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Kevin Mench only found out about coming to his new home north of the border at 3 a.m. on Thursday morning following a doubleheader in Oklahoma City. He packed, hopped a plane to Cleveland made his way to the ballpark and was in the starting lineup facing C.C. Sabathia.

Jays

Alex Rios rf

Aaron Hill 2b

Scott Rolen 3b

Vernon Wells cf

Kevin Mench dh

Lyle Overbay 1b

Rod Barajas c

Brad Wilkerson lf

Marco Scutaro ss

Roy Halladay p

Indians

Grady Sizemore cf

Franklin Gutierrez rf

David Dellucci lf

Victor Martinez c

Jhonny Peralta ss

Travis Hafner dh

Ryan Garko 1b

Asdrubal Cabrera 2b

Casey Blake 3b

C.C. Sabathia p

Mench said he didn’t feel as nervous as when he was a rookie even though it’s a chance to start his career up. He pointed around the room at guy that he knew — Rod Barajas, Wilkerson and Texas residents Vernon Wells and B.J. Ryan. Coincidentally, Mench was given the locker next to Roy Halladay in the visitors clubhouse at the former Jake. It was a Mench line drive that broke Doc’s tibia on July 9, 2005. He smiled when asked about it and recalled trying to reach Halladay that night to find out if he was alright and to apologize. He never did reach him but had a chance last night.

Wilkerson had gone home for a few days after being designated for assignment on April 30. He called the chance to play for the Jays “intriguing”. He claimed that he had jammed his throwing shoulder at spring training and that it affected his start with the M’s. He said he was as healthy as he had been at any time since the start of the 2005 season.

Let’s see now. In November, J.P. offered a contract to Shannon Stewart, then signed Matt Stairs, then offered Reed Johnson arbitration, then signed Shannon Stewart then released Reed Johnson then called up Adam Lind then sent down Adam Lind then signed Brad Wilkerson then purchased Kevin Mench all the while ignoring Barry Bonds. Hey, Jim Edmonds and Jaque Jones are looking for work.

Lisa goddard

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Obama narrows Clinton superdelegate lead to 2

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton’s superdelegate lead over Sen. Barack Obama was narrowed even more Saturday, according to CNN’s latest delegate estimate.

Clinton picked up the votes of two more superdelegates and lost one since Friday night.

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez of Texas announced his support for the New York senator.

Arthur Powell was named an add-on superdelegate by the Massachusetts Democratic Party on Saturday and said he would vote for Clinton.

Obama, meanwhile, picked up three superdelegates since Friday night, including Carole Burke and Kevin Rodriquez of the Virgin Islands.

Rodriquez had backed Clinton but decided to switch his endorsement, citing Obama’s ability to unite the Democratic Party and win the White House, according to Obama’s campaign.

Kristi Cumming, named an add-on superdelegate by the Utah Democratic Party late Friday night, said she will vote for Obama.

That brings Clinton’s superdelegate total to 273 and Obama’s to 271.

Superdelegates are Democratic officials who hold the balance of power in determining the party’s presidential nominee.

Obama holds a commanding lead in the number of pledged delegates awarded from primaries and caucuses: 1,592 to Clinton’s 1,424.

On Friday, the Obama campaign announced the support of seven superdelegates, including a previous Clinton backer.

Hawaii Rep. Mazie Hirono, New Mexico Democratic Party member Laurie Weahkee and South Carolina Democratic Party Vice Chairman Wilber Lee Jeffcoat announced that they are backing the Illinois senator.

California Democratic National Committee member Ed Espinoza also pledged his support to Obama on Friday; Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon told The Oregonian newspaper that he will support Obama’s bid.

Oregon voters are in the middle of primary voting, which takes place through the mail.

Rep. Donald Payne, a New Jersey Democrat and an early Clinton supporter, told The (Newark) Star-Ledger that he was switching to Obama.

Another superdelegate, John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said he is backing Obama. His union, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, said it represents more than 600,000 workers.

