I hate to say it, because for the entire regular season and first three rounds of the playoffs, it just wasn't true. But the better team won the Stanley Cup last night. Vancouver was surprisingly lackluster all around. Nobody was outright terrible, but nobody was outright good either. The could not be said for Boston, who played an all-around solid game, and Tim Thomas was, well, Tim Thomas. The man is a stud through-and-through. On a related note, is Vancouver officially the Detroit of Canada? Detroit isn't really embraced by other big, "traditional" cities in America, just like it sounds (going from sportswriters here, so I could be totally off) Vancouver is somewhat snubbed by Toronto and Montreal. Plus, they burn the fucker down every time there's a big event, win or lose. See also: Detroit. That seems to be the more salient point. Rioting aside, my heart really goes out to Vancouver. I know I'm not the only one that really thought this was the year. Didn't watch baseball last night because of hockey, but Pittsburgh did climb above .500 for first time in June since 1999. I think they have another one with Houston, so maybe they can start building a cushion to stay above. I don't have much else to write here today, I'm deep in the thick of house hunting. We thought we had a place, but then it turns out we were looking at the wrong address. The right place was. . .well, not great. The price made a lot more sense then. Thought we had a second place, but it was in Wingate (pop. 300ish?), which turns out means no DSL. There were other issues, too, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. But, a Wabash professor came through with a beauty of a place at the right price, so now we're working with him. Wish us luck! A pretty rockin' day for baseball teams I follow. The Cubbies beat the formerly red-hot Brewers for the second day in a row. The Cardinals couldn't capitalize and choked away a game to the Nationals, leaving the tie at the top intact. The Pirates beat the Astros to climb back to .500. They've still got a couple games to play with the Astros, who you may have gathered are not very good this year, giving Pittsburgh a great chance to climb above .500. I have no idea the last time they were on the winning side this late in the season. Maybe 1992. I really think this is the year they bust through. In lower leagues, the Dans won last night in a great 3-0 game. Great pitching on both sides, DeKalb played some spectacular defense, and just enough offense. Really, that was everything I could ask for in a baseball game. Chicks might dig the long ball, but give me web gems any day. Originally I just had a link to the old commercial, but that didn't feel like I was doing it justice. Here's Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine's greatest acting achievement in all its glory. It's kind of funny in hindsight with all the McGwuire love going on to start the commercial. Other than that, though, this is one campaign that has stood the test of time. Thumbs up!
Now, as far as this proposed realignment scheme for MLB: it sucks. I've outlined my views on what the MLB ought to do for realignment in an earlier post. This new scheme, as I understand it, is basically the exact opposite of everything I would want to do. Here it is in a nutshell,* at least as I understand it. Forget about divisions, we'll just lump everybody into two leagues and take the top five from each to make the playoffs. On top of that, let's take the Astros (or somebody that would make some sort of sense in the AL West) and move them to the American League, so each as 15 teams. *I can never really talk about putting something in a nutshell without thinking of Shakespeare. "Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space. . ." I'm not a Shakespeare guy, but Hamlet probably would be a favorite, and that would definitely be my favorite line of the play. On paper, well, I see the logic behind it. But I hate it. First of all, this would expand interleague play, which it seems the majority of baseball people (at least the majority of people I know and hear on TV) seem to feel is played out, stale, and downright forced. I know I'm on that side of the fence. It only makes sense in about three cases: Cubs-White Sox, Yankees-Mets, and Giants-A's. And frankly, at least the Cubs, Yankees, and Giants have much better rivalries in their respective leagues (Cardinals, Red Sox, and Dodgers, respectively, for those not in the know). Everybody else just feels. . .artificial, I guess is the word I'm looking for. Having an odd number of teams in each league would mean somebody is playing an interleague series every day. And that is awful, awful, awful. Now, about scrapping, or at least greatly de-emphasizing divisions.