Thursday, May 29, 2008

 

The Angels made me sick!

Levi was in town on business, and so were the Angels, which meant it was time for the first official Baseball-Related Program Activities event since the 2004 road trip. The hangers-on were Jason, and Levi's co-worker Carrie.



When Edison International dropped their sponsorship of the stadium in Anaheim, their logos on the end of the seats were covered over -- but you can't stop people from scratching paint off, I guess.



Jim Leyland showed up himself to exchange lineup cards, but Mike Scoscia sent a lackey...



It had been announced earlier in the day that Anaheim would be hosting the 2010 All-Star Game...



My new camera is noticeably faster to actually take the picture once you press the shutter button than my old one was -- making it easier to get shots like this...



Early mound meeting, since Angels pitcher Joe Saunders had given up three runs in the first inning...



They kept having to reset this video display in order to fix this problem...



The Amtrak noise meter, because nothing is as noisy as a train...



The rally monkey was invoked a little late, and so the Angels lost 6-2...



The final line (not quite final at this point, but I was anticipating)...



And finally, a picture to replace the one that's been at the top of this blog since 2004, which I was sick of looking at...



No, the Angels didn't literally make me sick. There was a stomach bug involved. For you fans of Jim Ellwanger illnesses that coincide with baseball games, I also had a stomach bug right around the time I traveled to Chicago and attended Opening Day 1997 at Wrigley Field -- I spent an entire day lying on the floor of the dorm room of Levi's future wife.

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Monday, May 26, 2008

 

Rays awesomeness update

After a series sweep of the Orioles, the Rays are again alone in first place in the AL East. Their .600 winning percentage (30-20) is the best in the American League, and is tied with the Diamondbacks for best in baseball.

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

 

Goodbye!

Here's the cover of the May 26 issue of Sports Illustrated...



At first, I thought I was looking at some major mistakes in the artwork, but then I realized, no, the action depicted is taking place in Bizarro World. (That was a little less clear on my subscription copy, which has the address label printed over the bizarro advertising in the lower right corner.)

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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

 

When it says baseball, baseball, baseball on the label, label, label

I've taken advantage of some downtime at work and gone back through the history of baseballrelated.com to add labels (or, as the kids call them, "tags") to all the posts. Now you can easily read all the posts here that contain some content related to Johnny Damon -- including this one!

Only eight days until Levi and I see a baseball game together for the first time since the trip in August 2004.

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Sunday, May 18, 2008

 

The Searchers

I noticed today that around a dozen people had been led to my other blog this weekend by searching for "Jason Giambi thong." So, steeling myself against the hideous assortment of possible discoveries that flitted through my clearly too-active mind, I plugged those terms into {a popular search engine that may or may not employ Jim} and discovered . . . this.

Apparently Giambi is the owner of a gold lame thong, which he dons when he feels the need for some supernatural help in breaking a slump. But that's not the worst of it: he also has on occasion lent this thong to teammates who felt a similar need! Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon have both admitted to wearing it. Jeter told the Daily News,
"I had it over my shorts and stuff. I was 0-for-32 and I hit a homer on the first pitch. That's the only time I've ever worn it."
{Editorial note: wouldn't you have expected "and stuff" to be in brackets?}

I'll leave you with a hypothetical question for those Yankee fans out there: is winning worth this? Will you ever be able to sleep again, having pictured Jason Giambi in a gold thong? Would a quiet last-place finish really be so bad?

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

Almost as awesome as the Rays

Here's an online art exhibition, of illustrations of old-timey baseball players, entitled Stealing Signs: Dead-Ball Era Baseball; Memories from My Last Life, 1927. And here's an interview with the artist.

Unfortunately, this one is already sold, or I'd suggest it as something for the walls of the Rocketship (unless the walls are completely covered in books by now). There are a few other St. Louis players, though.

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Rays awesomeness watch (now a regular feature, apparently)

After yesterday's 2-1 win over the Yankees, the Rays are now alone in first place in the AL East. They're 7 games over .500 for the first time ever; they've now won 11 home games in a row.

In other news, we have an actual baseball-related program activity (the original rationale for this blog, remember?) coming two weeks from today: Levi will be in L.A. on business, but is taking time out so we can see the Angels play the Tigers in Anaheim. He's been here a few times for his job, but this is the first time he's going to make it to a baseball game.

Can we look back at posts like this one and laugh yet?

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

 

And you thought those those scenes of Charlie Brown's clothes flying off were exaggerated

A ball from Jeff Bennett nearly takes off Jason Michaels's vest. Video on Flickr.

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Thursday, May 08, 2008

 

What are the odds? Let's find out

During the Dodgers' 12-1 loss yesterday to the Mets, the only interesting thing to happen to the home fans was that two of them in adjacent seats caught consecutive foul balls.

And I could have been there -- someone at my office sent out an e-mail saying she had 10 free tickets available, first come first serve. But it was a rare weekday day game, and I didn't think my boss would appreciate me taking a 3-hour lunch. (I'm definitely glad I didn't fake appendicitis for a 12-1 game. I probably wouldn't have caught a foul ball, either.)

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