TMZ BOWS TO TABLOID BABY; REMOVES KIDDIE PORN PHOTO FROM WEBSITE

Corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com has removed an offensive photo of minor child Ali Lohan from its website after TabloidBaby.com pointed out that the photo "obviously is meant to look, at first glance, as if the 14-year-old child is performing an act of fellatio."

The offensively-cropped photograph accompanied a posting with the equally offensive headline, "Dina to Porn Guy: Breast Wishes to You, Sucker."


The smarmy nature of the photograph, headline and story are not out of place on the sleazy, subliterate website run by shaved bronze midget Harvey Levin and a group of West Hollywood boytoys (and whose headlines today include "McMahon Pisses Off Divorce Lawyers," "T.I Suffers from Elect-ile Dysfunction" and "Bar Refaeli Is a Hot Piece in a Two-Piece"), but is especially surprising in light of the fact that TMZ is a sister operation of CNN and owned by the corporate giants, Time Warner and AOL.

The scandal reached international proportions this afternoon when the British website Anorak picked up the story and added these items from the parent companies' online guides:

AOL: “Help protect your children from the potential dangers that can lurk on the internet. View the websites they visit or limit their time online. Help get peace of mind by using parental controls.”

TIME WARNER - Standards of Business Conduct: “Harassment includes, without limitation, verbal harassment (derogatory statements, slurs, epithets), physical harassment (assault, physical interference), visual harassment (cartoons, drawings, postings, e-mail) and innuendo.”

So far, there has been no word that Levin has been stripped of his managing editor title, whether TMZ will face criminal charges, or that the incident resulted in anything more than snickers in TMZ's West Hollywood aerie.

TMZ CROSSES THE LINE INTO KIDDIE PORN!

The perverted lowlifes who run the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com are now plying their smutty lowbrow attempts at humour at children, and they probably crossed the line into kiddie porn criminality with their post today on Lindsay Lohan's 14-year-old sister, Ali Lohan.

In a story about Ali's audition with a film producer with ties to the porn industry, shaved bronzed midget Harvey Levin and his gang use a double-entendre headline alluding to oral sex, along with a photo that obviously is meant to look, at first glance, as if the 14-year-old child is performing an act of fellatio.

The combination of the word "sucker" and the positioning, coloring and cropping of the photo make their sick intentions all too obvious.

We realize that TMZ is funded by the corporate monoliths Time-Warner and AOL, but surely some of the executives, stockholders, or even TMZ breeder employees, have children.

Or sisters. Or nieces.

So who will call out TMZ now?

While we are loathe to provide this this NSWF link to the sewage site, we do so on order that you get the entire picture and can take whatever action you deem fit. We're getting tired of yelling into the wind.

Phil Spector endorses Barack Obama

At a hearing in his murder case today.

His button reads "Barack Obama rocks."

Suddenly Rev. Wright is looking very appealing.

5.4

Ten minutes after the earthquake, when we were live-blogging, they were reporting it as a 5.8 on the Richter scale.

Now it's officially been downgraded to a 5.4.

It was nothing compared to that 6.7 back in 1993, but the biggest quake scare since.

5.8

Quake was centered in Chino Hills, southeast of LA.

EARTHQUAKE IN L.A.!

"We got a hint of it and then it kept going and got really strong. The whole building shook."

--JB Blunck, Calabasas

"The building is still shaking," says Alison in Burbank.

EARTHQUAKE!

Two quick hard shakes in Pacific Palisades.

11 42 AM

IBL's biographer admits first season may be its last

Ron Kaplan, the authorized biographer of the Israel Baseball League and its founder Larry Baras, has been one of the most unapologetic supporters of the IBL, and an early public critic of the investigative work of Our Man Elli in Israel-- calling is original explosive IBL expose "a bit unnecessarily harsh." But this morning, the sports editor of the New Jersey Jewish News and blogger behind Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf has, for the first time, admitted that the future of the IBL is not as bright as he would have liked to imagine.

In a posting today on the burst of publicity over a possible documentary film about IBL vet Ari Alexenberg (which mistakenly refer to the 45-year-old as the "IBL's oldest player"-- that distinction goes to Scott Cantor, 51-- Kaplan calls Alexenberg "a 45-year-old Boston man who played in the first (and perhaps only) season of the Israel Baseball League last year."

Kaplan's admission that the 2007 IBL season may be "perhaps" its "only season" is a major admission from someone who is so closely tied to the IBL inner circle.

When all IBL players cheered Leon Feingold

Fuselage of Richard Branson's space "mothership"

Tracing the history of manned flight. Cool.


And Virgin Galactic nose art, unveiled today in the Mojave desert.

Players & vendors to picket Israel baseball "show"?

El Presidente David Solomonte of the Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League might want to think about adding extra security for his weeklong baseball “show” festival that’s being promised to replace an actual Israel baseball league season, beginning August 14th at the Yarkon Sports Complex in Petach Tikva.

