Sports this 'n' that

 Controversy magnet Angel Hernandez has announced that he is retiring later this week after more than 30 years in Major League Baseball.

Cuban-born Hernandez, 62, debuted in 1991, but despite the fact he lost a lawsuit over being passed over for a promotion a couple of years back, Hernandez has been regarded by players, managers, & fans alike as one of the worst umpires in the game.

File photo courtesy Yahoo!.

While umpires in general have been stereotyped as having vision issues, dating back to the Golden Age, Hernandez, it appears, lives up to the stereotype, calling strikes when the ball is well out of the strike zone. You can argue that his definition of the zone might be a little more three dimensional, and that he's calling the pitch, regardless of where the catcher receives it, by the definition of the zone.

Now, fans will have someone else to jeer when a bad call is made.

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Basketball lost one of its more colorful characters with the passing of Bill Walton, 71, over the weekend.

Walton, during his playing career, won championships with Portland & Boston after a stellar college career at UCLA under John Wooden. Walton was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993, and into the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame 13 years later.

After retiring, Walton moved to the broadcast booth, calling NBA & NCAA games for NBC, ABC, & ESPN, earning an Emmy award in 1991.

Rest in peace, Bill.