News and Notes

• Fan Voting for the All-Star Game ends tonight at midnight. Mark Teixeira is a mere 40,000 votes behind Kevin Youkilis for the starting first base spot. If Youkilis wins the vote, the Red Sox will have had the starting first baseman in the AL Lineup for four straight years. We cannot take four years of more of the same, so Vote for Teixeira as many times as possible. There is a loophole: You don't have to put in a valid e-mail address to vote, so you can just make one up. This allows you to vote more than the maximum 25 times. ESPN said who they thought should be voted in for the AL and NL lineups. Derek Jeter is there starting shortstop. Considering this is ESPN, I am honestly surprised they deemed a Yankee worthy of the All-Star Game.
  
• Aroldis Chapman, considered the best Cuban pitching prospect, has defected. Chapman is considered the "best player to defect since Jose Contreras." Yeah, we all know how that turned out. He pitched for Cuba in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He was 0-1 in 2 starts with a 5.68 ERA. He struck out 8 in the 6.1 innings and showed off a 100-mph fastball. According to the article, there are some questions about his other pitches. 8th inning reliever anyone?
• Major League Baseball has now added another player to the All-Star teams. So now 33 players will represent their teams for their respective league.
  
• Lou Pinella got ejected last night for the first time this season. Really? It took him until July 1 to get ejected? That has to be a personal record.
  
• We saw Public Enemies last night, and it was very good. Johnny Depp was born to play criminals and Christian Bale traded the Batman growl for a Southern accent.
• I'm watching the Shaquille O'Neal introductory press conference, and it is nothing like a Yankees press conference. It's set up more like a talk-show. And Shaq is rocking a pink tie and a pink shirt, only he could actually pull that off.

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