How a man hug turned into a trip to the hospital

Have you ever been noticed by someone that you haven’t seen in a really long time? And you just tried to play it cool by giving that person a simple gesture? But then that person catches you off guard as they take your gesture and turn it into a “give me some love” types of gestures?

I know that’s a weird scenario, but please stick with me, as I have one of the craziest stories to tell, about how a man hug turned into a trip to the hospital...

It was the Sunday right before school started. My roommate and I were moving things from our old apartment to our new apartment. I was in the process of moving my posters from place to place.

My hands were tied up from carrying the posters, and I needed to bring some thumbtacks so I could hang up the posters. I couldn’t find the little box for the thumbtacks, and I wasn’t going to put the thumbtacks in my Jordan shorts’ pocket and have them prick at my knee while I was walking with the box to my new place.

(You’re probably thinking, “Walking, with the box? Didn’t you move to a new apartment?” I did move to a new apartment, just in the plushier part of the same complex. The apartments were within walking distance of each other. )

So, I put a couple of the thumbtacks in my mouth while I was walking with the posters. (You know, kind of like when you put a nail in between your teeth when you’re hammering something in?)

I know...stupid decision!

Well, I almost get to my apartment when someone from a distance yells out, “Mikey Smith?” At first, I’m thinking, “who the hell is that?” But finally as the silhouette draws nearer, I realize it’s this guy Joey DelChiaro, who I haven’t seen, for like, 4 years since senior year of high school.

I tried to give him a cool little hand shake and keep it moving as I was in the process of trying to move things. Well, he takes my hand shake offering and turns it into a man hug, and boy was I caught off guard! I still had the thumbtacks in my mouth, and on impact of the man hug, one of the thumbtacks got stuck in my throat! I started choking as I was trying to prevent the thumbtack from going down the pipes, but it was too late! I swallowed the thumbtack!

I was sitting in my room after, thinking, maybe I should go to a hospital?

An hour later, I manage to make my way to Mercy Hospital on J Street. After sitting in the emergency room, waiting, for what felt like an eternity, the doctor finally brought me in to take some x-rays. When we got into the x-ray room he admitted to me, “You, know when I first saw the incident report, and it said that you swallowed a thumbtack, I was thinking, and don’t take this the wrong way, ‘Is this guy mentally retarded?” Even the nurse had asked me earlier if I had swallowed the thumbtack as a stunt for you tube.

I felt like such a jack-ass. The hospital staff couldn’t believe the truth. Even my friends and family got a laugh out of it.

Throughout the week following, I analyzed every bowel movement to see if I had passed the damn thumbtack. To this day I still haven’t seen it! Who knows where it is?

Persistence pays off

It’s always been said that if you really want something, you have to work hard to get it. All J.T. O’ Sullivan has ever wanted was to play in the National Football League, but even more than that, become a starting quarterback for a team in the NFL. He is now the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, which have enjoyed a 2-1 start to this season, but saying that it has been easy for O’ Sullivan to get to this point, is a big understatement.

THE LOCAL START

O’ Sullivan’s career started off in high school as he attended Jesuit High School in Sacramento, CA. He had a good career in high school, but not something to ride away from home about, literally, as there were no big-time national colleges giving a look his way for a scholarship. The only colleges showing interest in O’Sullivan were the two nearby schools to his home, UC Davis and Sacramento State, and in order to continue his football career in college, both schools game him the proverbial line, you have to pay to play.

So, he was convinced by his high school coach, Dan Carmazzi, to check out the local, at the time Division II College, UC Davis. O’ Sullivan ended up attending Davis where, as a freshmen, he would have to red shirt and play 3rd fiddle, backing up Kevin Daft and Ken Kearns. Being a backup didn’t sit well with the young man from Jesuit, as he knew he had a bunch of talent. While red shirting O’ Sullivan worked his tail off, so that when the next season came around, it would be no competition as to who would be starting quarterback for the Aggies of UC Davis. There would continue to be no competition for O’ Sullivan throughout the rest of his time at Davis, and when it finally came time for his departure at the end of the 2001 college football season, he had amassed every quarterback record in Aggie history.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS

After a college career gone great, O’ Sullivan was now thinking about the big leagues. He declared himself for the NFL Draft in 2002, and was drafted in the sixth round by the New Orleans Saints. Once again, like his first year in college, O’ Sullivan was forced to add the bench as a residence, as he never saw the field in his two years with the Saints.

