No parachute required.

I just checked.

We're still in First Place and have been for over two months.

Chicago, KC and Minnie are still 6, 9 and 11 1/2 behind us.

Detroit is sniffing at 1 1/2 out, but they have the Jhonny Peralta factor.

I'm very happy that Shelley Duncan was the odd man out.

Also happy that the brass is being proactive and trying things by bringing up Cord Phelps. I hope they are exploring the trade opportunities, too.

Many times in the past I accused Shapiro of bad poker by trading too early in the month before the July deadline. Right now, I'd say trading early might be good poker with regard to The Tribe in 2011 and the future Tribe Teams.

This is a unique season and we have the lead and we have guys who have shown in the first 50 games they can play good baseball together.

Man, you had to go and post that skydiving pic RR/JC.

I've been having the itch to sky dive again now that the norm is to go above the 13,500 feet where I last jumped. My last jump is pre "knowing my wife" and she is adamant that I should not jump again.

She's being all practical with how it might affect life insurance premiums or other stuff.

I hate practicality when it stands in the way of something I want to do.


(she does have a business trip to Texas coming up at the end of the month.... ......)

TFISC- It would take a life or death choice for me to jump out of an off the ground airplane.

rocky raccoon wrote:TFISC- It would take a life or death choice for me to jump out of an off the ground airplane.

I would never try to talk someone into skydiving who hasn't at least previously pondered doing it.

But to this day I have the thrill etched in my memory of every detail of the 43 second freefall and the few minute remainder canopy glide to the landing zone. The noise, the cold in the cabin when the door opens at 13,500, the view of the ground 2 1/2 miles down from the door, the tug when the drone chute goes to slow the freefall down to 140mph after exiting the plane, and the realization that because of the air pressure on the chest there is no sensation of falling....seeming to be a simple "dead man float" in a swimming pool.

Whoa, I tell you what I could far more easily skydive from 14,000 feet than walk on that Grand Canyon Skywalk opened a couple years by a local Native American Tribe. The National Geographic Channel has a documentary on it I am watching right now. Looking down 4,000 through the glass floor of this man made bridge jutting off the south rim of the canyon is breathtaking.


I sure hope the engineers knew what they were doing.

That overhang is an accident waiting to happen.

Last time I looked, it was $80 for a walk on the Skywalk.

No thanks.

Reviews aren't so good:
http://archshrk.com/2007/04/grand-canyon-skywalk-review

Revenge of the Native Americans.

That engineering documentary on The National Geographic Channel was really good. Great detail on the design and placing of the glass floor panels. Counterweights and natural brakes were a major part of getting the platform in place 4,000 feet above the canyon with no supports.

The firm that designed the skywalk has designed many of the new hotel casinos in Las Vegas.

I read a couple of those reviews JR. I noted the camera ban. Seems like at least once a year I read a story about a death while someone is posing for a picture or trying to take a picture in some scenic place. That said, I once went a couple hundred feet down a ravine in front of a Yosemite waterfall to retrieve my wife's first digital SLR after she dropped it. The darned thing still worked perfectly. It was also the same camera that was swept under water with her in a "sneaker wave" on the Oregon coast. And it still worked perfectly then, too.

The local Native Americans were very mixed in their thoughts and opinions on the skywalk being built. In the end they felt the $$ to combat their poverty was worth the sacrifice of their natural landscape. FWIW, I think the skywalk has opened for use before nearly all the eventual project of infrastructure, hotel and dining were completed.


I was very fortunate back around 1989 to be able to have a helicopter tour of of The Grand Canyon when helicopters were still allowed to fly in the canyon below the rim. Now helicopters by law must remain above the rim just as airplanes do.

Tigers will be in first place after the upcoming series vs the Tribe.

Olney says the Giants are interested in OC.