Reilly: The culture of athlete tats

Reilly: The culture of athlete tats

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Béisbol es mi deporte favorito

Percentage of non-U.S.-born players near record
Associated Press

NEW YORK — The percentage of major league baseball players born outside the 50 states increased slightly to a near record level.
Of the 849 players on rosters at the start of the season, 246 were born outside the 50 states, the commissioner's office said Tuesday. That comes to 29 per cent, up from 27.4 percent last year and near the record 29.2 per cent set in 2005.
The Dominican Republic had the most non-U.S. players with 98, followed by Venezuela (51), Puerto Rico (28), Canada (19), Japan and Mexico (13 each), Panama (seven), Cuba (six), South Korea (three), Colombia and Taiwan (two apiece), and Aruba, Australia, Curacao and Nicaragua (one apiece).
The New York Mets (15) had the most foreign-born players for the second straight year and were followed by the New York Yankees (13) and Boston, Minnesota and Seattle (12).
There were 3,098 of 6,701 minor leaguers born outside the 50 states, with the percentage rising to 46.2 percent from 45.1 last year.
The pool included players on opening-day rosters and disabled lists, suspended New York Mets reliever Guillermo Mota and two players called up before Monday's openers, Cincinnati pitcher Victor Santos and Philadelphia pitcher Joe Bisenius

Michael Irvin's comments don't figure into Romo's success
David Whitley
The Orlando Sentinel

Don't tell Bill Parcells, but Tony Romo is currently the NFL's best quarterback.
Don't tell Michael Irvin, but it's not because Romo has black ancestors.
And whatever you do, don't tell ESPN that Irvin has no business pretending to be Charles Darwin.
If you're a little confused, bear with me. We came to Dallas to cover a Tampa Bay game. We got one of the biggest stories of the NFL season, along with one of the most under-reported.
The biggest continues to be Romo. The Bucs made him look like Roger Staubach. Or he made the Bucs look like Chernobyl High. Either way, five touchdown passes added up to a Thanksgiving Day Massacre.
"He made us look really bad," Ronde Barber said.
Four games ago, Romo was a nondescript backup who'd never started a game. Now fans are hanging his name in the Cowboys Ring of Honor next to deities such as Dorsett, Hayes and the aforementioned Dr. Irvin.
How did a fourth-year nobody from Eastern Illinois become a pro sensation?
"I just try to execute," he said.
That's the kind of nice, modest explanation you've heard countless times. Then there is Irvin's explanation, which you probably haven't heard once.
"Somewhere there are some brothers. . . . (Maybe) his great, great, great, great Grandma ran over in the hood or something went down."
That's what Irvin said Monday on the Dan Patrick radio show. The host then asked Irvin if having black ancestry was the only way to be a great athlete.
"No, that's not the only way, but it's certainly one way. Great, great, great, great Grandma pulled one of them studs up outta the barn."
It should be noted that Irvin was cackling throughout. It should also be noted that doesn't matter.
Some things you just can't joke about in this day and age. At least you can't if you're, let's be honest here, the color of Romo's great, great, great, great Grandma.
Jimmy the Greek, Al Campanis, you know what happened to them when they offered their views on genealogy. Michael Richards went Klansman at a comedy club last week and his diatribe was a YouTube sensation almost before he got offstage.
Irvin's comedy routine wasn't nearly as incendiary, but didn't it warrant some attention? Other than minor Internet mention, it's gotten almost zero run, even though he did it on a national radio show.
Maybe it's just coincidence that show is part of the ESPN Empire, and that Irvin is one of the networks more recognizable characters. That's not necessarily a good thing, since a lot of viewers would rather watch a Bucs scrimmage than endure one of Irvin's 120-decibel commentaries.
Whatever the reason, there's been no comment from ESPN, much less an apology/explanation from Michael the Greek. There's no need to comment, of course, since the incident hasn't made ESPN, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN.com, ESPN Texas Hold `Em or any of the other tentacles.
It shows you the danger of media conglomeration. These days if it's not on the Worldwide Leader, it never happened.