Ok, so I know I've been gone a while before this morning, and I've been meaning to post about it sooner, but I haven't had the time. And yes, I know some people were angered that I diaried the Red Sox game before writing about this, but that was a spur of the moment thing, I'm sorry if I bothered you.
Anyway, to get right down to it, I haven't been writing because C and I got engaged on Thursday the 13th. I've been really busy with school, trying to set up my comps and still working full time, and now wedding stuff is taking up some more of my non-existent free time. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, at all. I'm so excited and I've never been happier in my life. Really. I mean, yes, it did suck having to talk to the mother of the bride-to-be about this, but then again, who likes getting sniped at and picked apart for the better part of six hours? I know I don't...
So I hope this is an adequate explanation for all you angry types out there... I'll get back on the ball, promise.
25 March 2008
I choose to make my triumphant return to the blogosphere at the ass crack of dawn on a Tuesday morning in March. Why you might ask? Baseball. That's right kids, it's Opening Day, baby! Sox vs. A's live from Tokyo, Japan! This will also be your first MitCoBL liveblogging experience. I hope you enjoy it as much as I will. Let's light this candle.
5.45 am: For some insane reason I am awake to watch baseball before dawn on my only day off...
6.00 am: It is announced that J.D. Drew will miss today's game with back spasms. Of course he does. He's the baseball equivalent of a vagina. A $12 million per year vagina, of course. Hell, even Eliot Spitzer didn't pay that much.
6.02 am: Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips (Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum) are your announcing crew for today's game... Where's my XM, I want to listen to Joe Castiglione call this game, hopefully it's synched-up.
6.03 am: Nope, fuck. Now I get to listen to these idiots all morning.
6.05 am- 7.00 am: REDACTED DUE TO VIOLATION OF SELF-IMPOSED BAN ON USE OF THE F-WORD BEFORE 9 AM. (Summary: Dice-K continues to underwhelm me, baseball at 6 am is a poor idea, Manny Ramirez is rocking the Predator look again this season (awesome), but still should not be allowed to dress himself and Mark Ellis looks like the Birdman of Alcatraz, 2-0 A's through 2.)
7.04 am: Ortiz coming up with 2 on... I smell an rbi opportunity.
7.06 am: Your color announcer for today's game is former Mets GM (when they sucked) Steve Phillips. Mr. Phillips points out that Japanese baseball fans love Davie Ortiz. Of course they do. As a wise man once said, Chicks dig the longball.
7.09 am: Aaaaand David Ortiz grounds out into the shift with a man in scoring position, to end the top of the 3rd. Of course.
7.12 Dice-K gets one out on one pitch, for the 2nd time in 3 innings, don't worry though, he's still thrown about a bazillion pitches.
7.18 am: Julio Lugo makes a great play to end the inning and bail out yet another Dice-K walk... Still can't hit for shit though.
7.22 am: How is it that Mark Freaking Ellis crushes the shit out of a ball in the first inning, but all Manny can muster is a pop-up to the warning track... Joe Blanton is a good pitcher, not a great one, but they're making him look like Cy Young.
7.24 am: Ditto for Mike Lowell.
7.25 am: No comment on the Bud Selig interview, he makes me want to choke babies. Meantime, erstwhile J.D. Drew replacement Brandon Moss pulls his best Drew imitation and grounds to first to end the top of the third. 2-0 A's through 3 and a half.
7.27 am: Another Denis Leary 2k8 commercial... Lord he's annoying.
7.29 am: Dice-K gets two quick outs... Maybe he's got his shit together...
7.30 am: Finally a 1-2-3 inning for Dice-K. Poor little bastard has thrown 83 pitches in 4 innings.
7.36 am: Did I mention that Bud Selig makes me want to puke? I meant to.
7.38 am: Jacoby Ellsbury grounds out to first... Hm, at least he took the bat off his shoulder this time... I know it's way way too early to judge him after his first two at bats of the season, but Coco Crisp can make every play that Ellsbury can in center, and at least when I say Crisp's name it makes me think of breakfast cereal.
