Gettin' western at the diamond

I love to go see the Missions play, and I've seen some pretty exciting games. But I don't think I have ever seen anything quite this exciting at Wolff Stadium.

[Cody] Decker's three-run, eighth-inning homer was the difference in the Missions' 6-5 triumph over the Frisco RoughRiders, but it turned out that was only the beginning of what ended up as one of the wildest games in the franchise's 106-year history.

Before it was over, the small crowd of 2,153 witnessed a controversial ninth inning and a brief but frightening melee between Frisco players and a handful of unruly fans immediately after the game.

During the disturbance, heated words were exchanged. A trash can and bats were tossed into the stands by Frisco players from in front of their dugout, then back at the players by the fans.

By the time the dust had settled, at least three fans were handcuffed and detained by police.

(from the Express-News)

Puro San Antonio.



Photo Bob Owen/rowen@express-news.net

The King?

Or just another rey feo?




You decide.

Not quite getting the concept

It would be too bad if you were to have a disagreement with your adult son, and it would be even worse if that bad blood degraded into criminal acts.

But it would be somewhat good if your offspring were too dense to know how to do any real damage.

SAN ANTONIO -- An east side man and his roommate face criminal charges stemming from an incident outside the man's mother's home involving a Molotov cocktail.

Albert Rivas, 26, and his roommate, Todd Smith, 33, each face one count of possession of an incendiary device in connection with the April 21 incident.

San Antonio arson investigators described the device in an arrest affidavit as a beer can filled with flammable liquid with a burning cloth sticking out of the top. [emphasis gleefully added]

(from KSAT-12)

The son and his friend also threw rocks at his mother's house. Nice people.

Calling B.S. on a talking point

Some busybodies want you to feel guilty for using disposable diapers, so they organized this publicity stunt.

Dirty diapers can be a mess not only for parents, but also for landfills — a problem participants brought awareness to by setting a Guinness World Record on Saturday for the most cloth diapers changed at the same time.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2011, organized by a group of cloth diaper enthusiasts, had 400 sites across 24 countries help set the record. San Antonio supported the cause with 73 baby/parent pairs participating.

Using cloth diapers instead of disposables is better for the environment, safer for babies and cheaper, said Kim Webb, the committee chair for the San Antonio site, held at a La Quinta Inn & Suites.

(from the Express-News)

But the main reason I bring this up is not to give them publicity (which I most definitely have, I admit) but to draw attention to this little talking point.

“It can take hundreds of years for diapers to decompose in a landfill,” Webb said.

Really? How does she know?

I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know how anyone can determine that it will take hundreds of years for an item to decompose when that item hasn't even been in existence for one hundred years. My complaint may sound silly, but I find claims like this to be flippant, as in frivolously disrespectful and shallow. Every time I hear something like this -- and it's always from an environmentalist that wants me to change the way I live my life -- my bullshit meter shoots to the red. I can't help thinking they are throwing out an arbitrary number to scare anyone in earshot because they don't think they can win the debate by the merits of their arguments alone. Why else would they use such a tactic?

Hundreds of years in a landfill before a diaper breaks down? Bullshit. Five hundred years for a styrofoam cup? Bullshit. One thousand years for a plastic bag? Absolute bullshit! (Take note, City Council.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for reducing waste where practical and for generally not dirtying up the air we breathe or the water we drink. But let's be reasonable, and let's propose new ways of reducing pollution and disposing of trash without resorting to crap statistics that cannot be proven or disproven for another couple of centuries.

(Crossposted at Painted Ocean.)

"2 Injured After Car Flies Over Interstate"

Wow. They missed their calling.

The crash happened around 2:30 a.m. on Hackberry Road.

According to police, the driver was going more than 90 mphour before he reached a dead end at Hackberry and Interstate 35.

Officers said that's when the car hit the curb, flew over the center median of the interstate, a guardrail, three lanes of traffic and an access road.

The car finally came to a stop after it hit an embankment and rolled several times, police said.

(from KSAT-12)

I'm glad no one else was hurt, and I certainly hope those two pull through and straighten out their lives. And then I hope they apply for jobs as stunt drivers.

Take a look at this.



That's IH-35, and the orange marked bits are where Hackberry Street dead-ends onto the access road of the highway. (Yes, that's a school bus on the bottom access road, there.)

Now picture a car hitting that embankment so hard it clears the lanes of traffic.

Wow. Ninety miles an hour will do that, I suppose.

Car crashes into house

The vehicles will smash your house, and they will crash your fence, and they absolutely will not let you sleep at night.

The Vargas family said it was just like any other night. They were sleeping -- until the entire house shook.

It was reportedly a man in a minivan who crashed into the side of their west-side home. That driver put his vehicle in reverse and left.

San Antonio police got the call about the accident after 4 a.m. Wednesday at the corner of Potosi and SW 21.

When officers arrived, the van was gone. However, the damage was clear, and parts of the suspected vehicle were strewn about the scene.

