Heroes and Zeroes - Baseball trip report April 22, 2008

As mentioned in my last post, April 22nd was a great baseball day - 2 Major League games in person on the same day. The crew consisted of Mike, Jason and Q, along with this trusty old blogger. I thought I would relive some of the highlights!

Let's start with game 1 - a 1:20 start at Wrigley Field to see my Mets take on the red hot Cubs. Pre-game festivities included a few frosty beverages and a delicious corned beef sandwich at nearby eatery The Irish Oak. Yummy! The weather was perfect as we mosied over to the shrine at Clark and Addison. We scored as we entered the ballpark and were given free Cubs tshirts. This should make a great dishrag!

We were sitting in the bleachers and managed to avoid shirtless old people and mostly shirtless people in general. The weather was great, even got downright hot at a few points. But, most importantly, the wind was blowing out, which usually means you'll have a lot of runs at Wrigley. Our crew decided to put a little wager down on the game based on total runs scored during the game. We broke it into 4 thresholds, 0-6 runs, 7-9 runs, 10-12 runs and 12+. Two of the fellas were quick to snatch up the 2 highest thresholds, leaving me and the other guy to do paper-rock-scissors to see who would get stuck with 0-6 runs. Of course I lost and was stuck.

The game was fun, there were a few morons in the crowd but less than usual. The park was packed and it was a really good game. And amazingly, headed into the 8th inning, the score was 3-2 Cubs. I had a shot at winning the bet(!), which consisted of having the other 3 buy your dinner at game 2 of the day. And this is where our baseball zeroes come in. Mets reliever Jorge Sosa came in and gave up all kinds of baserunners. But with 1 out, he induces a groundball to shortstop for what should have been an inning-ending double play. But Jose Reyes throws the ball home instead of going to second and then first for the inning-ending (and bet preserving!)double play. Mets only get one out and Sosa loads the bases for Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno deposits the ball in the left field bleachers and there goes the game and the bet! NOOOOOOOOO! So, for the effort, Jose Reyes, Ronny Cedeno and Jorge Sosa, you are today's baseball zeroes!

Off we go to US Cellular Field. First, I'd like to rant a bit about the shysters on the South Side. They have the gall to charge $32 a stub for upper deck ducats for a mid-April chiller. Brutal. But, due to our tricky ways, we bought the cheapest seats because we planned to sit in the bullpen bar area, which is at field level just beyond the right field fence. Highly recommended, it's free to get in and you are right there. Being so low, it's a cool and different view of the field.

The other benefit is that if you get to the game early enough, you can interact with the players who are warming up in the OF, mostly pitchers. During BP, a few zingers came our way, including one screamer that nearly took my head off. Instead, some old guy just gave me a forearm shiver and scavenged near my feet for the ball that just missed skulling me. Whatever.

The cool part here was Yankee youngster Joba Chamberlain. I've got a predisposition to like the hefty hurler for a few reasons but hadn't really seen much on him to make up my mind for sure. When we first get there, he's acting like a hyper junior high kid on the field, really hamming it up. Pretty annoying but the dude is actually in his younger 20s so I guess I get it. But after a while, he comes over near where we are and autographs a couple balls for some Yankee fans who are wearing his #62 jersey. Once that happens, the vultures descend and he proceeds to autograph several balls for people. One dude walks up in a White Sox jersey and hands him a ball over the fence to autograph. JC just stares at the guy, looks at his jersey, back at the guy, at his jersey, back at the guy and then turns and walks away, putting the dude's baseball in his back pocket, he's not going to sign it for the White Sox fan! After about ten steps he turns around and signs the ball and gives it to the dude. Pretty funny and Joba really did a good job of working the crowd. I'm definitely a fan of this fella, keep up the good work Joba, hope you sign with the Mets when you become a FA!

The game was also pretty good although we did not place any wagers. Interestingly, this game also featured a grand slam, this one by Bobby Abreu. I will say this - two games in one day is too much for this guy. I love baseball, but being at the park is something that I guess I can only do one game per day. My 2nd ever doubleheader and both times I've not really enjoyed it that much. But all in all we had a good time.

The bad news was that after getting home, the better half proceeded to contract the flu about midnight and was up all night. #1 got a strong dose of it at 4 am. #3 got it in the am. And #2 got it at about 4 pm. Man, what a horrible day! Luckily, I wasn't able to get it until Friday and it was a much milder version. Thankfully we're all back at full speed. Sheesh, that was not fun.

Done with one class except for an in class final! And only have a paper to finish for another class. It's due today but no way I'm going to make that. I think I can get it by tomorrow though, so we'll be ok. Hopefully the teacher won't think I'm too much of a slacker! Still have to figure out my summer and fall schedule, that will be up very shortly.

Soccer, wow, what an experience. I'll talk about that more later. And plans to get into some races this year. Looking forward to some summer stuff very soon.

Song lyric of the day: "Hey, everything's gonna be all right" - Seven Mary Three, Dreaming Against Me"

Until next time.

