The Seattle Mariners have fired John McLaren

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2008006322_webmari19.html

The Mariners have fired manager John McLaren, replacing him with bench coach Jim Riggleman.

Earlier this week, the Mariners fired general manager Bill Bavasi, replacing him on an interim basis with Lee Pelekoudas.

The Mariners, who have the worst record in the major leagues at 25-47, play at Atlanta on Friday.

“We felt this was the right thing to do for the ballclub and for our effort to get better this year,” Pelekoudas said at a news conference at Safeco Field. “This club was underperforming. We hadn’t shown any improvement the last couple of months, in fact we were probably regressing.”

I’m a bit surprised this move comes before the All-Star break.

I don’t know Mr. McLaren, but how much of the blame for what’s currently going on in the Mariners’ clubhouse actually rests further up the food chain and with the players themselves?

-S

Hot pink shoes in public? Why, it’s an OUTRAGE!

Is this pair of hot pink pumps destroying morality as we know it?  What will we tell the children?

Photo: Rich-Joseph Facun

Candace Knilans’ husband came home from Iraq last week. She wore a pair of hot pink stiletto heels to meet the ship. The photographer from the Virginian-Pilot took a photo of her shoes as she waited. After all, it was compelling: A beautiful day, a happy homecoming, and a woman anxiously awaiting the man she loves. It’s a gorgeous photo, and most who saw it can relate. That heart-pounding moment when you see the one you love after an absence of a few days, a few months, or a few years – Is there anything like it?

Of course, we have our detractors. Those in the military (and their wives!) aren’t allowed to be human.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/06/pretty-pink-captured-spirit-homecomings

Detractors, by far a minority, perceived it as an inappropriate portrayal of all Navy wives as sex objects. Some appreciated its artistry, but they took issue with the size of the photo and its above-the-fold, front-page play.

JulieAnn Singleton-Smith, a Virginia Beach journalism teacher, found the photo “extremely offensive” and concluded, “Sex may sell, but it shouldn’t sell out our returning heroes.”

“Next time,” wrote Carolyn Bushey of Virginia Beach, “put the smutty pictures inside the paper…. I would have preferred to have seen some wholesome or patriotic family pictures instead.”

Bushey preferred Facun’s first homecoming picture. The irony here is that his unerring eye saw the same essential truth in these wildly dissimilar images.

Hey, Ms. Singleton-Smith, journalism teacher, what’s more obscene — a photo of some shoes, or the fact that we have soldiers fighting and dying in a war that was started (and continues) on a lie?  Also, Ms. Bushey, since when is a photograph of a woman’s ankles in a pair of high-heeled shoes “smutty”?

It’s very important to keep catapulting those “wholesome” or “patriotic” images. After all, we wouldn’t want to be reminded that military families make sacrifices, would we? We certainly wouldn’t want to be reminded that there are husbands and wives all over the country whose loved ones are never coming back. Maybe we should smile a bit and be happy when we see a woman in a pair of heels, standing on a dock and waiting for that moment when she catches a glimpse of the guy she can’t wait to see.

The Little Pink Clubhouse sends our best wishes to Candace and her husband, and hope that this was a homecoming to remember. In the meantime, if you’ve got ‘em, wear ‘em for Candace.

-S

p.s. All thanks to Sarah at www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com for featuring this story.