Best correction ever

I don't think this was a very well-reported article, based on the correction that was necessary:

Correction: July 22, 2009
An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches. In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. “The CBS Evening News” overtook “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970. A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar. Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of “The CBS Evening News” in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor. Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.

That's from the New York Times. Allessandra Stanley should be ashamed.

Mark Cuban doesn't like the AP

I think that Mark Cuban has a beef with the Associated Press, judging by what he said on Twitter moments ago.

Why do people believe that AP stories are factual ? Their fact checking is horrid, their balance non existent. They are worthless IMHO

@TheOnion bought by the Chinese

This week, The Onion has been sold to the Chinese. Or so goes the joke.

I'm not sure if it's funny yet, though I did get a chuckle from today's front page story, Yao Ming!:

EARTH--The entire world population confirmed Friday that Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is the greatest athlete in the history of sports and a glowing symbol of what hardworking citizens may become if they remain loyal to their government.

Yao Ming officially averages 84 points per basketball game and has a shooting percentage of .9999998, Chinese basketball officials said. Furthermore, Yao Ming is perfectly healthy and, in fact, cannot be injured. Yao Ming is also a universally acknowledged beacon of humility and respect, and on the exceedingly rare occasion when he does miss a shot, he no doubt does so on purpose, selflessly ensuring that his lesser American teammates feel better about their own lackluster shooting percentages.

I'm still talking about the perfect game...

An ESPN story about the scout who discovered Buehrle (and also scouted a guy by the name of Albert Pujols) had this nugget:

Kazanas passed along a recommendation to scouting supervisor Nathan Durst and scouting director Duane Shaffer. Doug Laumann and Kenny Stauffer of the White Sox's staff also took a look, and they all agreed that the kid was worth a shot. Chicago selected Buehrle in the 38th round as a "draft and follow,'' and signed him for a $150,000 bonus the following May.

Buehrle made it to the majors by age 21, posted a 19-12 record at age 23 and pitched a no-hitter at age 28. Buehrle is extremely durable, relies on guile and control rather than velocity and has 133 career victories at age 30, so he might be as legitimate a candidate to win 300 games as any pitcher out there.

Buehrle is good. Maybe not as good as Halladay, CC Sabathia or Zach Greinke, but he's up there.

Will he get to 300 wins? Maybe -- but he's never had a 20 win season. Then again, he has never made less than 30 starts in a full season as a starter.

At his rate of wins from 2001 to 2008 (14.75 wins per season, and he will be a little higher than that this year), he would need to play about 20 seasons to reach 300. It's conceivable.

More perfect game facts

From Ken, this time via Twitter:

Only 5 beside Buehrle have thrown perfect game and other no-hitter. Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson.

That's some pretty good company.

And yes, Jim Bunning is the U.S. Senator from Kentucky, in case you were wondering.

From before Buehrle's perfect game, but still true:

9. Jim "Catfish" Hunter of the Oakland A's had the most productive offensive game of any perfect game pitcher. He had three hits and three RBI.

Ten facts that prove the moon landings were a hoax

Funny stuff from John Moltz:

4. This so-called “moon” that supposedly orbits our planet cannot be real because the teachings of Septon the Inquisitor tell us that life is an illusion and the real waking state does not come until we die and arrive, ironically, on the moon which is where people go when they die. I know it sounds confusing, but it makes a lot more sense after you watch the informational video and relinquish all your wordly possessions.

Tip of the had to Bad Astronomy.

My previous perfect game

I remember randomly tuning into a Fox Sports Arizona broadcast of the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Atlanta Braves on May 18, 2004 with Randy Johnson pitching (actually I don't remember the team they were playing or the date at all, I just remember that Randy Johnson was pitching for the Diamondbacks).

On that day, Randy Johnson threw a perfect game, the 17th in Major League history. He faced twenty-seven batters and they all got out, not a single person reaching first base.

That was the last perfect game in the Major Leagues before Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle threw his perfect game this afternoon in Chicago.

Still one of the coolest MLB achievements that I've seen on TV, up there when I saw McGwire hit his 62nd home run.

The previous White Sox perfect game

From Baseball Prospectus' Unfiltered Blog:

Prior to Mark Buehrle this afternoon, the only White Sox pitcher to throw a perfect game was rookie Charlie Robertson, who did the deed against the Tigers on April 30, 1922.

A good short read.

Buehrle pitches perfect game; gets congratulatory call from Obama

Pretty cool that our president is so open about his sports fanship; a lot of politicians try to play to the center and assuage both sides (Richardson famously said that he was both Red Sox and Yankees fan while on the campaign trail).

But Obama is a partisan White Sox fan; the's not a Cubs fan even though he's from Chicago -- he'a a Southsider.

And today White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game. Naturally, Obama called him up from his motorcade to congratulate him.

After the game he was treated to congratulation from one of the team's biggest fans, President Obama. Obama called Buehrle from his motorcade this afternoon and congratulated him on the "extraordinary achievement." He joked with Buehrle that perhaps the pitcher had gotten gained some luck from the fact that Obama wore a White Sox team jacket when he threw out the first pitch at last week's Major League Baseball All Star Game.

"As a fan it's extraordinary. When you're a White Sox fan and you know the guy who did it, it makes it that much better," Obama said in a conversation with White house Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.