Our staffers who’ve been monitoring the “chatter” on the Tabloid Baby comment boards, not to mention off-the-record interviews Our Man Elli in Israel has had with former IBL players and vendors in Israeli who are still holding the bag or bounced checks from the IBL’s first season, are talking about protesting the games—possibly with a picket line that Leon Feingold and other IBL "All-Stars" would be forced to cross.

The athletes who manned the IBL in 2007 never formed a labor union, but as in wartime or summer camp, formed a bond that was only strengthened when many returned to their native lands to find that their paltry paychecks had bounced!

Public pronouncements by IBL pitcher Feingold, and his enthusiasm for joining the “All Star” lineup despite the of his fellow players, have hardened the determination of many IBL vets, investors and vendors to see “justice” from the new IBL executives who'd seemed to promise accountability and openness in a bid for an IBL revival.

Among the recent postings on the Tabloid Baby comments pages, which has long beenthe sounding board, monitored across the globe, for the Israel baseball community:

anonymous said...
"I say good for Leon, who seems like a great guy who is deeply committed to making baseball succeed in Israel."
Really? How exactly is he making it succeed when players from last year haven't been paid. And not only not been paid - the checks sent last month have bounced!!! BOUNCED! AGAIN!! So is he really doing anything "to making baseball succeed in Israel," besides kissing ass so he can get a free trip back to Israel? 

"All i wanna do is go back and play ball and forget about it." - Shoeless Joe Jackson, "Eight Men Out"


He was thrown out for life, Fat Mouth, and he didn't take any money. And all you want to do "is go back and play ball and forget about it?" Won't work, Feingold, you have teammates to answer to - you may have gottten paid in full, but your teammates have been stiffed.
Don't cross their picket line, scabs are not welcome to play.
Friday, July 25, 2008 6:02:00 AM PDT

ibl player said...
"Don't cross their picket line, scabs are not welcome to play."


Who the hell are you to create a picket line? Were you a player? Were you involved with the league at all?
Probably not. So shut up, eat your fast food, and f--- your wife. Leave the baseball to us.
Friday, July 25, 2008 9:31:00 AM PDT

another ibl player said...
Well if there is no union in place, then there can't be a picket line to cross correct?

If the anonymous person who made the comment about the scabs is indeed a player, why don't you fess up your name and talk to the players who have allegedly committed to go back? Instead of talking smack anonymously on this blog, hit them up on facebook or on their phones. I have most of their contact info. If you give up your identity, I can get you in contact w/them so you can make your plea like a man instead of hiding behind this blog.
Friday, July 25, 2008 2:15:00 PM PDT

anonymous said...
Mr IBL player 
Leave the baseball to us?

Where are your morals?

Just because you can hit or throw a baseball does not give you a license to f--- non-paid players and not care about any of the bad debts and ill will created by these idiots!
Friday, July 25, 2008 2:19:00 PM PDT

anonymous said...
To the last commenter, maybe the guy who wrote it isn't good enough to play anywhere else and/or simply doesn't give a sh*t about his brother players. Maybe some of the guys who were in the league last year are simply self-centered, egotistical and immature and don't care what the rest of the picture looks like even as simple as it is to figure out by now. They will stand up and be counted if and when they go to Israel or, if they get posted on the IBL website and are then dealt a dose of reality when the Festival falls flat. Or when they get stuck there because the return tickets aren't paid for.
They will eventually learn that what goes around comes around. It's too bad, but it is what it is.
Friday, July 25, 2008 8:59:00 PM PDT

ibl player said...
Ask anyone from last season if they would go back. 95% will say yes, paid or not paid.
Friday, July 25, 2008 11:59:00 PM PDT

ibl player said...
your number is way high, bro. and those who would go back, knowing now how these guys operate, just don't get it...to just not care about your mates and the other blokes who ain't been paid and to want to work for lying trash who will not help the game grow there is immature and selfish. it's time for some of our mates to grow up.
Saturday, July 26, 2008 5:08:00 AM PDT

anonymous said...
Once again, for Fat Mouth Feingold, it's all about him, and f--- the players. He's ready to come back and play, and to hell with everyone else who has not been paid. To hell with them.
Saturday, July 26, 2008 9:17:00 PM PDT

anonymous said...
Hey Leon, do you give a s--- about the rest of us who have been screwed again and again by the IBL? Who bounced my check again? And bulls--- me about getting me my money? And don't return my emails or phone calls? Who's paying your way to Israel? And why isn't that cash being used to pay everyone from last year first? What's the matter with you? Go choke on a schnitzel, jerk.
Sunday, July 27, 2008 6:36:00 AM PDT

Why is "in-coming" Israel Baseball League president David Solomont ducking original IBL investor Michael Rollhaus?

Original Israel Baseball League investor Michael Rollhaus is having about as much luck getting answers from the new, improved IBL regime as he did with embattled league founder Larry Baras, who, more than a year after opening day of the league’s disastrous sole season, continues to refuse or is unable or has refused to give an accounting of how Rollhaus’s $100,000 investment— not mention millions more— was spent.

