wound up at Mahoning Valley, hitting a combined 13 home runs, with 52 RBI and a batting average of just over .200.
Lavisky, sporting a fresh Mohawk, said having played a year -- which felt "like a whirlwind" -- has helped.
"I feel like definitely a better offensive and defensive player than last year, so I'm eager to get out there and compete," he said. "This year, being through a long season, I feel like I know what to expect."
Back home: Wallace, who replaces Ted Kubiak as manager, was an All-Star catcher for the Captains in 2003, their inaugural season. He guided Mahoning Valley to a 41-34 record in his first season as manager.
Tribe beats Carolina: Jason Donald homered and drove in five runs in the Cleveland Indians' 13-0 exhibition rout Tuesday of the Carolina Mudcats, their new Class A affiliate, in Zebulon, N.C.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Shelley Duncan each hit solo homers. Donald had a two-run single in the seventh and a three-run shot in the eighth. Starter Derek Lowe threw three strong innings in the Indians' stress-free final tuneup before their regular season opener Thursday against Toronto.
The 38-year-old Lowe looked healthy after leaving his last start early with tightness near his right ribcage. He looked fine this time, finishing with three strikeouts and no walks while retiring nine of 10 batters.
Cabrera's homer in the first came when he sent the first pitch he saw from Scott Barnes over the 20-foot wall in left.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/04/savvy_francisco_lindor_ready_f.html
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John Fogarty
It’s an indictment of inter-county Gaelic football right now that the greatest example of innovative play has been seen at club level.
What Tony McEntee and Gareth O’Neill have done with Crossmaglen in transforming them into a team that has literally put the boot back into football is nothing short of astounding.
The plaudits may have been slow to come from a slightly ignorant public who had long-held suspicions that Crossmaglen had hardly moved away from the physical style they had become so synonymous with.
But when they did, Crossmaglen was festooned with an avalanche of garlands.
What they provided against Dr Crokes and in the second-half of the first All-Ireland final game and the replay against Garrycastle was football everyone could enjoy.
Naturally, the stakes are higher at inter-county level but who would doubt McEntee and O’Neill bringing their endearing brand of football to the main stage when they eventually take the Armagh reins?
Those who love the game played the way it’s supposed to be will welcome them with open arms.
They'll be met with hungry eyes too. In a scene lacking a lot of original thought right now, their innovating ways would be plagiarised by plenty.
Such is the nature of the beast when a team is winning. Dublin do 6am training sessions. Donegal follow suit. Dublin’s goalkeeper kicks 45s. Step up a glut of net-minders to also try their luck.
Last year, Kerry began the practice of pushing Kieran Donaghy in for the throw-ins – are they that important to win? – before he took his more customary spot at full-forward or the alternative on the wing.
It certainly wasn’t an attempt to hoodwink the opposition.
If it was, they would have long stopped the switch by now.
And yet it’s become a fashion. In Pearse Stadium earlier this month, Kildare’s Tomás O’Connor went in for the start before moving to the edge of the square.
The change to the square ball rule may shortly compel teams to put bigger men at full-back to protect goalkeepers.
At the same time, it would encourage more physical full-forwards if it wasn’t already a predilection of managers.
Aidan Walsh is the latest midfielder to be stationed at full-forward.
For an established team like Cork, they don’t necessarily have to go back to the drawing board.
But for emerging teams, some thinking outside the box is required.
Last year, Wexford’s penchant for attacking football saw them burst through to a Leinster final.
Developed further this year, it could see them reap further dividends.
Of the All-Ireland challengers in this year’s league, only Tyrone have shown some real creativity with the idea of two centre-backs giving Peter Harte the licence to fly forward.
While the campaign has delivered little indication teams will line up like Donegal and replicate their blanket defence, that’s not to say they won’t come championship time.
After all, Donegal conceded 6-85 in their eight games in Division 2 in 2011 including the final win over Laois.
Over the course of their Ulster and All-Ireland campaigns, their meanness was known to all. Excluding the extra-time period against Kildare in their quarter-final, they coughed up just 1-50 in six games.
Jim McGuinness is in the results business and few can deny just how impressive he’s been over these past 12 months.
But is the game the fall guy? Speaking to the Irish Examiner earlier this month, Meath’s great full-back Mick Lyons said he doesn’t like watching inter-county football anymore.
“I don’t like the way the game has gone. I’m not one of these old players who says the game should be like it was back in the Sixties, Seventies or Eighties.
“I just think the GAA have lost the run of themselves in the rules. There’s more hand-passing in the game than there is kick-passing.