* If somebody were to ask what pro leagues have the worst, or at least most meaningless, regular season? The answer would almost universally be the NBA and NHL. And why is that? Because people feel it takes far too long to determine which teams will have the top eight records in each conference. Because there are way too many teams (over half!) that make the playoffs. And I totally buy all those arguments. Now, this proposed realignment would make baseball in almost the exact same mold as basketball and hockey. Those leagues do have divisions, but they are essentially meaningless. They somewhat matter for seeding, but typically it's no major advantage. Can you even name the divisions of the NBA? Probably not, and you'd probably have a hard time pegging some teams to the right division. Because they don't mean a thing. Whereas most people would be able to peg baseball or football teams to their division, because they mean quite a bit. Baseball's divisions make more sense geographically than football's (Indy in the south? Cincy in the north?), but football's divisions definitely matter. *You know, even beyond the Wild Card, which I used to like, but have turned against in recent years for precisely this reason. See that earlier post I talked about. I've also heard some sort of proposed "realign geographically" for this new scheme, and frankly, that makes no sense to me. As I just said, baseball is the king of divisions that actually give a damn about geography. I really don't understand what would change, as I think baseball's already got that as right as they possibly can. Now that I've sufficiently made myself sound like a stuffy old man that hates change, let me say Go Canucks! And that Timmy Thomas is the MVP (and probably the Vezina Trophy winner, though I'm not entirely sure when that's voted on. Doesn't matter.) either way. I'm pretty sure Vancouver's game didn't clear the border, because the Canucks looked downright awful in the first period last night. Roberto Luongo continued to be a complete mess outside of Canada in this series (maybe in these playoffs?) and got no help from his skaters. Sure, those three goals were soft, but the rest of the team can't let Boston keep the puck in the zone that long. I would've pulled Lu after the second goal, but that might not have been enough time for Cory Schneider to get ready. In any case, he looked much more solid in net, and that seemed to calm the rest of the team after a while. Not before Schneider gave up a semi-softy of his own, though. It was redirected pretty close to the net, so I don't want to make it sound like it was all that awful, but it was far enough out that I would've expected it to be stopped. The other goal was off a 5-on-3 Bruins power play, and, well, can you ever really blame the goalie with those odds? Vancouver didn't look so bad through the last two periods, but there was just no luck in the building for Canada last night. Missed chances, bouncing pucks, bad caroms off the post, nothing was really going right. They finally busted through for two late in the game, but obviously the damage was done by then. Oh, and, you know, there was the whole "Tim Thomas is a Net-Minding Genius" thing, too. There's talk of him winning the Conn Smythe Trophy (Playoffs MVP, for those not in the know) win or lose, and frankly, I don't have the first argument against it. The dude has been fucking brilliant, it's not his fault the Bruin skaters are as inept on the road as Luongo is. There is (predictably) a lot of talk about the short leash Robby Lu will be on for game seven, and it is deserved. That said, he has been an iron fortress in Vancouver. I say he gets it done on home ice, and the Stanley Cup returns to Canada for the first time in almost twenty years. And, yes, Thomas takes home hardware of his own and becomes the answer to trivia questions everywhere. In baseball news,* the Cubs beat the mighty Brewers, but the Cardinals were off yesterday, so now the Central is tied at the top. The Cubs remain irrelevant, of course. The Pirates beat the Mets to pull back to a game under .500. The biggest news, though, is the Derek Jeter Hit Counter is standing at 2,994 as of this morning. He's really getting close now, and of course, there's the tension of whether he'll do it at Yankee Stadium or not. *I know, I hear you. This site covers baseball? I thought the name was one of those ironic things, like where you call a big guy Tiny. There's only one more hockey game, then you'll get all the baseball you can handle. Or something like that. The odds already seemed stacked against him. The Yankees hit the road on Thursday, giving him three days to get six hits. That's a pretty tall order for anybody, especially an aging shortstop. After that they're on the the road for six games.* Three at Wrigley and three at Great American. While it would be kind of cool for a player like Jeter to get 3,000 in a stadium like Wrigley, it wouldn't feel right in the least for the first Yankee to get 3,000 (and every last one in pinstripes, mind you) outside of Yankee Stadium, and it would feel especially wrong for it to happen in a National League park.** *I feel dirty going to the Yankees' website to check that. **You may have heard the plan to totally restructure how Major League Baseball is played. I won't say anything yet, but I think I'll tackle that tomorrow. Complicating all of this is the story I read on ESPN that Jeter apparently managed to hurt himself last night. The article calls it a Grade 1 calf strain. I don't know which way grades go with strains, so I don't really know if that's a minor strain or a major one. I'm sure anything described as a strain can't be all that major, but apparently it's bad enough that it took him out of the game last night, and likely tonight as well. Maybe this will let the Yankees rest him on the road trip and let him try to break through the big milestone at home. Most likely against the Brewers or Rockies, which both feel wrong as well,* but I'm sure that will be forgotten if it's at home. *The Brewers would feel slightly less wrong because they spent so long as an American League team, but I would