An Open Invite to MLB Players

Dear MLB Players (past & present)

Here is an open invitation from a lifetime fan of baseball. I am not as athletically gifted as any of you. I am not a "member of the media". I am just a regular guy who played baseball as a kid and fantasy baseball is as close to leading the league in homers as it gets for me these days. I am giving each and every player past and present an opportunity to come clean on your own terms. We sports fans are a forgiving bunch but you are pushing the limit. If you have ever in your life used performance enhancing drugs, whether it be when you were 16 or last month, just admit it.

I feel as if I speak for many when I say, if you admit you made a mistake and learned from it then all is forgiven. I am growing restless with the continuous story line. All you have to do is insert a different big name player in what normally goes something like this:

"Have you ever used PED's _________"?

"No. never. anyone that does that should be penalized to the utmost extent"

Six months go by and inside information is leaked on a positve test.

"So let me ask you again Mr Homerun Hitter....you ever juiced?"

"No never knowingly have I used"

"So would you care to explain how you tested positive?"

Media circus, Congressional hearings, and all kinds of excuses to follow.

I am just exhausted by this ongoing charade. So again, I plead with you drug cheats just come out on your own terms and admit you used. You will be viewed in a positive light compared to your counterparts who are caught reeling. A chance to be proactive instead of reactive. While the situation is slightly different, look at Josh Hamilton. This guy had a drug problem and never denied it. I admire him because he didn't put up a facade and met his problems head on. I don't have kids but if I did he would be a good role model in my opinion. He is proof anything is possible if you don't give up.

I would like for you to respect the game that has allowed you all a comfortable lifestyle. Anybody from any team who ignores this open letter to players and then gets caught cheating is fair game in my opinion. It is shameful enough that you cheated. But it is disgraceful that you have all the opportunity in the world to make a wrong into something positive and choose to cover up/deny. You wake up every day and collect your millions under a false pretense. I may work a 9-5 but there is something to be said about making a living honestly.....

I am confident that this letter won't even be read by anyone remotely close to the situation at hand. I care about the game enough that I'm tired of sitting back and doing nothing though. So if you're a fan and your tired of this neverending story...please pass this along. WE AS FANS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I am open to any ideas to help take our game back to its rightful place as America's Pastime.

Rubbin' is Racin'

Here at J&K we are big fans of racing. We follow all kinds of motorsports at all levels. Today we are going to talk about the state of Nascar.

While we absolutely love to follow the sport, we feel it has begun the downward spiral. Nascar has become more about pomp and circumstance than actual racing. Nascar is no longer your gritty, let it all hang out races anymore. This is a big money game where image is everything. There are only a few organizations that consistently win and it isn't coincidental that these are the high roller teams.

We watch Nascar almost every week and have come to the conclusion that it's merely a high speed parade lap until there are about 50 laps left. I believe if that's the way it is going to be then let's just have a 50 lap dash every week. This won't happen because of one thing: money. Less sponsorship exposure and less TV time. I realize Nascar needs sponsorship money now more than ever but they also need fans. Even the legendary Bristol shrine had trouble selling tickets this year.

Another reason Nascar is on the decline is the lack of true racers. Car owners and sponsors choose the most marketable people and not the most talented. Personally, I could care less what the guy looks like as long as he can drive it like he stole it. There are only a handful of true racers on the circuit while there is a laundry list of primadonnas. These guys are making so much money doing cartwheels on Allstate commercials that on Sunday they ride around and collect a check. The most popular driver in Nascar, Dale Jr, has yet to win a championship. While he is likeable, he is lacking that winner's edge. Many blamed it on his inferior equipment but now he is on a top notch team and still can't get it done.

My dad is involved in miniature motorsports. I know of guys just in this local area with a ton of talent that never even get a shot at the big show. Then you have guys like Casey Mears who with the combination of his family name, likeability, and marginal skills gets multiple opportunities. He couldn't cut it at Hendrick as a research and developmental driver and then gets a shot with Childress on a great team. I firmly believe this was a sponsor's call. Once again money talks.

Nascar needs a shot in the arm right now and the answer is good racing. You put a good product out on the track and believe me, people will come. Shorten the races a bit. Put more emphasis on leading laps and not riding around. One simple solution: for every lap led, get a point. Come on Nascar ...we are throwing the lack of competition caution on you!

Spring is here!

