The weekend was great.
The game... eh, not so much.
I should start off by stating for the record that we didn't really have any illusions about this game. The Colorado Rockies are currently the hottest team in baseball, and the A's... well, we love our A's. Even when they do the baseball equivalent of knocking us down a flight of stairs. In case anybody thinks I am shoveling dirt on my team, I am most assuredly not, but I also don't believe in gilding the lilly. There's a reason why going into last Saturday's game we were the third-worst team in the league, lording it over only the Cleveland Indians (Tom Berenger can't save these stiffs) and the Washington Nationals, who are so grotesquely inept that when they recently had Teddy Roosevelt Bobblehead Night (WTF?), they handed out a bunch of awful plastic statues that said ROSEVELT across the bases.
Also, this was not the first time they had terribly misspelled something in the public eye. I shit thee not.
Anyway, we knew that there was a good chance that we were going down in defeat, but we were okay with that. We even managed to get over the minor gaffe of leaving the sliced tri-tip for sandwiches at home; thankfully, my dad had put it in the fridge before we left so it was delicious when we got home. And boy, we needed those sandwiches to wash the taste of defeat out of our mouths.
The A's sent young Trevor Cahill to the mound and I would remiss if I didn't point out for the record that young Mr. Cahill is just that; young. As in, he recently celebrated being old enough to grab a beer after a game in a legal manner rather than having it slipped to him outside the back exit of a liquor store. Young, folks. The thing about young pitchers is that they have a hell of a lot of potential and can throw lights-out sometimes... but when things go wrong for the young bucks, it usually snowballs with amazing speed. The major league game is at least fifty pecent mental, and it takes time to develop the strength of will necessary to rise above such things as serving up a home run in each inning for four innings.
Once again, I shit thee not.
The Rockies are a hard-slugging team, so the dinger rapped smartly over the wall in the first inning was perhaps to be expected. The Oakland offense retreated to its typical prone position (once again, there's a reason we're in the cellar, folks) and after going meekly down before a Colorado pitcher with a 3-7 record and an earned run average somewhere between five and a half and "holy shit, what are you still doing in the rotation," the Rockies came back up again.
CRACK! Out went home run number two. This provoked a general muttering from the crowd, since now it was 3-0 Colorado and the A's have demonstrated as much ability to come back from early deficits of this type as Marcus the Backup Kitty does in resisting a fire hose. However, one never knows, until it gets grinded right in your face by once again having the A's batters go three and aout as though they were trying to patent the concept. This brought young Mr. Cahill back to his own personal Waterloo, aka the pitcher's mound.
I'm sure you can guess what happened next. At least, you'd better be able to. After all, I alluded to it four paragraphs ago.
The home crowd stopped muttering and began booing instead. I, however, had gone right for the throat last inning and began to yell such inspiring things as "Bullpen doormat!" There was also a "Fire Bob Geren" chant I attempted to lead (with as much success as Cahill had in keeping the ball in the yard), the "If I had paid full price for these seats, I'd riot!" blast, and after the next inning...
...aw, you know what happened the next inning, right? That's right. Another dinger, A's are now down 7-2 in the fourth inning, and I completely lost it for about as long as it took to scream:
"DAMN YOU TO HELL, TREVOR CAHILL!"
Whereupon I then sat down and buried my face in my hands.
Good thing those seats were only ten bucks each, right? For love of the game, folks. For love of the game.
- Soundtrack:Aerosmith - "Eat The Rich"
Theoretically.
On Friday I'm going down to the local megamart writing store and sitting down for my annual Date From Hell with this year's copy of The Writer's Market. Since I have already posted at length on the past about how much I hate doing this I won't slog through that particular patch of scorched earth again, except to say that I'm forcing myself to do this before we leave on Friday evening to head down to my dad's for the annual Battle Of The Bay. This year's edition features the Oakland A's hurler Justin Duscherer (leading the majors in earned run average) versus the San Francisco Giants' ace Tim Lincecum (who is the no. 2 guy in that same category) at that beloved tremendously ugly piece of shit called the Oakland Coliseum. If I'm doing something this fun, I have to get the submission list scouted first, which is that whole yin/yang thing at work for you.
