Amazing

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Barry Bonds is having such an amazing stretch of offense (at last check his on-base percentage was .628--that's a beer league softball stat!!!) that he's actually not benefitting his team as much as walks normally benefit a team.
.628 OBP!!! An .899 slugging percentage!!! 40 walks and 5 strikeouts!
I absolutely have to get to Pac Bell stadium this year to see him play a game. Unbelievable.
Our softball team had its first game of the season. It was a nail-biter, but we managed to pull out a win in the bottom of the last inning, 10-9. Rich brought me home with a sac fly to win it. Since we only won one game last year, this one was huge. I was actually a bit jittery getting out there for the first time, not sure how good we'd be. But after out first one-two-three inning and after my first hit, I realized that the other team wasn't necessarily any better than we were. We'll be competitive this year if we play solid defense and avoid flyball outs.
I played right field today and got lots of action, which is fun. I wanted them to hit every ball my way. I enjoy standing out there and reading the batter, watching him warm up, looking at his swing, his stance, and moving myself around to get in the best position to catch the ball. There's an art to that.
My favorite type of fly ball to chase is the deep one over your head. The kind where you just turn and run as hard as you can and then, at some point, and you just know what point that is based on your body's internal clock and your split second assessment of how the ball left the bat and what trajectory it was on, you turn back and try and pick up the ball in the sky with your eye (again, your brain has guessed where the ball should be by that point and points your eyes there first) and then you reach out and hope you can pull it in over your shoulder. I got one to chase down like that tonight and it was the most fun I had all night.

Hmmm...

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According to UnderTheKnife, "A very good source has given us a bit of scoop regarding the Cubs and a potential trade. The Rangers have offered the Cubs Ivan Rodriguez and Gabe Kapler in return for Robert Machado, Jason Bere, Carlos Zambrano, and Todd Wellemeyer (currently in A-FSL). Obviously, the trade isn't hot since Pudge cannot be traded while on the DL and Kapler isn't a great fit for the Cubs, but Andy McPhail left discussions open."
Pudge isn't what he once was and is unlikely to be able to play anywhere near a full season again, but it wouldn't take much to improve on the offensive ineptitude of the Cubs catchers in recent history.
Can't wait to see the Cubbies call up Mark Prior.
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I'm experiencing title block. Thus the lack of titles on these weblog entries.
Seattle sports weekend. Yankees-Mariners game on Friday night. Rocket Roger Clemens shut the Mariners down. I found a baseball under my seat at the game. I've never caught a foul ball at a game. This will have to do, I suppose. Once at Wrigley Field I rushed out into the aisle in pursuit of a high pop foul, my eyes aimed skyward, locked on the ball, while my legs carried me on the shortest path towards its landing point. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't spot the very man with the "body by Budweiser and ballpark franks" heading towards that same location with a baseball glove. Whammo. He deposited me several rows back and probably gave me a minor concussion. The moral of the story is that any weenie over the age of 7 who brings a baseball glove to a baseball game to catch a foul ball is a weenie. You can be sure he doesn't know how to play baseball.
Afterwards, a quick pitstop at Temple billiards to grab a drink. Some random schmo tried to pick up on Nik, and she gracefully and sweetly sent him on his way (as she has to do about three time a night whenever she is out). That is a very Seattle convention, the kinder, gentler rebuff. In NYC most women don't even bother responding. Which is fine, too. Clarity in communications is underrated. Oh, where was I? Oh yeah, sports.
Saturday I saw the San Antonio Spurs demolish the Sonics. The most impressive thing about the game was that Tony Parker stepped up to give Tim Duncan and the Spurs their needed second scoring option. Parker is 19 years old. Some of the Sonics dance team girls could be his mother. He crossed over Payton about five times in the game and made the Glove look silly.
Danny Ferry has one of the ugliest jump shots of any professional basketball player. Ferry and Cherokee Parks should warm the hearts of Duke-haters everywhere. Parks job is to do whatever Tim Duncan tells him to do, and to pray that no one ever asks him to justify his spot on the Spurs payroll through any demonstration of actual basketball skill.
Last Thursday was Teatro Zinzanni. Is that a sport? I've seen it twice in Seattle now, and both times the heart of the show has been the male ringmaster/host who dresses up as a woman and pulls random men out of the crowd to embarrass them with tawdry humor and lighthearted innuendo. The crowd, mostly older, ate it up. The older you get, the funnier everything must seem. Maybe I'll be a hearty laugher in twenty years as well instead of a grumpy critic.
Basketball Saturday morning, biking this afternoon, and some frisbee. I can't feel my legs.
There you go--managed to bring it back to sports in the end. Probably could have given this entry a title related to sports.

24 year old Bean

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She says she's 24, but I think she's really 17. Damn, and I'm here trying to pluck my gray hairs. Where's the justice? What's her secret? Lots of sleep.
Took Bean to see Ben Folds with Katie who I hadn't seen in ages. They're both Ben Folds fans. I'm a Folds novice. Fun show. Ben Folds has lots of energy. Now I smell like an abandoned disco bar, or a casino carpet.
I felt really ill all day. I had stomach cramps, and then a few times today had dizzy spells. Didn't have breakfast, had a bowl of soup for lunch, and heated some dinner but couldn't stomach it and threw most of it out. During the concert my blood sugar bottomed out, and the smoke and heat started wearing me out. Haven't been sleeping well. I wonder if it's this cold, wet, miserable weather we're experiencing.
A different sort of review for The Corrections.
Poor Astros. Lost again. They've blown something like seven straight saves in the playoffs. Though they were mugged. The home plate umpire had a strike zone wider than Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. Which raises the point, why do we, in this day and age, still expect human beings to judge the strike zone if it's such a critical determinant of wins and losses? Dierker flubbed game one by going to Mike Jackson instead of Octavio Dotel. They probably would've lost anyway. I saw the last Astros series against the Cubs, and Mlicki got shelled, and Oswalt was definitely not right.
Want to talk about some sick pitches? This has happened a few times this year, but it's still amazing to see it happen to a major league hitter. Randy Johnson threw a slider that hit a batter in the foot after he swung and missed. The batter was Albert Pujols, likely rookie of the year, and someone who had homered of Johnson in the first inning. I thought stuff like that only happened in wiffle ball. Oh well, Johnson ended up losing, again. Seven straight losses in the playoffs for currently the best pitcher in the NL. Crazy.
I'm rooting for the A's. Everyone from the GM on down in that org is pretty cool, and I definitely don't want to see the Yankees win it all again. If the A's win, maybe more Billy Beane acolytes will make it into front offices around both leagues, and as a result more teams would be assembled in a smarter fashion. Mark Mulder beat Clemens tonight, which will surprise lots of people but shouldn't. At this point in their careers, Mulder is a batter pitcher than Clemens
and probably one of the top four starters in the American League. I think this is the A's year to win it all.
Some of the Mariners fans are sweating it out. They should win game two, as Finley is washed up and barely passable as a major league starter these days. Game three should be interesting. In Cleveland, with their fans going nuts, and a hittable Aaron Sele on the mound versus rookie 17 game winner C.C. Sabathia. The latter didn't have a great ERA this year but won a ton of games. Why Piniella left Pineiro off the roster I'll never understand. Dumb dumb move.