“You no longer have to be a footballer to play Gaelic football, just an athlete.
“Club football is far more entertaining. The players mightn’t be as talented but at least they’re not fearful of giving possession away.”
Lyons hit the nail on the head – it’s fear that governs a lot of what goes on in inter-county football now. Whoever has the ball will always be king but there is little trust placed in a player’s ability to kick it to a team-mate.
No, the hand-pass, the baser yet more reliable skill, is the transfer of choice. The sheer physicality of the modern day footballer and his ability to break tackles complements it perfectly.
Alas, such insecurity has made a hames of inter-county Gaelic football as a spectacle. Lyons is the voice of the disenchanted supporter who has turned away from it.
The best games these days aren’t necessarily those exhibiting the best football. Kildare and Donegal’s All-Ireland quarter-final last year was the stand-out affair of last season not because it was pretty on the eye. Those who remember the first-half will want to forget it just as quickly.
But the second-half and extra-time were utterly absorbing. It was pugilism. Not in the strictest sense of the word’s meaning but fascinating to see two of the fittest teams wear each other down.
Both teams are All-Ireland contenders again this year but the top tier remains Kerry, Cork and Dublin.
To join that pantheon requires something special. Copycatting or operating a blanket defence won't suffice. They are mere genuflections to the superiority of the trendsetters and traditionally strong counties.
No team is the same, managers have to work with what they’ve got and yet there will be a queue of teams who are willing to follow the crowd in the hope similar tactics can work for them.
With that alone, they won’t break the mould. Without ingenuity, the glass ceiling will remain intact.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/W39RmPDHbP0/post.aspx
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The newly elected MP for Bradford West strongly believes politics should not be secular, so why won't he say whether or not he is a Muslim?
Everyone complains that MPs these days are crashingly dull, but the recent return of one of the few who is not has given many people the vapours. Most of the Labour supporters I know regard George Galloway as something between a snake and a toad, and his recent victory a dark day for democracy. I don't know if this makes me more frivolous than them, or perhaps just less tribal, but for the life of me I cannot see it that way, Westminster being short on electrifyingly fearless maverick socialists. "Do you like him?" asked one friend, appalled and incredulous – and I do – but really it's more a question of enjoying him.
It has only been a fortnight since Galloway, 57, took his seat in the Commons, and already what theatre. He was sworn in to a deathly quiet chamber, but set the BBC's Question Time ablaze later that week, reviving the all-but-forgotten tradition of public debate as blood sport. Other dramas have been less predictable, if rather more farcical. Two days after winning Bradford West by a landslide, he wed his researcher, 30 years his junior, who he has known for six months, in an Islamic ceremony in Amsterdam. Three days later, the mother of his two sons – one of whom is just five months old – popped up, claiming that in the eyes of Islam he's still married to her. Then, last week, Jemima Khan declared in the New Statesman that Galloway converted to Islam in a London hotel 10 years ago, in a ceremony attended by someone she knew. The MP is always described as a Catholic, but under Islamic law, Khan pointed out, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim – and Galloway's new bride is his third Muslim wife. By teatime, threats of libel writs were flying, raising the surreal prospect of a scion of the Goldsmith dynasty disputing the finer points of Islamic theology with a socialist firebrand from Dundee. And so the bizarre caravan of sensation and suspicion that follows Galloway wherever he goes is back on the road.
When we met 10 days ago he had a more mundane matter on his mind, and it was easy to guess what, because I found him camped with his staff around a cafe table in the public foyer of Portcullis House, next to a sign saying: "George Galloway MP Office." With no office yet assigned, or security passes issued to his staff, the team and their picnic of laptops and coffee cut a comically renegade picture, which seems to both suit and insult the MP in equal measure: "Laughable, isn't it?" He suspects there's more to it than mere administrative oversight, and observes with offhand pride that "most people here probably half-fear, half-hate me". He couldn't care less though, he adds, because he has never been happier.
"Coming back in here was the best day of my life. The US Senate hearing [to which he gave evidence in 2005] was my greatest day, until 29 March. Winning that election on 29 March, in the way that we did, with the landslide that we did, was definitely the best day of my life." What is his ambition now? "I don't have any political ambitions at all."
Galloway may no longer fancy himself for foreign secretary, but soon he's talking excitedly about getting a Respect mayor elected this year. The fact that his party has so far failed to produce a single other household name – even Respect's leader, Salma Yaqoob, is hardly that – doesn't discourage him at all, though he concedes it is disappointing. "Although – to be honest with you – the party became extremely small."
