Tag Archives: baseball

Politics, Sports

Love and Loathe

The calendar has turned the page to November, tonight we set our clocks back an hour, and we’ve just come off our first freeze in Da Lou.  I both love and loathe this time of year.

October is filled with post-season baseball, something I start looking forward to every spring.  This year, once again, the Cardinals were in the hunt, but once again, came up short.  And while that was tough to watch, it was just as tough to watch the Royals go down in the World Series, especially to San Francisco.  It’s easy for me to root for an underdog, and Kansas City certainly fit the bill of carrying the Cinderella card this year.  It just wasn’t to be, despite a crazy ride.  Like I said, I love this time of year.

At the same time, there’s another set of games going on … election shenanigans.

I loathe election season.  I hate all the yelling and screaming, and seeing the bottom feeding of the human condition on full display.  If you listen to the adverts, every person out there running for office is some combination of Hitler and Satan, drowns puppies for sport, sank the Titanic, conspired against Elvis, and is carrying ebola.  What’s incredible to me is how little any candidate seems to talk about themselves, their platform and beliefs, and how much they have to say about their opponents’.  Add to that adverts spawned by other groups who have hidden agendas that drive their attacks, and the buildup to Tuesday’s election becomes less an exercise in democracy in action, and more like a gaggle of folks just being obnoxious.

Thankfully, the countdown to Tuesday is on, when we can all get back to being semi-civil, and enjoy the onset of fall.  With glee, I will cast my ballot, if only to shut ’em all up!

Sports

‘Tis the Season!

The 2013 campaign begins today… Opening day for MLB begins today.  Woohoo!

The Cards don’t open until tomorrow night on the road in Arizona, of all things — you’d think they’d at least open us in the same time zone as the fan base!  Despite that weirdness, the focus tonight is on Texas with a new cross-state rivalry ‘twixt the Rangers and the league-changing Astros.  It’ll be weird not having the Astros in the NL central.  Bunches of history with them and the Cards over the last decade or so…

Tomorrow is only the beginning, and much like the NASCAR start a few weeks ago, I’ll be glued to the twists and turns through the long season that makes up the 2013 season.  Play ball!!!!!

Sports

Here We Go Again!

Tonight, the NLCS begins, and improbably, the Cardinals have scrapped their way once again into the League Championship Series.

It was pretty doggone cool to watch the Cards pull a 2011-style comeback against the Nationals Friday night. I really had given up when they were down 6-zip in the 3rd. Unlike last year though, I kept watching, repeating my mantra that they only needed one run an inning to get back to even. And little by little, that’s what they did. And twice, it was a painful watch to see the Cards down to their last strike of the season… and then to fight out of it. Frankly, watching the air come out of the stadium once we tied the game, and subsequently going up by a pair in the top of the ninth, well… it was fun to see.

Is this the beginning of “twelve in twelve”? Maybe. Maybe not. But there are least four more games in Red October this year!

Sports

I Went to Bed a Loser, and Awoke with Hope

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Once again, I gave up on the Cardinals last night. I went to bed after the 8th inning, with the Cards down by two, convinced that the baseball season was over.

When Becky’s alarm went off this morning, she asked me how it felt to wake up a loser, and we both giggled about it, resigned to what surely must’ve taken place last night.

She got up, took the dogs out, and went to the ‘Net to confirm what we already knew — that the Cards had lost.

And then she came running up to the bed, excited, and saying that the Cards had won. Of course, I thought she was kidding.

She wasn’t.

The Cardiac Cards came back not once, but twice, after we gave up and went to bed. They played for another 90 minutes after we crashed, coming up with a victory, and pushing into a Game 7 in the World Series.

I really can’t believe it. I just can’t. I’ve said it before, I’ve given up so many times this season, only to be proven wrong by this crazy comeback team.

I won’t be giving up tonight, and will be staying tuned through the very last pitch!

Sports

Yeah, I’ll Admit It… I Gave Up

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Many times, in fact. I gave up on the Cardinals loads of times this season. It seemed like every time I gave up, they did something to shine, and I started having hope again, only to have it dashed by some awful loss.

But now, we’re off to the World Series. Unbelievable!

I’ve gotta admit, I’m worried about facing Texas. Those guys can really score some runs…

Rants, Sports

The Cards, Fox Sports Midwest, UVerse and MLB

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So, I know nobody reads this, and this is about the same as screaming in a empty forest, but I’m torqued, and this is my only outlet.

Apparently, Fox Sports Midwest and UVerse are in a pissing contest over money for twenty baseball games. I guess that FSMW has packages of games — one at 132, and another at 152 — and UVerse has elected to go with the 132 package.

So the fans are caught in the middle.

Thinking that MLB could come to my rescue, I went to MLB’s site to sign up for their MLB TV package (delivered through my AppleTV). That service won’t show me games in which the Cardinals are playing, because I’m deemed to be in the Cardinals broadcast area, and they wanna protect the local guys (either over-the-air broadcast, or FSMW).

While it’s technically true that I’m in the Cardinal’s area, it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to see this game, or apparently twenty others… unless I change providers.

It is entirely evident to me that the various enterprises with their fingers in this situation (probably not the Cardinals, although I don’t know that for sure) have completely lost sight of who the consumer of their products are — the fans and viewers.

Now, UVerse has my money, and me under contract, so they don’t care. That’s probably true for many folks in this same situation.

FSMW already has my money vicariously through UVerse, and likely couldn’t care a bit about whether I see the game or not. Their money’s in hand, and there’s no way I can influence them in any way.

MLB is trying to do the right thing, but doesn’t have a way of determining if I’m on UVerse or something else. However, they would like to charge me $120/yr to see every game EXCEPT the ones I most likely wanna see — my home team — through MLB.TV, so they don’t care about this.

Truly, the golden rule applies — he who has the gold, makes the rules. Those of us that are downstream from that just get to enjoy being bashed about by the current whim of those industries and entities who continue to poor-mouth, pointing at each other as the party at fault.

I think it’s back to AM radio broadcasts for me. The Cards have moved back to KMOX, so I can hear them again (sorry KTRS!), and that game delivery is open and free.

For now.

We now return you to the normal tone of this blog.

Photoblog, Project 365, Sports

Haze of Time

It always seems like we look at baseball — my favorite pastime — through a filter of time. It’s measured in terms of records, how long they stand, and the parade of aged heroes, revelling in the wonderful accomplishments of youth. And with the resurgence in throwback architecture in recently built ballparks, the haze of time is thicker than ever. Yes, new records are being set and broken, and re-set, and the heroes we’ll talk about seeing in their prime are still playing the game I love so much. The game, though, is a reminder that although there’s clock in baseball, baseball lives by the passage of time.

Photoblog, Project 365, Sports

Project 365 : Stitching

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Continuing with the baseball theme, I decided to take one of the balls from my borrowed bucket of scuffed up old soldiers, and turn my macro lens on it. I love seeing the stitching close-up, with the detail in the thread. It’s magic. A hint of what’s to come, and a memory of what’s passed, of plays made and missed, victories and losses, and this ball holds all the stories, silently held within the stitching.

As I’ve said before, I love baseball.