really, really hope they would wear some AL-Era throwbacks to really complete the effect. Those should be their regular jerseys anyway. I mean, come on, don't these look so much cooler than these? Certainly less corporate. I'll be watching the Dans tonight and waiting to hear a call about a house Kristine will be looking at this evening. Keep your fingers crossed about the house, and maybe for the Dans, too. They got off to a good start, but are sitting at 3-6 now. It's DeKalb tonight, though, and they're sitting at 4-6. Should be a good game. And how can it go bad with $2 tickets, dogs, and drinks? Sounds like a good night to me. You see the guy holding up the finger on the left? That's none other than Purdue's own Brian Cardinal, World Champion. My mom usually says he's her favorite Boiler of all time, and he definitely got the most out of not a ton talent. But the dude worked his ass off, hard enough to kick around the NBA for over a decade now and gets his reward. Congrats, Brian. You've made a lot of Purdue fans very happy for a long time now, and every Boiler fan I know is very pleased to see you play some small part in this. Anyway, a few bits of housekeeping. I had a lot going on this weekend, so I didn't get to watch too much. I did watch Vancouver turn in another brilliant 1-0 win over Boston. The game was Friday night, but I watched it Saturday morning before I had lunch with my dad. Great, great game, not nearly so chippy as the games in Boston, just great hockey played by two great hockey teams. I'm pulling for Vancouver, but I want to take nothing away from Boston. Tim Thomas is the most entertaining goalie today. Maybe ever. I really can't wait to watch the game tonight and see if Vancouver can put it away. You may have also noticed today's post is pretty late today. A few reasons for this, and a not-insignificant part of that was Grantland. For those not in the know, that's Bill Simmons new project, and ESPN-backed site that's not ESPN. No ESPN branding anywhere on the site, but their money makes it runs. Simmons just took some writers he deemed worthy and let them do their thing. It's taken up a lot of my time. Today (predictably, maybe), there was an excellent article about The National Sports Daily. I've seen a few pieces on that ill-fated paper lately. I don't remember as it happened, as it was dead when I was five. But, the idea fascinates me. After reading through the article, though (highly recommended, if you can't tell), it occurred to me that the very technology that would make the idea feasible is the exact reason why it would never work. To very briefly summarize, The National had a veritable All-Star staff of writers and editors, backed by a virtually limitless money supply from a Mexican (multi?) billionaire. All that was great, but there was no business plan, and it seems everything was tried too quickly. Instead of buying pressed, they contracted out time on existing pressed around the nation. Sounds like a good plan, but they had their own schedules that didn't necessarily jive with The National's. Same for actually delivering the papers. That was bad, but even worse, the technology being used was a (at the time) virtually untested and definitely unproven satellite link where a rain storm might mean there was no paper to printed, because they couldn't transmit or receive data. They were also using very slow (and apparently also unreliable) dial up modems which hampered progress on all ends. While it wouldn't necessarily fix the circulation and printing issues, having modern broadband would virtually eliminate all the data issues the paper had, which in turn would get the paper to the printers in a much more time-friendly fashion, which in turn very well may have eased many of the circulation issues. But, we've seen the other side of that coin. With information moving so quickly and so freely, newspapers and magazines are on life support. Information is cheap these days. And, maybe more than that, access to information is cheap. I haven't picked up a newspaper for news since I was in high school, at least. Columnists, maybe, but not news. I also haven't watched a TV news program for any reason other than to wait until it's over for whatever programming is following it. Why? Because of the internet. The same thing that made information available for the newspaper made the information available for the rest of us, which in many cases made the newspaper obsolete. The newspaper is still the best source for high school and small college sports, along with other local news, but on a national scale? We can get the same (or better) information much quicker and cheaper online. I'm not exactly enthused about this. Do I take advantage of having virtually instant information available on, say, espn.com or si.com? I would say I abuse it, checking each several times a day. The convenience is just too much to ignore. The problem (which crops up surprisingly rarely) is knowing what information to go by. Because information is easy and cheap, that means that a lot of it is complete crap. True, that has always been a problem, but when we had newspapers (and even televised news outlets, although to maybe a lesser degree) acting as gatekeepers with paid reporters who could check their facts, it kept a lot of rumor from being reported as fact. Which is good, because we all know that most rumors lead to no good. All that is a bit off the point, but I felt it needed to be said. The