Skip to main content

Ali award on his surprise stadium visit

Friday, August 07, 2009 NEW YORK: It is rare that the rosters of the Yankees and the Red Sox can be brought together for any common event, other than nine innings of baseball on a summer night. Before Thursday's game, the members of the classic rivalry halted their preparation to appreciate and honor something they could all agree on. Muhammad Ali is still "The Greatest." The three-time world heavyweight champion and 1960 Olympic gold medalist was honored at Yankee Stadium, circling the warning track in a motorized cart while waving to the grandstands from behind dark sunglasses. As he moved toward home plate, the Boston and New York players in the outfield all stopped their stretching and tossing. Johnny Damon and Jacoby Ellsbury applauded, and Jorge Posada walked over to the cart to shake Ali's hand. "I got chill-bumps, to tell you the truth," Posada said. "I didn't know what to say. I was struck. It was a good feeling to see him at the Stadium." Along with the president of the American Academy of Hospitality Services, Joseph Cinque, Ali presented Yankees managing general partner and co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner with the academy's "Six Star Diamond Award" for Yankee Stadium and Legends Hospitality, LLC with the "Five Star Award." In its inaugural season, Yankee Stadium received the Academy's highest honor, bestowed on superlative establishments that are deemed to be of pinnacle quality. Thursday marked the first time that a Stadium earned the honor for excellence in hospitality. Ali, who compiled 56 wins and 37 knockouts in his storied career, experienced one of the most memorable evenings of his career at the original Yankee Stadium on Sept. 28, 1976, when he defeated Ken Norton in a 15-round decision to retain the heavyweight title. As Ali was prepared for the presentation and was cheered by the early-arriving crowd, highlights of his classic bouts played on the two auxiliary video screens in left-center and right-center fields. Yankees captain Derek Jeter also participated in the on-field ceremony, which concluded with Ali being fitted for an authentic New York cap and the entire Yankees roster coming out of the dugout to pose for a photograph. "He's an icon," Mark Teixeira said. "I wish I actually had a chance to meet him, but I know he was busy. There were a lot of people around him. Hopefully someday."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...