Horn-blowing fans are no longer exclusive to Africa. The Florida Marlins gave away promotional horns at a game on Saturday.
Horn-blowing fans are no longer exclusive to Africa. The Florida Marlins gave away promotional horns at a game on Saturday.

Marlins blow a game



MIAMI // On a night the Florida Marlins handed out 15,000 vuvuzela-like air horns to fans, there was one unavoidable question when the marathon game was over. Did those horns ? and the constant noise ? help the Marlins blow a game? Quite possibly, yes. An apparent miscommunication between Fredi Gonzalez, the Florida manager, and Lance Barksdale, the home-plate umpire, cost the Marlins a chance to score in the ninth inning. The Tampa Bay Rays then roughed up Jorge Sosa for four runs in the 11th before hanging on for a 9-8 win on Saturday night.

"That was the worst handout or giveaway I've ever been a part of in baseball," said Dan Uggla, the Marlins second baseman, who, like the umpires, resorted to earplugs. "This isn't soccer. I know the World Cup is going on, but this is baseball." Looking to feed off World Cup buzz, the Marlins gave away plastic air horns to fans as they entered the stadium, and the toy instruments created a never-ending soundtrack for the night.

Similar to the vuvuzelas that dominate the audio from World Cup matches in South Africa, the buzzing of the horns blared from long before the first pitch, and some were still going at the end. The horns might have been a hit with fans, but they were a big miss with those on the field, especially because all the noise could have prompted a lineup-card miscommunication between Gonzalez and Barksdale.

"It was the most uncomfortable baseball game I've been a part of in a long time because of that," crew chief Tom Hallion said. "Whether that had anything to do with it [the miscommunication], I don't know, but it could have. When's the last time you heard something like that at a baseball game? Never. You don't see this kind of stuff at baseball games." Said Joe Maddon, the Rays manager: "I really believe the horns should be banned from Major League Baseball."

And this from Marlins center fielder Cody Ross: "It was awful, awful. I can't tell you how awful it was." When the Marlins made a player substitution in the ninth inning, Gonzalez intended to put Brian Barden in the ninth spot in the batting order. Barksdale marked Barden as batting third ? so when Barden walked, he was called out for the lineup goof. After a long review by Barksdale, Gonzalez was ejected, then stayed on the field calmly for several more minutes as Barksdale kept checking the cards.

"Lance confirmed it with Fredi before he left to go back into the dugout," Hallion said. "And that's all we had to go by then." Afterward, Gonzalez insisted he was in the right. "He screwed it up," Gonzalez said of Barksdale. "I'll go anywhere you want me to go with it. I told him where the guys were hitting and he gave Joe the wrong places to hit. "He [has] the official lineup card, so that's the one that counts."

The noise tapered off somewhat in the later innings, but the buzz of horns was constant. "I couldn't hear myself talk," Tampa Bay pitcher Jamie Shields said. "It was a weird game." * AP

Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
  1. Join parent networks
  2. Look beyond school fees
  3. Keep an open mind
TOUCH RULES

Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.

Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.

Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.

A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.

After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.

At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.

A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting

2. Prayer

3. Hajj

4. Shahada

5. Zakat 

Mia Man’s tips for fermentation

- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut

- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.

- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.

- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.

 

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The bio

Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions

School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira

Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk

Dream City: San Francisco

Hometown: Dubai

City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala

RESULTS

5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m

Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)

5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m

Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.

6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.

7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m

Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.

7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.

8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m

Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.

Henrik Stenson's finishes at Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship:

2006 - 2
2007 - 8
2008 - 2
2009 - MC
2010 - 21
2011 - 42
2012 - MC
2013 - 23
2014 - MC
2015 - MC
2016 - 3
2017 - 8

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950