(from KENS-5)

This minivan was quite the efficient crasher; it took out an air conditioner and another vehicle, too. And then it just left.

I think it was up to no good.

"Teenager dies after accidentally shooting himself in the head"

This may have been an accident, but it could have been so easily avoided.

It happened at about 1:30 am Saturday morning on the 300 block of South San Gabriel. Police say a group of teens had gathered in a vacant lot in the area. At some point 16-year-old Joe Tenorio pulled out a gun. Police believe he may have pointed it at his head and accidentally pulled the trigger.

(from WOAI-TV)

Let me say it again: Russian roulette is not a cool game to play. It's not even a cool thing to pretend you're playing it, because when it ends badly, it ends very, very badly.

Battle of Flowers parade!

Be careful out there.

(Photo by Veronica Zaragovia / KENS 5, found on this slideshow.)

Leaping Danes!

I don't know whether I should be impressed by this stunt or just saddened in a "stupid dog" kind of way.

SAN ANTONIO -- A dog stuck on the roof of a building near Interstate 35 had to be rescued by firefighters, police and Animal Care Services workers on Tuesday morning.

Witnesses said the Great Dane had been on Interstate 35 and was probably frightened, so he jumped from the freeway to the roof of the Quincy Professional Building in the 300 block of Quincy Street.

(from KSAT-12)

If you're unfamiliar with the area, I-35 is a split-level roadway at that point, and the upper level is higher than some of the buildings nearby (some of which are very nearby!). In fact, here's Google's snapshot of that dog-luring building.



I hope that dog finds a good home. He needs a lot of love and affection. Or maybe just some pity.

Calling BS on a statistic

No, I'm not buying the notion that San Antonio women are sexually assaulted more often during Fiesta than at other times of the year.

SAN ANTONIO -- A sexual assault examiner said a rise in sexual assaults usually corresponds to the 11-day, citywide party, Fiesta.

Already this month, 20 sexual assault victims have been treated by Shelley Botello and her Sexual Assault Response team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital.

In April of last year, she said, the hospital treated 80 victims. She said her team typically handles 50 to 60 cases monthly.

Now that Fiesta has begun, Botello said it's a sign of what's to come, because 67 percent of the hospital's cases involve alcohol and drug consumption prior to the assaults.

"It makes them easy prey for predators," Botello said.

Before isolating a victim from others prior to the attack, "the predator will often sit back, (and) kind of observe the behavior of that person," Botello said.

She said the victims range in age from 17 to 25.

(from KSAT-12)

This is akin to the bogus claim that women are victims of domestic violence more during the Super Bowl than on any other day, no matter what day it is. The statistic of a rise in sexual assaults sounds shocking, and -- on the surface -- it is such a no-brainer to believe (more drunk people = more sex) that it must be true. But I really don't see any evidence of it in this news story.

There's no link to any data on the KSAT news story or on Botello's Facebook page, which KSAT links to. Without the ability to quickly and easily examine the raw data she's referencing, I remain suspicious. What about the Aprils of previous years? How do they compare? Maybe 2010 was an anomaly, maybe it wasn't. It's impossible to tell with what we're given. The tips Botello gives on avoiding being a victim is good advice, but that goes for any time of year. I get that she is using San Antonio's big party as a chance to get media attention for her cause, but I'm not so quick to believe there's a causal relationship between Fiesta and sexual assault. Not enough to account for a significant rise every April, at least.

Hey, sexual assault is serious. I'm not claiming otherwise. But it's dangerous to imply causality where there is none.

"Wooden plank discovered in San Antonio boy's leg"

And by plank, they don't mean something larger than a board, they mean something much smaller.

More like a large splinter.

SAN ANTONIO -- Nine year old Ted Rodriguez was running after some fireworks when he tripped, causing a gash in his right leg on News Year's Eve.

"I was running with a stick," says the third grader. "I fell and it stabbed me, so I yanked it because I was so shocked."

He was rushed to Santa Rosa Hospital on the northwest side. Family members say doctors there stitched him up and sent him home. When the pain got worse, Ted came back for another diagnosis.

...

Doctors found a 3 by 1 inch wooden plank [sic] lodged inside Ted's right leg, just above his knee.

(from WOAI-TV)

Is it sweeps month, yet?

Yawn headline of the day

"Client Upset After Bruce Bowen's Spa Closes"

C'mon, KSAT. Punch it up a bit to hook that reader.

Picking on the elderly

Some people out there just aren't very nice, are they?

A woman was jailed Thursday after police said she knocked an [sic] man and his walker to the ground at a grocery store parking lot in an effort to steal cash he had in his pocket.

Yolanda Peterson, 56, remained in jail Friday on $75,000 bail on a felony charge of aggravated robbery of an elderly person causing bodily injury, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Peterson tried to hug Jerald Janke, 67, in an effort to distract him, and when he “politely tried to ignore her” because he did not know her, she reached into his pocket, according to the affidavit.

(from the Express-News)

See, this is why people get freaked out when strangers start offering them free hugs.