7.39 am: Julio Lugo grounds out to Bobby Crosby end the top of the 5th... Anyone else wonder what in God's name happened to Crosby? He's always been one of those shortstops everyone wants, but he hasn't hit over .250 in three plus years... Look it up, it's kind of sad.
7.43 am: Steve Phillips is gushing about how pretty and safe Tokyo is. I wonder if he's on the payroll of the Japanese government, or maybe he's just got a thing for Asian chicks.
7.45 am: Jack Cust strikes out on a wicked change-up from Dice-K. The poor man not only looks silly because he got fooled, but I'm pretty sure Billy Beane transported himself back to the 80s and stole Cust from the Cabbage Patch.
7.46 am: Dice-K gets Emil Brown to ground out to 3rd to end the 5th... That's got to be it for him, right? He's obviously gassed... we'll check back in shortly for a final line.
7.49 am: I get scared every time Dustin Pedroia swings. I think he's going to screw himself into the ground one of these days, yet manages to sorta-kinda double to right. Riddle me this: why did the A's rightfielder knock his hat off on purpose as he was chasing he ball? He’s not the only one I’ve seen do this and I don't get it.
7.51 am: I'm glad C is still in bed, I don't want her watching Kevin Youkilis bat... I'm worried that his goatee might impregnate her, it’s that powerful... Youk walks, runners on 1st and 2nd with Ortiz coming up and Manny on deck... Blanton is either screwed, or both of them will ground out to 2nd.
7.55 am: Blanton is petrified of Ortiz, totally pissing himself. Hasn't thrown him a decent pitch all at bat.
7.56 am: Ortiz pops out in foul territory off of 3rd... So far I'm half right... or maybe a quarter, since he popped out and didn't ground out, but I'll count it.
7.57 am: Manny doubles down the line, Pedroia in from 2nd and Youk all the way from 1st! Tie game! And I managed not to wake up C with my cheers of relief. Awesome!
7.58 am: Wait a minute, how did Youkilis score all the damn way from 1st on a double to left? The man is certainly not blessed with speed, though his facial hair is impressive. Oh yeah, and Blanton is rattled. Big time.
8.00 am: Brandon Moss looks a lot like J.D. Drew ironically, though unlike Drew he comes up big for the Sox, knocking in Manny from 2nd with a single to right, to give the Sox the lead, and even takes 2nd on the throw home. I think I like this guy.
8.01 am: Blanton is done for the day. Final line: 5.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 3 earned runs on 93 pitches (57 strikes). Looked strong till the 6th... Made about 3 bad pitches and really paid for it. Not a bad outing all in all, but he could still get the loss.
8.05 am: We have an Alan Embree sighting! And here I thought he was long gone, figured for sure he choked on one of those huge wads of dip he's rocking on right now. (P.S.- Embree is getting squeezed so bad right now, it's not even funny.)
8.07 am: Embree strikes out Varitek to end the top of the 6th, 3-2 Sox.
8.10 am: We have our first Kyle Snyder sighting of the season! Why? Who knows. All that bubble gum wrapped Red Man probably went to Francona's head. Final line on Dice-K: 5 innings pitched, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 5 walks, 6 strike outs, 1 home run given up on 95 pitches (51 for strikes). Seemed like he threw a lot more pitches then that, and it was really really ugly. At one point in the 3rd inning I wondered aloud if in Japan it's better to pitch the ball into the ground then it is to throw a strike. I should note, however, that he did retire the last seven batters he faced, so he's got that going for him.
8.12 am: So much for that lead. A's rookie Jack Hannahan crushes the absolute shit out of a pathetic meatball of a pitch... awesome, 4-3 A's. Kyle Snyder for President.
8.17 am: Snyder escapes the inning with no further damage... I don't trust a 30 year old white dude with an afro pitching with a lead... period.
8.18 am: Awesome Miller High Life commercial where they take the beer from the luxury suite at a baseball game. "Gotta smell me a hot dog, let me know I'm alive." Kills me every time.
8.20 am: Jacoby Ellsbury lines a single to left-center. I'm not totally sold on this kid. If he's not standing on 2nd in three pitches I'm calling for his head.
8.22 am: Lugo grounds into a double play on the first pitch, Ellsbury earns a reprieve this time... this time.