Oh, one last thing: you want to read Richard Matheson. You really do. He was the main inspiration for Stephen King, and one of the best science fiction/horror writers ever to come down the pike. You may have heard of some of the movies based on his books (Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come) or have at least a passing familiarity with his television work (The Twilight Zone, Star Trek), but it's on the printed page where he really shines. A Stir of Echoes (the novel) was published in 1958, but it reads like it came out last year and is so damn good that... well, it's just good. Matheson is not only very prolific, he's also compulsively readable. He sounds incredibly modern, not dated in the slightest bit, and I have to confess I feel like a dummy who is late to a great party in only discovering his stuff last week.
Tomorrow the gym, Friday the local Barnes And Noble, Saturday the Coliseum. My schedule is set, so it's back to the Ibanez and a glass of wine for me.
- Soundtrack:Suspiria - "Darkest Day"
If you've never gone to see a Triple A ballgame, I can't recommend it highly enough. We're blessed in Sacramento to have one of the best minor league ballparks in the nation, and our team is almost always fairly competitive. Also, if you're lucky and your timing is right, you can see players there that in a couple years will be tearing it up at the major league level. The guy we had our eyes on Saturday was right fielder Carlos Gonzales, who was a very highly touted prospect in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization before coming to the A's in a trade that sent our beloved pitcher Dan Haren to the D-Backs. Another guy we got in that trade, pitcher Dana Eveland, has already demonstrated he can compete very well in the bigs, as he has already thrown some games for Oakland. We were going to be watching--and judging--very closely. Since some of the guys who have previously come through the River cats include Huston Street, Barry Zito, Eric Byrnes, Rich Harden, Mark Mulder and the aforementioned (not to mention painfully missed) Mr. Swisher, minor ball at this park isn't for chumps.
The River Cats vs. Bees matchup also promised to be a good one due to the fact that the Bees had the best record in the PCL coming into the game, so you throw in the long-standing rivalry between the two parent clubs along with the natural competitive juices of the average minor leaguer looking to break into the bigs, and it looked like a good matchup.
Wouldn't you know, that's exactly what happened. Not only did Gonzales run down everything that came within shouting distance of him, including a fly ball into the right corner that saw him bouncing full-speed off the Regional Transit banner in the corner, splatting to the ground and holding up the ball proudly for the out, he also went 3-4 with a single, double and a triple, and drove in two runs on top of all that. I miss Swisher, as he was my favorite A's player, but it looks like Carlos Gonzales is for real.
The game also featured the Bees' manager coming out twice to argue calls with the umpire, bringing a delighted round of heckling from the sold-out crowd on both occasions. Additionally, it also provided several sparkling plays by both sides, so the final score of 7-3 was really pretty deceptive. Judging on what I saw on Saturday, both parent clubs look to be well-stocked with talent for the years to come.
It's just so damn cool to see the stars of tomorrow today, and to do it for about half the price of a major league game. The next time we're going is June 20th, to watch the River Cats take on the San Francisco Giants Triple A club, the Fresno Grizzlies. They're giving away the A's/Giants split cap. something so rare these days you can't even find a picture of one on the Internet.
Up with baseball, up with writing, up with guitar. Peace.
- Soundtrack:Bad Religion - "Sorrow"
I feel pretty good about that. Doing this book has been a wonderful object lesson in showing me just how much I needed to do a return to my roots in the old boy-meets-girl genre. I love angst, I love horror and I'll never shy away from a ripper of a gutbucket scene... but goddamnit, I really enjoy a good love story as well. It has been quite fun to get back to basics, and it also gives me time to ponder a bit about:
1) What I'll be doing for National Novel Writing Month this year (and I think I already know)
2) Mulling the very real possibility of doing two more Ring Of Fire books before the whole thing comes crashing down in Zero, which will be my tribute to Keifer Sutherland's tour de force smash hit 24. I know I said before that I was only going to do one more before tying everything up, but, well, screw you, it's my series and I'll do whatever the hell I want to with its installments. The fact is, I really like doing those books and there's some more stuff I'd like to go into before the final descent begins, so I may be going back on my earlier stated plan. Then again, I might not. We'll see where I am in six months.
