Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up".

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm

Published: 2006/02/24 16:40:00 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Comments?

First read these:
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206M.shtml
www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022206A.shtml

Have you read part one yet? OK. I looked at the other three. Each had an interesting "problem". Mantle, from 1956 to 1962 had 253. This, of course is a six season total. He had 52,34,42,31,40,54, so you see, he had two 50 home run seasons but over a six year span. To get his best five year run you have to not count his 52 home run season so his best is 201, tied with Aaron's second best run.

Foxx has a similar problem; he has two 50 home run seasons but spread out over a seven year span: 1932-38 he went 58,48,44,36,41,36,50 = 313 (over 7 seasons, remember). His best five totals "only" 227, one better than Mays's best.

Hank Greenberg has a very different problem; he never had more than four consecutive seasons with double digit homers, partly due to WWII. In 1936 he had just one home run, in fact he only played in 12 games. I don't know the story behind that, but then, in 1937-40 he had 40,58,33,41 = 172 in four seasons, 43 per season which would extrapolate to 215 over five seasons, which would put him right between Mays and Aaron. But of course we can't do that, we have to use his 1941 season, in which he hit 2, or his 1945 season in which he hit 13, since he only played in 19 games in '41. Of course he only played in 78 games in '45, so maybe we should use his next full season, 1946. In 1946 he had 44 homers so now his numbers read 40,58,33,41,44 = 216, again, right in between Mays and Aaron. Way to go Hank! Another way to look at Greenberg's numbers is: he had 331 for his career, just 39 more than Sosa's best five year run. Sorry Hank.

I noticed Sammy Sosa's mug on ESPN News tonight so I watched for a while and I saw that his agent says that Sammy has likely played his last game in MLB. We'll see. They also showed his declining home run output, winding up with just 14 last year. I did some quick math and realized that even with his fall-off he had hit 202 homers in those five years. This got me to wondering about two things: how did that total stack up against other five year runs, and how does his best five year run compare to anybody else's. I had an idea that his best might be the best but I wasn't sure. Still, there would only be three other players that I thought had a chance: Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Babe Ruth. So I looked them up, and I did Willie Mays and Hank Aaron too, just for kicks. The results:

Sosa's best five year run was 1998 - 2002. His numbers: 66,63,50,64,49 = 292, an average of 58.4 per season. This is indeed the greatest five year run ever.

Mark McGwire's best five consecutive seasons for home runs was 1995 - 1999. This is the second best five season run ever, and he was traded during it. Go figure, huh? The numbers: 39,52,58,70,65 = 284

Next up is Mr. Bonds. His run is fron 1999 to 2003. Notice some overlapping among these three? Weird, no? Anyway, Bonds's numbers are: 49,73,46,45,45 = 258. He still has just one season of 50 or more.

So much for the steroid boys. Next up is Mr. George Herman (Babe) Ruth. 1926-30 was his best but I could see that he had another completely distinct run from 1920-24. So here they both are: 47,60,54,46,49 = 256 and 54,59,35,41,46 = 235. Not bad for a fat guy. Actually Ruth was not a fat man at all, he just had a real big gut after a while.

I did two seasons for Mays too, one early in his career and one starting with the season in which he turned 30. 1954-58 he had 41,51,36,35,29 = 192 and 1961-65 he had 40,49,38,47,52 = 226 Other than the steroid guys or Ruth I believe Mays has the best, though I should look at a couple other guys, like Mantle and Foxx, and maybe Greenberg.

Hank Aaron was hard because he was so very consistent. I couldn't just look and know which stretch it was so I ran six of them. His best two: 1969-73, 44,38,47,34,40 = 203 and 1959-63, 39,40,34,45,44 = 201. He also has a 197, a 194, a 189 and a 187. I'll get back to you with some numbers on Mantle et al.

You should read the post below this first if you haven't already.

OK where was I? Ah yes, first base. No surprise here, my first baseman is Lou Gehrig. Still holds the American League record for RBI in a season, still has the most career grand slams (sadly ManRam is closing in) and played in a once thought untouchable 2,130 consecutive games. Great fielder, better hitter, great athlete and good to his mom. What more could we want?

Catcher: A tough one. Johnny Bench? Yogi Berra? Roy Campanella? I'm tempted to get "cute" here and pick Josh Gibson or something but from what I read about Gibson he didn't have a very long prime plus it would open up a whole can of worms. So... I'll take Bench for one main reason, that cannon strapped to his right side. I'll consider Pudge Rodriguez once his career is complete, for now Bench is the one, even though Yogi could do more things well, was probably a better clutch hitter, arguably a better RBI guy and had almost as many homers.

Pitcher: If I only pick one it's Walter Johnson. More wins than anybody not named Cy Young (who played about half his career in the 19th century, very different game then), the most shutouts, 110, had the most strikeouts for a long time, pitching in an era (unlike now) when guys didn't strike out much. If I get to pick a whole pitching staff (and it is my blog) I will have Johnson, Lefty Grove, Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller and Roger Clemens. For relievers I like Rollie Fingers, Hoyt Wilhelm, Sparky Lyle and Bruce Sutter who I remember as the most dominating closer that I ever saw, over a four or five year period. (For one year, or one long stretch anyway, I think Eric Gagne had untouchable stuff while he lasted but he seems to have burned himself out.) That gives me a staff of nine, if I wanted to throw in one more, kind of a spot-starter/long-reliever I will take Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourne, who won 60 games in 1884. Amazingly this was "only" an eleven game improvement over his previous season.

So, get your team together and let's get it on!