Results tagged “softball”

Whew! We're so glad all those officials said that our bridges are safe. What's that? You meant safe to drive ON, not UNDER? Oh!! Silly us, our mistake. Thanks for clearing that up. The Tobin Bridge, Boston Authorities were clued in to a potential problem when Dan French of Londonderry, N.H., said last month a softball sized-chunk of concrete smashed his 25-foot boat's windshield. The debris from the Tobin Bridge has not hit anyone,...

Last month controversy erupted surrounding an invitation extended President Jimmy Carter to speak at Brandeis. The invitation was extended by a trustee with the suggestion that he make Waltham a stop on his book tour and have a little debate with Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Carter gave the idea a thanks but no thanks response. Carter’s newest book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid was publicly criticized by Dershowitz who has asserted that the former President is taking a critical look at Israel while ignoring other, and according to Dershowitz more significant, human rights problems in Saudi Arabia. While the initial invitation was twice declined, a new invitation was extended to Carter by faculty and students. Their invitation was to speak and take questions, but Dershowitz was not on the table. The group is looking to increase a dialog about the Israeli-Palestine conflict on campus, an issue on which Carter’s perspective is not presented with regularity. Carter has agreed to make an appearance at Brandeis under these conditions.

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the...

Well, the weather outside is frightful . . . and what to do? Our office softball team (the embarassingly named Attorneys at Bat) is slated to start its season tomorrow (against another name-challenged team, the Summit Sea Monsters); we've already optimistically stowed away our cold weather clothes and heavy blankets; and now, annoyingly, the New England spring is going all ODB on us (that is, raw). So what's poor Bostonist to do until the sun comes back on Wednesday?

The All-Star festivities began in earnest tonight as Phillies right fielder Bobby Abreu demolished the competition with 41 home runs, in total, to win the Home Run Derby. Not only did Bobby tear the covering off the baseball most often, he is the owner of this year's farthest traveled ball as well - a mammoth 517 feet. Chicks, indeed, do love the long ball, Bobby. Our own Big Papi, David Ortiz, showed up to mash as well and while he put 17 into the Comerica bleacher seats in round 1, he fell a little short in round 2 with only 3 dingers. No worries though, Bostonist says, save it for the game that "counts" - tonight's marquee All-Star game.

With the oppressive pseudo-summer turning back to comfortable spring for a few days before summer actually begins, Bostonist's thoughts are turning to the weekend and to upcoming holidays and events. (Ordinarily, we would say that the beginning of summer is a good reason to celebrate, but we have the impression that everyone's pretty much fed up with summer for now.) If you work in Suffolk County, you probably have Friday off in honor of Bunker Hill Day, which commemorates, oddly, a loss by the revolutionary army to the hated redcoats. Why do we celebrate a loss? Well, for the same reason that Bostonist's softball team thinks fondly of the game three weeks ago in which we were defeated 17-12: it was a close loss and showed we could actually play (unlike our other three losses, which featured the invocation of the mercy rule). The Battle of Bunker Hill (which, as third-grade history teachers are surely reminding us right now, was actually fought on Breed's Hill) showed the British that the Americans had some fight in them and were not going to be easily defeated. (It was also the occasion on which General William Prescott is said to have advised his troops, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," which is somehow evocative of underdog toughness.) If that strikes you as insufficient motivation for a day off, you clearly aren't well acquainted with Boston's special relationship with paid holidays.

With summer suddenly and oppressively upon us, there is a natural inclination to turn our attention to outdoor activities. However, in light of Bostonist's interest in all things hip and youthful (Bostonist, like Wu-Tang, is for the kids), we will not focus on softball, mini golf, or croquet. Instead, we offer a primer on that hip-to-death-to-the-point-of-being-over subset of cycling, the fixed-gear bike.

Spring is in the air, the sun is finally shining, our softball team is posting losses on a weekly basis (although Bostonist went 4-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored last night), and it's the time when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of . . . safety. Yes, June is National Safety Month (along with Aphasia Awareness Month, Scleroderma Awareness Month, Myasthenia Gravis (?!) Awareness Month, Vision Research Month, and Fireworks Safety Month (we would have guessed July, but go figure)). It may seem cruel to urge caution on the populace just as warm nights and budding flowers seem to call for happy abandon, but perhaps that is why the good folks at the National Safety Council chose this month. In any event, their website is full of shocking - shocking! - statistics that will surely convince you to abandon risky behavior at all costs (Bostonist's favorite: "45% of injury-related deaths happen to workers while off the job." Could this be because workers spend about 45% of their waking hours off the job? We can't say, but best to be careful). The news of late offers some object lessons in the importance of safety: there are weird, foreign STDs in our city, so practice safe sex (even though April is Sexually Transmitted Diseases Awareness month); there are also careless drivers all over our roads, so wear your helmet when cycling (although May is national Bicycle Safety Month, December is Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month, and Drive Safely Work Week is in October); and, appropriately for Safety Month, ultimate fighting is too dangerous for Boston (and snide political commentary is too dangerous for Somerville). But the weather really is beautiful, with highs this weekend promised to be in the 80s (!) and rain practically banished from the Commonwealth until next week at least. So get out there are enjoy springtime, but BE CAREFUL.