O’ Sullivan was eventually traded from the New Orleans Saints to the Green Bay Packers at the beginning of the 2004 season. He took some time in the off-season to get ready for his new team, as during the summer he played in NFL Europe (NFL’s version of minor league), and had the 2nd best passer rating in the league. It’s not like that would propel him to the starting role in Green Bay though, as they still had the legend, Brett Favre calling the shots. However, O’Sullivan did get to see his first action in the NFL that year, as he was summoned in to take a knee to end the game. The pack would let J.T. O’ Sullivan go after the 2004 season, and from then on it was a mountain made of a mo-hill process as he would be between making and breaking 5 different NFL rosters for the next 3 years.

In 2007, O’ Sullivan was scooped up by the Detroit Lions, where eventually, he would play in his 2nd NFL game, throwing a 7-yd td pass to Calvin Johnson. In Detroit, O’ Sullivan was under tutelage from one of the smartest offensive minds in the NFL, Mike Martz, the creator of the “Greatest Show on Turf” back with the St. Louis Rams. Mike Martz was canned after a 7-9 season in Detroit, and so too was J.T. O’ Sullivan. Martz was later signed by the San Francisco 49ers to be their offensive coordinator. J.T. was a free agent looking for a home.

A month after Martz’s arrival, the offensive coordinator swayed the 49ers into signing one of his old protégé’s from a year ago in Detroit. That protégé was J.T. O’Sullivan.

Upon arrival, O’ Sullivan already knew that the 49ers had two quarterbacks already worthy of starting: Alex Smith, the first overall pick of the 2005 NFL draft who was recovering from a season in which was spent on injured reserve, and Shaun Hill, who after getting a chance to start for the also-injured 2nd string QB Trent Dilfer, went 2-0 as a starter for the 49ers in two of their last three 2007 NFL contests. That didn’t bother him, as we used to being a backup in his previous 6 NFL seasons, it just made him work harder. O’ Sullivan worked hard with the receivers in the off season, and in Pre-season, he wowed both offensive coordinator Mike Martz, and head coach Mike Nolan.

He’s been a blessing in disguise for my 49ers as it never seemed as if we were going to do any better than Alex Smith. The hard work from O’ Sullivan has paid off, and as the starter for our season has allowed my 49ers to be back in the mix in the NFC.

Way to go J.T., keep up the season and take the 49ers to the playoffs!

Virginity for sale? Who Cares?

The latest news to shock the world recently has been about a girl who looks to “empower” herself by auctioning off her virginity. Her anonymous alias name is Natalie Dylan, and she is supposedly 22 years old. She made this announcement on an episode of Howard Stern’s radio show, which to me doesn’t come as a surprise, as Howie always has some girl pulling off a ridiculous stunt on his shows. And ever since the announcement was made, people all around this country, and especially here in Sacramento, being that she graduated from Sacramento State, have been very upset with Dylan’s choice to sell her virginity.
To me it’s absolutely ludicrous that people are getting so angered by this obviously sad and twisted girl’s decision to auction off her untouched vaginal area. Who should care about the decision she is making? She’s not auctioning off anyone else’s virginity but hers. The only thing women worldwide should be mad about is maybe the fact that they didn’t think of the idea first!
People in America just need to realize that a girl’s virginity nowadays doesn’t mean anything! That is probably a harsh statement, but let’s be real ladies and gents. How many people do you know, that have lost their virginity to that certain someone, and is still with them, or married to them? The answer is probably slim to none. That’s for fairy tales, not the 21’st century.
The new trend these days is for people to experiment sexual deviance in their adolescence so that they could be ready later on down in life for their future husband or wife. It’s all about losing it on a drunken, one-night-stand kind of escapade in high school or college to someone who might not even be the hottest person, but who was just there at that exact time and place that you felt you were ready.
With all the sexual images that are being portrayed so heavily in the media these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if young kids at the age of 12 are already doing it.
Having sex isn’t as sacred of an activity as it was back in the day when our parents and grandparents were growing up. Back then there weren’t so many men and woman pimping and slutting around. Back then, people were on that really romantic, meant-for-each other type of hype. Most couples waited until marriage to participate in the act of having sex.
Nowadays, it’s all about who bones who, and the numbers affiliated with the act of sex. Especially with men, all guys feel that they need to add up to some number so that they are deemed worthy of being known as a man to their peers. Who knows if girls play the same number game? They probably do, but in more of a discreet way. Ssshhh…
But back to Natalie Dylan, as we seem to have gotten sidetracked a little bit. Let her do what she wants! If she doesn’t want to have that nice intimate moment remembered for being special with the candles, and the rose petals, with R. Kelly’s “Seems like you’re ready” playing in the background, why should anyone have to feel the need to dictate how this woman should go about giving her virginity away? Just let her be the one who will always remember her first time as being probably rough and awkward with some man that paid an absolute insane amount of money just to say that he was the man that for a better lack of words “popped her cherry”.
She’s a beautiful young woman, who supposedly is selling her virginity to afford graduate school. Shouldn’t people be happy that she wants to continue her education. That’s what’s more important here. The girl obviously has a lot more learning to do throughout her life, and if one raunchy screw gets her into graduate school, so be it.