OK folks, I know...I know.... The NBA playoffs are on, the NFL draft is saturday, and Talladega is also this weekend. So guess what we're here to talk about? Baseball. While we are into all of the previous mentioned events (some more than others). Nothing quite compares to a good 'ol baseball game.

I couldn't wait for this season to start and am planning a couple of possible trips to different MLB parks this year. I also plan on attending some youth baseball games. I grew up on some of the local fields here and it's always nice to reminisce. Some people can't always afford to go to the pro games but try supporting your local youth organizations. I love to see the younger ones watching the airplanes in the outfield or picking dandelions. I also enjoy the competitiveness of the older kids who are trying to always make it to that next step.

I realize times are tough for many but if you're like me there is just something about a baseball game that takes your worries away for awhile. The local minor league team has new ownership and I attended opening night. The baseball was mediocre and the food was worse but I'm going to do my best to support this forgotten team. This is still a relatively cheap family night. No matter, it was nice to take in a game with three generations of family. You can't put a price tag on times like that.

So let's all remember that baseball is America's pastime. Go play catch with the kids, find a random park to take a game in, or make a road trip to your favorite pro team. I would love to hear your favorite baseball moment or story.

Infomercials Part 2

For those of you who just can't get enough of this guy. It has been brought to our attention that he has a new product. Notice, it is advertised as chops nuts in one slap! If we're lucky, he'll use it on himself. But wait there's more, he has his trusty microphone. What a tool!

Jacks and Kings Presents: The good, the bad and the ugly (our style)

The Good: This one is an easy one. This past week citizens took action and stood up against the endless free spending federal government. The “Tea Parties” across the nation were an inspiration, a blast from the past even. People uniting across the nation to say to the “elected” politicians…..hey you work for us…..stop wasting our money! But leave it to the Government to label these people extremist and their media to spin it….ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous! I salute all the American citizens that stood up and said enough is enough. This is your right to do as an American citizen grated to you by our constitution written by our founding fathers who knew what tyranny was all about. They knew there might be a day when this would happen again and wrote in our constitution our right to speak out with freedom of speech. As sad as it is, that day has arrived. Our government is corrupt and power hungry and will demonize anyone who stands in their way. It’s time to throw those bastards out when election time comes and retake this country. It’s time to put term limits on congress and the senate. Those cats are getting fat and don’t care about the people who elected them. Way to go Tea Baggers! And if you wanna put a sexual spin on that….fine by me….I actually don’t find one of them appealing enough to do that to. I do find a few appealing that I’d like to donkey punch.

The Bad: There is a long list to choose from but I’m going to pick on the Free Credit Report Ass Clowns. Where did they find these 3 annoying losers at? Is Free Credit Report hard up enough that they drove around L.A. Neighborhoods looking for garage bands to hire. My God! I wear out the mute button on my TV every time one of these stupid commercials comes on. To me they rank up there with the Sham-wow dude and Billy Mayes infomercials. I know when I see three losers riding around singing in a car about checking your credit…I just want to run to the pc and check….after all these three losers are using it. Please….Free Credit Report…fire your advertising company and these morons and hire someone else…..you could hire Jacks and Kings. I could fart out a better commercial on the toilet that what you’re currently paying for. Drop us an email if you want to hire us. We will do the first one for free.

The Ugly: Bud Selig (MLB Baseball Commissioner) - In today’s time when corporations lose money, embezzle or just mismanaged someone has to go. Isn’t that right? Isn’t that the way our system works. You do a bad job….you’re gone. Well, not in baseball. In baseball you can have a steroids controversy year after year. Appear before congress and weasel out of it and somehow keep moving along as if nothing ever happened (to you of course Mr. Selig). You have the players take the fall. You have players defending themselves even the innocent ones. Yes, they were cheating by doing the steroids. But in a system that Mr. Selig was the commissioner of, he knew what was going on and did nothing of it….Until…..the zit got so big it busted all over the mirror. Well, that zit is still infected, and it will be until this moron is out of baseball. Thanks Bud for giving us an era of baseball with an asterisk on it. When players from your era are elected to the Hall of Fame Bud, people are going to wonder….were they on the “juice” or “cream”. It’s time for baseball to fire him and get some new blood for our national past time. It’s time to take one of the greatest games ever and restore it to where it belongs.

