Wednesday, June 07, 2006

2-for-1

1. Here's a contract dispute, football player style:

[T]he two athletes wrote out a crude contract that stipulated that Portis would pay Ohalete $40,000 in three payments during the season. The agreement was signed and witnessed by an equipment manager, in accordance with ancient tradition.
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Portis, believing Ohalete’s prior claim on the jersey number was voided after Ohalete left the team, has not paid Ohalete the final two installments of $10,000 that are stipulated in the contract. Ohalete disagrees, and he likely has contract law backing him up, provided the courts recognize something that was probably written on a napkin in the presence of a guy who collects jockstraps a “contract.”

2. Fowl ball (forgive the pun):

The Bisons were batting in the bottom of the 11th inning when the seagull flew between the mound and home plate just as Durham reliever Jason Childers released the ball.

The ball knocked the seagull to the ground.
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Umpires conferred on the bizarre happenings and ruled play should have stopped as soon as the bird was hit.


This is not the first time, though:
During an exhibition game in 2001, Randy Johnson threw a pitch for Arizona that killed a dove as it flew in front of the batter.

In 1983, Dave Winfield, then with the New York Yankees, threw a ball that hit a seagull at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Winfield was charged with cruelty to animals, a charge that was dropped the next day.

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