Also, although it is only April 12th, it bears mentioning for the record that as of this moment, the Oakland A's are currently in sole possession of first place in the always-weird A.L. West division. I was so flabbergasted by this news from the MLB standings, I read it three times to make sure what I was reading was accurate. It is. We're currently 7-4, having just swept the Toronto Blue Jays in their cavernous Dome Of Doom and then went into Jacobs Field last night and kicked in the teeth of last year's American League Cy Young award-winning pitcher, Cleveland Indian fireballer C.C. Sabathia. We beat him for nine runs in three innings, which is the baseball equivalent of a mugging.
Yes, I know that it's less than a month into the season. Yes, I know it's eleven down and one hundred and fifty-one games to go. Having said that, though, I have to say that I'm impressed with this year's version thus far.
Let's go Oakland.
EDIT: The A's downed the Indians again by the score of 7-3, which made me chuckle quite a bit. Last year, the Indians were the runner-up team in the ALCS; the previous year, it was Oakland being the bridesmaid and not the bride. We also went to WinCo tonight and among the nearly two hundred and fifty bucks we spent on food, we got four Hibachi House General Tsao's Chicken Bowls, which I am mildly addicted to. Plus, they were a full two-fifty cheaper apiece than they were at Bel Air.
Yes, both of these things excited me. (shrug) Simple pleasures. That's all I can say.
- Soundtrack:Public Image Ltd. - "Rise"
1) I'm woefully behind on metrics (to the tune of about 2,500 words) so I'm getting caught up tonight.
2) The A's-Orioles game was excellent, because not only did we win, but I got extremely inebriated and ate a shitload of food.
3) Despite this, I still managed to lose 12 pounds since the diet began.
4) There is going to be a really gross scene in Underworld that involves a broken arm which I am really looking forward to typing.
5) I am going to bed early tonight, because I was actually groggy enough that I considered calling in sick.
6) Lady Jade says that 2/3 of the way through HP7, she is loving it. I look forward to my own experience.
That's all. KTHNXBAI
- Soundtrack:Ramones - "Cretin Hop"
A's 4, Giants 2. Excellent game. In the eightth inning, I was kissing my green and gold beads like a Catholic rosary and mumbling under my breath. The baseball field, I guess, is truly my church. Next month we journey to Phone Company Field and play the part of invading heels. Whee!
I was wrong when I thought I didn't get the holddown I was bidding on. I did. It's furiously easy, and pays very well. I guess I should feel guilty for this, but seeing as how I've kissed the wrong end of the baby numerous times on other runs, I don't.
I haven't been rejected by the company I submitted to yet... but that may be because they're not sure what the hell to make of my submission. See, somehow I managed to send Salvation off to a company that does graphic novels, and apparently not regular print ones. This will most likely not end well, although I do have to admit that the alternate universe version of Salvation being done a la Sin City rather than as a novel is an intrguing image. Unlikely as all hell, but still good for a mental squint or two.
So keeping that in mind, if you could choose some books to be adapted as graphic novels, which ones would you like to see? There's your poll question for the week.
Peace.
- Soundtrack:Beanfight - "Kristi Got An A"
Also, I went back into my Memories section and threw up four Writing 101 posts in case you wish to peruse them. Three of them were written a while ago, but they're still relevant... especially for those among you who wish to be professionals, the one I did on Laurell K. Hamilton. Or "hack job," if you prefer.
Tax Day is almost over. Did you file yet? (glowers sternly)
- Soundtrack:Kid Rock - "Cowboy"
For the non-sport types among you, being almost all of you: it's baseball.
So on Sunday, May 20th, myself, Lady Jade, my dad and Mad Evil Chris, your local heartthrob nuclear technician bachelor (seriously), will be making the pilgrimage to AT&T Park, home of the never-won-a-World-Series Giants, decked out faithfully in green and gold to watch our boys do battle with the San Francisco crowd. Oh, and best of all, it's going to be in San Francisco.
There is two reasons why this is tremendously cool. Pardon me for a second while I become a dweeb.