Farewell Yankee Stadium

It brings me such sadness to say that Yankee Stadium, one of the most well-known ventures in all of professional sports, will be closing its doors for good next Sunday night, as The New York Yankees will be playing host to divisional foe, Baltimore Orioles, in a game that will be nationally televised as the Sunday Night Game of the Week on ESPN. The game will start at 8ET, 5PT.
Isn’t it ironic that the Yankees will be finalizing their old stadium by playing a team that shares their former city and nickname? (The New York Yankees were originally founded as the Baltimore Orioles in 1901. They then moved to New York in 1903, with a new nickname, the Highlanders, before eventually becoming the Yankees in 1913. The present-day Baltimore Orioles were the result of a nickname and city change from the St. Louis Browns in 1954.)… Sure. There aren’t many sports teams that move to a different city, with a new nickname, and then later on have to challenge a new team that resurrected once again with the former city and nickname.
What’s even more ironic is the fact that this will be the first year in this decade, in this millennium even, where the New York Yankees will not be making any post-season plans.
My eyes have become so accustomed to seeing Yankee Stadium as a fixture, a symbol, as you will, throughout the playoffs for so many years in a row that this year’s Major League Baseball’s playoffs will not even feel like “real” playoffs to me. Yankee Stadium has hosted the World Series an unprecedented 37 times, the most of any baseball stadium! The Yankees were world champions 26 times. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit the history of what could possibly go down as the greatest sports stadium on American soil…

THE OPENING
Before Yankee Stadium, The Yankees had previously played at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, a stadium which they shared with the same-city rival, New York Giants. However, big-time Yankee slugger Babe Ruth was bringing more Yankee fans to the ballpark than the original owner Giants were, and in 1921, the Giants told the Yankees to find a new place to call home.
Yankee Stadium was built in the Bronx in 1923, right across the Harlem River from the Polo Grounds. The proximity of Yankee Stadium to the Polo Grounds was as if the Yankees were out to prove a point to the Giants on who the real New York team is, and will always be, in the sport of baseball. (The Yankees beat the Giants in 3 times in the World Series: 1923, 1936, and 1937. The Giants eventually moved to San Francisco in the year, 1958.)
Tabbed as “The House That Ruth Built”, Yankee Stadium definitely lived up to its name, as on April 18, 1923, the stadium’s opening day, Ruth did what he did best and that was hit a home run, the first home run in Yankee Stadium history. They shortened the right field porch to about 295 feet just for him. Ruth would later go on to hit a total of 259 home runs at Yankee Stadium.
In its 82nd and final year of existence, Major League Baseball decided to have the 2008 All-Star game played there this year. It was, all-together, the most memorable All-Star experience ever! In the Home Run Derby, Texas Ranger slugger Josh Hamilton, hit a single-round record of 28 home runs. One day later, the All-Star game itself set a record for the longest lasting All-Star game with a time of 4 hours and 50 minutes.