Rollhaus says he’s tried unsuccessfully for more than a week to get in touch with Baras’s successor, David Solomont, who took control of the league in a bloodless coup earlier this month and installed himself as “in-coming” El Presidente of the newly-named Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League.

The timeline as we understand it:

* Sunday July 20: Rollhaus calls Solomont from Israel. No answer. Rollhaus leaves a message.

* Wednesday, July 23: Rollhaus calls again, this time from New York. This time, Solomont answers, but says he was on a conference call and promises to call back. Rollhaus says he did not.

* Thursday, July 24: Rollhaus calls Solomont’s cell phone in the afternoon. Solomont says he is a on a train and does not want to disturb the people around him. He apologizes profusely, saying he was a bad person for not getting back to Rollhaus, but promised to call Rollhaus on Thursday night. Rolhaus never gets a call.

* Friday, July 25: Rollhaus sends Solomont the following email:

From: Michael Rollhaus
Sent: Jul 25, 2008 5:06 AM
To: David Solomont
Subject: News

David, Sorry you were unable to take my call and could not get back to me. Right now I am planning to be in Israel from 8/7-8/17. If the situation is right, I can alter my flight plans, so: Is this festival that I am hearing about actually going to happen (if it is not certain, please let me know as I will not change my plans; if you have the two teams set, umpires and field in place and the games are a definite go, I will look into it).

What are the game dates and times?

Are you playing any games on Shabbat?

Have all the player/coach/manager monies owed been paid up from last year?

Why am I hearing that some people who have received checks have had them returned for insufficient funds?

Please let me know what's up either by email or telephone. However, do not call me during Shabbat as I do not take phone calls then.

Thanks for your help!

Michael Rollhaus

* Today, July 27: As of this posting, Rollhaus has yet to receive a reply from David Solomont.

As Our Man Elli in Israel reported in his comprehensive and authoritative IBL article published by the esteemed Jerusalem Post, Solomont’s apparent stonewalling follows an IBL tradition that has gone one for more than a year, despite his promises that the “new” IBL is launching with a clean slate.

(Read Elli’s exclusive interview with Michael Rolhaus that we published on Thursday.)

Leon Feingold brings the heat! Denies blaming Israelis for IBL failure; says he's no IBL apologist; uses biting wit to hurl new & old insults at us!

Leon Feingold, the six-foot-six professional competitive eater who pitched for the Netanya Tigers during the Israel Baseball League's first season and is now facing possible picketing from former colleagues and unpaid Israeli vendors as he leads a seven-player group of "IBL All-Stars" into David Solomont's weeklong "show" fest that's taking the place of the IBL's canceled four-team, 20-game, three-week, momentum-keeping mini-season, has responded to our recent report that he'd been quoted blaming Israelis, and not management, for the failure of the IBL.

Leon had told the Jewish Star:

"The reason the league didn’t do nearly as well as it should have last season was because those who live there haven’t grown up with baseball. How can we expect to succeed with a product when no one in Israel has ever tasted it?"

Today, posting as "bringheat" in our comment section, the man who lists both MENSA and Gluttonfest on his CV not only disowns the comment, but denies being an "apologist" for IBL management, while claiming that our reportage has libeled Larry Baras and other IBL executives. The Masonic lodge warden also asserts that none of the dozens of anonymous complaints in the Tabloid Baby comments section about bounced paychecks and unpaid bills is "legitimate," and wrongly assumes that many comments on this site were posted by members of the Tabloid Baby staff-- obviously misjudging the animus directed toward him and his actions in support of the IBL management on a site that has become a clearinghouse and anonymous sounding board for many IBL players and fans.

Leon's comment:

"Wow, looks like I'm late to the game here. Sorry I missed so much quality journalism while I was out.

"First off, has anyone else noticed how no named person has ever had a legitimate gripe about Larry? With perhaps one or two exceptions, virtually every single comment about how 'Larry stole money,' and 'Larry is f__ing over the players,' and so on, is either Elli or the TabloidBaby staff posting anonymously or under a pseudonym (TB staff: you can look that one up online if you don't recognize such an unusual word, as it's obvious none of you have ever taken any journalism classes), and those who do have legitimate concerns and have posted them under their names, have been more confused and wishing clarity, rather than vitriolic and hateful.

"(By the way, very classy with the gustatory insults, over which the TB staff must have enjoyed much sniggering in between their Internet porn surfing and looking up multisyllabic words in the dictionary. I imagine they took you at least a week to come up with, so I assume you've been saving those up for the next time I was mentioned in the news. You guys are nothing if not dedicated.)

"Next, as has been accurately pointed out, I don't see anywhere where I blamed Israelis for anything other than not being introduced to the game, which was a failure of LARRY and his initial organizational team.

