Pre-Sugar Bowl musings

I'm so excited about this game that I can barely stand myself. I haven't written because it's almost too much to contemplate -'Bama, the Crimson Tide playing my beloved Utes. Yikes. It's scary. The Fiesta Bowl was not nerve wracking because we were playing Pitt. Please. We could've beaten anyone that year. But the Tide? This year?
Is it possible for us to maintain our bowl winning streak?
Will Louie Sakoda save the day? Better, will he not need to and just make those pretty kicks icing on the cake?
Can Zane Taylor, a boy from Moab, where they do grow them tough, continue to stop Brian Johnson from being sacked?
Will a stabbing survivor, with one kidney and scars that look like he had open heart surgery, Paul Kruger do his magic?
It's nearly too much, even for a 42-year-old 36-year-game-going fan like me. I don't know if I can bear to watch and know I won't be able to look away until the final buzzer.
Much of my faith comes from Oregon State fans on Trax after Utah beat OSU. They'd been to the USC game the week before and said that the Utes were better on defense.
Just how shaken up will that wee bit of the world that cares about college football be when the Mighty Utes beat 'Bama?
After more years of bad football than good my wish/prayer is still: "please don't let them make fools of themselves."
As always, with thanks to Tom Barberi, my other wish/prayer: UTAH BY 5!

Please don't let them make fools of themselves...

My oldest brother and I figured out that this is my 36th season of University of Utah football, not every game and there have even been a few years that I've missed all the games, but still.... I've got nothing on my parents who are in their 51st year of season tickets. But 36 years is pretty good when I've just turned 42.
What I've learned from all those years is to, essentially, be a Cubs' fan. No matter how good the team I approach every game with "Please, don't let them make asses of themselves.... Just let it be a good game." I don't expect them to lose, ever, but I do worry. I've sat through a lot of really bad football games, and some brilliant ones. I've seen a lot of wins by special teams and the defense, it seems we've always had good kickers but none I remember are as good as Sakoda. And I've seen a lot of hard losses: can you say a 56-6 loss to BYU (I can't find the year on this one quickly) and staying until the end of the game? I think that was the score, but I was finally able to block it with a comforting chant of 34-31.
I love perfect seasons (crossed fingers make it hard to type) and even one loss seasons, but I really am happy to settle for a winning record and beating BYU.

October

I've been neglecting the blogs. Love and grad school will do that. My fella doesn't get sports though he tries to understand my fan factor, at least he thinks it's one more cool geekiness of mine. I just explain things in terms of music and bands, then he gets it. I'm glad he will go to baseball with me, though I think it's for the hot dogs, beer, sunshine and my company (of course).

So a quick run down of the fall.

Bless the Brewers for forcing a fourth game in the first round. They haven't been in the playoffs since 1982, I've been a fan since 1984. October ball is just a good thing.

Poor Tigers. There's nothing to say but next year.

At this point in the post season all I care about is long series and extra innings, that way baseball wins.

Once more the Salt Lake Bees of Anaheim, excuse me the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles, gutted the Bees and I didn't get a chance to catch a playoff game. I did make it to at least one game in every home series during the regular season this year again.

Things are looking good for the Utes on the football field, though the special teams worship reminds me of the early 1980s, except there is more to the team than just Louie Sakoda. Who should be a Heisman candidate.

That's all for now. Homework calls.

I'll say it again

How about those Brewers? Smart mid-season trades and taking a run at the NL Central for the first time in years. Just because I like dramatic framework, I'm half heartedly pulling for the Cubs this year. After all if they win the series again after 100 years, maybe the Cub fans I know and love will calm down for a few decades.
And my poor beleaguered Tigers? They're 6.5 back in the AL Central as I write, but that is so much better than they looked the first month it's hard to believe.
Grad school and love are interfering with my blogging, but not with my paying attention to baseball.