OTHER FACTS
- First tri-level sports facility built in the US
- Tied with Cleveland Stadium for hosting the most MLB all-star games (4)
- First venue in baseball with an instant-replay display
- Venue for the first televised boxing match in the U.S.(7-1-1939; Baer def. Nova)
- Most storied team in college football, Notre Dame, with a record of 15-6-3 there
- The NFL New York Giants played home games there from 1956 to 1973
- Bob Sheppard, PA announcer there since 1951 (known as “the Voice of God”)
- 3 different popes have celebrated mass there (Paul VI- 1965; John Paul II- 1979; Benedict XVI- 2008)
- Blind Yankee sportswriter, Ed Lucas, and fiancée, Allison Pfieffle, only couple to have a wedding there. (March 10, 2006; broadcasted on ESPN)
- Host to more postseason games than any other stadium in baseball history
- Yankees clinched 9 of their 26 World series titles there

As last words go, farewell, Yankee Stadium! You have given so many memories to sports fans everywhere of all ages. It will be sad to see you go, as your new big brother, The New Yankee Stadium, will soon replace you. But don’t worry you will only be replaced physically, never spiritually.

you know what really grinds my gears

You know what really grinds my gears? Laws! Of course, most laws are good as they can prevent crime and danger from happening in our fair country. Without laws there is no order or discipline. However, there are some laws in the State of California that are so absurd, they make you question if you are really living in a free democratic society.
Let’s start with the most popular law of late, the cell phone law. Basically the law states that the cell phone cannot be used while driving. Let me rephrase that… the cell phone can be used, but only through a hands-free device. As long as the phone is not being held by hand while still driving, then you’re okay.
Here’s where the problem arises. To me the big question is, “Why is there need for this rule?” If the government’s answer is along the lines of, the phone being a DISTRACTION that could alter a person’s driving skills, then they need to come up with more things to outlaw while driving…
The government should outlaw text messaging someone while driving. To me, text messaging is worse than someone dialing up a buddy and talking to them. Text messaging really takes the attention of the road away from the driver, being that the driver has to concentrate on what it is they want to text, let alone the problem of looking at the cell phone screen while trying to keep eyes on the road.
The government should outlaw, and ladies might not be happy about this one, putting on makeup while driving. Females, in the morning on their way to work or school, are notorious for putting on mascara, lipstick, and who knows what else to beautify themselves. Makeup isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it causes chicks to look at the mirror while trying to drive, bad driving decisions could be made, i.e. un-suspected stops and swerving.
The bottom line is this. The cell phone law is acceptable, as if you look at these numbers according to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society; cell phone distraction causes 2,600 deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year. Those numbers are real and understandable. However, along with holding and talking on a cell-phone being outlawed while driving, so should text messaging, and putting on makeup while driving too!

Sorry for going off on the cell-phone law, but that one just really irks me. On the other hand, the cell phone law isn’t the only law that grinds my gears in the state of California. There are others…
“It is illegal to set up a mousetrap without a hunting license.” Are you serious? You have to have a hunting license to kill a rodent roaming around in your living space. What if you’ve never hunted in your life? It’s not like setting up a mousetrap takes the expertise of a hunter. Since when did mice join the endangered species list?
“Peeling an orange in your hotel room is banned in California.” Once again, you’ve got to be kidding me? An orange, one of the most tastiest and well-known fruits produced by the masses in this state, and we can’t even peel them in a hotel room? Aren’t their hospitality oranges, apples, and bananas in bowls at hotels? What do they expect us to do, take an orange and peel it outside. What if we’re not trying to eat the orange until midnight or later, when we’re winding down in the oh-so-comfortable beds that hotels provide while, watching ESPN, and we don’t feel like getting up to walk out of the room to peel an orange?

That’s the law that just puts me over the edge here in this state, and that is what this column is going to end off with. Once again, laws help to provide stability and order in disciplining us, but some, are just taken to the next level. You know what they say though, rules are meant to be broken!

The beginning

Hello all, that has came upon my blog. My name is Michael K. Smith (I have to throw in the "K" to somehow seperate me from all the other millions of Michael Smith's there are in this world) and I am a huge sports fan. I am in my last year at Sacramento State, as I am studying to become a sports broadcaster. I am the sports director for KSSU.com, sac state's student-run radio station on campus, and my concentration is a major in Communications with a minor in journalism... which brings me to the reason for why I am now a member of blogger.com.

As an assignment for my Journalism 30 class, I will be writing blogs weekly covering big news in sports. My blogs will try to be humorous as they will be personal rant and raves on a certain sports topic that has gone on throughout the week and has had some effect on me, and might even have an effect on you! Hopefully, for whoever decides to gander at my blogs, you are entertained by them, and most definitely, let me know what you think of them, if there is a comment option available.

Take it easy everyone, as I look forward to having a good semester, and writing blogs that everyone will enjoy.