A flood of endorsements from superdelegates could virtually end the Democratic race. Find out where the superdelegates stand

Neither candidate has the 2,025 total delegates needed for the nomination. Obama has 1,862 total delegates; Clinton has 1,697, according to a CNN survey.

The latest announcements narrow Clinton’s lead in superdelegates to single digits. At the year’s start, she led by more than 100. Watch as the momentum appears to be in Obama’s favor

There are 217 pledged delegates up for grabs in the remaining contests.

After Clinton’s narrow win Tuesday in Indiana and and her double-digit loss in North Carolina, former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said he had decided to back Obama over the former first lady. McGovern is not a superdelegate.

A Virginia superdelegate — Jennifer McClellan, a member of the state House of Delegates from Richmond — moved over to Obama, too.

Nevertheless, the Clinton campaign said it had picked up the support of Rep. Christopher Carney of Pennsylvania.

Clinton is not going down without a fight, making pitches to superdelegates that she is the best candidate to lead a Democratic ticket in November.

Her campaign tried to appeal to elected Democrats in Republican-leaning districts, arguing that Clinton can win more votes there than Obama and thus help their re-election prospects.

In a PowerPoint presentation e-mailed to the nearly 800 superdelegates, the campaign detailed how she had defeated Obama in GOP-leaning congressional districts and had consistently topped him among key voting blocs such as senior citizens and Hispanics. View the PowerPoint presentation

Despite those efforts, the Clinton camp appears to be planning an exit strategy, according to Lawrence O’Donnell, a Huffington Post contributor who cited Clinton insiders.

They are saying that Hillary will be out of the race by June 15, O’Donnell said Friday on CNN’s American Morning.

What the senior campaign official has told me is that they will go through the final votes on June 3.

Remember, Hillary is going to win maybe three of the elections, and Obama is going to win maybe three elections coming out of it, he said, referring to the remaining six contests. Watch what O’Donnell says Clinton insiders are saying behind doors

O’Donnell said the Clinton campaign would make its case to the superdelegates for about a week after the primaries ended.

The superdelegates have no chance of moving over to Hillary Clinton in a week, he said. So for the Clinton campaign to say we will only make the case for a week, and then by June 15, we will have a nominee, that is to say she will drop out.

Meanwhile, former Democratic contender John Edwards said Friday on NBC and MSNBC that Obama is the likely nominee. Edwards is not a superdelegate.

Both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have heavily wooed the former senator from North Carolina since he ended his presidential run in January, but he has not publicly endorsed either candidate.

found here.

Rebels fight Sudanese forces near capital, source says

(CNN) — Sudan’s Justice and Equality Movement rebels reached the capital of Khartoum on Saturday and clashed with government forces west of the city, an informed military source told CNN.

It was not known how many JEM members were involved or how well they were armed. Over the past 24 hours, the source said, the sounds of heavy fighting — machine-gun fire and explosions — could be heard west of Khartoum.

found here.

PM urges Lebanese army to halt Hezbollah ‘coup’

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Hezbollah of trying to stage a militant coup d’etat on Saturday in his first public comments since violence began three days ago in Beirut.

He also called for the army to intervene after Hezbollah militants took control of the Lebanese capital’s western suburbs.

I call on it once again to impose security on all, in all areas, deter the gunmen and immediately remove them from the street … to restore normal life, Siniora said, according to The Associated Press.

The Lebanese army did not join the battles that erupted this week. Taking sides could throw the military — with its own political factions — into disarray.

Soldiers instead effectively negotiated a surrender of pro-government positions, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and Western military observers said.

Siniora spoke after one person was killed and two were wounded in a drive-by shooting at a funeral procession in the Lebanese capital, shattering the relative calm in the city following the previous days’ violence.

The funeral took place in Tariq Jdeidah, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood in Beirut, witnesses said.

Also, clashes between pro- and anti-government forces in the northern coastal city of Tripoli left one person dead and five wounded Saturday, the ISF said.

We thought the threat our country was from our historic enemy Israel. But recent experience now shows that our homes and our democracy is being held hostage by our own brothers, who want to create coup and terror, Siniora said in a televised address.