Really? At times it has claimed a membership of 10,000. "We were never that big, actually," he admits. "At our height, we probably had 3-4,000 members. When we lost the three parliamentary seats in 2010 that we'd hoped to win, we became almost minuscule." How minuscule? "About 8-900 people." In fact, he goes on, "it was probably winding down," and had he not won in Bradford would probably be dead. Yet now: "Put your house on it – we will win the mayoralty of Bradford in November."
That's funny, I laugh, because last time we met, in 2006, he told me to put my house on Respect winning Tower Hamlets council. Galloway's predictions are the stuff of legend, delivered with grand declamatory flourishes, like declarations of war. "I'm the one that stood up and confronted Mrs Thatcher [in 1992]," he reminds me at one point, "and said, on the eve of the fall of Kabul [to the Islamist mujahideen]: 'I tell you now, you have opened the gates to the barbarians, and a long, dark night will now descend upon the people of Afghanistan.' That's what I said two days before the fall of Kabul." That's quite a feat of recall – and he was right then, but I have always wanted to know how such impregnable confidence can keep going when predictions are proved wrong, as his was in Tower Hamlets. The answer, it turns out, is quite easy – those ones are clean forgotten. "Did I? Did I predict that?" he blinks in surprise. "Oh well, I was wrong that time."
But in a beat he is pointing out all the times he has been right – about Iraq, about Afghanistan, about winning Bradford West. He has also been astonishingly astute when it comes to defamation suits – to the tune of about £3m, "though most of it went to the lawyers." Galloway's houses in Portugal and south London were largely paid for by newspapers unwise enough to provoke him, and he has never lost a libel case. I'm quite surprised he hasn't sued over all the press reports that he arrived at his Bradford victory party in a Hummer, for "as God's my judge," he swears, "I've never been in a Hummer, nor will I ever be in a Hummer." But I'm curious to hear what he thinks he has got wrong in his political career.
"Well, I have been too brutal in dealing in political argument, and that has, unnecessarily, made enemies." I have to say, it didn't look like a lesson he had taken too close to heart when he let rip on Question Time. "But my main political mistake, in retrospect, was that state ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, in which I believed, and for which I campaigned, was a false God." Is that painful to admit? "Yes. I'm not saying, at all, that everything in the private garden is rosy. There's just more flowers than there were in the state garden. I'm sorry to say that, and yes, it is painful."
Galloway's politics today would still be regarded as lunacy by the right, but may be closer to those of more on the left than Labour perhaps realises. Were he to wake up in No 10 tomorrow, "We would bring all our soldiers home from foreign wars – thus saving billions of pounds. We would scrap the renewal of Trident submarines. And we would pursue what Vince Cable said was the £100bn-a-year-plus tax avoidance and tax evasion industry. Thus, we'd have no deficit. If you do the maths, if we did those three things we not only would have no deficit, we'd be quids in. We'd be £80bn up."
I wonder what the markets would make of this solution. "But you once believed in it, Decca." The reproof is softly teasing, but disarming, calculated to invoke guilt – and for a moment it works, until I remember he knows next to nothing about me or my politics, and laugh. But in that moment I glimpse the force of his famous charisma. It takes a lot to get traditional Muslim women in niqabs out canvassing for a Scot who dressed up in a leotard and pretended to be a cat on Celebrity Big Brother. It's even harder to think of anyone else in Westminster who could carry it off.
He claims to be less confident than we might think, though. "I feel self-conscious among educated, upper-class people. Insecure and uncomfortable." Is that why he deploys a vocabulary that would shame all but the extended edition of Roget's Thesaurus? "I think that's right, yeah. I think that's right. I feel an under-educated, working-class person. And, therefore, in the presence of some well-educated, upper-class people, I can feel uncomfortable and insecure."
How else does that feeling manifest itself? After a long, thoughtful pause, he says quietly: "Wishing I weren't there; wishing I could turn round and go away; wishing the ground would swallow me up."
I'm pretty sure that's why he boasts so much. He's a lot less self-aggrandising than the last time we met – but back then he had just emerged from the Big Brother house, so was probably feeling less secure than he does now. In fact, he says a lot of things that don't accord with his reputation. For example, he is frequently portrayed as a rogue for whom the ends always justify the means – but despite winning 75% of the postal vote in Bradford West, he is campaigning for postal voting to be banned.
"We are totally against postal voting on demand. Postal votes used to be something you got when you literally could not get to the polls; now they're available on demand and, once granted, are yours for ever. So large numbers of postal votes are delivered to places where the person no longer is. Large numbers of them are collected, unfilled-in, by these biradari chiefs," an Urdu word meaning clan seniors. "It's a kind of ritual that they bring votes to the candidate to show them: "Look, I'm bringing in 20 votes; that's 20 votes for you – I'm bringing that in.'" How can he be so sure?
