“So What’s up with Sport Team Owners Anyway?”

“So What’s up with Sport Team Owners Anyway?”

By Glenn Peppers                                                                                      4-28-14

So what is it with these sport team presidents, general managers and owners (Oh, by the way, I hate the title, Team Owners), and front office phonies, anyways? Does the title, sport team owner give these billionaire idiots a God Complex or what? Imagine, telling a sports figure like  (for instance) Shaquille O'neal that you (as a team owner) out of pity simply gave Shaq his a car, and gave him his home, and gave him as a hand out, his money. As if Shaq (or any other ballplayer) didn’t earn their money after almost twenty years in the sport! When in fact Shaquille O'neal worked damned hard for everything he owns! And that goes for all ball players, in any sport... Everywhere! They all work hard by the sweat of their brow for what they have! Nobody gave them anything! Just like Donald Sterling worked for his few pennies to attain his wealth, so did they! 

Take a short trip with me and look back at just a few other Sport Team Owners and one sport bookie, announcer and point man, all who apparently lost their minds in recent years, spewing some pretty wild racist remarks and comments on air, as if they'd lost their minds momentarily! 

Lets first take a look at former Cincinnati Reds Owner, the late Marge Schott. Remember her? This woman was so bad that she once referred to by an ex-employee as follows: 

Marge Schott Cincinnati Reds Baseball team owner

“I think she is the single worst person I've ever known. Spiteful, mean-spirited and evil."

Think Donald Sterling was bad?  Cincinnati Reds team owner, Marge Schott spewed a bevy of horribly insensitive comments toward just about everyone! Here are just a few of them in quotes: 

"Some of the biggest problems in this city come from women wanting to leave the home and work."

"Sneaky goddamn Jews are all alike."

"Never hire another nigger. I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger."

"Only fruits wear earrings."

"Everybody knows [Hitler] was good at the beginning, but he just went too far."

                                                              Marge Schott

Then there was the one comment that Marge Schott made that really heated the Reds players! An ex-employee of Schott's, Charles "Cal" Levy, said in his deposition for attorney, Tim Sabo that he’d heard Schott call Reds outfielders, Eric Davis and Dave Parker "Million-Dollar Niggers!" 

Seems Marge Schott was of the same cut of the cloth from the likes of Donald Sterling alright! Heck, they even look somewhat like brother and sister! Both also having a long history of racial intimidations and bullying those she felt were beneath her! Don Sterling and Marge Schott would have had quite the adorable reality show, had she lived! I’m kidding of course... you know that don’t you?... NOT!!!

Al Companis, LA Dodgers General Manager and sports announcer

Then there is the late Al Companis, former LA Dodgers General Manager, and Baseball Sports Announcer. His racist remarks that blacks do not have the intelligence and the smarts to be sport team General Managers was shocking to news anchor, Ted Kopple. To quote Companis on his interview on ABC’s Nightline with Ted Kopple!... 

”Blacks may not have some of the necessities to be, let's say, a field manager, or, perhaps, a general manager for these positions.” 

                                                     Al Companis

For whatever reason, Al Companis went off on another ridiculous tangent, in the same interview by stating that blacks were awful swimmers, not having the buoyancy necessary to swim! What that had to do with the price of tea on the dark side of Mars is beyond me; asides from being horribly misguided and ignorant. it made him look like a complete fool! As a result of this interview on Nightline, protest erupted the following morning, and as further result, Companis resigned two days later.

Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder, Odd's man and Bookie former NFL Today Host

Finally, there is the late Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder. famous for his odds making and off-hand betting and percentages babel, of which CBS Sports adopted, yet at the same time, dumb-down and changed around Snyder’s format somewhat in order for his longtime bookie skills to not seem as if he were actually giving out gambling or sport betting tips over the air. By law, Jimmy The Greek Snyder could not give out any clues and/or advice on who the fans should wager on in a professional football game, over live television. Synder's talk skills was relegated mainly to interviews, sport percentage babel, talking up only percentages and his amazingly spot on score predictions, based on his odds system of who would win a game using his keen statistics and luck! 