8.23 am: Pedroia burys himself up to his neck at home plate as he grounds out on a soft comebacker to Embree. 4-3 A's through 6 and a half.
8.25 am: Mmm, apple strudel.
8.27 am: Snyder leaves after getting one out on one pitch in the 7th in favor of lefty Javier Lopez. You know him as the lefty specialist who can't get out lefties, so this move makes a ton of sense. Scratch my previous endorsement, Francona for President.
8.31 am: Not to pick on the man, but Jack Cust has more holes in his swing than anyone I've ever seen, oh and apparently he used to do steroids. He denies it of course, saying that the guy who turned him in must have "misremembered"! God I love that word, kinda sad though that it will be the biggest part of Roger Clemens' legacy.
8.33 am: Oh, by the way, Lopez gets both lefties he faces, getting Daric Barton (had to look up how to spell that first name) to line out to first and Cust strikes out looking. Rock on.
8.35 am: OH SNAP! It's Keith Foulke! I'm pretty sure I throw harder then he does! Even though he was part of the biggest baseball event of my life (04 World Series), I want them to crush his soul right now.
8.36-8.43 am: Youk flies out to the deepest part of the park, Ortiz misses about 3 crushable pitches and eventually flies out to left (he's 0-4 by the way), and Foulke gets Manny looking... What a potent middle of the line up the Sox have going right now.
8.46 am: Bryan Corey is pitching for the Sox... I have no idea who this guy is, so I won't pretend. From what I can glean from Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, Corey is a 34 year old pitcher with a whopping one year of major league experience. Yikes.
8.47 am: Jacoby Ellsbury slams himself into the wall to make a great catch and rob Emil Brown of extra bases. You think Coco Crisp just saw the one opportunity he'll have to play this season flash before his eyes?
8.50 am: Corey retires the A's 1-2-3 and ESPN shows us A's closer Houston Street warming up in the bullpen... I'll give him a dollar if he brings that leg kick just a tad higher up and knees himself in the jaw. I like how the A's manager is actually trying to win this game and Francona refuses to send any of his big arms out there today. Francona for President.
8.53 am: Houston Street is only 24??? I feel like he's been pitching forever and a day. Mike Lowell flies out to center on the first pitch of the inning. Sox are down to 2 outs.
8.54 am: Francona chooses to leave the rookie in to bat, down by one in the 9th. Moss proceeds to homer to right to tie the game! I'll shut up now. J.D. Drew for President.
8.58 am: Now Francona is getting serious, Okajima is up in the 'pen. Varitek strikes out for the 3rd time, to go along with his GIDP for a nice 0-4 performance. The three swings he took against Street were all on pitches out of the zone. He should know better.
9.00 am: Ellsbury flies out to left to end the top of the 9th. He's gotta be hurt... either that or he swings the bat like a girl. No offense to girls, it's just a fact.
9.02 am: Okajima comes in to a roaring ovation, and I've had my first wardrobe change. Now donning my vintage Nomar Garciaparra t-shirt jersey and my Sox cap. I figure all the luck I can find here is optimal.
9.04 am: Ok, Steve and Gary, I get it. Kurt Suzuki (A's catcher) has Japanese grandparents. That's great. My grandfather is Armenian, but I don't feel the need to tell people every five minutes, ok?
9.06 am: Mike Sweeney still plays baseball? Good for him. I just hope his arms fall off right about.......... now. Oh he eventually walked by the way.
9.08 am: ESPN, seriously, cut the shit and stop showing the scoreboard. I don't speak Japanese, and I'm willing to bet that 98% of your viewing audience doesn't either. Don't make me come over there.
9.10 am: Travis Buck crushes a loud out to dead center. That ball's to left or right and it's a walk-off homer. Yikes.
9.14 am: Okajima gets Ellis on a soft tapper back to the mound... We're going to extras, kids.
9.18 am: Julio Lugo beats out an infield hit to 3rd. Let's see if Francona will give up the out and sac bunt Lugo to 2nd...
9.19 am: Great bunt by Pedroia! Lugo to 2nd, one away. I love small ball, absolutely love it. Now you've got Youkilis and Ortiz coming up with a speedy runner on 2nd. Perfect.
