Weekly Blog Kiosk 4/27/2008

"Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago." -Bernard Berenson

• Zach Hample shows off his giant glove at the Rays game in Disney World.

• Baseball as national religion.

  I am ready to urge the claims of international baseball as capable of arousing far more national religious fervor than the more monotonous game of armaments and war.

  From 1919.
  
• Andy at "Things Done To Cards" tries his hand at Menger Sponge Baseball card folding.
• Over the past couple of years we have learned so much about Russell Martin. His childhood, upbringing and leadership on the field have been out in the open for all to examine. I was sure there wasn't much more to know until I found the below story. Several years ago Russell was mugged.

  Late one night in the summer of 2005 he was sitting on a stoop with minor league teammate Beau Dannemiller, trying to cheer up the struggling reliever, when two thieves approached, one wielding a gun. The pair demanded wallets and car keys. "Beau just started getting angry, like he was going to do something," Martin says. "And I'm like, 'Beau, O.K. man, relax.' You never know how you're going to react in a situation like that, but I was so calm. Gave them my wallet and the keys to my buddy's Escalade. They told us to get behind the bushes, so I did." Once Martin was camouflaged by the shrubs, he sprinted away, en route scaling a six-foot fence, which is why you have to love those catchers who run well. He says the thieves were never caught. "The next day I was like, Wow, you never know what might happen to you at any given time. I was just happy to be alive and playing baseball. This was the turning point of my life. You realize how fragile it is, so why not give a little extra effort and have fun with what you're doing?"

  Story Link: petiteleague:

• Considering the current state of the Dodgers this new Dodger blog arrives just in time. Say hello to Dodger Rage!
• NASA just released the largest collection of Hubble telescope pics of universes colliding.