"You fail to recognize (or rather, conveniently fail to acknowledge) I am not an IBL apologist; I place blame where it's due. Larry and the IBL messed up a lot, and were way over their heads. But if I were them, and had nothing better to do with my time rather than take the high road, it wouldn't be hard to hit up the TB staff and Elli for libel and a few other choice tortious claims.

"As far as my characterization of your collective staff as 'mudslinging, smarmy, sensationalist, no-talent gossip-column rejects,' I stand by it. I mean, it seems pretty spot on, doesn't it?

"Leon Feingold"

Another reason why the LA Times is crumbling

Big story breaks out in their bailywick. Of course it involves a liberal politician and was broken by a news organization with more reporters, lawyers, sources, tipsters and documentation that the dying mainstream giant can muster, so the LA Times doesn't only ignore the easily-confirmable story, it tells its online force they're banned from covering it. Hey, we like John Edwards, too. He stands for the right things. But you know what, like Gary Hart, he tempted fate and got caught. Here's the memo sent out by LA Times editor Tony Pierce,who's in charge of all the LA Times bloggers. Note the casual hipster greeting and signoff. Too bad, dinosaurs:

From: "Pierce, Tony"
Date: July 24, 2008 10:54:41 AM PDT
To: [XXX]
Subject: john edwards

Hey bloggers, There has been a little buzz surrounding John Edwards and his alleged affair. Because the only source has been the National Enquirer we have decided not to cover the rumors or salacious speculations. So I am asking you all not to blog about this topic until further notified.

If you have any questions or are ever in need of story ideas that would best fit your blog, please don't hesitate to ask

Keep rockin,

Tony


...A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Mickey Kaus and Gawker...

IAB to IBL: "P-A-Y your IOU's, you SOB's!"

Dateline: Jerusalem. Our Man Elli in Israel, rushing for Shabbat, reports that as of this moment, Israel's baseball governing body has not, and will not, sanction play by the Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League— also known as the Israel Baseball League-- until all debts are paid in full.

Haim Katz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball spoke with El Presidente Solomonte (known among Boston businessmen as David Solomont) yesterday, and told him in no uncertain terms that the IBL has no agreement with the IAB, and that the IAB has no interest in discussing one unless the debts from the IBL’s first season are paid-- starting with Gezer, where the IBL won't be playing this summer, because Gezer wants to be paid for last season.

Katz says the IAB will only talk turkey with the new IBL regime after debts are paid, and says there will be no preconditions of preferential treatment over any other group or individual interested in professional baseball in Israel.

The IAB board is to meet soon, and is expected to vote overwhelmingly not to have anything to do with the IBL.

It’s not clear if the IAB has the legal power to stop the six-game “festival” at which Solomont promises his “players are going to put on a show,” but sources tell Elli that in any case, the IAB will probably stand back and let the IBL implode by itself.

"If any exec of the IBL shows up," a source tells Our Man, "I assume they'll get served legally by Israeli creditors who haven't been paid."

"This is going to be the Dominican Republic of the Middle East... Our players are going over to put on a show!"

--IBL's new "in-coming president" Solomont

Jerusalem Post's Jeremy Last to Tabloid Baby: "Stop lying and libeling us to the world! We never stole your stories!"

Perhaps jealous that freelancer Elli Wohlgelernter was called in to write the definitive Israel Baseball League story at the paper at which he’s employed, perhaps worried about his job, or perhaps even actually, rightfully outraged, Jeremy Last, sports columnist for the Jerusalem Post, writes the comments section of our Baseball in Israel to call us liars and deny that his paper, which is often “last” in covering the international baseball scandal it its own backyard, has taken advantage of our voluminous reportage or the work of Our Man Elli In Israel in its wrap-up, opinion pieces and press release rewrites that are picked up around the world.

We’ve laid out our evidence and complaints here and elsewhere.

Here’s what Jeremy Last has to say:

“If you read these comments can you please take notice, and stop printing lies about the jerusalem post.

 you have this idea that the post sports section took ‘advantage of our documented coverage and expounding upon it without attribution.’ 

This is a LIE. the post sports writers and editors did their own leg work and had never seen this web site when they investigated the league back in june before your man elli called up to complain.

 Why do you lot think everyone knows about your blog. stop libeling the post and telling people around the world that the sports section stole things from your website when it is completely untrue.”

"Stop printing lies?" Hmmm... could that be considered libelous?

Comments?

IBL investor Rollhaus: "I don't understand this festival thing. If they are serious and have the money, why not pay off the debts NOW?"

Now that the new Israeli Baseball League has released new specifics about their plan to replace a second, four-team, 20-game, three week, momentum-keeping mini-season with a two-week running “show” in which “an IBL All-Star team” will play against against a team made up of “premier Israeli players,” not everyone who was involved in the IBL is as excited as competitive eater Leon Feingold and his six fellow IBL veterans who’ve supposedly broken ranks with their brothers from Season One who were left stranded with bounced paychecks and broken dreams to play their part in this show put on by the new management.

Michael Rollhaus, for one.