bigger idea, though, is widely available internet killed any need for The National. True, there could have been an online version, and apparently one was planned. But the Internet has proven to be an awful money-maker. It seems very telling that the only companies reliably making money solely online are ones that are more or less traditional shops (for example, Amazon or New Egg). There are fantastic ideas out there that generate buzz and attract investors for a while, but then fall out favor and leave everybody in tears. Or they attract advertisers that never make any money, so then those dollars dry up. If there was another way of making money on information on the internet, I would think that scheme would be worked out by now. Pay-walling things seems to be the closest anybody has come (for example, ESPN Insider), but those typically are either broken or people move on to free information. I'm sure ESPN wouldn't be able to maintain nearly the web presence they do without the money they make off their TV channels. Same is true for Sports Illustrated without their magazine revenue.* *This, of course, has me a bit worried after seeing the fate of other print media. I am somewhat more confident in Sports Illustrated, though, because 1) it's kind of like the New York Times of sports media, and 2) it has Ted Turner money behind it. Could a revived The National work? Maybe. It might even work with the crazy subcontracted printing press/delivery scheme they had cooked up before. But, you would have to print some very regionalized editions,* maybe five or six different regions with stories and covers at least somewhat oriented to that region. At that point, though, it's not really The National, is it? It seems, on top of all the issues outline above in the story, the United States is just too damn big for a national sports paper. In the Grantland story, the billionaire says they work in Mexico and Italy, as examples. England, too.** These countries are quite a bit smaller, and certainly more compact, and the United States. We're the fourth biggest nation both by land area and population. In this case, it seems the land area would be more important. Canada isn't so big by population, but I have a hard time seeing a national paper covering all of Canadian sports daily from sea to shining sea. *Sports Illustrated sometimes does this with covers, and it's typically a hit. Though I'm not entirely happy that the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup merited just a regional cover. **I believe they actually said English in the article, so I'm not sure if that really meant England, or the whole United Kingdom. In either case, though, the point stands. I am still fascinated by the idea of The National, and at the time, would have jumped at that chance to write/work there hard enough to injure myself. If somebody were to revive the idea and offered me a chance, well, I would probably take it, but with quite a bit of hesitation. If, say, Grantland or another online presence wanted me, I would be more enthusiastic about it, though I would still harbor some trepidation just because of the internet's proven ability to sustain information outlets. Which, again, is basically nil. A print version, though, stands no chance. Video killed the radio star indeed. Today, I embark on my 25th year. I spent the last day of the first quarter of my life* dressed like this. If the ten-year-old me had any dreams that weren't crushed at this point, this is probably the nail in the coffin. Plus, the Dans lost (in a good game, though). In a more positive light, I did win Pineapple Bowling, which I'm informed by the Dans' website there is video footage. I'll make it available here as soon as possible. * Optimistic, I know. But it keeps me slightly more upbeat and the math is whole lot easier this way. I’m not typically one to be phased by getting older. I chalk this up to life’s been good to me. I’ve generally met my goals, I’ve got a great relationship, great friends. Getting older is no big deal when every year brings great things. A lot of this, in my theorizing, is a lack of structure. I was good at school. Was I a Straight-A student? No, but my grades were pretty darned good in high school. Not as good in college, but still pretty solid. Could I have been a 4.0 student? Well, maybe not quite, because my math skills were lacking, but a 3.9 or something like that wasn’t out of the question. I’ve been followed basically my entire life for not living up to potential. That was the line on me. And I admit it. During school, I maybe gave a 75% effort. Maybe. I definitely turned on the cruise control and coasted through. And I got good grades. It was hard for me to work harder when I was getting results I was happy with. Is it the best life philosophy? No, and I would be the first to admit that. But it got me by and let me focus on things that were more fun to me. I knew the structure of high school would take care of me if I took care of it, so I didn’t have to give a full measure. And it did. I got into my school of choice.