Ace

Demolition and the demise of childhood

Happy B-day to Kid #2, who turns 4 today. Lots of big smiles, especially when the little one jumped out of bed with a big smile and said "Look how tall I am now!" Got a little misty eyed at a couple points. However, none of those points came during the chaos that ensued at the local Chuck E. Cheese this weekend. Ah, vermin, greasy pizza and 400 kids running around, can't beat it. Thank goodness they serve beer!

This weekend was the first soccer game for both kids. First was the preschool group. I was coaching with a woman who, like your trusty blogger Ace, has never coached before. The good news is that they don't actually play soccer, they just practice and run little drills and stuff that we instruct them on. The other good news is that there are 3 coaches for 10 kids. The bad news is that one coach didn't show. The other bad news is that these are freaking preschoolers and they do not listen well. Crikey, what a trip. I think next time we'll let them spend a lot more time just running around and kicking the ball. Organized drills might be a bit ambitious. I especially enjoyed the kid who wouldn't come anywhere near the rest of the team and every time I asked him to do something quickly yelled "No!". If I get a repeat performance next Saturday, that kid is giving me 20 push-ups.

Next came the kindergarten group. Kids at this age actually have some soccer skills. Unfortunately, the guy I'm coaching with informed me at practice last week that he wouldn't be there for the game. Sweet! There are also 10 kids on this team. By gametime, we had only 5 kids there. They play 3 on 3 so there were going to be some exhausted munchkins by the end of this one. Fortunately, 2 more showed up right after the game started.

Due to rainouts, we only had 1 practice. And due to my utter lack of knowledge, we just worked on some basic drills. Well, the team we played against actually had plays and organized instruction, including leaving one kid back on defense who served as a de facto goalie. Uh-oh. We got utterly annihilated. Although score isn't kept, it was pretty easy to keep track of our team's amount - 1 goal (by my kid, woohoo!). Let's just say the other team scored a multiple of 1. The kids were exhausted but I think they had fun. I will definitely be making some adjustments in practice this week so we are more organized for our next game. I don't think the kids minded too much but it wasn't much fun having them get smoked. At least a couple of them knew what was up. Fortunately, we were able to quickly forget it when friends J&J and their kids showed up towards the end of the game. We were able to cash in on part of an old bet for a tasty dinner with both families, a good time was had by all, especially the ever-giggling gaggle of girls (that's alliteration folks!).

I'm greatly looking forward to tomorrow, my annual trip to see the Mets take on the Cubbies. Should be fun as the weather promises to be spectacular if we can keep the rain away. Regardless it should be warm. If you remember the post from last year, hopefully I can avoid shirtless old dudes out in the bleachers and ejection from the park. We'll see. We've decided to add another component to the trip, taking in the White Sox v Yankees tomorrow night. Yup, doing a doubleheader, how sweet! I hope I'm up to it, I went to a doubleheader once a long time ago and thought it really sucked sitting around for so long. We'll see how it goes.

Well, off to class shortly. Only 2 more weeks after tonight. It's going to be quite a race to get to the finish!

Song lyric of the day "Sunny day, everything's A-ok" - Sesame Street theme song

Until next time.

Ace

Vote for Pedro

Better half found a hilarious quote for me on one of those quote a day calendars. As I've said before, I'm a huge baseball fan and one of my all time favorites is a player named Pedro Martinez. Now old Petey is a little flamboyant (see jerry curl for evidence) and he really showed it during this quote when he discussed his difficulty in finding his groove on the mound during a game:

"I'll find it eventually. I do things differently. I play with myself up there and eventually I'll find it..."

I love me some Pedro!

For the first time ever, I actually got up and left class during the middle of a session last night (it was actually at a break). It wasn't that I stormed out or anything. It was just that I don't believe I have ever been more bored in my entire life. A complete waste of time. Our instructor is a passionate teacher but he cannot manage a discussion for the life of him. As a result, some of the more verbose members of the class take discussions in pointless and rambling directions, completely off topic. And so it went last night. On. And on. And on. Finally, after deciding we would break about 20 minutes late, I decided I couldn't sit through the last hour and told the teacher I wasn't feeling well and left. Ugh! Only 3 weeks left, thank goodness.




Song lyric of the day "I touch myself" The Divinyls

Until next time.

Ace

Baby time!

Congrats to D&M on welcoming little CJ to the world. Welcome to the club, life is going to change in a hurry! It really is amazing how much change occurs when you have your first. Suddenly you're thinking about someone besides yourself and your significant other first. That's a thought for a whole different post.

School wise, I signed up for one course this summer. I may do more but have some legwork to do first. Turns out I'm not enrolled in the graduate program after all, simply the teacher certification program. D'0h! So, I need to apply, get accepted, take the GRE, blah blah blah. I really need to do it quickly. I was pretty disappointed when I figured this out, it was my own confusion and stupidity. As far as this semester, I'm down to 3 more weeks. I can't believe how quickly it's coming.

A few musical notes - the Seven Mary Three show I intended to see recently was cancelled due to a medical emergency within the band. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery to health. Also, Flight of the Conchords are going on tour and I can't wait! I'm thankful that I was able to get tickets, they have been a hot seller!