Rollhaus, whose $100,000 investment in Larry Baras’ original Israel Baseball League, made him, according to Our Man Elli in Israel’s analysis of incomplete financial data, the fourth-biggest individual investor in the IBL. He was also the general manager of the league champion Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, and after the league’s collapse, so loved baseball that he became part of the group that attempted to form the rival Israel Professional Baseball League, a group that also failed to lift off under the weight of its own importance, but that’s another story.

The fact remains that for all the promises made by the new frontmen of the Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League and their announced two-week PR festival in August, Rollhaus is still out $100,000 to the IBL, and still doesn’t know what happened to his investment.

Our Man Elli in Israel caught up with the Queens businessman in Jerusalem last week, and quotes Rollhaus saying he’s “always in the dark regarding the IBL. I never had an idea what Larry was doing during the '07 season, and have not had any correspondence with him since October. I have been given no financial information.”

Our Man Elli: What about Dan Rootenberg?

Michael Rollhaus: “I called him two weeks ago, and he was very upfront with me about the status of the IBL since he took over. But, of course, that ended.”

What about David Solomont?

“We’ve exchanged e-mails; I expect to talk to him (on Thursday). I’m confused. I really do not understand their claims that they have enough funds to pay debts, and enough money for two seasons. That is great, then just pay the players and debts ASAP. I also do not understand this seven-day festival thing. And they want to play winter ball in southern Israel? Well, unless they can import fans and build a domed stadium with a retractable roof… it is more fantasy than reality.”

Are you saying that you doubt the plans?

“If they are serious and have the money, why not pay off the debts NOW?”

What about your $100,000?

“It is the responsibility of a company to provide financial information to their shareholders/investors. As an investor, I think I am entitled to know what is going on. Is that too much to ask?”

Any regrets?

"Well, it hurts when I am in Jeruslaem and people ask me what is going on with Israeli baseball. It hurts when I am home in New York as well. I simply don’t know what to tell them.”

"This is going to be the Dominican Republic of the Middle East... Our players are going over to put on a show!"

--IBL's new "in-coming president" Solomont

Israel Baseball League's "interim president" now "in-coming president"; instead of season, vets to "put on a show"; Jewish National Fund in cahoots

The Israel Baseball League has made new promises and changes on its website.

David Solomont, who has been referred to as "interim" president, is now the "in-coming president," replacing former player Dan Rootenberg, who backed away from the job earlier this month. The "in-coming" qualifier apparently gives Solomont the option to do the same.

Solomont, also known as El Presidente Solomonte of the Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League because of his promise that Israel would become the Dominican Republic of The Middle East, also figures prominently in a new press release that confirms that the IBL's second season that had been replaced by a four-team, 20-game, three-week, momentum-keeping mini-season will now be replaced by a week-long baseball festival starting on August 14th that will pit an IBL All-Star team against a team made up of premier Israeli players."

The IBL veterans who have confirmed they will play ball were listed by the IBL in this order:

Leon Feingold
Willis Bumphus
Jason Benson
David Kramer
Mike Lyons
Ray Rodriguez
Jason Bonder

Two more and they'll have a team.

Says Solomont: "Our players are going over to put on a show."


The IBL release also says the league is working with the Jewish National Fund, a fundraising group dedicated to bringing trees and water to Israel. Maybe they can bring the ice this time.


Here's the press release:

IBL Summer Baseball Festival to Commence Thursday, August 14th
07/24/2008 9:44 AM

The Israel Baseball League, which inaugurated the first season of professional baseball in Israel last summer, has officially announced its plans for this summer season, a week-long baseball festival starting on August 14th that will pit an IBL All-Star team against a team made up of premier Israeli players.

The baseball festival, which will go from August 14th through August 21st, will take place at the Yarkon Sports Complex at the Baptist Village. The Baptist Village field, Israel’s state-of-the-art baseball and softball facility, is located in Petach Tikva, about seven miles outside of Tel Aviv.

Games will start at 7 p.m. and are scheduled to be played on Thursday night, August 14th, and then each night from Sunday August 17th through Thursday night, August 21st.

“Our players are going over to put on a show. They are going over to run clinics in various communities. They are going to visit hospitals and hand out gifts. And most of all, they are going over to play some baseball,” said David Solomont, who has stepped into the role of president of the IBL. The festival will feature nightly games at the Baptist Village, with other baseball-related activities taking place before the games and in between innings. Like last year, IBL merchandise and memorabilia will be sold at the games and there will be a full food concessions service featuring a menu of barbecue offerings.

“We are very excited about this festival”, said Martin Berger, one of the IBL’s top executives. “First and foremost, we are going to once again offer a high caliber of play, with most of the players being among the best IBL alumni from last season. But we have purposely put together this season in the form of a festival, with an international vs. Israel component, in consideration of the Olympic Games that will be going on in Beijing simultaneously to our tournament. It adds to the connection between what is going on sports-wise in Israel with what is going on internationally.”