9.22 am: Youk chases a bad pitch to go down on strikes, and the A's choose to walk Ortiz (0 for 4) to go after Manny (1 for 4 with 2 rbi). I don't get it.
9.23 am: HA! Street almost threw away two of the intentional walk pitches. Oh man, that was great!
9.24 am: Manny crushes a 2 run double to dead center! 6-4 Sox! That's 4 rbi for Manny on the day, a notorious slow starter. I think he might have been serious about that whole 600 home run thing. Street is toast, and now being pulled one batter too late. I'm convinced I could be a better in-game manager than half of these monkeys in the majors. C'mon, someone give me a shot.
9.31 am: Lenny DiNardo! Holy shit! The A's are like a clearing house for washed up Red Sox pitchers! Embree, Foulke, now DiNardo! This is amazing. I really almost peed my pants a second ago (Cut me some slack on that one. I haven't had a break in a while).
9.33 am: Moss flies out to end the inning, Papelbon is on his way into the game... Knock on wood, but I think this one is over.
9.35 am: No more incontinence worries, took care of that over the inning break, though I can't really see straight anymore. I got about 3 hours of sleep and I've been blogging for almost 4 hours now... If I ever needed some caffeine, it's now.
9.43 am: After walking the lead-off man, Papelbon embarrasses poor Jack Cust, who goes 0-4 with 4 strike outs. Papelbon proceeds to give up an rbi double to Emil Brown who then runs himself into an out trying to get to 3rd, even though he would've been in scoring position at 2nd. Stupid mistake, very stupid. He could cost his team the game.
9.47 am: Papelbon gives up 2 singles, then gets Kurt Suzuki (whose grandparents are from Japan by the way) to ground out to first to end it. Sox win 6-5 in 10 innings. Way too jittery ending for Papelbon, but it was a big game and new experience for him, and really everyone involved, so I'll take it. P.S.- Thank God for Emil Brown’s brain fart a few minutes ago, and I’m sorry to Sox fans everywhere for almost jinxing that one.
Well, that concludes the Opening Day MitCoBL Liveblogging experience. If you've made it this far down, I really appreciate you investing your time in reading all this drivel, I hope it was good for at least a few laughs. I promise that I'll get back to regular blogging, I owe my few readers an explanation for my absence.
5.45 am: For some insane reason I am awake to watch baseball before dawn on my only day off...
6.00 am: It is announced that J.D. Drew will miss today's game with back spasms. Of course he does. He's the baseball equivalent of a vagina. A $12 million per year vagina, of course. Hell, even Eliot Spitzer didn't pay that much.
6.02 am: Gary Thorne and Steve Phillips (Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum) are your announcing crew for today's game... Where's my XM, I want to listen to Joe Castiglione call this game, hopefully it's synched-up.
6.03 am: Nope, fuck. Now I get to listen to these idiots all morning.
6.05 am- 7.00 am: REDACTED DUE TO VIOLATION OF SELF-IMPOSED BAN ON USE OF THE F-WORD BEFORE 9 AM. (Summary: Dice-K continues to underwhelm me, baseball at 6 am is a poor idea, Manny Ramirez is rocking the Predator look again this season (awesome), but still should not be allowed to dress himself and Mark Ellis looks like the Birdman of Alcatraz, 2-0 A's through 2.)
7.04 am: Ortiz coming up with 2 on... I smell an rbi opportunity.
7.06 am: Your color announcer for today's game is former Mets GM (when they sucked) Steve Phillips. Mr. Phillips points out that Japanese baseball fans love Davie Ortiz. Of course they do. As a wise man once said, Chicks dig the longball.
7.09 am: Aaaaand David Ortiz grounds out into the shift with a man in scoring position, to end the top of the 3rd. Of course.
7.12 Dice-K gets one out on one pitch, for the 2nd time in 3 innings, don't worry though, he's still thrown about a bazillion pitches.
7.18 am: Julio Lugo makes a great play to end the inning and bail out yet another Dice-K walk... Still can't hit for shit though.
7.22 am: How is it that Mark Freaking Ellis crushes the shit out of a ball in the first inning, but all Manny can muster is a pop-up to the warning track... Joe Blanton is a good pitcher, not a great one, but they're making him look like Cy Young.
