Monday, March 29, 2010
Move, shmove
The switch to Blogspot was merely a temporary change, required so I could switch to WordPress (because of Blogger deprecating their FTP service). Baseball-Related Program Activities remains at baseballrelated.com, and this is the correct location for the RSS feed: http://www.baseballrelated.com/?feed=rss2.
Labels: admin
Sunday, March 28, 2010
This blog has moved
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Recent baseball dreams
The following are all baseball-related dreams I've had in the past month. Seriously: the past month--a month in which there has been no baseball.
1 The Cardinals won the 2009 World Series. For some reason, I watched it all at Chuck E. Cheese. When I woke up, I was really happy for nearly a minute before realizing it was a dream; at that point, I began to ponder whether a world championship would really be worth sitting in Chuck E. Cheese for upwards of 20 hours.
2 I was watching the 1982 World Series. In the top of the first inning, Andy Van Slyke--who, my waking self knows, was not on that team--hit a double. He had long braids dangling beyond the back of his helmet, like many a football lineman. In the bottom of the first inning, the first two Brewers made outs, and then their third hitter came to the plate . . . and he was Darth Vader. Vader's a lefty, and--I hate to say this about one of the universe's greatest villains, but he's got a sweet stroke. He hit a double, and as he slid into second, his cape flew behind him beautifully.
3 The Cardinals were having trouble re-signing Jason LaRue. This was one of those dreams that you forget about until reality reminds you: I read an article the next day about the Cards re-signing LaRue, and for a moment I was perplexed. Then the wisps of dream came back to me--and made me feel like the lamest person in the universe. I mean, the dude's facial hair and hygiene are nothing less than wonders of the universe, but what it boils down to is the sad fact that I had a dream about the contract status of a backup catcher. I swear my life is better and more fulfilling than that fact would make you think.
And this is all without even getting into the dream I had about Vinegar Joe Lieberman Sunday night!
1 The Cardinals won the 2009 World Series. For some reason, I watched it all at Chuck E. Cheese. When I woke up, I was really happy for nearly a minute before realizing it was a dream; at that point, I began to ponder whether a world championship would really be worth sitting in Chuck E. Cheese for upwards of 20 hours.
2 I was watching the 1982 World Series. In the top of the first inning, Andy Van Slyke--who, my waking self knows, was not on that team--hit a double. He had long braids dangling beyond the back of his helmet, like many a football lineman. In the bottom of the first inning, the first two Brewers made outs, and then their third hitter came to the plate . . . and he was Darth Vader. Vader's a lefty, and--I hate to say this about one of the universe's greatest villains, but he's got a sweet stroke. He hit a double, and as he slid into second, his cape flew behind him beautifully.
3 The Cardinals were having trouble re-signing Jason LaRue. This was one of those dreams that you forget about until reality reminds you: I read an article the next day about the Cards re-signing LaRue, and for a moment I was perplexed. Then the wisps of dream came back to me--and made me feel like the lamest person in the universe. I mean, the dude's facial hair and hygiene are nothing less than wonders of the universe, but what it boils down to is the sad fact that I had a dream about the contract status of a backup catcher. I swear my life is better and more fulfilling than that fact would make you think.
And this is all without even getting into the dream I had about Vinegar Joe Lieberman Sunday night!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Ichiro!
{Photo of an Ichiro mouse on a kleenex box in Japan taken by rocketlass.}
From a New York Times article about Ichiro's nine straight 200-hit seasons comes this quote:
"Chicks who dig home runs aren’t the ones who appeal to me,” he said. “I think there’s sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I’d rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.”Two questions:
1. How can anyone not love Ichiro?
2. What on earth must it be like to be his translator?
Labels: ichiro suzuki
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Perfection
Mark Buehrle's perfect game today is the first to occur since a few months before our road trip, which I note is coming up on its 5th anniversary. Of course I'm sorry it came against the Rays, but we like Buehrle here at baseballrelated.com.
Labels: devil rays, mark buehrle, white sox
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
One would expect the Cardinals, Orioles, or Blue Jays to tweet, but...
Joe Maddon is apparently the only MLB manager on Twitter, as @RaysJoeMaddon. His tweets can be a bit obtuse and incoherent...kind of like the Rays' offensive strategies. Ha ha!
And here's a sentence I never, ever thought I'd use: I learned about this from Alyssa Milano.
And here's a sentence I never, ever thought I'd use: I learned about this from Alyssa Milano.
Labels: alyssa milano, devil rays, joe maddon, twitter
Monday, May 11, 2009
Both L.A. teams in one day
Longtime fans of Baseball-Related Program Activities may remember that, on August 30, 2004, Levi and I went to two baseball games in two cities in one day: White Sox vs. Phillies in Chicago, and then Brewers vs. Pirates in Milwaukee.
We finally had a chance to recreate that experience. Levi came to Los Angeles for business, and both the Dodgers and Angels were at home, and on May 9, the Dodgers were scheduled for an afternoon game, with the Angels playing at night.
The only thing that put a damper on the experience was Manny Ramirez being suspended for 50 games just three days before we were going to see him.
What Levi, I, and hanger-on Jason did end up seeing was the Dodgers defeating the Giants 8-0, followed by the Angels over the Royals, 1-0. Yes, we saw no visiting team runs. We also saw complete games by three pitchers -- Eric Stults of the Dodgers, Joe Saunders of the Angels, and Zack Greinke of the Royals. Greinke entered the game with a 0.40 ERA, which meant that his ERA went up after pitching a 1-run complete game, which is almost as rare of an event as the Dodgers and Angels both playing at home the same weekend. The Angels game finished in 2:07 -- not quite as short as the 1:56 Indians-White Sox game on our road trip, but impressive nonetheless.
(Special shout-outs to Maggie, Kimiko, and Kate for being hangers-on for the first game.)
There have already been plenty of Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium pictures on this blog over the years, so all you get here is a picture of Greinke looking intense during his warmup:
We finally had a chance to recreate that experience. Levi came to Los Angeles for business, and both the Dodgers and Angels were at home, and on May 9, the Dodgers were scheduled for an afternoon game, with the Angels playing at night.
The only thing that put a damper on the experience was Manny Ramirez being suspended for 50 games just three days before we were going to see him.
What Levi, I, and hanger-on Jason did end up seeing was the Dodgers defeating the Giants 8-0, followed by the Angels over the Royals, 1-0. Yes, we saw no visiting team runs. We also saw complete games by three pitchers -- Eric Stults of the Dodgers, Joe Saunders of the Angels, and Zack Greinke of the Royals. Greinke entered the game with a 0.40 ERA, which meant that his ERA went up after pitching a 1-run complete game, which is almost as rare of an event as the Dodgers and Angels both playing at home the same weekend. The Angels game finished in 2:07 -- not quite as short as the 1:56 Indians-White Sox game on our road trip, but impressive nonetheless.
(Special shout-outs to Maggie, Kimiko, and Kate for being hangers-on for the first game.)
There have already been plenty of Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium pictures on this blog over the years, so all you get here is a picture of Greinke looking intense during his warmup:
Labels: angel stadium, angels, dodger stadium, dodgers, eric stults, game report, giants, joe saunders, Manny Ramirez, royals, zack greinke