Snyder’s early claim to fame was his Las Vegas betting and bookmaking skills on Professional Football Games. Jimmy The Greek (as he called himself) made such a name for himself doing this that CBS Sports gave him a spot as an odd’s and statistics man, and sports announcer on the long running, CBS football show, NFL Today! 

On January 16, 1988, Jimmy the Greek Snyder was fired by the CBS network (where he had been a regular on NFL Today since 1976), after commenting to WRC-TV reporter Ed Hotaling at Duke Zeibert’s Washington, D.C. restaurant that, African Americans were Naturally Superior Athletes, at least due in part because they had been bred to produce stronger offspring during the slavery era. To Quote Snyder:  

“The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way, because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs and he's bred to be the better athlete because this goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trade … the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid …”

                   Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder

Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder also commented during that same WRC-TV interview that 

“if blacks take over coaching jobs, like everybody wants them to, there's not going to be anything left for white people."

Now I don’t know about you, but as a black man, my thighs surly don’t go up into my back. If they did, we’d have one hell of a SyFy/sideshow movie going on! In researching, reading and remembering all of these gigantically monumental bouts of diarrhea of the mouth and soul from these people are to say the least, disturbing for me! 

Apparently Donald Sterling was right about one thing. There is a culture out here that feeds this kind of arrogance and exclusion of minorities, and further feeds this False Sense of Entitlement Syndrome! 

Sterling was right! Team Owners appear to have this odd culture of plantation style superiority! It is a culture of bigotry and hatred, and control! It is blind, and it is head strung, fueled by money and power at the hands of a chosen few insecure once adolescent geek wimps with money who think of people as things and possessions, instead of human beings. This arrogance grows like a fungus. It reasons with no one! It functions out of fear, and jealously, breeding hate and intolerance!  

Maybe just maybe sport teams should never be owned by any one person! Who knows, maybe in essence they really aren’t. Maybe those people Donald Sterling was so afraid and concerned about pissing off because of his girlfriend being seen with minorities are the ones who really do own all those basketball teams! Remember, Donald Sterling was speaking up on their behalf as well as his own!

Could it be these people outside of the other 29 other team owners are fueling this separative hate culture in sports; and small minded people like Donald Sterling, Marge Schott, and Al Companis are just figure heads on a chess board of power? 

Given that, maybe the Donald Sterling’s are merely a front, or a symbol to focus on while the real fat cat owners sit behind the scenes, pulling the strings?... Who knows! I guess people in my tax bracket will never really know, will we?

Glenn Peppers 

“Just Born Again”

Just Born Again   ( Why I am not Perfect? )

                                      

   By Glenn Peppers                                                                4-26-14

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                

Ok people! Yes I'm Born Again! I never said that I was some perfect novel character, all dressed in shinning armor, standing tall and being all powerful and all that stuff. Nope, that wouldn't be me!

News flash guys: I do make mistakes! Lot's of them! And on any given day, usually I'm goofy as all get out! And yes like many of you, I have bad habits, and despite popular belief, I don't always do what's right! Yet when I shine, boy do I SHINE!... So right here and now, I'd like to publicly take this time to thank God for not giving up on me. Yes me, this odd lil' man of whom you rescued from the clutches of this cruel world of violence, judgement, and constant condemnation and the many varied attacks from all sides that are inflicted on Born Again folks. 

These days, Born Again peoples are experiencing with increasing volume these days, persecution like never before! I've got a lil’ clue for those of you out there. Those crazy folks that they feature on the evening and cable news programs, doing all those unspeakably insane acts of murder, cross burnings, high crime, as well as any sort of participation in any manner of wild cultic and/or occult activity and such, in the name of Father God, Jehovah and Jesus Christ "is Not" anything a real Born Again Believers would do! All this stuff (and many more insane acts) are just not apart of what being a real Believer in the things of the Jesus Christ is all about! As it says in Scripture: 

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” 

And I’m quite sure that there are people out here who would take even this simple verse of scripture out of context, and make it something that it is not (even so called ministers are doing this now days that I've seen on TV)! Doing such a thing comes from not having a full understanding of the word, and the Lord thy God. For those who do not know. There are people out here who prey on people seeking a knowledge of God by playing on their faith and their good intentions!