"Well, I know it because they offered to do it to me. Yeah, and I said: 'I don't want to see anybody's vote, and I don't want you to see anybody's vote.' Now, I don't know that they filled them in, rather than the voter, but it's a fair inference; it's a fair inference if someone has got 20 votes in their pocket to take to the town hall, that they were either visibly observing the person filling the vote in – which is wrong, and I think illegal – or filled them in themselves. This happens in Asian areas on a widespread basis, and it is the antithesis of democracy." Does he think some of his own votes came that way? "It's possible, because people offered to show me other people's votes. So I redouble my call for postal voting on demand to be scrapped."
Galloway's views on Arab dictators may also come as a surprise to those who conflate condemnation of "Blair's liberal intervention foreign policy" with support for despotism. The confusion is hardly surprising, given that Galloway has, for example, both denounced President Assad of Syria as a "puppet dictator" and praised him as "the last Arab leader".
"I'm against all these Arab dictators," he says emphatically. "But you can't say: 'I'm against it because it's a dictatorship, therefore I don't care if Britain and America invades it.' If they do, nothing will get better, and everything will get worse." For Galloway, nothing can be worse than western military intervention, and he doesn't even want to say where he hopes the Arab spring will lead. "They're not requiring yours or my approbation." The weather doesn't require my approbation, I agree – but that doesn't mean I can't hope for a sunny weekend. "I hope that Arabs don't choose the path of fundamentalism. However, I think they will. I suspect they are going to – and we just have to make the best of it. In the end, it's nothing to do with me."
Galloway has an answer for everything, and yet there is something unknowable about him – which is partly why he annoys so many people. He himself was floored by a mystery recently, though, when he came home one day and found all the ties in his bedroom had been moved.
"I have a sword, given to me in Saudi Arabia or somewhere, so I unsheathed my sword, and went upstairs [to the top floor]. There was no one there, but there was a bottle of gin – which, of course, would never be in my house," Galloway being a life-long teetotaller. "And a gay video, which definitely would never be in my house. So the police came, and they said this person appears to have been living here in your house for some time."
The secret lodger had broken in through an upstairs window; Galloway has no idea who it was, but is urging me to "emphasise that no one can do it now because I've got CCTV and alarms and so on" when the division bell goes off. "I must vote! I must vote, for fear of the media!" In his previous post as MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, his abysmal voting record was cited by critics as proof that he doesn't do his job. But he points out indignantly: "Voting is not the same as attendance." Representing neither the government nor opposition, "I have no means of voting an abstention. You just don't vote, and then you look like you weren't here. But as I always said, the CCTV cameras prove I'm here every day." And off he strides to vote, proud and alone.
We had talked a great deal about the role of religion in politics, and could not have disagreed more. I thought it outrageous to urge voters in Bradford, as he did, to vote for him or fear the wrath of judgment day. Galloway can't see the problem at all: "I believe that, on judgment day, people have to answer for what they did." When I ask if he is troubled that many voters thought he had converted to Islam, he replies: "Well, I don't think many of them are interested in my religion" – which is pretty rich, considering he put out a leaflet all about which candidate was more of a Muslim. Contrary to every report I've read, he doesn't deny writing the leaflet himself. I think he is ludicrously slippery about invoking religion, playing it both ways to suit his own purposes, but, as he says, we are never going to agree because he doesn't think politics should be secular. "So it's apples and pears, dear."
He never, however, gave any indication that he was anything other than the Catholic he was born and raised. After the New Statesman article appears, we speak again. "I didn't tell you that I'm a Catholic," he reminds me – and, parsing the transcript, I realise he never explicitly did, though he certainly allowed that impression to go unqueried. Does he believe in Allah? "I believe in God." Is he a Catholic or a Muslim? "I'm not discussing my personal religious beliefs." But we had talked for ever about the importance of his religious beliefs to his politics. Why won't he say what they are? "It's not necessary."
The magazine claims he did not deny that the conversion ceremony took place. Galloway says his denial is on tape – and so now he is going to sue the New Statesman. "Not because converting to Islam is defamatory. But calling me a liar is." And so the great Galloway soap opera is back once again, a Technicolor melodrama as complicated and compelling and crazy as ever.
"To be honest, I never felt that I would never be back. And I don't feel like I've been away."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/29/george-galloway-interview-bradford-west
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