1) AT&T Park, despite usually being filled with Giants fans, is one of the most aesthetically beautiful parks in Major League Baseball or, for that matter, anywhere in professional sports. It's true. I love the Oakland/Alameda Coliseum, home to the A's and Raiders, but truth be told, it is a tremendously ugly piece of shit. It was designed and built in the 1960's, where stadiums followed a cookie-cutter slab-of-concrete design that decades later made people coming into it look around and say, "Ugh. What a tremendously ugly piece of shit." While the Coliseum was built for concerts, football, baseball and anything else that will draw a crowd, AT&T Park was made for baseball, and baseball alone. Sporting modern facilities including a supermassive high-definition scoreboard, gorgeous brick exterior, a lovely view of the San Francisco Bay and sweet Pacific breezes, it's the only thing I am jealous of our cross-bay rivals of.
2) It's enemy territory, and by enemy I mean "not our team," which makes us the invaders. You know how I love to play the heel, and it's even better to do so on a gloriously sunshiney summer day with several good dark ales in my stomach and my #43 Dennis Eckersley jersey on my back, enduring the taunts of outraged Giants supporters with a beatific smile and displaying my ZERO SPLASH HITS FOUR WORLD TITLES shirt beneath, occasionally remarking to Mad Evil Chris in a meant-to-be-overheard tone about how great the 1989 World Series was (A's swept the Giants four games to zero), and howling "Let's go Oakland!" with a third of the rest of the park as the home team crowd stares at us with a mixture of amusement, exasperation and in the end, camaraderie. Because after all, it's only a baseball game, one of 162 over the season and if your team happens to lose, it's not the end of the world.
Oh, and the seats are absolutely awesome... seventeen rows from the front along the first-base side, which means that when the pitcher goes into his windup, you turn your back on the action at your own peril.
A day at the ballpark. Ferris Bueller was right; doesn't get any better than this.
- Soundtrack:Steve Miller Band - "Jet Airliner"
WE'RE GOING TO THE AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES, BABY!
WOO-FUCKING-HOO!
- Soundtrack:the sweet trumpets of victory
It was always fairly easy to get domiciles clean in the past; after all, a two-bedroom apartment is only so big and the amopunt of time required didn't suck up the vast majority of the day. Not the case any more. Four bedrooms, one bathroom, a large living room, dining room and kitchen, coupled with yard both front and back and a pool make this pad a true test of one's abilities when it comes to Lemon Pledge time. That would be as opposed to peanut butter jelly time, right,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
detonate_for_me?I persist, however, because the end product is something to behold. Maybe in a past life I was one of those 50's housewives, the living, breathing reincarnation of the immortal Sandra Dee, armed with a Viceroy Light in one hand and a sponge in the other, or possibly it's just another annoying example of my Capricorn tendencies rising to the forefront.
Oh, and speaking of clean sweeps, my beloved Oakland Athletics ripped three games in a row from the world champion Chicago White Sox and their world-class red-ass manager, Ozzie "The Brute" Guillen. We were lucky enough to see the third game on Sunday and yesterday Lady Jade's mother began her pilgrimage back to Ireland for just over a month, meaning we're down to only one semi-permanent roommate for the next (checks calendar) 34 days, but who's counting?
In other news:
My wife is all giddy about the new installment of Dancing With The Stars coming on tonight and I must admit, she's getting me into it as well.
Season Three of Scrubs, Seasons One and Two of Titus (yeah!) and the complete television series V was purchased this weekend on DVD. As I said before, I am a complete and utter V fanboy and got my start in writing due to fanfic done for that saga.
Shows we'll be watching this year: Scrubs, Battlestar Galactica, Grey's Anatomy, Lost, Doctor Who, Stargate: Atlantis, all three flavors of CSI, Stargate: SG-1 (at least this series is going out while still on top rather than having jumped the shark), Everybody Hates Chris and 24. If we had F/X, I would also add Rescue Me into that list as well, but Dish Network is lame so meh.
Shows we won't be watching this year: virtually anything on NBC. You know, I remember when this was a good network. Ditto for Fox.
Oh, and apparently it's Talk Like A Pirate Day, which means this entry was completely out of character for how we're supposed to do things today. In other words, business as usual around here.