If you know me, you know that I am just a regular guy, and a big kid at heart! Believe me, I know there's a chance that I wear my guardian angels out most days ding the things I do sometimes, and may even crack them up quite often as well. 

Yet through it all folks, God knows I'm not a bad egg! I just can’t get over the very idea that God actually thought I was worth saving, and is still trying to drill some knowledge (and common sense) into this thick skull of mine, even after all these years. And yes mind you, I really do listen!... Um, sometimes I do! And most times I actually do get the serious messages; mostly after some pretty intense wakeup calls, and when the signs become way too obvious to ignore!... Duh!!! But I get them none the less! Hey, I'm getting better at it!

"I’d like to thank you God for understanding that being human hurts, a good deal of the time! Physically and emotionally! When you sent Christ here on his mission here on earth, he really did experienced some real and true serious human hurt factors. Pain that covered the gambit, physically and spiritually and emotionally. So I'm quite sure you know what human pain and suffering feels like!" 

"God, please forgive my short attention span. And all those times that I should have been reading and meditating on the word, or going about helping people when I was actually watching Food Network, or goofing on Facebook... Kinda like now!" 

Face it people, I'm not going to pretend to be some holier than thou guy who always gets it right every time! I'd be lying to you, "and" myself if I even started to try and play that one off! 

So to all you folks out there who are reading this, I'm not some religious nut, or some harsh, judgmental/sanctimonious task master of other people's faith (who am I to judge anybody?). I'm not gonna beat you over the head with religion (besides, when has that ever worked anyway?)! I'm of the mindset that says: 

"Believe what ya' wanna believe! I'm just offering up my testimony for all to see as an inspiration! Wow!... Now that I said that out loud, I hope I didn't run anybody off! Hmm, Me as an inspiration? Ok God?...  If you say so!" 

One thing's for certain, as a task master and judge of someone's faith or walk? I don't nearly qualify for that Job! 

And me?... Again, I'm just a Born Again Believer from way back, who wants to get it right with the God, the Creator of this vast Universe. One thing I've learned is that we're all a work in progress! That's why He is Jehovah God! The very one who set everything there is in existence in motion! 

And even though I stumble a lot along the way in life. "God I ask that you always be there to help me pick myself up whenever I fall!" Even though things doesn't always go my way, God hasn't let me down yet! So when I don't always get my little way about silly and small (and often big) things, I now know (after all these years) that there is a reason why! I may not always understand this divine wisdom, but there is a reason!

"God, I also ask that you continue to work your healing touch through me, and never stop bringing forth a smile to the faces your many other children in Christ everywhere out here. I pray that I am a good representative of you, and that you will continue to show yourself through me, making my testimony of you a true and fine example of your handy work; in a regular ole' guy like me!

Thank you again dear God for not giving up on me, when there were plenty of times, in recent years I was much harder on myself than you would ever have been!"

Amen and Amen!

Glenn Peppers 

Fading Footsteps

“Fading Footsteps”

 (The Dismantlement of Affirmative Action)                               

By Glenn Peppers                                                                       4-23-14

It is my understanding that Affirmative Action was never meant to be used as a means to let anyone who did not, or could not cut the mustard slide into academia, or america’s already  corrupt nepotistic employment cracks; seeping through to enter into a collage, or any job position undeserved; therefore unfairly excluding anyone not of color, who would be better suited or equally qualified for that same job; or meeting the required educational criteria for collage entry! 

If this were the case, then affirmative action was indeed being abused, and justice was not being served. In this present day america, with its ever increasing incidences of racial injustice, and hate inspired acts put against blacks and others. I predict an upsurge of collage entry denials, as well as many other denials and forms of abuse to many people of color in the workplace.  And I’m speaking of competent people. Not lay about’s, and folks looking for a hand out! I do not condone Johnny’s brother in-law snaking his way inside the company, or into a school he knows he doesn't deserve to walk the halls of... be he Black or White! 

There is already a sea unfairness in job placement and the hiring practices in corporate america that is unprecedented. I feel in these incidences, denial and unfairness will drastically increase in the coming months and years, and that things will only get worse.  