Baseball Food

Very cool interactive map and article from the New York Times that talks about stadium food in all of the major league parks with best and worst suggestions.
It suggests brats in Milwaukee. That one's a no brainer if you've ever had a brat in Miller Field. Several Mays ago when I was at Miller Field I took one bite and nearly cried it was so good. I haven't had many positive visceral reactions to food, but that one sticks with me.

Utah Jazz or Basketball fatigue

So the Jazz are in the first round of the playoffs, heading for game 5 in Houston tomorrow. Go Jazz, I guess.
I've reached pro basketball fatigue. Games are fine. Reporting the results is fine. But what feels like fifty seven hours of pre-game every game is killing any enthusiasm I might have mustered. It's good when the Jazz win, it makes a lot of people I know very happy and makes Salt Lake City in general happy.
Just like any other religion, please do not force your NBA on me and I'll try to respect your faith and show at least a polite interest. I don't want you to love baseball and the Running Utes, I just want you to respect my love of baseball and the Running Utes, even if I can't understand why you wouldn't love them.
Saturday I was watching the Jazz game at Junior's Tavern, and realized that I was just watching movement, not paying a lick of attention to the game. If I could have afforded it I would've bought a round for the bar for 20 minutes of baseball. The Braves could've been playing the Yankees and I would've been happy.

Real Salt Lake, (or is it Sandy?) has won a game already, I guess that's worth mentioning, too.

How could I have forgotten to follow up on Bob Woolmer?

I was so fascinated with the death of cricket coach Bob Woolmer last spring and then I've neglected a follow up. The June 13, 2007 verdict was that he died of heart failure, and then the next day it was announced that the investigation would continue.
Here's a link to links that round up the whole case to June 14.
The coroner's inquest finally ended in November with an open verdict. The Telegraph had a nice article on the inquest as did most of the English news sources, you can look for them on your own.
Here's the year later article from the Gleaner

Going to church

Cross-posted to Beck's Day where I ramble about things that are not usually sports related, though I do occasionally post things to the wrong blog.

Please do not read this if you are a serious church goer with no sense of humor. I mean no disrespect, just to say that my perfect Sunday involves a matinee baseball game, a movie and karaoke at Burt's Tiki Lounge. If that's a problem for you I'm sorry and can't do a thing about it.

First to explain. A former co-worker, now returned to Nebraska, walked over to me on a Friday and said "Will I see you in church on Sunday?" I was confused since I haven't actually been to a non-wedding or funeral church service since Easter 1989 in Frankfurt, (then West) Germany. He explained that he was talking about the Sunday matinee baseball game that weekend, the only day he could go to games since he worked the night shift.
Since then the Sunday games have been "going to church." I sit outside and revel in the glory of the sunshine and sky, watch well-tuned people glory in the use of their bodies, partake of a communion of hot dogs and beer and sing a hundred year old hymn in the middle of the 7th.
Hallelujah and pass the peanuts.

I've got a somewhat weak poem that I wrote during the first inning of last Sunday's 8-1 Bees win. I won't be bothered at all if you stop reading here. In fact, go to mlb.com and check how your team is doing, or how my poor Tigers and not so bad Brewers are today.
Let's make that 2 poems, though the Salt Lake Bees and Fresno Grizzlies wrote the first one:
R H E
Fresno 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 4 2
Bees 5 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 8 15 2

Pilgrimage
I passed three churches
on my way to the library,
the congregants didn't look happy
going in or coming out,
but I was listening to bluegrass
and not concerned
with their fear of damnation
only with renewing my book.
Then I drank some coffee
and chatted with the boys.
Here, at the ballpark,
the congregation is happy,
taking a communion
of hot dogs and beer.
A weird mix of Pentecostal noise
and Catholic ritual.
2 runs, 5 hits, 1 out in the first
with three men on.
What better church in April,
month of poetry and early season hope?

Can you say 21-1?

