Idaho baseball fan is permitted to sue stadium over lost eye

An Idaho man who lost an eye after being hit by a ball during a minor league baseball game can move forward with a lawsuit against stadium owners and the team, the Idaho Supreme Court said. Bud Rountree was attending a Boise Hawks game in August 2008 when a foul ball struck him in the eye. Rountree in 2010 sued the stadium owners and the Boise Hawks, a Chicago Cubs farm team, for negligence in state court. Attorneys for the defendants asked the court to invoke the so-called baseball rule, a legal theory that limits the duty of stadium operators to fans hit by foul balls. In an opinion handed down last week, the court said that courts do have the authority to apply the rule but that it was declining to do so. Boise Baseball argued that Rountree tacitly consented to expose himself to the risk of being hit by a baseball by attending a game and by possessing a ticket that said on the back: "The holder assumes all risk and dangers incidental to the game of baseball including specifically (but not exclusively) the danger of being injured by thrown or batted balls." Boise Baseball warned that a decision against it could open the door to lawsuits by amateur and professional athletes "voluntarily playing sports like baseball, softball, basketball . . . despite the fact that there are inherent risks to these sports" that are known and consented to by players. An Idaho judge rejected those arguments, contending it was within the purview of the state legislature -not the court- to adopt the baseball rule if it chose.

          

Pistorius representatives name substance found

Oscar Pistorius representatives have named the substance found in his bedroom after the shooting death of his girlfriend as Testis compositum and  Wednesday it is an herbal remedy used in aid of muscle recovery. A product called Testis compositum is also marketed as a sexual enhancer, good for lack of stamina. Some online retailers advertise oral and injectable forms as testosterone boosters and say it can aid sexual performance. During Pistorius' bail hearing that they found needles in Pistorius' bedroom along with the substance, which they initially named as testosterone. Prosecutors later withdrew that statement identifying the substance and it had been sent for laboratory tests and couldn't be named until those tests were completed. Many elite athletes would be wary of using such supplements because they can be laced with banned substances and few would want to risk it. Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. He says he shot her by accident after mistaking her for an intruder in his home. Prosecutors allege he intended to kill her.

 

Pistorius violated basic firearms rules

Oscar Pistorius was aquitted of murder,firearms and legal experts in South Africa believe that, by his own account, the star athlete violated basic gun-handling regulations and exposed himself to a homicide charge by shooting into a closed door without knowing who was behind it. Particularly jarring for firearms instructors and legal experts is that Pistorius testified that he shot at a closed toilet door, fearing but not knowing for certain that a nighttime intruder was on the other side. Instead of an intruder, Pistorius' girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was in the toilet cubicle. Struck by three of four shots that Pistorius fired from a 9 mm pistol, she died within minutes. Prosecutors charged Pistorius with premeditated murder, saying the shooting followed an argument between the two. Pistorius said it was an accident. South Africa has stringent laws regulating the use of lethal force for self-protection. In order to get a permit to own a firearm, applicants must not only know those rules but must demonstrate proficiency with the weapon and knowledge of its safe handling, making it far tougher to legally own a gun in South Africa than many other countries where a mere background check suffices. The tough standards for legally acquiring a gun were instituted in part because of a wave of weapons purchases after the end of racist white rule in 1994, a former legal director in the South African police. Under South Africa's white-minority apartheid regime, gun owners often learned how to handle firearms during military service. Many of the new gun owners had little or no firearms training, which brought tragic results. Prospective gun owners must now take written exams that include questions on the law, have to show they can safely handle and shoot a gun and are required to hit a target the size of a glossy magazine in 10 of 10 shots from seven meters (23 feet). Oscar grabbed his 9 mm pistol from underneath my bed. On his way to the bathroom, he screamed words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police. It was pitch-dark in the bedroom and he thought Reeva was in bed.

