Showing posts with label Rachel Nichols. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rachel Nichols. Show all posts

Thursday, May 3, 2012

WaPo's Tom Boswell rejoices in Bryce Harper's success -and normalcy- amidst media hoopla. His enthusiastic old-time attitude, and all that sheer talent, may keep the 19-year old in the majors after all



LucianM55 video: Nineteen-year old Washington Nationals rookie outfielder Bryce Harper plays softball at the Washington Monument on The National Mall on his first day in Washington as part of the 25-man roster. April 30, 2012. http://youtu.be/Tuc7_4HkYsU


ESPN video: E:60 correspondent Rachel Nichols profiles Nevada high school baseball player Bryce Harper, August 12, 2009.  http://youtu.be/zLV8FpFXOMo

WaPo's Tom Boswell rejoices in Bryce Harper's success -and normalcy- amidst media hoopla. His enthusiastic old-time attitude, and all that sheer talent, may keep the 19-year old in the majors after all. 
Better suited to Southeast D.C. than Syracuse!


From 1993-94, I was on the first DNG -Democrats of a New Generation- softball team in the coed Congressional softball league that played its games on The National Mall in the evenings.
DNG was the Under-35 vanguard of the National Democratic Club, back when they had a very nice three-story building of their own on Ivy Street, S.E., just east of the Democratic National Committee's HQ, http://www.democrats.org/ at 430 S. Capitol St. S.E.


Despite all the games we played, though, I only recall us actually playing one game near the Washington Monument, where this video at the top was shot. 
Because of the sloping topography of The Mall as you got closer to the Washington Monument, that often meant that depending upon which field we were on -and I use the term field loosely, because it's all grass- as a center fielder, when I backpedaled I could be going uphill or downhill!
That could produce lots of unexpected drama!



View Larger Map



My favorite field was the area closest to the merry-go-round over near The Smithsonian Castle, though like all games there in between the fabulous museums that I loved, we always had to be aware of all the distracted tourists walking near us/me in the outfield, on the gravel pathways, while the team batting always had to have someone positioned near their gravel pathway to be alert for foul balls going towards unsuspecting people on their side of the 'diamond' to YELL!
Lots and lots of near-misses!!!


(I also helped design the logo we used on our white t-shirts, which I'd love to show you here but won't because I'm afraid it will quickly be stolen and appropriated for others to use if I do, not unlike many photos from the blog that have been used illegally in campaign ads and in Internet advertising the past few years, a matter I will be addressing soon. The design was based on a wonderful button I'd been given by a member of the Beverly Hills Young Democrats in 1978 at the National YD Convention in a hotel on Miami Beach, where I was one of the main Dade County Young Dems working as a staffer to try to keep all the balls in the air and all of our guest happy and safe. The t-shirt design involved a profile of a donkey, included red, white and blue, of course, and even had a field of stars, and was positioned above the left breast. I was, of course,  delighted that everyone who ever saw it immediately loved it and wanted one.)


To quote myself from a previous South Beach Hoosier blog post about the DNG:
Back when Donald Riegel of Michigan was the committee chairman, the Banking Committee's coed softball team nickname was "The Bank Robbers," and Sen. Riegel would actually come to their games on The Mall, not just his own office's softball games. People really DO notice and appreciate little things like that, you know? I know I certainly did whenever I would see them playing and see him checking it out for a bit..
In my opinion, that particular Comm. staff might've been the one with THE best possible combination of the friendliest , smartest and most-attractive women on The Hill, which is only part of why I seemed to have to swing by there a lot when I was on the senate side of the Hill.

I've watched two of the games that Bryce Harper has played in thus far, including his debut last Friday at Dodger Stadium and he is as advertised -a five-tool player with an old-time attitude, right down to wearing his pants up, exposing his sanitary hose, like I prefer to see, instead of hanging past your shoes a la Manny Ramirez, a sloppy look I hate.


Personally, because of my love for the game, I really hope Harper stays up for the whole year, because he is the best antidote I've seen yet to the Hanley Ramirezes of the world, and from a selfish perspective, I'd like to see him play a few times in person both here in Miami when he comes down to play the Marlins, and when I head-up to the Washington area this summer for a visit for a bit with family and friends before heading overseas for a while to get away from the daily heat, humidity and rain.


