Match the Latin American President with the Baseball Team!

Before we get to our little ‘game’, some wonderful articles on Germany from the Guardian. (btw, my favorite subplot of the up coming World Cup? Reading the English press discuss and report on and in Germany. Totally bizarre start just judging from some of the articles here in the ‘Guardian Special Section’).

We’ll start with this first one about the lack of German sense of humor. We here at VFLOAB find this a bit odd, we know it’s a stereotype and we’ve all heard of it, but we don’t actually believe it. When we were in high school, three German exchange students were in our class our sophomore year… we remember them laughing and even telling jokes. But apparently the Brits see things a bit differently. (This also reminds of an Economist article from a few years back asking the question: “The French have jokes, but do they have a sense of humour?”) Anyway, interesting article and gives us this actually sort of humorous joke:
An English couple have a child. After the birth, medical tests reveal that the child is normal, apart from the fact that it is German. This, however, should not be a problem. There is nothing to worry about. As the child grows older, it dresses in lederhosen and has a pudding bowl haircut, but all its basic functions develop normally. It can walk, eat, sleep, read and so on, but for some reason the German child never speaks. The concerned parents take it to the doctor, who reassures them that as the German child is perfectly developed in all other areas, there is nothing to worry about and that he is sure the speech faculty will eventually blossom. Years pass. The German child enters its teens, and still it is not speaking, though in all other respects it is fully functional. The German child's mother is especially distressed by this, but attempts to conceal her sadness. One day she makes the German child, who is now 17 years old and still silent, a bowl of tomato soup, and takes it through to him in the parlour where he is listening to a wind-up gramophone record player. Soon, the German child appears in the kitchen and suddenly declares, "Mother. This soup is a little tepid." The German child's mother is astonished. "All these years," she exclaims, "we assumed you could not speak. And yet all along it appears you could. Why? Why did you never say anything before?" "Because, mother," answers the German child, "up until now, everything has been satisfactory."

On baseball note… great win for the Sox and I’m happy Frank Thomas got a standing ovation prior to his first at bat last night.

Now it’s time for what you’ve all been waiting for… Match the Latin American President’s Last Name with his/her Country and Baseball Team!
I’ll give you the leaders last name, country, and team. You have to match the rest up.
For example:

Leaders:
Bush
Harper

Country:
USA
Canada


Team:
Devil Rays
Brewers

And you would match them up as so:
Bush – USA – Brewers
Harper – Canada – Devil Rays (true fact, Travis Harper – TB; Stephen Harper – PMC (Love the family photo Steve)

NOTE: There are an unequal amount of Presidents and teams; in other words there are more leaders than there are players with the same last name. BUT there are some with more than one right answer, so I’m giving ALL those teams. Teams that have more than one player with the same name as a Latin American Leader will be listed twice. Answers on Friday

Latin American Leader:
Bachelet
Bolaños
Castro
Chavez
Fernández
Fox
Palacio
Uribe
Vázquez

Countries:
Cuba
Mexico
Ecuador
Chile
Uruguay
Nicaragua
Venezuela
Columbia
Dominican Republic

Teams:
Texas Rangers
Minnesota Twins
Baltimore Orioles
Cleveland Indians
New York Mets
Milwaukee Brewers
Hasn’t played this year
Chicago White Sox
Oakland A’s
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago White Sox