Traveling along with this rise in flat out prejudice and enmity against people of color since 2008, I also feel that an america without Affirmative Action (or something close to it) will leave scores of intelligent, and capable people of color at the mercy of Star Chamber-like Councils, and Corrupt Collage Boards who will gleefully deny various groups and people access to higher learning and corporate (or other) employment opportunities with impunity! 

This could quite possibly be done as a joint effort in conjunction with many corporations who have already established large corporations, and schools in america today.  Without some sort of means to ensure Fair Standard Practice (remember Fair Standard Practice?... No?), what’s to stop any educational institute or any corporation from boldly discriminating, and denying people of color a fair and equal opportunity at success, simply because they can?... absolutely nothing! 

Jim Crow “is” re-emerging in the guise of various Laws being passed by an antiquated, and divisive Supreme Court of these United States. Their carving up of the Voters Rights Act passed just over 40 years ago a few months back is a prime example of how they and other entities are intentionally, and willfully striping us down, and covering up those freedom footprints in the sand that so many have laid before us. Footprints that have shown us the way.  

So now its come down to this... One by one, those many footprints in the sand to freedom and Equality that we’ve made are slowly, and legally being Minus’ed Out by the stroke of a pen! Quite possibly by the same pen that enacted those self-same laws so many years before! Our lives are being judged and dealt from the bottom of the deck, and signed into order by the stroke of a plastic ink pen; and all decided by a narrow minded chosen few. Some of whom just may have gotten where they are in life as a result of affirmative action, themselves!

I’m sure that at least one of those judges had help, or received some sort of act of generosity, or an act of kindness, fairness and benevolence from someone or some organization that brought them along. Its a fact that in life, "No man truly does it alone!" We all have help along the way, at one point or another from someone!   

For those who have succeed. You know that life deals out an act of allowance taking you higher! Allowing whomever (by the sweat of their brow and from hard work) to become educated, and then rise on up to eventually become judges, and senators, and doctors and what not! 

Think about it! Can you really compare affirmative action, to (lets say) Bob’s uncle Wilson putting in a good word for his nephew Bob to fellow board members so that Bob’s hiring, and streaking up the corporate ladder will be  tremendously easier than you or I can ever imagine? In a matter of weeks, there’s ole’ Bob bypassing all those on the first floor, and heading toward the executive washroom, with the Walled-window office, and corner view. 

Now if affirmative action is so totally unfair, then how fair is Bob’s un-compromised rising into, and through the company to the executive board compared to that poor guy being interviewed on the first floor, who has got mad the skills, yet will never get the job Bob has, because Bob has it all locked down from the inside? 

Bob’s affirmative action is nepotistically locked in place, and sealed. And all without presenting barely a resume!... Thanks to good ole’ Uncle Wilson! With Affirmative Action, no one worth their salt is asking for an unfair advantage! To people of color, Affirmative Action represented an equal chance at the so-called american dream. Not some inside unfair advantage. Just an equal shot! 

I say, “Don’t make things easy for me. I’m just as smart (and maybe even more so) than anyone!” I’d just like the same chances and availability factors! Anyone abusing affirmative action was not making things better for anyone else but themselves. Sometimes I wonder was the abuse of AA intentional in order to eventually destroy it!

So there it is. In the time it took to view it all in a news report. Gone, just like that! One more thing that helped bring people of color along out of the dredges of hopelessness, signed away, in just over 40 years time.  

Those footprints in the sand to freedom, are slowly disappearing people! One step at a time! We are indeed being Minus’ed out!... Our footsteps to freedom are indeed, One by One being Minus’ed Out!... One by One!... As a result, we have no other choice but to make new footprints in the sand! 

By Glenn Peppers

“China to export K9 Meat to the United States”

Sweet and Sour Chicken

“China to export K9 Meat to the United States”

By Glenn Peppers                                                                                                                  4-4-14

(I will not feature any photo or photos that came with the article I read which sparked this blog! I found it a bit too graphic. I think my blog speaks for itself! Any pictures or images of dogs or K9's for consumption can be found within the article that I Linked the article just under my blog.) 

So let me get this right! China wants to export Dog meat/K9 meat/BowWow Burgers, or whatever you want to call it over here to America! Solidifying the rumors that chinese food restaurants do in fact use feline and K9 animals in their (and possibly our) commercialized food product for consumption! Well hold on there!... Whether this is true or not, here of late, I have been learning how to make my own version of various Thai and Chinese food dishes with Real Shrimp and Crab; as well as Real Chicken and Beef. Over the last few years, I’ve studied, and now know how to make and/or use a lot of Asian spices, and make some of their sauces. 

