 |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the most amazing and most inspiring stories I have ever read!
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay For their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back Mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. Makes Taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life. This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;" Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an Institution."
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the Engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was Anything to help the boy communicate."No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want To do that."
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore For two weeks"
That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud Getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you Think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best Time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world Record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to Be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the Time.
"No question about it,"Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape,"One doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago." So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. , always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
"The thing I'd most like,"Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Lee McGuire / 11 News
Conroe school district police are looking into a brutal attack of a high school junior. It's a beating that some students said is a hate crime committed by a violent neo-Nazi group.
Just after school let out a week ago at Conroe High School, a fight broke out in the student parking lot.
"It was in the junior parking lot and a kid was attacked because supposedly he was Jewish and it was a Nazi kid (who attacked him)," said Conroe junior Denise Sanchez.
According to the school, five students were involved in the fight. A Conroe ISD police officer broke it up. But not before one student was badly hurt.
"They beat the kid so bad he got all bloody," said Sanchez.
She said a student who has Nazi tattoos beat up a junior whom he incorrectly thought was Jewish. The victim went to the emergency room.
Now his family is in contact with the Houston Anti Defamation League, which has in turn, contacted the school, about rumors of a Neo Nazi gang operating on or around the campus.
David Johnson graduated two years ago. Even then, he says the Nazi tattoos on some students were easy to see.
"Swastikas all over them," he said. "They openly show it. They're proud of it."
A school spokeswoman says the district had received no reports of threats of violence before last week's incident.
Students though said they saw an attack like this one coming, for a long time.
"He's like a Nazi guy and he does not believe in the Bible," said Jacqualine Garrett, a sophomore.
So far, Conroe ISD police have not filed any charges against the student or students involved in last week's fight, but the district said the investigation is not over.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Holtzman, Blomberg, Shamsky set to manage in Israel Baseball League
February 26, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ken Holtzman, Ron Blomberg and Art Shamsky are among the former major leaguers who will manage teams in the new Israel Baseball League.
Tel Aviv, Bet Shemish, Modi'in, Ra'anana, Netanya and Petach Tikva were announced Monday as the six clubs to play this summer in the inaugural season of the league. Former Boston Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette is the director of baseball operations.
Holtzman (Ra'anana), Blomberg (Bet Shemesh) and Shamsky (Modi'in) will be managers, along with former Houston pitcher Steve Hertz (Tel Aviv) and Shaun Smith (Australia's Auburn Orioles). The Petach Tikva manager has not been hired.
"The idea really grew on me as a challenge and a chance to get involved with something that was starting up and be able to grow with this league," said Shamsky, an outfielder who played for Cincinnati, the New York Mets, Oakland and the Chicago Cubs from 1965-72. "These games are being played in the most historical place in the world and I think it will be interesting to see how everyone reacts to this."
The six-team league starts play June 24 and will use Gezer Field in Kibbutz Gezer (Bet Shemish Blue Sox and Modi'in Miracle), Sportek in Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv Lightning and Ra'anana Express) and Baptist Village Field in Petach Tivka (Netanya Tigers and Petach Tikva Pioneers).
Duquette has supervised three tryouts over the last few months, signing 80 players from eight countries, including Israel, the United States, Australia and the Dominican Republic. The league plans to hold tryouts in the Dominican Republic next month and set a goal of obtaining an invitation for Israel to play in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
"We're going to have a very representative league," Duquette said. "But at the same time we're going to build up the infrastructure and the coaching and the fundamentals and the programs and the role models so that we can perpetuate the education of ballplayers in Israel."
Shamsky joked about having to learn a new language so he could argue with umpires, reading out the Hebrew translations of "Are you blind?" and "Open your eyes."
"Hopefully, a little of what we've learned in all the years I played in the major leagues, we can try to pass on to these players and the people of Israel," said Holtzman, a pitcher who won 174 games during his 15-year career with the Chicago Cubs, Oakland, Baltimore and the New York Yankees.
Leon Feingold, a 33-year-old right-hander, spent two years in the Cleveland Indians' organization before shoulder surgery in 1995. He's now a real estate broker in New York and intends to play in the new circuit.
"Getting the chance to play baseball again, it's like getting a second chance at something most people don't get a first chance at," he said. "If nothing else, this will make my mother extremely happy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Christopher Null
The Working Guy Maybe my parents were right in refusing to get an ATM card for close to a decade. ATM fraud is the latest craze in petty theft. Despite the security cameras, thieves seem to be targeting ATMs in record numbers, probably because the end result—cold, hard cash—is impossible to trace (unlike a stolen credit card) and loses none of its value when liquidated (unlike your Barry Manilow record collection). The last scam I wrote about used an MP3 player to record bank account numbers and PIN codes. This scam, which seems much more commonplace, is far less high-tech. But rather than explaining at length, take a look at this series of security cam pictures, to see how a thief does the job. In a nutshell: He inserts a sliver of film into the slot, which traps your card when you insert it. Once it's stuck, he asks if you need help, gets you to give up your PIN code, and snags the card after you've left the machine, having given up hope. These little pieces of film are known as "Lebanese Loops."The Lebanese Loop is actually a pretty crude method for stealing cards. I linked to it in the prior post, but I'll link to it again, just because the warning bears repeating: Thieves can craft clever pieces of equipment that look just like the ATM they're targeting and mount them right on the front of the bank machine. Check out this series of photos from my old alma mater, which includes a device to copy your card and photograph you while you enter your PIN code, leaving you none the wiser. Bottom line: If you see anything that looks out of place on an ATM you're using, don't insert your card into it, and inform your bank (or the establishment you're in) immediately. Be safe out there!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Police said a gunman robbed a teenager of his new game system in a the parking lot of a mall near Allentown, Pa. The 17-year-old victim told police said he was in the back seat of a car at the Lehigh Valley Mall when he was robbed Friday. A Webster, Mass., man is expected to recover after being shot while waiting for a chance to buy a new PlayStation 3 outside a Wal-Mart in Putnam, Conn. Two gunmen tried to rob a group of people waiting for the store to open. Twenty-one-year-old Michael Penkala was taken to University of Massachussets Medical Center after the shooting. The assailants fled. A store in the Dayton, Ohio, suburb of Englewood didn't get a chance to offer customers a few of the hotly awaited consoles. Five of the units were stolen by robbers last night as the EB Games store was closing up. Fresno, Calif., police said they were forced to declare unlawful assembly outside a store that was selling the new console after customers got unruly. One youth was arrested but there were no serious injuries Thursday. People began getting in line as early as Tuesday morning for Friday's launch of the new video game system. Columbus, Ga., dentist Dr. Murray Newlin was so determined to buy 15 pieces of the latest video game hardware as Christmas gifts that he hired people to stand in line for him. But the west Georgia man's plan fell apart when other customers complained. He said he wanted the games for his grandchildren. Current Mood:  frustrated
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
htownclone's journal
Previous