Pistorius as mysterious as the shooting tragedy

It was Oscar Pistorius. On Feb. 14, he was flanked by officers as he left a police station. Hours earlier, he would been charged with killing his girlfriend. Prosecutors painted him as a man prone to anger and violence, though he had no prior criminal record. Oscar shot Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was a nighttime intruder, while prosecutors allege he intentionally shot her after the couple argued. Who is Oscar Pistorius? I thought I had some idea, and in a sense, so did the millions around the world who cheered the double-amputee athlete as a symbol of determination over adversity. Now he is as much of a mystery as whatever happened in his home in the early hours of Valentine's Day. Weeks before his debut at the Olympics, he stopped an interview with me to talk to a little girl who walked up to give him a strawberry from the gardens of the rural hotel at his training base in Gemona, in northern Italy. Now the world knows Pistorius owns a 9 mm Parabellum pistol, licensed for self-defense, and that he applied for licenses to own six more guns listed for his private collection weeks before the shooting death of Steenkamp. His relationships with women have been spread over the gossip pages in South Africa. During his Olympic preparations in Italy, Pistorius pulled out his cellphone to show pictures of his bleeding leg stumps, rubbed raw from the friction of pounding around the track on his blades. It was around the time when people were again questioning whether he should be allowed to run in the 400 meters against able-bodied athletes. It was rare for Pistorius to show images of his amputated limbs, but he grinned and shrugged. It took a long time for him to get used to people filming and taking photographs of him putting on his carbon-fiber blades. He used to ask people not to film him without his prosthetics. When he finished a race at the South African national championships last year, he quickly disappeared to a secluded part of the track to swap his blades for artificial legs, complete with sponsored sneakers that his agent was holding for him. It was his regular post-race routine. It always seemed people wanted more of his time than he could give.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Blade Runner" Pistorius charged with murdering girlfriend

Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was charged was charged with murder of his girlfriend. He says that it was an accident that he did not know she was going to surprise him on valentine's day. It was quite a surprise but ended very bad.Wearing a dark suit, he buried his head in his hands at a packed courtroom in Pretoria. Prosecutors said they plan to charge the 26-year-old with premeditated murder. Pistorius rejects the murder allegation in the strongest terms his agent. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was charged was charged with murder of his girlfriend. He says that it was an accident that he did not know she was going to surprise him on valentine's day. It was quite a surprise but ended very bad. Wearing a dark suit, he buried his head in his hands at a packed courtroom in Pretoria. Prosecutors said they plan to charge the 26-year-old with premeditated murder. Pistorius rejects the murder allegation very strongly. His girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was found in a pool of blood at Pistorius' home Thursday in an upscale neighborhood in the capital. The neighbors alerted authorities to the early morning shooting. She did not clarify what the neighbors reported they heard. The track star was arrested the same day. South Africa has a high crime rate, and many homeowners keep weapons to protect themselves from intruders. There was no evidence of forced entry at the home. There had been previous allegations of a domestic nature at his house, but they did not elaborate. Investigators found a pistol at the scene.

 

 

Rafeal Nadel is back but has rough start

After seven months away treating a left knee injury, Rafeal Nadel left many questions unanswered in his comeback tournament. The torn tendon in Nadal's left knee drew repeated questions. He said its better some days than others, and there's still pain. He's avoided surgery, and he says he's been told by doctors the soreness may linger for a few more weeks - even a few months. Not playing has hurt him in the way Nadel has played. After four or five tournament, he should be back into his usual form. I'd say this was the perfect time to play Rafael considering the confidence factor and everything. The loss was a reminder of what he already knew: returning to challenge the other three in tennis' top four - Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray will be slow and gritty. He wore a white bandage on the knee whenever he played, racing down plenty of loose balls and showing no signs of protecting the knee or, for that matter, his right knee, which has also been injured. Every day his knee improves and increases the confidence for him. He still feels pain in the knee some days, and that's something we hope and think will be improving week by week.

Rare 1865 baseball card sells for $92,000

The Brooklyn Atlantics were known as the first champions of baseball. They team was a founding club of the National Association of Baseball Players, a forerunner of today's

National League. The photograph mounted on a card, known as a carte de viste, is the only one of its kind known to exist, though the Library of Congress has a similar image made from a different negative. The baseball cards were considered one of the first baseball cards ever. It was unclear how many of the cards like the one of the     Brooklyn Atlantics team were produced. The ball club had them printed and handed them out to fans and players, even those from opposing teams, because the Atlantics were so good at the time. It was impossible to predict what kind of price the card would fetch because of its rarity, but the winning bid would fall somewhere between $50,000 and $500,000. The most expensive baseball card ever is a 1909 Honus Wagner card, which sold for $2.8 million in 2007.