7.24 am: Ditto for Mike Lowell.
7.25 am: No comment on the Bud Selig interview, he makes me want to choke babies. Meantime, erstwhile J.D. Drew replacement Brandon Moss pulls his best Drew imitation and grounds to first to end the top of the third. 2-0 A's through 3 and a half.
7.27 am: Another Denis Leary 2k8 commercial... Lord he's annoying.
7.29 am: Dice-K gets two quick outs... Maybe he's got his shit together...
7.30 am: Finally a 1-2-3 inning for Dice-K. Poor little bastard has thrown 83 pitches in 4 innings.
7.36 am: Did I mention that Bud Selig makes me want to puke? I meant to.
7.38 am: Jacoby Ellsbury grounds out to first... Hm, at least he took the bat off his shoulder this time... I know it's way way too early to judge him after his first two at bats of the season, but Coco Crisp can make every play that Ellsbury can in center, and at least when I say Crisp's name it makes me think of breakfast cereal.
7.39 am: Julio Lugo grounds out to Bobby Crosby end the top of the 5th... Anyone else wonder what in God's name happened to Crosby? He's always been one of those shortstops everyone wants, but he hasn't hit over .250 in three plus years... Look it up, it's kind of sad.
7.43 am: Steve Phillips is gushing about how pretty and safe Tokyo is. I wonder if he's on the payroll of the Japanese government, or maybe he's just got a thing for Asian chicks.
7.45 am: Jack Cust strikes out on a wicked change-up from Dice-K. The poor man not only looks silly because he got fooled, but I'm pretty sure Billy Beane transported himself back to the 80s and stole Cust from the Cabbage Patch.
7.46 am: Dice-K gets Emil Brown to ground out to 3rd to end the 5th... That's got to be it for him, right? He's obviously gassed... we'll check back in shortly for a final line.
7.49 am: I get scared every time Dustin Pedroia swings. I think he's going to screw himself into the ground one of these days, yet manages to sorta-kinda double to right. Riddle me this: why did the A's rightfielder knock his hat off on purpose as he was chasing he ball? He’s not the only one I’ve seen do this and I don't get it.
7.51 am: I'm glad C is still in bed, I don't want her watching Kevin Youkilis bat... I'm worried that his goatee might impregnate her, it’s that powerful... Youk walks, runners on 1st and 2nd with Ortiz coming up and Manny on deck... Blanton is either screwed, or both of them will ground out to 2nd.
7.55 am: Blanton is petrified of Ortiz, totally pissing himself. Hasn't thrown him a decent pitch all at bat.
7.56 am: Ortiz pops out in foul territory off of 3rd... So far I'm half right... or maybe a quarter, since he popped out and didn't ground out, but I'll count it.
7.57 am: Manny doubles down the line, Pedroia in from 2nd and Youk all the way from 1st! Tie game! And I managed not to wake up C with my cheers of relief. Awesome!
7.58 am: Wait a minute, how did Youkilis score all the damn way from 1st on a double to left? The man is certainly not blessed with speed, though his facial hair is impressive. Oh yeah, and Blanton is rattled. Big time.
8.00 am: Brandon Moss looks a lot like J.D. Drew ironically, though unlike Drew he comes up big for the Sox, knocking in Manny from 2nd with a single to right, to give the Sox the lead, and even takes 2nd on the throw home. I think I like this guy.
8.01 am: Blanton is done for the day. Final line: 5.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, 3 earned runs on 93 pitches (57 strikes). Looked strong till the 6th... Made about 3 bad pitches and really paid for it. Not a bad outing all in all, but he could still get the loss.
8.05 am: We have an Alan Embree sighting! And here I thought he was long gone, figured for sure he choked on one of those huge wads of dip he's rocking on right now. (P.S.- Embree is getting squeezed so bad right now, it's not even funny.)
8.07 am: Embree strikes out Varitek to end the top of the 6th, 3-2 Sox.