J & K Top 10 Bond Girl Names

This week’s top 10 is brought to by James Bond…007

We all love the action of the James Bond movies but we love the women of the films as well. After all, if you are doing this for queen and country you may as well do it with style, and Bond does do that. So, here is the J &K top 10 Bond Girl names.

10. Jinx

9. Xenia Onatopp

8. Strawberry Fields

7. Mary Goodnight

6. Penelope Smallbone

5. Plenty O’Toole

4. Octopussy

3. Honey Rider

2. Holly Goodhead

1. Pussy Galore

Our First Top 10 List

Here at J&K we are going to have a periodic top 10 list and we're kicking it off today with:

The Top 10 Names in Sports

10. A.J Allmendinger

9. Coco Crisp

8. Will Power

7. Milton Bradley

6. Kurt Busch

5. Randy "The big unit" Johnson

4. Kosuke Fukudome

3. Dick Trickle

2. Rusty Kuntz

1. Dick Butkus

Infomercials

It is late here and I'm sitting in bed watching tv. Most people who know me would consider me a night owl. With that said, in my time I have seen some pretty ridiculous stuff on television at these late hours. I absolutely despise infomercials...what a bunch of junk. I love how whatever piece of crap they're selling alwas costs $19.95. We all know the next line after that is "but wait there's more". It's like not only are you going to get this crap we'll throw in some of our old crap that nobody bought. We have to make room in the warehouse for the next batch of junk. For you math wizards out there here is infomercials summed up in a nutshell.

That graphic was used from a site called www.morenewmath.com/. It has

a bunch of fun examples of math similar to this. Ok, so back to the infomercials. There is one infomercial that now has regular commercials that can also be seen at odd hours. I know everyone has seen the Shamwow guy. This waste of a human organism sells chamois, for youguessed it, $19.95. I have yet to understand why this guy has on a headset when he is doing a commercial. Is he taking calls from the fools that actually buy this nonsense? Does he think he is some pop singer in concert? I don't understand why anyone would buy something like this. There is a reason why it's called a shamwow: I'm selling a sham and wow you people are buying it!

For those of you that don't know, Vince Shlomi, Mr. Shamwow guy was arrested in Miami recently in an altercation with a prostitute he had solicited. This is what he looks like sans headphone.

I'm not sure if those shamwows can soak up greasy slime but if you have one laying around maybe we could try to soak up this scumball and he'll disappear magically. If so, I'll pay the $19.95.... Well, that's all for now. I am going to wrap up in my snuggie and watch Billy Mays hawk some Mighty Putty.

Tim Geithner the power hungry weasel

If you were mad over AIG this isn’t going to make you any happier.

The economy is a mess. Everyone agrees that something needs to be done. But what and to what extent does the government have a right to evoke its power at will. I personally believe that the government has gone too far and now it has gotten a taste of that power and doesn’t want to release it but instead expand it. I believe the wrong person is in charge of the Treasury. How in the hell can you put someone in charge of the Treasury that had trouble paying his taxes and now wanting power to set salaries and force CEO’s to resign. Mark my words Timothy Geithner will go down as the biggest power seeking fool the Treasury has ever seen.

Point in case – Let’s talk about TARP

Banks are eager to pay back the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) money they were loaned by the federal government. Many that have taken government money are dismayed by changing rules and public outrage.

For relatively strong banks, doing business with the government may be more trouble than it's worth. Banks are publicly declaring their intent to pay back loans from TARP, as quickly as they can. The banks complain about the rules that the U.S. Treasury keeps imposing on them retroactively, sometimes in ways that seem arbitrary or driven by constituents' anger.

Some say they never needed the money but were forced into taking it by the Treasury, which wanted a show of industry support for its program.

Others say they're dismayed by the public's outrage toward banks that participate in TARP, which was originally touted as a reward of sorts for healthy banks.

To be sure, the government has always had regulatory power over the banks. But at the companies where it's now a major shareholder, its grip is getting significantly tighter as it gets involved in decisions about everything from corporate jets to mortgage modifications.

Since then, legislators and regulators – fueled by popular backing – have imposed more regulations on the TARP banks, such as caps on executive pay and increased disclosure for how the loans are being spent. They also hauled the CEOs of the biggest banks to Capitol Hill for questioning.

I would suggest that banks repay their TARP loans as quickly as possible, and never, ever sign an agreement with the U.S. government again.

By managing the money, government can steer the whole economy even more firmly down the left fork in the road.

