Free Republic

CLEVELAND -- American League All-Star Game starter Justin Verlander told ESPN on Monday that the balls used in Major League Baseball games this season are "a f---ing joke" and that he believes "100 percent" that the league has implemented juiced balls to increase offense. "It's a f---ing joke," said Verlander, an eight-time All-Star who is starting his second All-Star Game on Tuesday. "Major League Baseball's turning this game into a joke. They own Rawlings, and you've got Manfred up here saying it might be the way they center the pill. They own the f---ing company. If any other $40 billion...

Astros pitcher and American League All-Star Justin Verlander is convinced that baseball’s ongoing surge of home runs is not only the result of a more aerodynamic baseball, but is the result of a baseball that has been intentionally juiced during manufacturing in order to produce more offense. Verlander told ESPN on Monday that the ball is “a f*king joke” and “it’s not coincidence” that the ball is flying farther now that its manufacturer is owned by Major League Baseball.

A North Texas man wants to rename sections of two local freeways that bear the name of a past Democrat Dallas mayor who was a prominent member of the Ku Klux Klan. He kickstarted a campaign to sway city officials into renaming the roadways to honor former President Barack Obama. “African Americans, Hispanics, everyone, whites, should be insulted that we have a freeway named after a former Klansman,” said James Dunn, a former teacher and black activist, according to CBS DFW. He started an online petition this week, reportedly, in response to the recent violence that broke out in Charlottesville,...

Fox News reporter Leland Vittert got into a heated — and eventually physical — confrontation with activist and MSNBC host Al Sharpton, when the latter tried to keep him from questioning Democratic Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “We can’t ask questions?” Vittert challenged her. “You are a public official and we can’t ask questions?” “You will have the opportunity,” Sharpton said. “Then you’ll answer our questions?” he pressed. “At the press conference, we will answer all questions,” Sharpton said. But as Vittert kept tailing them, a second man stepped between the reporter and the mayor and began pushing him away. Sharpton...

<p>I was mad at the State. I was mad at the county. I was mad at the city. I was mad at myself. I was mad at each team member. I was mad at Presbyterian.</p> <p>The idiot 'RAT mayor, among those who have accelerated the descent of Dallas to a third world cesspool is right. He's scared and he is MAD, as in insane. What an idiot but so typical of leftists.</p>

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is making a direct appeal to potential tourists and convention planners who may be having second thoughts about travel to the city that has become the epicenter of Ebola in America..

Monitoring hundreds of millions of phone records is an extraordinary invasion of privacy. When Americans expressed outrage last week over the seizure and surveillance of Verizon's client data by the National Security Agency, President Obama responded: "In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother . . . but when you actually look at the details, I think we've struck the right balance." How many records did the NSA seize from Verizon? Hundreds of millions. We are now learning about more potential mass data collections by the government from other communications and online companies. These are the "details," and few...

Nearly 20 years ago, Rawlings Sporting Goods closed its baseball assembly plant in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and completed a move to its other factory in Costa Rica. Rawlings cited Haiti’s political instability for idling about 1,000 workers. Now, almost a month after the earthquake that caused innumerable deaths and widespread suffering and devastation, does Rawlings have a duty to send some business back to Haiti? Major League Baseball should prod Rawlings, its official baseball supplier since 1977, to consider such a move as one way to try to help Haiti. But Bud Selig & Company can no more demand that Rawlings...

Michael Vick lost another sponsor Rawlings. The sports goods company said Tuesday it was ending its relationship with the Atlanta Flacons quarterback because of dogfighting conspiracy charges. "Rawlings recognizes that Mr. Vick has not been convicted of the charges stemming from his recent indictment," the St. Louis company said. "However, we have determined that ending our relationship with Mr. Vick at this time is necessary."

ITHACA NY--In accordance with a federal bill passed last May, Cornell celebrated its first Constitution Day on Friday. Interim President Hunter R. Rawlings III and Prof. Isaac Kramnick, the R.J. Schwartz Professor of Government, used the opportunity to speak about America’s guiding document and President Bush’s departure from it. The requirement that all educational institutions receiving federal funds from the Department of Education hold an annual educational program on the Constitution came as part of an appropriations bill in the Spring. The proposal was forwarded by U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.). Rawlings and Kramnick discussed the importance of separation...

Former Ghanaian President Denies Murder Allegations Carrie Giardino Abidjan 12 Feb 2004, 21:36 UTC AP Former Ghanaian president Jerry Rawlings has denied allegations he was involved in the abduction and murders of three high court judges and a retired army officer while he was in office. This is the first time Mr. Rawlings has appeared before Ghana's reconciliation commission to testify about the murder of three judges and an army officer back in 1982. He was specifically called before the commission to testify about the existence of taped confessions made by the convicted murderers. Of the five men who were...

In Basra and in Baghdad, the people celebrate, but in Clio, Mich., and in Rawlings, Md., they mourn. The Pentagon has released the identities of four more American servicemen killed in Iraq. They are from Clio, Rawlings, Pendleton, Ore., and Birmingham, Ala., and they include one man who was on the telephone with his wife 30 minutes before an enemy shell destroyed the command post where he was working. That was Army Spc. George A. Mitchell of Rawlings, who told his wife he thought he might apply for a deputy's job at the county sheriff's office when he returned. "He...