Still at the same time, I also know how false rumors can ruin a business. Especially a restaurant business. I think of a once popular Asian restaurant back in the day here in the Detroit area. A once popular chinese restaurant called "Stanley's!" Stanley's was located on Milwaukee off John R in Detroit, and was a staple and a hub, if you will of chinese food cuisine back in the 1960's 70's; and almost on through to the 1980's! That is until a wild rumor got out that Stanley’s was using Cats (felines) as the meat substance in his chinese food recipe. Now I don't know for sure if there was ever any grain of truth in this at all! I’ve never read anything to substantiate this claim, yet from what people tell me from their dining experience at Stanley’s. Stanley's Chinese Food on Milwaukee had really excellent food! Well from what I observed from my driving by the joint. It is now closed, and looks like it has been for quite some time.

See, I love Chinese Food! And in defense of good Chinese Food restaurants, I do not know if this or any rumor like this was ever the truth, at all. All I know is Stanley’s suffered almost irreparable damage to his business as a result of such a rumor, causing it to eventually close down its main store on Milwaukee and John R. Yet if I'm not mistaken, Stanley does have one other restaurant that is still open. If I remember correctly, it is located on 8 mile and Woodward, in Detroit. I've never eaten at either Stanley's, and not because of the rumors. It was basically because I never got a chance to visit the main store on Milwaukee. It had closed by the time I found out about the place in my younger years. And still to this day, I drive right past the second store, forgetting that its still open! From the road, in my opinion, Stanley’s II doesn't even look like a chinese restaurant! So I mindlessly pass it by every time, and say to myself a red light or so away. “Wow, wasn’t that the other Stanley’s?” 

Although my past experiences with other really bad chinese restaurants may have put a damper on my visiting too many other chinese food operations here in Michigan. I cannot judge all chinese restaurants by this whole idea (and probable rumor) that in China (or here in america), they sell, purchase, and consume dogs as a form of meat substance! The very idea makes my bones rattle! Reading an article about this whole insane idea that China is even thinking of importing K9 meat to United States is frightening to me. Especially since now it seems that the people who monitor, protect and approve our food items for consumption here in america, now think it is ok for us to eat Genetically Modified Foods, and not hold places like Monsanto responsible for any crimes, or advise affects on people, for altering the food chain of the world.  

This new mindset of being careful where I consume Asian foods at Chinese restaurants started for me when I went into a chinese restaurant here in Eastpointe, Mi (just north of Detroit) about two years ago, when I saw the cook, working not 20 feet from me in the kitchen area do something I'll never forget. This man who was doing the cooking, was standing in front of this massive flaming stove, with these two big flaming woks going; and this faucet of water just pouring running water into who knows where! When all at once this guy hocked up a big ball of spit and phlegm into his mouth, and spit it into this big white bucket that sat just at his feet, right in front of the stove. Well as you can imagine, I was done! 

I flat out asked the cashier for my money back and never went back to that place again. The guy at the register kept asking me. "What Wrong? What was wrong?" When I told him what I saw, he just stood there looking at me as if I was the one who was crazy! He didn't get it that what this man at the stove did was so bloody nasty, and unsanitary it wasn't even funny! The amount of pathogens, from this probably highly infectious mucus, could have transferred untold communicable germs to an incredible amount of people as a result. I was shocked beyond belief!  Two other patrons walked out behind me as well after seeing this open act of disrespect, and homespun genocide in a store front!

I clearly remember this nitwit spitting this huge dark, infected looking glop of mucus into one of those big white Home Depot fishing or painting buckets. the kind with the metal handle on it. The bucket was already half filled with something. I could actually see it through the thin white polyurethane plastic! What it was filled with, I have no idea! I'd just hate to think that this man had spat so much mucus into this bucket over time that he had halfway filled it up with mucus! What a completely unsettling thought!