If the banks are forced to keep TARP cash - Geithner can work his will on the financial system to unprecedented degree. That's what's happening right now.
Today, banks are begging to give the money back. A chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Geithner says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics.

And guess what people….the Auto Industry is next and they’ve already started by forcing the CEO of GM to resign.

Where does this stop and when does it end?

This is not “change you can believe in”.

Since when did it become a bad thing to be successful in this country? You are now demonized for making too much money and the government needs to put a cap on your salary because “it’s not fair”.

Stay tuned for my next blog on how Iran and North Korea push forward with their nuclear ambitions, meanwhile we are cutting defense spending and spending the money on welfare programs.

Congrats UNC!

Well, it looks like another year of college basketball is over. Congrats are in order to the University of North Carolina. I actually had them picked to win in my bracket, which is the first time I haven't picked Duke since the late '80s. It was a great year in hoops even though my Louisville Cards didn't take home the crown. The Cards did have a great year in the toughest conference though. I say that with great pain as I am a die hard Southeastern Conference fan.

While I am going to give UNC their due respect, I do have to touch on something that drives me up a wall. Actually, not something but someone: Dick Vitale. Yes, I said it Dick Vitale might as well just get a megaphone and learn the cheers for the Tar Heels. I can't believe ESPN even tolerates this biased approach to broadcasting. If I didn't know any better, I would swear that Tyler Hansbrough was straight from his loins. Vitale is way over the top with his catchphrases! Every time I hear "dipsydoo dunkaroo baaaaby" I want to throw something at my tv. Then I remember it's not even my tv yet..Best Buy still owns it. Somebody needs to get this guy some nasal spray like yesterday!

I do love to watch the opening rounds to see who gets upset. This year's tournament was lacking in that department some. Seems like the cream did rise to the top this go around. All the hype and excitement over March Madness really makes me wish we had some sort of playoff in college football. I am not sure the exact answer to this issue, but just get something done and tweak it as you go along if necessary.

The only thing stopping it is the money that noboby is willing to give up hosting all 82 bowl games. Ok, so it's not quite that many but you get the point. I have to ask though, how proud can you be of playing in the Magic Jack St.Petersburg Bowl?

Jacks and Kings wants to know how your brackets turned out and if you have any suggestions on the college football situation. If you're a Dick Vitale fan well tell us your corny reason as to why you are clinically insane. Calling it a night, I'm all in with a pair of Jacks.

Running DEI into the ground....the Teresa Earnhart Legacy

When it comes to NASCAR the 3 is famous. The most recognized car number in all of motor sports. Just as the 23 is to basketball.

Upon Dale Earnhardt Sr. untimely death his wife took over DEI and has literally run it into the ground. Why was she left this legacy? Who knows....but one thing for sure, she has no idea what the hell she is doing. She has taken a once an upcoming company and ran it straight into the ground.

First, there was a chance to save DEI by selling to Dale Jr and his sister Kelley. Being the money grubbing, power hungry woman she is, she did not. Had she recognized that Dale Jr and Kelley thrived in building Junior Motorsports she should have immediately gave him the controlling interest to help pull the company back up from her sinking depths. However, she insisted on alienating Junior and Budweiser (can you say goodbye $$ ?). Next, other sponsors began to fall (US Army, NAPA, Menards). Driver departure under her divine leadership include Dale Jr, Mark Marin, Paul Menard and Michael Waltrip, all in just 2 years time. Remarkable!!

As a last ditch effort she merged with Ganassi. She acquired some talent to go along with what she had remaining (Turex Jr and Almirola were still at DEI). Now our fair princess of ruin is shutting down the 8 team due to Money Woes. The beat goes on. Poor Dale Sr. has to be looking down from above with disappointment and disgust.

In closing, spouses don't always make the best business partners. Sadly Dale Sr. didn't have a better plan than this. I guess the only thing that will be left of DEI is a souvenir trailer at the track selling #3 hats and shirts and a jacket here and there. When that well runs dry I guess we will find Teresa dodging tornado's in a trailer park in Kansas. I would say that Junior and Kelley are holding back the "I told you so's"....but I doubt that. They are probably just as heart broken as their dad would be that Teresa has ruined the family legacy that he left behind for his kids.

Nice going Teresa. Better purchase that Double Wide in Kansas before you run out of money and have to get a loan from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.