- Soundtrack:Iggy Pop - "Lust For Life"
seferin for the new icon!You wouldn't know that baseball existed west of the Mississippi River if you watch ESPN, and even more so this week since the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees are gearing up to hammer each other once again. Granted, the 2004 ALCS was an instant classic and there is enough bad blood in this rivalry to keep the Arabs and Israelis at each other's throats for at least a couple weeks... but come on, people. Every time these two get it on, it's the lead story and they treat it like an installment of Thunderdome. If you don't live on the East Coast, chances are you don't really care too much about this series.
Unless you're an avowed Yankee-hater like me, of course.
Speaking of America's pasttime, the Oakland A's are 5 1/2 games in front of first place in their division. They are without arguably their best pitcher (Rich Harden) for almost the entire year, have suffered major gaps where OF Milton Bradley and DH Frank Thomas have not been available because of injuries, play in the same division where a team won the world series a couple years ago (the Anaheim Angels), and have pulled this off with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball. Oh, and did we mention the fact that the A's have the lowest batting average in the major leagues, with nobody hitting .300 or better? No love from ESPN, though.
Staying firmly in baseball, the San Francisco Giants have many more problems beyond what is happening to them on the field this year, as if being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in three consecutive one-run losses weren't bad enough (and it is, I assure you). They have Barry Bonds' contract being up at the end of the year, very little in the way of a farm system, players who are not aging like fine wine and a monstrous mortgage hanging over their heads for AT&T Park. The fact is, about a third of the people who pay to see the Giants are doing so for Bonds, steroid allegations and proven fact that he is a douche of a human being be damned, and that represents a huge loss of revenue should management decide to invest the Bonds money it would cost to resign him elsewhere. Unfortunately, the team is in the position where they must choose between short-term financial stability and long-term competitiveness. It's not a good time to be a fan of the black and orange.
The NFL preseason has begun, and the injury factor has already reared its head. Redskin RB Clinton Portis is gone for the remainder of the exhibition schedule with a separated shoulder. Sooner or later, Miami QB Dante Culpepper is going to have to actually drop back against a pass rush, surgically reconstructed knee and all, in a meaningless show. Worst of all (and most illustrating the coming point), rookie first-round pick LB Chad Greenway of the Minnesota Vikings apparently tore his anterior cruciate ligament against the Oakland Raiders and is probably gone for the season. This happens every year; a promising young player poised to contribute mightily to their club is out before a real down of football is ever played because of exhibition games. Scrimmages and practices should be enough, and I've had it with these meaningless contests that do nothing but make money for owners and bore fans with with fourth-string defensive backs missing tackles in the open field.
It's coin-flip odds as to whether the Seattle Supersonics will be playing in Key Arena (Seattle) or the Ford Center (Oklahoma City) this season. It took only about a month for the purchasing group out of the heartland to back off from their commitment to see the Sonics playing in the Emerald City and start making noise about how if they can't get a world-class facility, the green and yellow will be setting up shop near Norman, OK. While I'm sure that thrills
detonate_for_me, it doesn't surprise the rest of us one iota. Enjoy Ray Allen for the last year, Sonic fans; the days of your franchise in the Pacific Northwest are numbered.Quck NFL pick: the Carolina Panthers will defeat the Denver Broncos by a paltry field goal for the world title this year. You heard it here first.
Things aren't looking good for a new arena for the Sacramento Kings. There's two points to be made on the bottom line; first, if this resolution that splits $1.2 billion equally between stadium fund and general source fund does not pass, the Kings are gone. Period. Secondly, while my more liberal brethren of Sacramento may scream about how all the money should be used for helping the poor and rebuilding our schools, the brutal reality is that if we put a a sales tax initiative up like this (a quarter-cent on the dollar, mind you, meaning a thirty thousand dollar car costs roughly seventy bucks extra) and earmark it for that purpose, it wouldn't pass. It just wouldn't. I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm saying it as a simple fact. Is it the best deal possible? No. However, voting "no" ensures you lose the team, the poor do not get helped, and everybody associated with the Kings, Maloof Entertainment and quite a few others besides lose their jobs, which means we lose out on taxable income just for starters. You must spend money to make money, easy as that.
There you go, a snapshot of the world of sports. Bath time.
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