The IBL, together with the Jewish National Fund, is engaged in a far-reaching campaign called “Project Baseball” to build more community baseball fields in Israel and foster a grassroots initiative to support amateur participation and interest in baseball and softball. Baseball has long been the favorite sport of the Jewish population in America.

The IBL believes that not only can baseball become the first professional sport in Israel with a cross-section of fans, irrespective of gender or denomination, but that baseball and softball, sports played by men and women alike, offer a new common ground for people to meet and compete in a wholesome environment.

While final rosters are still being formally assembled, among the IBL players who have already committed to returning for this summer’s activities are Leon Feingold, Willis Bumphus, Jason Benson, David Kramer, Mike Lyons, Ray Rodriguez, and Jason Bonder. For the Israelis, former Seattle Mariners pitcher Ari Kafka, who now studies in Jerusalem, has informed the IBL that he is ready to pitch for Israel.

Final roster spots will be determined and announced in the coming days.

The full schedule of events will be announced on the IBL web site shortly.

E-Rod gets new shot with the Yanks; won't be one of El Presidente Solomonte's August "All-Stars"

Remember E-Rod? Eladio Rodriguez, the most prominent graduate of the Israel Baseball League, may be getting another shot at the New York Yankees' AA farm club, the Trenton, NJ Thunder.

That would mean the Dominican mystery man would not be available to star in the exhibition tourney in Israel that's meant to be a teaser for El Presidente Solomonte's Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League that he promises will replace the IBL in the winter.

And too bad, because as a Dominican-born IBL vet and MLB journeyman, E-Rod would be a better face for the new league than current, retired Dominican player Chico Escuela (left).

E-Rod had been placed on the Thunder's disabled list, to make room for a right-handed pitcher, after going from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees to the Single A Staten Island Baby Bombers, back to Scranton, a step from Yankee Stadium, and down a step to the AA Trenton Thunder, all in the space of a month, before being kicked back down to the Single A NY-Penn League farm team in Staten Island and back up to Trenton at the beginning of June.

Hunterdon County Democrat beat writer Mike Ashmore writes in his Thunder Thoughts blog that Eladio may be getting a chance now that catcher P.J. Pilittere got a broken nose when he was hit in the face by a foul ball:

"...The former Israel Baseball League standout wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire down there, hitting just .095, but he was doing all right in limited action with the Thunder earlier this season, going 3-for-13 in four games.

"I don’t even think the Bo Hall move is official yet, so who knows when anything with Pilittere will be announced, but the likely move would be to place him on the DL so that a roster spot can be created.

"For what it’s worth, I haven’t understood why they won’t send Jason Brown down when a catcher is needed. Nothing against Eladio, but Brown has a similar reputation to P.J. in that pitchers really seem to like the way he calls a game, and I think he’d have a good influence on some of the guys on the staff."

"This is going to be the Dominican Republic of the Middle East"
--IBL's new "in-coming president" David Solomont

Exclusive! Our Man Elli writes definitive piece on Israel Baseball for The Jerusalem Post, but we have the passage that the editors left out!

"...An ugly and angry battle was waged via comments posted on the Tabloid Baby site. That blog became the unlikely forum for information and debate surrounding the dream of professional baseball in Israel, with more than 250 posts about baseball in Israel, and more than 1,400 mostly anonymous comments posted by players and fans..."

--deleted section from Elli Wohlgelernter's
Jerusalem Post article

Elli Wohlgelernter, The Dean of Israel Baseball League reporting-- heck, he's the whole g-ddamn university!-- has broken just about every major development in the story, from its opening day to the scandals that followed its final out through the financial questions, defections, deflections and deceptions all the way to its latest, almost comically bizarre manifestation, headed by a second controversial Boston businessman who's already broken promises in the creation of his new Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League.

And occasionally, Elli breaks the news in internationally respected mainstream publications, as he does this morning with a major feature in The Jerusalem Post.

Field of Failed Dreams brings the IBL saga up to date from the final out of the 2007 season and seeing all the facts in one place should give pause to any critics of Elli's great reportage:

"It's not that playing baseball in Israel is so important, when there are real bombs bursting in air and real rockets' red glare; it's just that the idea was so novel, the vision so grand, the imagination so captured and emotions so impassioned that few believed it could ever happen. And then, amazingly, it did. And then, sadly, it died.

"The dream actually started to unravel just minutes after the maiden season ended last August 19: After the Beit Shemesh Blue Sox won the Israel Baseball League championship game, Commissioner Dan Kurtzer and the league brass presented them with the championship trophy. Missing from the ceremony was the league founder, Larry Baras. He had slipped out in the middle of the game..."

We've discovered that editors at the internationally-circulated newspaper, however, did remove several graphs from Elli's submission, most likely because we have criticized the Post, and other "mainstream" outlets for taking advantage of our documented coverage and expounding upon it without attribution:

"The IBL players themselves were divided over whose side to take. An ugly and angry battle was waged via comments posted on the Tabloid Baby site. That blog became the unlikely forum for information and debate surrounding the dream of professional baseball in Israel, with more than 250 posts about baseball in Israel, and more than 1,400 mostly anonymous comments posted by players and fans.