8.10 am: We have our first Kyle Snyder sighting of the season! Why? Who knows. All that bubble gum wrapped Red Man probably went to Francona's head. Final line on Dice-K: 5 innings pitched, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 5 walks, 6 strike outs, 1 home run given up on 95 pitches (51 for strikes). Seemed like he threw a lot more pitches then that, and it was really really ugly. At one point in the 3rd inning I wondered aloud if in Japan it's better to pitch the ball into the ground then it is to throw a strike. I should note, however, that he did retire the last seven batters he faced, so he's got that going for him.
8.12 am: So much for that lead. A's rookie Jack Hannahan crushes the absolute shit out of a pathetic meatball of a pitch... awesome, 4-3 A's. Kyle Snyder for President.
8.17 am: Snyder escapes the inning with no further damage... I don't trust a 30 year old white dude with an afro pitching with a lead... period.
8.18 am: Awesome Miller High Life commercial where they take the beer from the luxury suite at a baseball game. "Gotta smell me a hot dog, let me know I'm alive." Kills me every time.
8.20 am: Jacoby Ellsbury lines a single to left-center. I'm not totally sold on this kid. If he's not standing on 2nd in three pitches I'm calling for his head.
8.22 am: Lugo grounds into a double play on the first pitch, Ellsbury earns a reprieve this time... this time.
8.23 am: Pedroia burys himself up to his neck at home plate as he grounds out on a soft comebacker to Embree. 4-3 A's through 6 and a half.
8.25 am: Mmm, apple strudel.
8.27 am: Snyder leaves after getting one out on one pitch in the 7th in favor of lefty Javier Lopez. You know him as the lefty specialist who can't get out lefties, so this move makes a ton of sense. Scratch my previous endorsement, Francona for President.
8.31 am: Not to pick on the man, but Jack Cust has more holes in his swing than anyone I've ever seen, oh and apparently he used to do steroids. He denies it of course, saying that the guy who turned him in must have "misremembered"! God I love that word, kinda sad though that it will be the biggest part of Roger Clemens' legacy.
8.33 am: Oh, by the way, Lopez gets both lefties he faces, getting Daric Barton (had to look up how to spell that first name) to line out to first and Cust strikes out looking. Rock on.
8.35 am: OH SNAP! It's Keith Foulke! I'm pretty sure I throw harder then he does! Even though he was part of the biggest baseball event of my life (04 World Series), I want them to crush his soul right now.
8.36-8.43 am: Youk flies out to the deepest part of the park, Ortiz misses about 3 crushable pitches and eventually flies out to left (he's 0-4 by the way), and Foulke gets Manny looking... What a potent middle of the line up the Sox have going right now.
8.46 am: Bryan Corey is pitching for the Sox... I have no idea who this guy is, so I won't pretend. From what I can glean from Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, Corey is a 34 year old pitcher with a whopping one year of major league experience. Yikes.
8.47 am: Jacoby Ellsbury slams himself into the wall to make a great catch and rob Emil Brown of extra bases. You think Coco Crisp just saw the one opportunity he'll have to play this season flash before his eyes?
8.50 am: Corey retires the A's 1-2-3 and ESPN shows us A's closer Houston Street warming up in the bullpen... I'll give him a dollar if he brings that leg kick just a tad higher up and knees himself in the jaw. I like how the A's manager is actually trying to win this game and Francona refuses to send any of his big arms out there today. Francona for President.
8.53 am: Houston Street is only 24??? I feel like he's been pitching forever and a day. Mike Lowell flies out to center on the first pitch of the inning. Sox are down to 2 outs.
8.54 am: Francona chooses to leave the rookie in to bat, down by one in the 9th. Moss proceeds to homer to right to tie the game! I'll shut up now. J.D. Drew for President.
8.58 am: Now Francona is getting serious, Okajima is up in the 'pen. Varitek strikes out for the 3rd time, to go along with his GIDP for a nice 0-4 performance. The three swings he took against Street were all on pitches out of the zone. He should know better.
9.00 am: Ellsbury flies out to left to end the top of the 9th. He's gotta be hurt... either that or he swings the bat like a girl. No offense to girls, it's just a fact.
9.02 am: Okajima comes in to a roaring ovation, and I've had my first wardrobe change. Now donning my vintage Nomar Garciaparra t-shirt jersey and my Sox cap. I figure all the luck I can find here is optimal.