* And I trusted the structure of college. I had to give more of an effort, but my general philosophy was the same. If I had to do it again, I really wouldn’t change much, either. I was an awkward and frankly socially inept high schooler. Wabash afforded me so many opportunities, and I was able to become a leader in multiple clubs and capacities. It made the high school version of me unrecognizable, and that was sorely needed. And would have impossible without the reliability of the structure of the ivory tower. *Wabash was the only school I applied to. I didn’t have a back up plan in the least. I knew I wanted to be a Little Giant, and thankfully, they took me. The world outside academia, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to work this way. I don’t want to profess to be an expert on how all this works, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be writing this. But it sure seems that the business world loves its inertia, which is not great for somebody starting off like me. I don’t completely hate my job, but it’s damned unfulfilling. I feel I’ve got a hell of a lot more to offer the world than to sit here and answer phone calls to fix signs all day. I’m so frustrated that I don’t have a job that gives me a position to be more of a mover and shaker, but the business world doesn’t move that quickly. It takes years to get that kind of position, and it seems the best (or at least quickest) way to climb into that position is to jump to different companies, grasping for a little higher rung on the ladder each time. This seems like an awfully risky way to go about things, and something that ought to be avoided if there were a better structure to reward people* who come in and, to put it plainly, get shit done every day. * Bonuses are nice, but they’re really not a substantial reward in the scheme of things, you know? Maybe I just have problems not being a leader after getting a taste of it in college. Implanted that entrepreneurial spirit in me that’s being ignored. I don’t know. But this feeling of being so stuck and not really knowing how to break out of it leaves me feeling rudderless, and I’m not dealing with it well. It seems that something I give roughly half (maybe more) of my waking hours at least five days a week should have a little more meaning to my life, but I sure can’t find that meaning. It just leaves me frustrated and sad. All of this adds up to a not particularly happy birthday. Not completely joyless, mind you. Like I said, life is still generally good. But I’m ripe for an existential crisis, and by God am I ever in one. Wikipedia helpfully points out these crises can be “provoked by a significant event in the person's life — marriage, separation, major loss, . . . reaching a personally-significant age (turning 20, turning 30, turning 40, etc.).” It also talks about a sense of isolation can bring these feelings on. Well, as has been mentioned, I turned 25 today. I’m getting married in a couple months.* There has been a string of deaths in the last year or two in the family.** My friends, great as they are, scattered out after college as college friends are wont to do, leaving me feeling pretty lonely and isolated at times. Really, reading that article felt like reading a checklist of my current situation. *This is obviously something I’m very excited about, but it is a big change, and maybe more importantly in this context, another sign of not being the little kid I used to be. **Some of these have been in Kristine’s family, but we’ve been together long enough I consider them my family as well. Hopefully they feel the same. So, where to go from here. I’m hoping the “ignore a problem long enough until it goes away” strategy is relevant here, but something tells me it’s not. I don’t know, I haven’t gone through this before. I’m definitely reminded of this xkcd comic, though in my case, you can erase out the relationship part and just lengthen that career line. Now I just have to hope the end of that timeline is true. Though, if you happen to be in that area and you’re reading this blog, I probably also don’t necessarily need to hear about it. The Dans were pretty soundly beaten last night, though. 10-3. Hannibal had a stud pitcher that went 8 innings, and the guy in the 9th looked pretty darned good, too. Adding to that, Hannibal had all their players going high cuffed, and had some sweet looking stirrups on to boot. I have a picture on my phone, but it's recharging at the moment. So, that picture will be forthcoming. Look for it on tomorrow's Uni Watch, too. Hockey played last night, but my brother got a text message that said the Canucks were self-destructing, so I didn't watch the recording. The 4-0 score seems to sum it up, though. Now it's back to Vancouver. Surely they can get serious in Canada again. I don't have much else for today. I know it's been a light week. Tomorrow, though, I'm planning on writing a much lengthier post. Before I sign off for the day, two notes. First, the Cubs finally won a game. I'm sure the losing starts again tonight in Philly. And one of my former teammates and players was drafted yesterday by the Texas Rangers. Taylor Dennis, pitcher billed from Southern Indiana, was taken in the late rounds. Congrats, Taylor! You were the last shot I had to say I played with/knew a pro ball player. Another note, as I came back to post the picture. I checked up on the Terre Haute Rex, the team Danville plays tonight. Half of their team is from Indiana St.! That seems like it ought to be illegal, although judging from their record, it's not giving them any competitive advantage. There are few things that beat a great day at the old ballpark, and last night qualified. Two dollar tickets, two dollar hot dogs, two dollar beers, and witnessing an arrest for free. The Dans won 5-4 last night. They lead most of the