"Being anonymous, of course, meant nothing was out of bounds for the commentators, and charges and countercharges were hurled in both directions. Some called the upstart IPBL 'carpetbaggers, parasites and ambulance-chasers feeding off the carcass of the IBL'; on the other side were players demanding to know when they would finally get paid by the IBL, and questioning what happened to all the money that was raised. Others were asking why Baras had registered at least six limited liability corporations for the league in Delaware."

And this:

"On April 14, Tabloid Baby reported that there would be no baseball in Israel in 2008."

Why? Not enough space?

Leon Feingold blames Israelis for IBL failure

You remember Leon Feingold. He was the professional competitive eater who pitched for the Netanya Tigers during the Israel Baseball League's first season who became the foremost post-season apologist for the IBL management malfeasance and, along with self-professed "Peter Pan" Eric Holtz, a leading critic of Our Man Elli in Israel's reportage of the real story behind the IBL facade, hurling insults much harder, but equally as inaccurately, as his 33-year-old arm could muster.

Now Leon's back, and his fellow IBL players who've seen their paychecks bounce, their hard work gone unrewarded and their dreams urinated on by secretive back bay business, can't be too happy by what he has to say about the plans of the IBL's successors, the Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League, to replace its four-team, 20-game, three-week momentum-keeping mini-season with an exhibition tournament in August.

And neither will native Israelis. Because now he's blaming them-- not Elli and not IBL founder Larry Baras for the failure.

“It will be the Israelis against the world, which is sort of what it is in real life,” the Long Island weiner-chomper tells the Jewish Star of Nassau County, Long Island.

“The reason the league didn’t do nearly as well as it should have last season was because those who live there haven’t grown up with baseball. How can we expect to succeed with a product when no one in Israel has ever tasted it? Getting the kids involved is always the first step.”

The pie-eater said he and other players will run "youth clinics" coinciding with the beginning of the tourney at the Yarkon Sports Complex in the Baptist Village of Petach Tikva on Aug. 14.

“We’re also going to be doing a lot of PR work which, in my opinion, we should have been doing all along, with clinics and outreach programs in different cities in order to bring in more fans.

“I am very much looking forward to going, both in terms of going to Israel and in terms of playing at (the professional) level again,” the six-foot-six bean slurper said. “I am sure the experience will be different because the structure of the league has changed so drastically, but anytime I get to play baseball and travel to Israel, that’s a good thing.”

Appel won't work with new Israel baseball league

So who'll be running publicity for the new Dominican Republic of the Middle East Baseball League? Not Marty Appel, the New York Yankees' public relations legend who had the job the first time around, before the coup by El Presidente David Solomonte, when the league was known as the Israel Baseball League.

The PR maven who helped get the original IBL off the ground with brilliant stunts like having the Modi'in Miracle draft Sandy Koufax, tells Our Man Elli in Israel that he was approached by the Boston businessmen running the DRMEBL to help turn the tide of public criticism.

Appel says he was hesitant, torn between the great promise and challenge of baseball in Israel and his skepticism about the direction the DRMEBL seemed to be taking. He says he offered to take the job if several conditions were met:

1) He be paid for last year's work (Appel, like the players and former IBL commissioner Daniel Kurtzer, has not been paid);

2) He be paid for this summer in advance;

3) The Dominican Republic of The Middle East Baseball League agree to operate with full disclosure and financial transparency in order to win back credibility.

Appel says he never heard back.

He tells Our Man Elli:

"I was hoping that the group would be able to stage a 2008 season, and there had been an offer to me to return to serve as the league's media representative, but I never heard anything further and feared this might be the reason.

"It's disappointing, but I remain hopeful that there will be pro baseball in Israel in the future and that the Israeli people be given a full opportunity to experience this great game. Hopefully, the scaled-back plans for this year will result in new enthusiasm for the concept."

GLOW inspires artist Blanco to launch BLOW Fest!

My dear amigos at Tabloid Bebê:

Words cannot express the gratitude I must convey for the what I feel in my Lisbon heart. No one has been as supportive as you of my efforts both large and small. What was a drunken rage fueled by aguardente de medronho at the beach on Saturday night has now become my raison d'être. Larger than Cane del Garbagio. Westchester is my canvas, hot air my paint. BlowLA is coming. Tell, no, shout, to your readers! Blow!

Joaquin Blanco

GLOW has begat BLOW.

Santa Monica California's all-night weekend festival drew a reported 200,000 people to its pier and beach for a festival of sound and lights that all involved agreed was best appreciated with, and created for, the use of drugs, and has gotten a kneejerkedly positive response from the LA Times and other arbiters of middlebrow culture. But at least one local artist said the attempt to copy Paris, France's tres cool Nuit Blanche was an insult to artists and mass events everywhere.