Soccer starts tonight with a practice, everything up to this point has been cancelled due to poor weather. Except pictures, so I got to meet all the kids for pictures but it was very brief. Should be fun, weather is finally turning nice!

Song lyric of the day "School's out for the summer!" Alice Cooper

Until next time.

Ace

Quick funnies

Stolen from elsewhere:

Here are the 10 first place winners in the International Pun Contest:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. Theflight attendant looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only onecarrion allowed per passenger.'

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other andsays 'Dam!'

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire inthe craft. Unsurprisingly, it immediately sank, proving once again thatyou can't have your kayak and heat it too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says 'I've lost my electron.' Theother says 'Are you sure?' The first replies 'Yes, I'm positive.'

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a rootcanal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standingin the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After aboutan hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.'But why?', they asked, as they moved off. 'Because,' he said,' Ican't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.'

7. A woman has identical twins and is forced to give them up foradoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named 'Ahmal.'The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him 'Juan.' Yearslater, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Uponreceiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she alsohad a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, 'They're identicaltwins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal.'

8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so theyopened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked tobuy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thoughtthe competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down,but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. Theyignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughestand most vicious thug in town to 'persuade' them to close. Hugh beatup the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if theydidn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that onlyHugh can prevent Florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, whichproduced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate verylittle, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he sufferedfrom bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) asuper calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Song lyric of the day "I think I'm dumb, or maybe just happy" Nirvana

Until next time.

Ace

Happy Bday!

I wanted to wish a Happy Bday to my eldest sister. Hope it's a smokin' good time! :-)

Have I ever talked about my sisters, brothers, cousins, etc. on the blog? Oh the stories I could tell! I always like to joke that my family tree is like a row of hedges. Wow, I slay me. One of the things I'm most (in)famous for in the family is taking the camcorder during holidays and walking around the house trying to start trouble and catch it on film. Maybe I'm sick that way but I just find it highly entertaining. And the memories I create (and capture for posterity!). On occasion it's not gone so well, like the time I bought my nephew a fifth of Jack Daniels for Xmas in the secret Santa celebration. Hey, I truly had no idea he had just started to abstain from the joy juice, people should make that kind of info available prior to gift giving occasions!

Week one of the better half's employment is in the books. We're making the adjustment, although the youngest is having a bit of a tough time adjusting to daycare, even though he is only in for a couple hours a couple of times per week. Today was better than the last time, hopefully it will get progressively better. And the better half told me today that it has been enjoyable getting involved in the grown up world again. I hope that continues!

I am thoroughly loving that baseball season is underway. I skipped class last week due to the national holiday of Opening Day. I managed to grill some fresh brats despite the cold and rain and just thoroughly basked in the glory of about 6 baseball games on TV. It's also been great to have games on in the background while working.

Getting very close to the end of the semester, I think 6 weeks left. I need to register for classes for the summer, it looks like 2 classes will be the limit this term. That is probably for the best with our new, busy schedule. I'd like to have one of them be an online class, which would not tie me to a classroom and allow me to work around the better half's work needs.

That's all for now, I'll try to check back in later this week.

Today's Song Lyric of the Day: "Insane in the membrane, insane in the brain!" - Cypress Hill

Until next time.

Ace.

Spring into Spring!

I'm greatly looking forward to the warming temperatures. We've hit 50 degrees the last couple of days here and it is long overdue. Add to that the upcoming completion of the college semester and the start of the Major League Baseball season, and spring fever is in full effect.

Things have been crazy busy. The better half started working this week and we're all still making the adjustment. It has been emotional at times and certainly exhausting. And we're only 3 days in! I am hopeful that over the next week or two we are able to settle into an adjusted life routine and develop a comfort zone. We'll see.

I had to turn in a paper in one of my two classes yesterday. Fortunately, the only real assignment I have left in that class over the next 5 - 6 weeks is the completion of a 5-7 page paper. The writing should be a piece of cake but there will definitely be some reading required to get the appropriate level of research done. While I'm not very religious, I chose to write my paper about the Philadelphia Bible Riots of 1844 that pitted Catholics against the in-power Protestants of the time. So far it seems like a pretty interesting study. During class last night, we had some very sobering discussions about what life is like for a teacher in some of the area middle schools. Another warning that I'm not preparing to enter the Valhalla of idealistic career choices.

I also had to read a book called Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson, a professor at University of Wisconsin. This is a very well written book that looks at the civil rights movement in the South, primarily in the 60s and 70s, although the book does jump around to other time periods quite a bit. Not something I would have picked up on my own, it was quite illuminating in regards to the struggle our country went through related to integration, racism, etc. The book focuses on the author's childhood hometown but also how national events related to it as well. If you're looking for a thought-provoking book (although a little melodramatic at times), this is a good one.

Soccer kicks off next week. Hopefully we'll have balmy weather to bring us through.

Musical note for the post - Ace favorite Seven Mary Three is in the midst of touring the US at the moment. I've already attempted to recruit the normal cast of characters to attend my local show - check out their tour dates to see if they are stopping by near you. You won't be sorry you checked them out.

Song lyric of the day "On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again" - Willie Nelson

Enough for now, I've got to get back to the baseball game!

Until next time.

Ace.