Author: Steve DiMatteo

I love baseball more than pretty much any other sport for the infinite possibilities of weird stories the game can produce – the story of Phil Ozersky, the baseball field at Area 51, Bobby Bonilla Day, and Ken Griffey Kr. napping in the clubhouse during a game are just a few we’ve recently covered here – and another fun one has to do with Chicago Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong. The Cubs rookie is the team’s top prospect, recently called up to the big-league team as Chicago makes its playoff push. But his skill set and exciting future in Major League…

There are plenty of valid guesses for the most called-off day of the year by American workers – anytime around Christmas, the day after the Super Bowl, St. Patrick’s Day, the Friday before a long weekend. And no doubt, millions of people are calling those days off, but the actual most called-off day in the United States is… kind of baffling. Want to know what it is? August 24th. That’s right, a seemingly random day that could fall at any time; this is the point where most American workers collectively say, “You know what? I could use a day.” According…

Lahaina is a town of about 12,000 people on the western coast of Maui, the second-largest Hawaiian island and a major tourist destination. Much like the rest of the island, Lahaina attracts tens of thousands of tourists each year, and many are captivated by the 60-foot banyan tree that rests off Lahaina Harbor. That particular tree, located within the courthouse square of Lahaina, is 150 years old and is believed to be the largest of its kind in the United States – a truly one-of-a-kind specimen – and it has unfortunately been scorched by the wildfires raging across the island.…

In sports, the goal is to always find that edge, to take advantage of any opportunity other teams might be missing. In the case of the Jacksonville Jaguars, they are getting a leg up on their opponents through their fancy new high-tech urinals. At the team’s new $120 million practice facility, the Jaguars have installed urinals that will measure a player’s hydration levels, giving the team the distinction of now owning “the most advanced urinals in all of professional sports.” Book your Super Bowl tickets now, folks. How Do the Jaguars’ High-Tech Urinals Work? It’s all pretty simple. A green…

The doomsday clock has inched closer to midnight for Kmart, once a retail behemoth. Now, with the closure of New Jersey’s last Kmart location, there are only two Kmarts left in the continental United States. So if you’re looking to take advantage of any blue-light specials that might be left, or perhaps ship your pants, the only Kmarts you can visit are now located in Miami, Florida and Bridgehampton, New York. Now, if you look beyond the continental U.S., you’ll find a few more Kmart locations. There are currently four Kmarts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, three in Puerto Rico,…

Groom Lake, Nevada is a salt flat in the Southern Nevada desert that is more commonly known as the spot next to the airfield of Area 51, an area of legendary UFO and alien-related conspiracies and investigations. Officially, at least, Area 51 is simply a highly classified United States Air Force facility, with operations that are not made public whatsoever, which only intensifies the rumors of what’s really going on there. Allegedly, the USAF and CIA purchased the remote land for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance rocket back in 1955. As for today’s operations at the base, well, that’s…

Update: Well, it happened again. Mitch McConnell once again inexplicably froze during a press conference, just a month after the first incident. This time, it came as a reporter was asking the 81-year-old senator if he planned on running in 2026, which really added a nice layer of absurdity to the whole thing. But hey, at least the Capitol physician has declared McConnell to be “medically clear” to essentially directly effect the lives of 332 million people. Overshadowing even the apparent admission of the government hoarding alien corpses (or perhaps even playing baseball with live aliens they’ve captured) that took…

At first glance, Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town” sounds like any other pop country song these days. It hits all the same notes of small-town pride and bravado, treading over the same territory you’d hear in literally hundreds of other country songs being put out at any given time. But what makes Aldean’s song unique – and the subject of recent controversy – is the accompanying music video, which has stirred up strong reactions on both sides and has ultimately been pulled from Country Music Television’s music video rotation for the time being. Why Are People…

The beginning of July is home to a wonderful holiday celebrated by millions of Americans each and every year. No, we’re not talking about the Fourth of July; we’re talking about Bobby Bonilla Day, of course. What Is Bobby Bonilla Day? Major League Baseball contracts are guaranteed, which often puts some teams in an interesting, precarious position as the years and dollar values continue to rise in a sport without a salary cap. So in order to remain competitive in the near-term, teams sometimes have to get creative with the backends of their deals with aging veterans. Bobby Bonilla is…

Leslie Van Houten, a member of the infamous Manson family responsible for at least nine murders in 1969 (and, honestly, possibly more throughout the 1960s), has been released from a California prison. Van Houten, who was 19 when she joined the cult led by Charles Manson, is now in her 70s and was released under a three-year parole term, with a parole discharge review taking place after one year. She’ll spend that time acclimating to life in the 21st century, which looks very different from when she was convicted in 1971. Her release seemed imminent after a state appellate court’s…