The local media in Salt Lake seems to have a problem with the Bees -- maybe that they're off to one of the best starts ever in Minor League Baseball and it's the NBA playoffs first round with the Jazz playing fairly well against the Houston Rockets.
Harrumph.
They manage to get U, Utah State and that school down south all in during college football and basketball seasons, so why not a minute for the Bees? I was disgusted by KUTV last Saturday (4/26) when the Bees had switched their schedule to a day game and they couldn't be bothered to give a score on the 5 pm news, Jazz pre-game, which is all fine, but then to spend the rest of the time on golf and other non-local sports... How long does it take to give a score? Granted, it may have been given on the ticker, but I didn't have my glasses on and their white on blue is not the easiest thing to read with the glasses.
21-1. It's phenomenal. The team is hitting .317 and has a 3.21 ERA. That's the team, not just the best hitters and pitchers. I fear that Matt Brown, who is hitting .429 with 6 HRs can probably hear the Angels calling. I hope not, but won't be surprised when he gets the call. And I've been told by a serious Angels fan that Nick Adenhart (.87 ERA, 4 Ws 0 Ls in 5 games) is about the hottest pitching prospect in baseball. I believe.
Larry Miller's sports advertising people just may have it right with their "One Team, One Dream" logo, they just seem to have put in on the wrong sport.
5,197 was the attendance yesterday (Sunday), and the congregation looked a lot happier going in than it did at any of the churches I passed that morning.
Hallelujah.

A few days late and a few dollars short

Sorry about the delay, but I'm in grad school and papers and other assignments come before the blogs.
I made it to Opening Day at the Salt Lake Bees last Friday.
The price of tickets is up -- but still not much more than a movie.
The concessions were a mess -- it took me more than two innings to get a cup of coffee.
I paid $2.25 for a cup of mediocre coffee -- it was fresh.
They broke their winning streak -- but started winning again on Saturday.
The attendance was great for a chilly night -- 11,499 announced as paid.
I sat next to Dodgers fans -- they were nice and funny anyway, as were the Angels fans behind me.
I am in love again, just like I am every spring. Baseball makes my world a better place.
It's fun to watch and listen to the game and the rest of the fans, even when one or the other annoys me.
It's a good sense of community to applaud with the others and yell at the ump with them. Communal singing makes the world a better place, whether it's the national anthem or "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (which the Library of Congress is celebrating the 100th birthday of: check it out!) or "Sweet Caroline."
My parents are fantastic people, and one of the best things they have done for me is encouraging me to be a Utes and baseball fan. In a world where people, myself included, sit in coffee shops with headphones on while they use computers, where people aren't going to theater and movies, there are few places that offer the same sense of community as sporting events. It's nice to go with a friend, but I am also happy to go by myself, since I know that for at least a few hours I have something in common with whoever is sitting next to me.
Maybe if I were a church goer I'd find some of this community there, but there really is something self serving about too many church goers. They want to show the neighbors how pious they are, and even when the minister calls for silent prayers for the ill or deceased, I'd be willing to bet that about half the prayers use the words I, me or my at some point in those prayers. The prayers in a ballpark, arena or stadium are more along the lines of "Please let them/us win this one." Or my personal favorite, "please don't let them make fools of themselves" (this comes from all of those miserable U. football games in the 1970s and 80s).
A former co-worker from Nebraska called the Sunday matinee games going to church. I hope no one is offended, but hallelujah and pass the Cracker Jacks.