9.04 am: Ok, Steve and Gary, I get it. Kurt Suzuki (A's catcher) has Japanese grandparents. That's great. My grandfather is Armenian, but I don't feel the need to tell people every five minutes, ok?
9.06 am: Mike Sweeney still plays baseball? Good for him. I just hope his arms fall off right about.......... now. Oh he eventually walked by the way.
9.08 am: ESPN, seriously, cut the shit and stop showing the scoreboard. I don't speak Japanese, and I'm willing to bet that 98% of your viewing audience doesn't either. Don't make me come over there.
9.10 am: Travis Buck crushes a loud out to dead center. That ball's to left or right and it's a walk-off homer. Yikes.
9.14 am: Okajima gets Ellis on a soft tapper back to the mound... We're going to extras, kids.
9.18 am: Julio Lugo beats out an infield hit to 3rd. Let's see if Francona will give up the out and sac bunt Lugo to 2nd...
9.19 am: Great bunt by Pedroia! Lugo to 2nd, one away. I love small ball, absolutely love it. Now you've got Youkilis and Ortiz coming up with a speedy runner on 2nd. Perfect.
9.22 am: Youk chases a bad pitch to go down on strikes, and the A's choose to walk Ortiz (0 for 4) to go after Manny (1 for 4 with 2 rbi). I don't get it.
9.23 am: HA! Street almost threw away two of the intentional walk pitches. Oh man, that was great!
9.24 am: Manny crushes a 2 run double to dead center! 6-4 Sox! That's 4 rbi for Manny on the day, a notorious slow starter. I think he might have been serious about that whole 600 home run thing. Street is toast, and now being pulled one batter too late. I'm convinced I could be a better in-game manager than half of these monkeys in the majors. C'mon, someone give me a shot.
9.31 am: Lenny DiNardo! Holy shit! The A's are like a clearing house for washed up Red Sox pitchers! Embree, Foulke, now DiNardo! This is amazing. I really almost peed my pants a second ago (Cut me some slack on that one. I haven't had a break in a while).
9.33 am: Moss flies out to end the inning, Papelbon is on his way into the game... Knock on wood, but I think this one is over.
9.35 am: No more incontinence worries, took care of that over the inning break, though I can't really see straight anymore. I got about 3 hours of sleep and I've been blogging for almost 4 hours now... If I ever needed some caffeine, it's now.
9.43 am: After walking the lead-off man, Papelbon embarrasses poor Jack Cust, who goes 0-4 with 4 strike outs. Papelbon proceeds to give up an rbi double to Emil Brown who then runs himself into an out trying to get to 3rd, even though he would've been in scoring position at 2nd. Stupid mistake, very stupid. He could cost his team the game.
9.47 am: Papelbon gives up 2 singles, then gets Kurt Suzuki (whose grandparents are from Japan by the way) to ground out to first to end it. Sox win 6-5 in 10 innings. Way too jittery ending for Papelbon, but it was a big game and new experience for him, and really everyone involved, so I'll take it. P.S.- Thank God for Emil Brown’s brain fart a few minutes ago, and I’m sorry to Sox fans everywhere for almost jinxing that one.
Well, that concludes the Opening Day MitCoBL Liveblogging experience. If you've made it this far down, I really appreciate you investing your time in reading all this drivel, I hope it was good for at least a few laughs. I promise that I'll get back to regular blogging, I owe my few readers an explanation for my absence.
11 March 2008
04 March 2008
Some thoughts from the world of sports:
- On Saturday C and I drove down to Baltimore for the 2nd Face-Off Classic, which consists of two college lacrosse games played by four of the best teams in the country. We watched Syracuse and Virginia battle it out in an overtime thriller, won by Virginia 14-13 after a back and forth overtime period. And the second game featured #1 and defending national champs Johns Hopkins beat the holy hell out of Princeton 14-9. The score is not indicative of how close the game was, JH was up 10-1 at halftime and took their foot off the gas in the second half. Two observations: Virginia's Bratton twins are the real deal. They came in on the same midfield line and hooked up for a great goal mid way through the 2nd that was an absolute thing of beauty. I'm predicting four productive years for them down at UVA. And I've never seen someone dominate a game in person like Paul Rabil did for JH: Three goals and four assists, and it didn't even look like he was trying that hard either.
