but the outraged fans are funny!

Hunter Pence, who won his second World Series in three years with the Giants, is one of the quirkiest and most charismatic All-Stars in baseball, playing with an unself-conscious blend of bug-eyed intensity and unrestrained desire. This year the public persona of the 31-year-old right fielder grew exponentially with his play on the field, his motivational speeches and the appearance -- in ballparks from coast to coast -- of an inexplicable phenomenon: Hunter Pence signs

Early scouting report:

Runs like a rotary phone thrown into a running clothes dryer. Throws like an effete Frenchman throwing a bookcase uphill. Swings a bat like his elbows are stapled to his knees and his underwear is pulled over his head. Stares at you while you aren’t looking.

But there's is a reason why he moves like he was kludged together out of spare parts and might fail at any moment: Has Scheuermann's disease, a spinal disorder that left him with no flexibility in his thoracic spine.

And this also explains his totally unorthodox gangly alien/stork-like style of playing. By all measures, he shouldn't even be playing MLB, but he has the biggest heart in baseball, bar none, and worked hard to develop mechanics that work well for him despite being just plain ugly to watch, and Hunter has a lot of fun with it:

Glad he's well-liked and people get the joke (as well as the reality behind it)

Still had to laugh at this description, though:

"Runs like a rotary phone thrown into a running clothes dryer."

This is the photo captioned, "These pretzels are making me thirsty", that started the whole thing:



Did the whole sign thing blow you away when it took off?
Pence: It was extremely funny. My girlfriend, Alexis [Cozombolidis], was the one who got it started. I'm a big "Seinfeld" fan, and it started with a picture we posted of me in a New York diner holding a cup of coffee -- it wasn't the actual "Seinfeld" diner, but it reminded me of it -- with the famous quote, "These pretzels are making me thirsty." That night in Queens, some fans made some signs: "Hunter Pence Puts Ketchup on His Hot Dog" and "Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With a Fork." Those are two things New Yorkers should never do, according to "Seinfeld." I thought it would last one or two days, maybe through the Mets series, and we couldn't believe what it turned into.

So, I can't even visualize the pretzel scene.

Still, he does sound like a fun/funny guy

He got fired when he smashed a glass in the scene and wounded Woody.

There's always something that happens where they can't continue to do whatever work it was. Only Jerry seems to be continuously successful

a whole slice in a one time isn't proper etiquette?

I think I'll eat my pizza a home from now on.

My mouth isn't big enough to talk and chew pizza at the same time

I wonder how she eats a nice big thick hamburger.

Or spearing it, like with dim sum.


Evidence that it's possible:

One of the more exciting things to do when collaborators visited from Europe or Japan was to take them to our local McDonalds and watch them eat a Big Mac.

Fascinating.

Brilliant physicists defeated by a slimy two decker pos burger.

We don't have that term down here. So, it qualifies as a burger to me

and never the two shall meat.

It's simply a different-sized burger (extra-small)

They have SLIDERS.

Everybody has sliders.

I MAKE sliders.

Get with it.

What year is it 'down there'?

Then again, I'm a vegetarian, and a Texan. So, we're not like the rest of y'all

You're a Texan AND a vegetarian.

Does not compute.

My ENTIRE family except my brother and I are Texans and I've never heard such a thing.

I started in 2000. My parents still haven't fully accepted my choices but my siblings did long ago. And when I don't make my own food, there are plenty of vegetarian restaurants here in Houston

Master of understatement and wit. 'My parents still haven't accepted my choices...'

My mother holds me in the highest disregard for my politics. Being a professor doesn't help much either. Shit, everyone in my family thinks I'm 100 percent fully certifiable.

Now I can understand why there aren't any White Castles where you live.

They'd be inundated by the sheer number of restaurants here (I've seen estimates pegging it at over eight thousand, though I don't know if they included fast-food.) When I feel adventurous, I use the restaurant-guide on The Houston Press.

I suppose since we're now the most diverse city in the country that someone will try to import White Castle. I would guess there are at least a handful of folks from those parts of the country living here

One thing I've learned with regards to sharing information with my parents is to simply not do it, no matter how helpful it may be. I tend to include herbal and natural remedies to complement doctor-prescribed treatment (when I know it won't counteract anything) and have tried to pass such info along to my parents. "Nope. Too much trouble. You don't know what you're talking about."

Three years later: "We're now taking xyz supplement. We read about it in Prevention." Yeah, and I told you about that three years ago!

I remember reading a blog by a woman herbalist I like and how she was talking about that very same thing. Your family will never take your advice. They have to get it from somewhere else. We simply are not respected authority figures, no matter what our level of education (such as yours being a professor.)

pretty much sums up my occasional visit to the old homestead.

It's gotten so bad that I don't go to family reunions any more.

so long as I steer away from certain topics. No politics as my father is a repub and my mother is an "independent." There's plenty else to pleasantly yap about

And then I eat it with a fork.

What kind of weirdo do you think I am?

No, on second thoughts, don't answer that.

you're already one kind of weirdo

Weirdos of the DU

And more than hummus, too.

Would have never guessed. Too lazy to look it up if it even exists.

Can't STAND hummus. I don't even like the way is sounds.

It was delicious!

Have a look at this site

' but became drunk and attempted to carry off the bride and the female guests. In the battle which ensued the Kentauroi were all but wiped out.'

Nothing like a spur of the moment decision ending in disaster.

Sounds just like my childhood. I surprised a whole lot of folks by making it to 18. Maybe even 16.

Thanks for the article.

I use that site whenever I need to look up various Greek gods/goddesses and other mythos. It's quite in-depth.

And now I better go. Been awake too long. It's Nyx outside

Only way to eat pizza is with your HANDS, Unless one has a medical or physical issue.
Hands.
Not chopsticks.
Not fork and knife.
Hands.

Pepperoni and greens olives.

It can get messy past the wrists. So, bare with me and roll up those sleeves!