Although, I should have learned the first time something like this happened before the spitting incident. Because back in early 2003, I was in the middle of ordering chinese food at the counter window in another chinese take out joint on the Davison and Dexter area in Detroit. I could see into the kitchen area of the place through this two foot window. And what I saw was the guy (the cook) who was setting up to prepare my dorder, going over to the fridge to get a refill of shrimp for his cooking area to make my order. 

In doing so, he picked up what appeared to me to be the dirtiest grey dishpan I've ever seen, and headed toward the cooler/fridge. This pan looked like he had washed and rinsed black paint brushes in that thing. I thought that he had removed a work bucket from under the stove, where someone had been either cleaning grease, or repairing something that was really dirty! 

So, not realistically thinking he was going to use that same plastic dishpan in the process of preparation for my food. I suspiciously stood at the counter and waited to see just what he was going to do with that grimy dishpan. Well friends and neighbors... Do you know this Jack Wagon opened the refrigerator and began pulling out shrimp (with his bare hands) and began dumping them into this toxic mess of a dishpan? I was incensed! In fact, I almost hurled! I could not believe this guy was going to put anything edible in that dishpan, let alone the shrimp he was going to cook for my chinese food order! I shouted at that guy! "I just know you're not going to use that dirty azz dishpan and that dirty azz shrimp to cook my food with. After you've put your dirty hands all over it from grabbing that nasty dishpan?" He looked shocked as if to say, "What's wrong with that?" I instantly walked out of that place, and called the board of health on them. 

I don't know exactly what happened with that place, but I do remember the place being closed for a bit. Yet now I see (recently) as I drove passed that it is open again. I can only imagine that it is probably owned by one of the family members, if not in fact the same people. 

That incident put me off restaurant chinese food for a very long time. Right until that spitting incident in Eastpointe, Mi. I was even put off Thai food for a while. That is why I've learned to make my own Asian foods as best as possible. And if I cannot make it. I'll Google it, or Youtube it! I'll even ask my Facebook friends to help me out, as they are very talented cooks and people who like good food! Some way some how, I’ll find some kind of written or instructional video on how to make the Asian cuisine that I like. 

Anything but patronize places that do not have my safety in mind, and have the nerve to sell edible items to me that are rotten, unsanitary, or of total bad quality. I’ll not eat anything that a restauranteur themselves won't consume!

Chinese Food Buffet

Have you noticed that when you go to some dine-in chinese restaurants, and you see chinese people eating there. They often times have a completely different menu, or items and set of things on their plate to eat much that is much different from yours? Especially at some of those Chinese All you can Eat Buffet places! They’re buffet items are nothing like ours! They won’t even touch the foods they prepare for us to eat! The only Chinese Food place I've ever eaten at where the patrons ate pretty much what everybody else was eating was when my wife and son and I went to Oakland, Ca. some years ago. My wife wanted to show me what real Chinese Restaurant Food tasted like! It was very good! Very rich, and wholesome! Lot of Vegetables! This was an old school chinese restaurant! 

Chinese elders and respected people within that Chinese community all gathered and ate there, and the food tasted much different than it does here in Michigan. Real spices and herbs, not fake dried seasonings in a bottle. When you ordered basil chicken. You got real basil, and real chicken. Those ladies and male chefs were clean, and cordial! The place was spotless! I ordered no beef or pork, just in case they did in fact use K9 meat or any other meats. Yet, from what I saw and experienced in Oakland, Ca was a world apart from the kind of americanized, and reworked chinese foods full of MSG, and high fructose corn syrup (and heaven only knows what else) that we have here in the midwest! 

As I said, the people who cook chinese food for us here won’t even touch the kind of foods they prepare for us to eat! That started to tell me something a long time ago!... So for me... Chinese Food on a commercial scale, here in Michigan ever again? Hayle-Nah! They can keep their Feline and K9 meat, and that big giant 4oz cups of all that white powered MSG, and load it on a freighter boat right back to mainland China, along with all those leaded toys, and other mercury and BPH products they manufacture and ship over here! 

Oh, by the way, Wifey and I are making Pepper Steak, with Real Steak! tonight! At least I think its real steak!...

Glenn Peppers

http://jamaicansmusicz.com/dog-market-chinese-people-eating-dogs-does-china-want-to-export-it-to-the-us/