- Patriots re-sign Randy Moss for three years, at $9 million per, $15 million guaranteed, $12 million dollar signing bonus. My reaction? What the hell took so long? Let's just see if we can piss off Tom Brady and weaken the team a little more next time, ok Bill?
- Bruins lose 10-2 to the Washington Capitals, and Alex Ovechkin scored three goals in the first period. For such a good defensive team, this is just embarrassing. Even if they do make the playoffs, they're going to get killed. I guess it could be worse... they could be the Buffalo Sabres. Let's just get to free agency and sign Marian Hossa and call it a day.
- Update from this season's sign of the apocalypse,
Bartolo Colon is close to making the Red Sox pitching rotation.
God help us all.
- On Saturday C and I drove down to Baltimore for the 2nd Face-Off Classic, which consists of two college lacrosse games played by four of the best teams in the country. We watched Syracuse and Virginia battle it out in an overtime thriller, won by Virginia 14-13 after a back and forth overtime period. And the second game featured #1 and defending national champs Johns Hopkins beat the holy hell out of Princeton 14-9. The score is not indicative of how close the game was, JH was up 10-1 at halftime and took their foot off the gas in the second half. Two observations: Virginia's Bratton twins are the real deal. They came in on the same midfield line and hooked up for a great goal mid way through the 2nd that was an absolute thing of beauty. I'm predicting four productive years for them down at UVA. And I've never seen someone dominate a game in person like Paul Rabil did for JH: Three goals and four assists, and it didn't even look like he was trying that hard either.
- Patriots re-sign Randy Moss for three years, at $9 million per, $15 million guaranteed, $12 million dollar signing bonus. My reaction? What the hell took so long? Let's just see if we can piss off Tom Brady and weaken the team a little more next time, ok Bill?
- Bruins lose 10-2 to the Washington Capitals, and Alex Ovechkin scored three goals in the first period. For such a good defensive team, this is just embarrassing. Even if they do make the playoffs, they're going to get killed. I guess it could be worse... they could be the Buffalo Sabres. Let's just get to free agency and sign Marian Hossa and call it a day.
- Update from this season's sign of the apocalypse,
Bartolo Colon is close to making the Red Sox pitching rotation.
God help us all.
03 March 2008
So here I am in grad school... and this week, I've never felt more like I didn't belong. But as I sit here in class discussing, I find out that I'm not the only one. Let me explain:
For my Soviet history course this week we were assigned From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics by Slava Gerovitch. Let the record show that I read all 303 pages of this book... and was lost by page 40. One may ask, why would a Russian history professor assign a book about Soviet science, involving little to no history. Don't be fooled by the title, if you aren't a trained scientist, you have no hope of understanding this book. Hell, you may even have problems if you are a scientist, it's that confusing. As I sit here in class, not a one of us has a single decent thing to say about this monstrosity. I had to look up too many words in this thing to count them all, and even then, I had no idea what some of the words in the definitions meant! Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, I'm just wicked frustrated...
Update: Class tonight was a bullshit waste of my time. The professor called us all out for not understanding the reading like it was our fault... I hate grad school. If you're thinking about it, just don't. It's the world's most expensive book club.
For my Soviet history course this week we were assigned From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics by Slava Gerovitch. Let the record show that I read all 303 pages of this book... and was lost by page 40. One may ask, why would a Russian history professor assign a book about Soviet science, involving little to no history. Don't be fooled by the title, if you aren't a trained scientist, you have no hope of understanding this book. Hell, you may even have problems if you are a scientist, it's that confusing. As I sit here in class, not a one of us has a single decent thing to say about this monstrosity. I had to look up too many words in this thing to count them all, and even then, I had no idea what some of the words in the definitions meant! Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, I'm just wicked frustrated...
Update: Class tonight was a bullshit waste of my time. The professor called us all out for not understanding the reading like it was our fault... I hate grad school. If you're thinking about it, just don't. It's the world's most expensive book club.
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