Fairweather Zealot

My boss and I are heading to the Phils game tonight, and I’m hoping we get to see Ken Griffey Jr. make history with his 600th HR (albeit in a 9-1 Phils win, perhaps). This opportunity to see a little history made me think about how – despite all of the games of various sports that I have been to – I have never seen a truly historic event occur at a sports game I attended. I mean, seeing the Monkees after a Temple-Florida A&M game football doesn’t count, right?

I had tickets to Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals in which the Colorado Avalanche won their first Cup (they swept in 4). I would have had tickets to the Super Bowl where the Cowboys would have won their then-record 5th Super Bowl victory (Super Bowl XXXI) … if they hadn’t lost to Carolina in the NFC semi-finals (which they should NOT have done). So, I’ve been close but never right there.

But this might be my chance. A hitter’s park. A pitcher (Kyle Kendrick) who gives up gopher balls, and against whom Griffey is 4-for-5. Granted, I won’t be anywhere near the home run area, but just seeing it and being there might be pretty cool. As long as the Phillies win, that is.

UPDATE: Well, Griffey didn’t even play, let alone get a hit so my streak continues. On the plus side, the Phils won with a volley of home runs.

Well, we had our 5th and 6th softball games this week, and at best I had a mediocre week. The lines:

Game 5: 0-3, 0R, 0RBI — 10C, 5PO, 2E
Game 6: 1-3, 1R, 0RBI — 12C, 9PO, 0E

Tuesday’s game was probably the worst I’ve ever played. I got good contact on the ball but hit it TO someone every time. And defensively I made two big errors and one costly mental mistake. We still won, with no help from me. Continue reading

Well, we played our 4th softball game of the year (my third), and I finally had a satisfying game.  I haven’t been playing badly, just not connecting with the ball or making the plays that I thought I could/should be making.  The box score:

Hitting:  4-4, 1 double, 3 runs  (3AB had no one on base when I came up – so no rbi)
Fielding: 6 chances, 5 putouts

So far for the year, I’m 7-10, 1 double, 4 runs and 1 rbi.  Batting .700 isn’t exactly screaming ‘I’m awesome!’ in a slow-pitch league, but at least I’m not flying out – and I finally started getting the ball out of the infield (I was topping every ball last game).  So, even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, it was still a fun game – made better by the fact that our other team also won in a 9-inning come-from-behind stunner.

The Phillies line-up is amazingly agonizing. One one hand you have the hottest player in baseball, Chase Utley (.364, 9 HR, 18RBI, homers in 5 straight games) and the surprising Pat Burrell (.354, 7HR, 19RBI). On the other hand, you have one of the saddest hitting line-ups out there: the Phillies’ starting line-up has 2 players hitting .250 or under and THREE PLAYERS HITTING UNDER .200 (Bruntlett – .174, Howard – .193, Ruiz – .196). That’s just unforgiveable. Continue reading

Today are the softball tryouts for our company team – or should I say, teams. We had so many people last year that it was hard to get in the game and assure an at bat – and with more people in the company than last year, we were almost assured of a worse situation. So, we are putting TWO teams out there this year. Hopefully that will mean some increased playing time and more at bats this year.

On a slightly more somber note, I suspect the rate of heart attacks in the city of Philadelphia will increase over the next few weeks, if yesterday’s game was any indication. The Phillies offense did their job, but our bullpen … well, SUCKS. Announcer Larry Anderson had the gumption to say, “Well, the bullpen has been a concern all spring…”. SPRING? Of what – 2002? The bullpen has been the achilles heel, bum rib and sciatica of the team for the last half-dozen years, and they never do anything to solve it. Tom Gordon has the highest possible ERA in the majors (135.01, in case you’re counting) and Ryan Madsen isn’t much better. Brett Myers didn’t pitch horribly – nor did he pitch well – but it’s going to be a long season if he has to be used much. And what was Ruiz thinking throwing to third base when you’ve got 2 men on base, down by 2 in the 9th inning? That’s just bad baseball.

In other news, I worked more on the ZPC project and sent Van over some new files. I’m finally seeing this shaping up to be what I wanted it to be. Cleaning up stray pieces that look bad, adding some flair, etc. I have a little ways to go, but at least it’s acceptable now. Maybe I’m too anal … now, I’m a perfectionist. That’s it.

It was Super Bowl time again, and once again I had a hard time caring about either team who was playing. As a Cowboys fan, it’s really tough to root for the Giants. But I found myself doing so anyway because I dreaded the thought of hearing all of the ‘Greatest Team Ever’, “Tom Brady is God” and “19-0″ b.s. for the next year. If the Patriots win (and it’s 7-3 with 6:13 left in the 3rd quarter now), it will be an endless repetition of how great they are. Continue reading

I don’t care what anyone says, Charlie Manuel is a moron.  I know the Kendrick was getting into trouble, but he was in less than 3 innings, and we KNOW that we need the starters to go deep.  And Kyle Lohse?  That worked out really well… giving up a grand slam to a guy with 4 home runs for the season.  And Jose Mesa?!?!?  Brilliant.  Son-of-a-b!tch this sucks.

Cole Hamels pitched a good game yesterday … well, except for that one inning. Take that away and they had a chance. Of course, having the entire top of the order going 0-for-alot didn’t help, either. Come on Phils – we’re still hoping you’ll bring us a World Series!!!

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Now playing: Rachael Yamagata – Worn Me Down

Okay, not really. But for the 1st time since 1993, the Phillies are in the playoffs. They’re one of four teams to have more than 85 wins in each of the last 4 years (Atlanta, NY and Boston are the others), but they were the only ones to never make the playoffs in that span. Finally, the jinx is broken. Continue reading

This past weekend was being rolled out as one of the top weekends of Penn State football in years – in fact, they have been selling ‘Beat Notre Dame’ shirts since last spring. So, it was just a bit of a disappointment that Notre Dame wasn’t going to be the powerhouse that they were last year when they came to the House that JoePa Built this year. Continue reading