He was referring to the Hezbollah-Israeli war in the summer of 2007, during which the Lebanese government supported the Shiite political party and militia backed by Syria and Iran.

Siniora has been hiding in his government headquarters protected by Lebanese troops after Hezbollah and its allies swept through the Muslim sector of the capital.

We can no longer accept that Hezbollah and its weapons be kept like this. The Lebanese can no longer continue to accept this situation, he said in a nationally televised addressed.

Hezbollah must realize that the force of arms will not intimidate us or make us retreat from our position.

Saturday’s deaths brought the number of people killed since the violence broke out Wednesday to 23, the ISF said. Ninety-three people have been wounded in the same period.

Hezbollah militants had set up checkpoints in western Beirut a day after dealing a major blow to the U.S.-backed government.

Militia members, armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, patrolled the streets after forcing pro-government forces from the capital’s Sunni Muslim neighborhoods. Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim militant group backed by Iran and Syria.

The relative calm following three days of clashes put at least a temporary hold on the worst sectarian violence since the end of the country’s civil war in 1991.

Friday’s attacks were also described as a coup by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, a part of the March 14 pro-government coalition.

Jumblatt’s coalition called the takeover an effort to bring Syria back to Lebanon and extend Iran’s reach to the Mediterranean.

Jumblatt said the government was now at the end of a gun barrel and expected the conditions for surrender will be offered sooner or later.

I think … it’s a coup, he said. The Lebanese army is in total paralysis.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Hezbollah leaders of trying to protect their state within a state.

Hezbollah has exploited its allies and demonstrated its contempt for its fellow Lebanese, she said. No one has the right to deprive Lebanese citizens of their political and economic freedom, their right to move freely within their country or their sense of safety and security.

Hezbollah leaders did not make public statements Friday.

With pro-government gunmen out of the way, fighting in the capital eased a bit Friday after two days of intense gun battles echoing through Beirut’s streets.

Two pro-government TV stations were shut down — and the building of one, Future TV, was soon on fire. Watch the TV station burn

Nadim Mounla, the head of Future TV, said Hezbollah had sent a clear message that it would destroy the stations.

The building housing offices of a newspaper was set on fire as well. It and the two TV stations are owned by the prominent Hariri family, leading supporters of the government.

Syria and Iran support Hezbollah, and Syrian troops occupied Lebanon from 1990 until 2006.

Iran said Friday that U.S.-Israel adventurism was the main cause for lingering crisis and instability in Lebanon. Watch how the world is responding to the crisis

State-run news agency IRNA, citing Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, added that Iran’s stand on Lebanon has always been based on non-interference in a matter that is entirely related to the Lebanese nation, alone.

Lebanon’s elected, pro-Western government has long been locked in a power struggle with Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Earlier this week, the government demanded Hezbollah shutter its telecommunications operations, which Hezbollah called an act of war.

The government also fired the chief of security at the Beirut airport amid a probe of allegations that Hezbollah had installed cameras and other monitoring equipment there to spy on political opponents.

found here.

Sandpit

Questions for my readers

now that things encircling here are changing so much, with the looming traveller of our babe and such equal to, i vision it would be a good outmoded to reconsider this blog and possibly start to fare changes to it too. but i wanted to get some feedback from the readers on what they like and turned off by about it, and what they’d like to realize….. so:~ do you correspondent to all the info in the sidebar, such as my training, limits, charms, etc? do you pore over that info or avoid past it? is there anything else you would like included in there?~ would you take role in in polls and surveys if i started them again, or do they borehole you? are you interested in the results even if you don’t rob by?~ what types of posts do you strain choicest - ones about my play sessions? training? progress? difficulties? thoughts? feelings? ordinary sparkle? which would you like to see more of? or less of? anything you would like to comprehend about which i haven’t covered so far?~ do you propose b assess i should join posts not far from poppy into this blog once she is born or hide them off? are you interested in reading about her, or would it bore you?~ would you be interested in a ‘question and answer’ vein post every now and then, where i answer reader’s questions? would you bestow questions to that, or just read the answers?~ any other comments you want to fancy?please leave your comments here, or email them via my master. thanksssssssssss!
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