game by three or four runs, but things got dicey in the 7th, when the Bombers pulled to within one. But, thankfully, the Dans seem to have a shut down closer. I unfortunately don't remember his name, but he's impressed me in the two games I've seen. The Dans go again tonight against the Hannibal Cavemen, and I plan on being there. The Cubs lost again last night, again by a margin of 8-2. Now, the Reds are a pretty good team, recent struggles and all. But, my goodness, this brings the Cubs tailspin to eight games in a row. Another date with Cincy in about two and a half hours (12:35 Eastern) with no reason to think things are turning around any time soon. And then it's on to Philly, where things most assuredly won't get any better. And then it's off to a really hot Milwaukee team, and the Yankees after that. Basically, I don't know if the Cubs are going to win another game in June. On a related note, I don't want to hear anybody say shit about Carlos Zambrano going off. I wish more of the guys would get pissed off. Maybe then they'd win a couple games. Thankfully Houston is even more inept than the Cubs, but I don't know how much longer we can count on that. Since the big club is a lost cause, I propose WGN and Comcast SportsNet start showing Daytona Cubs games instead. They're sitting at an excellent 42-16, plus they have this catcher named Brenley (sound familiar?) who isn't doing so badly. And the way the Chicago Cubs are playing now, well, I don't see where High-A ball would be any less entertaining. In the meantime, I'm going to keep going to Danville Stadium and watch a team I can somewhat count on to win.* Here's to seeing the Dans make another Prospect League championship, although it'll probably be in Chillocothe again, which doesn't sit well with me. More on that another day. *2-0 in games I've attended this year, 1-2 without me. I sense a trend. In sunnier MLB news, the Pittsburgh Pirates won again last night, bringing their record to 29-30. They've got two more games with Arizona, who isn't as good as their record would currently suggest. I (and a lot of Pittsburgh, I'm sure) really hope that means the D-Backs are due for a slump, leaving them prime for a sweep, and letting the Buccos see what it's like to having a winning record in June. Unfortunately, I don't believe they're on TV anywhere I can see them any time soon. I would probably watch more Pirates games than Cubs games if I had MLB Extra Innings (by DirecTV!). I've watched those players more first hand, I feel more of a connection with them, plus they're building a better, much more interesting narrative out of this season than the Cubbies. I hear the Mavs evened up the series with the Heat last night, too. Good for them! More importantly, Vancouver and Boston come back together tonight. I'll be recording the game, so nobody text me anything. I'm rooting for Vancouver, but I'm rooting even harder for a better game in all facets than last game. Last night's Stanley Cup game was hard to watch. No, not just because it was an 8-1 rout. That didn't hurt, but all the jawing and cheap hits really got in the way of a good game. Too much action after the whistle, too much "gamesmanship," too much jawing, etc. It's hockey, there is going to be hitting, and there should be hitting. Nothing fires up a crowd more than a sweet hit. But when the hits are taking precedence in the game, that's a problem. When things like this are happening, there are problems. Blind punches to the back of anybody's head, even somebody as hated in Boston as Alex Burrows, is just shameful. The taunting is one thing. Not my thing (at that point in the game, anyway), but a punch like that is just disgusting. I'm not an advocate for removing fighting from hockey, but that is not fighting. I'm not sure that's even a cheap shot. You don't like what Burrows did? There's plenty of room to punish him with hits or just fight him straight up. Don't sink to this sort of level. It's embarrassing for everybody. And as far as the hit on Nathan Horton: it's very unfortunate. If you didn't see it, here it is. The hit itself is bad enough, the aftermath was downright scary. Aaron Rome was tossed from the game, and that's fair. Was it really that dirty, though? It was well after the pass, and he lowered his shoulder a bit, but the bigger problem seemed to be that Horton wasn't paying attention. I wouldn't call it a blindside hit. The only reason it was blind was because Horton wasn't watching where he was going. You want to do everything possible to protect players and punish dirty hits, but there has to be some sort of responsibility on the skater to protect himself. You can't punish somebody for making a "blind" hit when the skater didn't bother to look to see where the other players were on the ice. I probably could write more about the Cubs getting demolished (again) and about how Mike Greenberg is so off-base about Zambrano being pissed off at losing, but frankly, I don't really feel up to it. My alma mater spurned me for a job without even giving me an interview, and I'm about eight kinds of hurt about it and don't really feel like doing any more than is necessary today. If you feel like you need to come by and cheer me up, I'll be at Danville Stadium tonight enjoying $2 Tuesday, and might need somebody to make sure I don't overindulge in the $2 beer. I just got an email that Purdue has an opening for an assistant SID. I would love to land that job. I can't really the main posting from my current location, but that's one I'll definitely check out later. Also, congrats to my soon-to-be brother-in-law on his high school graduation. Everybody's happy to see you make it through, and now you've got a chance to start over again. The Cubs, well, they didn't do that badly, but Albert Pujols reminded us that he might be the greatest hitter ever. At least the greatest power hitter ever. Sure, Ruth and Aaron might have had more, but I agree with Matt Holliday that I would walk Pujols to get to Ruth. No real question about it, and the past two days showed why. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, actually) I didn't get to see any of the games this weekend. Friday I was at Danville Stadium watching the Dans, and the next two days I was doing graduation stuff. A Stanley Cup update: Watching Vancouver and Boston duke this out has been off-the-charts. Last year's series was great, especially being a Blackhawks fan, but I would be the first to admit that the goalies left something to be desired on both ends. This series, though, with Luongo and Thomas in the net, has this series torqued up about three levels. Amazing save after amazing save on both ends has kept me riveted to these games. Vancouver was able to pull both games out so far. The last game went to overtime, but only about ten seconds into the extra period. Alex Burrows made a nifty move and put one into an essentially empty net. That was sweet, but maybe irking Bruins fans a little more, because as you might remember, Burrows was involved in a little biting incident which some felt warranted a suspension.* Was it good? No. But you have to wonder what the finger was doing in his mouth to start with. Plus, it's the finals. You have to really do something awful to get suspended, I think, and his finger will be just fine. I also don't think this blatant retaliation shot, while also bad, doesn't deserve any further discipline. It all evens out in the end. *For the record, I loved Henrik Sedin introducing Burrows as "The Vegetarian" during the game. Anyway, the teams go back at it tonight, 8:00 on Versus. I'll be glued to it, you should be, too. I'm also told the Heat won again last night. I continue to have little more than a passing interest. One last note. The Dans opener was awesome, and big props to the township on the fireworks display. I wasn't expecting anything nearly as cool as what they put on. Plus, the Dans won 9-8. The later innings were awesome. The earlier pitching was, um, sloppy, we'll say. But, a win's a win. I'll be back out there Thursday in the ugliest shirt I own. I have to say, I'm pretty pumped to go to the Dans game tonight. They play the Nashville Outlaws, who it feels like I've watched just about every time I've gone to Danville Stadium. I plan on making a lot more Dans games this year than I probably ever have before. Unless I find a new job that brings me back to Indiana.* In any case, it's usually a good time when it's an occasion to break out the bunting at the ball park. *If anybody of influence wants to tell Wabash that they're really missing out by not having me as an admissions officer, I would really appreciate it. Or even if you're not that influential. Every bit helps. I'm on record of not being the biggest fan of college baseball, and I stand by that. Summer (and wooden bat) league, though, is a whole different story. I'd be lying if I said I'd rather go to a Dans game than an Indy Indians game (and definitely a Cubs or Cards game), but I'm a big fan of summer college ball. It's the cream of the crop for college baseball for cheap, and it helps when you've got a historic place like Danville Stadium to watch it in. I may be in the minority, but I eat this old stadiums up. Danville Stadium and its ilk are ten times more interesting than a Victory Field or Great American Ballpark (to name two newer stadiums that I've been to and liked). I suppose that has something to do with the historian in me. Speaking of the historian in me, I'm going to get pretty serious about writing a couple history books, I think. First, I've been thinking for a long time about writing a book about the history of the Pacers and their relationship with Indianapolis. I haven't really done any of the research yet, but my sense of it was the Pacers came into being about the same time that Indianapolis was trying to become a major American city. It was already known, obviously, because of the 500, but having the Pacers (and their success in the ABA) made Indy a major league city. I don't think the Colts would have ever happened without the Pacers. Plus, it seems people have already forgotten that the Pacers owned the city for a long time, basically until Peyton Manning got here. I just don't think that's appreciate like it should be. So, yes, I would love to write that book, and I think I'm going to do as much as I can on straight research, and then seeing what sort of interviews can be arranged. I'd also like to write a book about historic ballparks, but all the travel that would be involved in that would be a full-time job. Put that one on the back burner. Anyway, everybody enjoy your Friday. I'm going to be busy with my soon-to-be brother-in-law's high school graduation, so I'll have to record Game 2 for the Stanley Cup tomorrow, I think. Plus, Cubs-Cards Round 2 starts tonight. Hopefully it goes better than the first time. |
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