That would be performance, conceptual and installation artist Joaquin Blanco, who texted this site from the scene in the middle of the light show frenzy that “the overhyped, under-delivered... amazing disappointment... wouldn’t qualify as a neighborhood festival in Lisbon!"

His point of view was seconded by LiquidGeneration's Slippy Jenkins, who wrote "Glow Fest was an abortion... I’m betting that the only people who had a good time were either 1) really drunk or on drugs. 2) Giggly 16-year-olds or people who had the maturity level of a 16-year-old."

The man who caused international controversy and acclaim with his 2004 Garbage Cane installation in nearby Westchester promised to counter the GLOW fest with his own "Blow" festival, "an equally lame but even more over-hyped extravanganza of so-called ‘art'! One hundred electric fans blowing at hanging chimes, creating a symphony of ‘clung clung clung’! ...noisemakers... schoolchildren puffing on Coke bottles! Pan flute players from every open-air mall in the city!"

As you can see from the screengrab above, Senor Blanco has come through. The staff in his bunker-laundry-studio has created a website, is building its mailing list and is ready to unleash upon Los Angeles a mighty wind.

Check out BlowLA's website here.

And join the mailing list here.

Katie Couric tells Israel she's a victim of "sexism"

"I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance,
and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized
not long ago: that sexism in the American society
is more common than racism,
and certainly more acceptable or forgivable."
--Katie Couric, CBS News

Katie Couric is in Israel for the first time, on vacation while Barack Obama is in Iraq, yet acting like she's campaigning, treated and acting like a celebrity, and talking about herself and her plight, as in the following "monologue" in Tel Aviv that's quoted in Haaretz:

"I have no doubt in my heart that I made the right move, accepting the CBS offer. I would have regretted it otherwise. It's true that the pressure was immense and the expectations almost impossible. One person cannot perform such miracles and transform a whole network on his own.

"It's also true I'm not doing today exactly what I've been brought to do, and that my chance to express myself is fairly limited in the 22-minutes format, but I still enjoy my work, I think it's important and fascinating, and do believe we can make a change with time, bit by bit.

"Unfortunately I have found out that many viewers are afraid of change. The glory days of TV news are over, and the media landscape has been dramatically changed. News is available now for everyone, everywhere, all the time, and everybody fights for the last pieces of the shrinking pie. The corporate pressure and the ratings terror are intensifying all the time, and the situation is not simple. I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable. In any case, I think my post and Hillary's race are important steps in the right direction."

She added:

"My mother is Jewish, but I've been raised as a Presbyterian. I'm interested in finding out more about these roots."

Why don't people watch Katie Couric? She lies.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

"Katie Couric said she’s not going anywhere -- at least not any time soon.

"Facing the press for the first time since reports surfaced this spring that she was preparing to leave the CBS News anchor chair after the presidential election, Couric said today that she’s staying put.

“'We have no plans to part company any time soon,' Couric said. 'And there were a lot of speculative pieces that I think got, quite frankly, spun out of control.'

"...The anchor referred obliquely to talks she had with CBS executives earlier this year about her future on the broadcast. In the discussions, Couric and the network officials agreed to table any decision until after the presidential election.

“'You know, we always assess how the show is doing and what direction we want to go in. And so clearly when you work for an organization you have ongoing discussions,' Couric said. 'But I’m very committed to the people here.'”

Network newsreaders ought to talk straight. Katie's "denial" is Clintonesque in its equivocation. Of course she's leaving soon. the network just doesn't want to blow off the election ratings and they can't let her walk until Lara Logan is back from maternity leave.

Parsing the words to squeeze out the real meaning:

"any time soon."

"ongoing discussions."

There is Israel Baseball this summer! In Pittsburgh.

Our Man Elli in Israel alerts us that there is baseball in Israel this summer, after all!

Only it’s in Pittsburgh.


Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Valley News Dispatch
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Israel teams join Freeport Tournament

By Paul Kogut

Haim Katz, president of the Israel Association of Baseball, arrived last week in Pittsburgh to visit family members and prepare for the 14th annual Freeport International Baseball Invitational.

About 20 players and three coaches are expected to join Katz this morning, as Israel gets ready to participate in the weeklong event for the first time.

The Invitational, which goes by the motto "For the love of the game," offers a laid-back atmosphere.

There are about 100 games, but no playoffs or champions. Technically, results don't matter.

The main goals are having fun and exchanging cultures. Katz said this is the first time an Israeli baseball team will play in the United States in about four years.

"The players are very excited," Katz said. "We usually go to European tournaments and play four or five games. They're kind of high-powered games. Some players will play more, some less. If we come away and lose a lot of games, there can be a lot of tension."

That shouldn't be a problem this week. Israel, which will field two teams, will be in high demand this week.

Foreign teams are always at the top of local teams' request lists.

"Everyone is excited to see them play," Invitational president Chuck Sarver said.

Last year, Australia made its debut at the Invitational and was in the spotlight. Australia has returned, along with Japan and four teams from Canada...