The Washington Post
Bryce Harper might not be ready for Major League Baseball, but don’t bet on it
By Thomas Boswell
May 1, 2012
You might think a teenager in blue jeans and a ball cap might go unnoticed but, as Harper admitted: “They see the rat tail and the tattoos. I think they can notice that.”
So the Nationals’ already famous rookie, who made his home debut on Tuesday night, going 0 for 3 in a 5-1 loss, was asked to take a few swings in the casual pickup game.
Read the rest of the article at:

Reader comments at:
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Archive of Thomas Boswell's columns:

Washington Post video: Mascot hopefuls enter 'presidential race' February 19, 2012

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Anna Poslavska, 2010 Miss Ukraine, has a doppelgänger who frequently hits the Panera in Hallandale Beach; Maria Sharapova in The Ukraine



Anna Poslavska - Miss Universe 2010 (performance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74fvpBu4BXU

Anna Poslavska, the 2010 Miss Ukraine, above, has a drop-dead gorgeous doppelgänger who frequently hits the Panera Bread in Hallandale Beach, the same one that I frequently patronize, hence my stealthy detective work here.

Actually, truth be told, it's hard NOT to see her when she's around.

Photos at http://www.missuniverse.com/members/profile/468746

Yes, in Hallandale Beach, scene of so much unspeakable undemocratic negativity at City Hall under the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew, we'll take our small victories where we find 'em!


November 26, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of Panera Bread, Hallandale Beach, and one of the two condo towers of The Duo north of it.

As it is, with the the popular Russian restaurant/nightclub Tatiana across the street on Hallandale Beach Blvd., the Panera is already a very popular spot for Russians in northeast Miami-Dade and southeast Broward County, as any weekend afternoon trip there -like yesterday's, for example- proves when you hear the Russian words flying around on cell phones and among people who at least appear to be speaking via Skype with their headphones on. (Unless they're practicing with their Rosetta Stone language DVDs.)


There's also lots of cute and friendly Russian-speaking female employees there, though I suppose that some of them could actually be Ukrainian like
Se
ñorita Poslavska.
It's sort of hard not to notice the good-looks and the Cyrillic letters flying all around you.

What sort of friend would I be if I didn't mention this fact to you?


I really have a great facility with languages, if you hadn't noticed, but I must admit that I can't tell the difference between someone speaking Russian and Ukrainian.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/up.html


Now if only
Maria Sharapova would swing by there some afternoon or evening when I'm there with some friends.

You know, in the name of Pan-Slavic cooperation?


If you didn't know, right before she was born, Russian Sharapova's parents lived about 100 miles from the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor in The Ukraine. They fled months after the 1986 explosion due to the deteriorating health conditions all around them while Maria's mother was pregnant with her, which is how Maria came to be born in western Siberia.

Yes, a photo with Maria is exactly what this blog needs!

Maria's forthcoming website is at http://www.mariasharapova.com/

Maria was the focus of a terrific mid-August segment on ABC News' Nightline that I've been waiting to post here on the blog when there was a good reason. Now there is.
It's the second of three segments and starts at 07:34
. I'd recommend going Fullscreen.



ABC News Nightline, August 17, 2010
Out of the Ashes: Maria Sharapova
Reporting: ESPN's Rachel Nichols

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/nightline-081710-11425198


Perhaps even a photo taken with me and my friend Csaba, who for months I've strongly been hinting must start a good quality Hungarian restaurant and nightclub here in HB somewhere, so that good Eastern European food -and the platoon of Eastern European models down in South Beach who hunger for it- will have a place to call home where family and friends can go and relax over a good meal.

In the late 1970's, when I was at NMB High School, there was what was reputed to be a great Hungarian restaurant in North Miami on Biscayne Blvd. -near the Wax Museum- called something like Csarda's.
It always smelled intoxicating and delicious when my family drove past it.

I also remember it because the first time I ever went there, that very same week, my theater class at school got a brand new student with a Hungarian name, who rather instantly became one of the five most beautiful girls at NMB.


She had that whole friendly-yet-mesmerizing Eastern European good-looking thing going on from the very start, such a stark contrast to the girls at NMB.

Like, well, Czech-born model
Petra Němcová: very sweet, very genuine and instantly likable!

And, this new student with the very Hungarian name sat in the seat next to me in class, hence my recall for all things Hungarian!


In all my conversations with
Csaba, whether on the phone while he was up near Cleveland over the summer, when I filled him in on the latest behind-the-scenes antics at HB City Hall, or over a meal at Panera's since he got back, I've insisted that this new hotspot be called
Club Csaba.
Hmm-m-m... developing...


Panera Bread #4705
1729 East Hallandale Beach Boulevard,
Hallandale Beach, FL 33009-4621
Telephone: (954) 457-9310


Tatiana Russian Restaurant & Nightclub

1710 East Hallandale Beach Boulevard, Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
Telephone: (954) 454-1222

http://fltatianarestaurant.com/index1.html