week one current events

two current events for this week

1. mlb american league race for the wild card spot in this year's world series
i love baseball and follow my two favorite teams daily, the new york yankees and the texas rangers. my home page is set to mlb.com so i never miss a single stat or change in players or games. one of the best parts about baseball, in my opinion, is that every single part of the game as well as each individual player is recorded and calculated. the world series game is the annual champion game played by the best clubs of that year's season. there are two leagues that break up all of the mlb teams nationwide, the american and the national. within each league there are three divisions according to the region of the teams' home towns: east, central, and west. my very favorite team, the new york yankees, are in the east division of the american league and have secured their spot for the pennant race preceding the world series game. for each league four teams move on to the pennant race leading up to the world series, one for each division and one overall best team from the whole league called the 'wild card'; this team being the best second place team from one of the three divisions. currently my second favorite team, the texas rangers (west), are battling the boston red sox (east) for the wild card spot in the american league. aside from the fact that the player strength for the texas rangers has pleasantly surprised many fans, and in my opinion deserve the wild card spot for doing so, i absolutely hate the boston red sox and would cringe to see them take the spot in the playoffs. right now boston is leading ahead by two and a half games; this number is determined by games won and lost. a full game is tallied by one whole number on a day where both teams play a game (not necessarily against each other) and one loses while the other wins; example: yesterday texas played the blue jays and won 6-4 while boston lost their game to the rays 8-5, so the rangers earned a full point in the count taking the number from three and a half to two and a half. the way a half point game is earned is on the days where one teams plays and wins their game while the other team has a scheduled day off. the article talks specifically about the rangers' individual player achievements and injuries in recent games as well as the necessary actions needed to be carried out by the team in order to regain the lead for the pennant race and have their chance at making it to the world series. twenty-nine games are left in the season and with crucial players out with injuries the rangers must step it up and continue winning in order to accomplish their goal of securing the wild card spot in this year's pennant race.

link:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090902&content_id=6753660&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb


2. michael jackson's glove auctioned for $48,400 in american dollars
as a person who appreciates and understands michael jackson's achievements in pop culture and the music industry, i do not particularly consider myself a fan. in the wake of his death, fans and media all over the world seem to have a new obsession with the great artist, michael jackson. ignoring all previous accusations and widespread controversy of his court trials where he was charged for sexual misconduct with young children, people from all corners of the world seem to be praising mj in every way since his passing on june 25th earlier this year. on sunday, a devout fan from australia paid a whopping AU$30,000 equivalent to $48,400 in american dollars for a white bejeweled glove mj once wore. while i agree that his music and dance abilities are something that forever changed the pop music genre in many countries, and are something to respect as people still today attempt to follow in his footsteps and examples, i also offer the opinion that the obsession over any last artifacts of his career and life is out of control. people should get real and celebrate his life in a normal fashion, such as playing his cd in your car or something of that nature. i'm getting tired of every clothing, music and various other companies all the sudden producing michael jackson memorabilia to be put on shelves of what is increasingly becoming every store you walk into. i can only hope the australian fan that purchased his glove for the amount of money that is often more than an american citizen earns in a year, truly enjoys his new mj artifact.

link:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/michael-jackson/news/michael-jacksons-glove-auctioned-in-australia--61993594