Baseball Legend Out Of Nowhere

When you consume as much media as I do, it’s hard to get your brain to stop and slow down and actually let something weird in a story sink in. Pit bulls maul miniature horse donated to sick kid with brain cancer. Drivers in Indiana get stuck in freshly-poured concrete road. 33-year-old teacher has sex with 16-year-old mentally disabled student. All of these are ridiculous (and in some cases horrible; the drivers getting stuck in concrete is pretty awesome), but they don’t really surprise me.

No, it takes a long, drawn out introduction in a blog post a really out-of-left field second paragraph to make my brain stop and slow down and say “Guh-wha?” For example:

MIDDLETOWN - A 21-year-old Middletown dad is standing trial in Bucks County court in Doylestown this week on charges he inflicted second-degree burns on his 5-week-old son by submerging the infant in scalding bath water.

David L. Cook of Poplar Street denies the charges. The baby’s mother and her family are standing behind him, including the infant’s maternal grandfather, baseball legend Ken Griffey Sr., who has attended Cook’s trial daily.

My brain: “Oh, what an awful story, let’s read on and–screeeeeeeeeeech. Shutting down…” Ahh, yes, Ken Griffey Senior. That’s exactly who I expected to show up in the second paragraph of this article. It’s going to take a while for my brain to reboot.

Dad tried for allegedly burning son [Bucks County Courier Times]
[Couple of those links via Fark]