Ben Sheets

Have I mentioned lately that I love the far too often injured (please stay healthy this year) Ben Sheets, in a strictly platonic sports fan kind of way, and yesterday's shutout just makes this unrequited love even better.
In case you missed the news, here it is: Sheets hadn't tossed SHO since rookie year. Can you say 5 and 1?
I may have mentioned before that I saw Sheets throw an 18 K game on a beautiful Sunday in May of 2004 against the Braves? (To get off the point, that day was also the first time I set foot in the west side of Lake Michigan.)
That was a three hitter and the fastest baseball game I have ever seen. It was two days before Randy Johnson threw a perfect game with only13 Ks against the Braves, I think Sheets demoralized them for Johnson.
I jest, of course, about the Ks, Randy Johnson is amazing though I have missed seeing him in person in both Seattle and Phoenix by one day.
But back to my Brewers. I want to apologize to my Cubs fan friends, but I see us kicking ass and taking names this season.
As for my Tigers, my poor 0-6 Tigers -- I just want to say it's still early and I'll still love you win or lose.

Four games in

What's the matter with my Tigers? Pudge has had four hits and 3 runs and 2 RBI in four games, where are the rest of them? I hope it's just a slow start, but worry that there are deeper problems -- we'll see as the season gets swinging. They're not the team I'm used to seeing at the bottom of that division, in fact they lost to the team I'm used to seeing vie for last place in the AL.
But I am very happy with my 3-1 Brewers and hope they will keep it up.
Also pleased to see that the Salt Lake Bees came from behind in their opener to beat the 51s at Las Vegas.
Oh the excitement and spring in the air of it all. Oh wait, the season's started that must mean it's summer despite the weather.

It must be summer

School is taking up a lot of my time, but I just want to say that I love this time of year when the Brewers are perfect and the Tigers only have one loss.

Ah, baseball

So I made it to the U of U Baseball game on Friday, the second day of spring, and they won 7-5.
I was very impressed with 3rd baseman DC Legg, he hits well, is fast on the bases and has quick hands in the field. If he always plays like that I don't see him completing his college career.
There were only four problems with the game:
1: It was bloody cold sitting there: nothing to be done, I should've brought a blanket or a warmer coat, I'm sure the weather was great for the Saturday day game but I was busy
2: The $2.75 coffee at Not-Dirks (Franklin-Covey) Field was highway robbery, at least they were going through enough that it was fresh, at least they had coffee: don't charge Starbucks prices for coffee that isn't as good as the 7-11 across the street
3: Only about 100 fans out: come on people, it's $5 well spent -- better and cheaper than most movies
4: Metal bats just don't sound right, though I do like the little "plink plonk" tune when a pitch skips across one back to the catcher.

At least I got my baseball fix and can probably hold out now until the Bees home opener on April 11. I also found one more reason I'm going to hell: just keep in mind it was Good Friday - they played Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young" on the PA, I couldn't stop laughing. I hope it was intentional, but since we are in Utah it probably wasn't.

Spring and a Media Rant

I missed baseball on the first day of spring and have, once more, learned that I can't trust either the U of U athletics web site or The Salt Lake Tribune.
The Trib said today's Utes v. San Diego State baseball game was at 1pm (it was not corrected on their web site as of 5pm), the U's web site said 6, as did San Diego State's. I could've gone at 6 if I didn't trust my local newspaper.
As of 9:26 p.m. (a few minutes ago) I could not find the score of the game on the U's site, but found it on San Diego State's site. Maybe the U just doesn't post scores promptly when they lose. I'll have to try to remember to check that on occasion.
Anyway, the Aztecs won 7-2 and I missed the game because I trusted my local newspaper.
Today's Trib also fails to give the schedule for the rest of the games in this homestand, but it's just as well, they'd probably get the time wrong.
Maybe tomorrow I can go, I'll believe the 6pm time on the web sites. I know the bats are metal and don't sound quite right, but I really need some baseball.

Half Serious World Series Prediction

I'm just want baseball badly this year, so the time has come to make my usual World Series prediction: Brewers and Tigers go 7 with extra innings in at least 3 games. This is not, yet, my serious prediction. It's just the thing that would actually make me sell my soul (or shell out money) for Series tickets.
Ah, spring, when we dream our biggest dreams of romance and baseball, and the heartbreaking romance which is baseball.
I don't care about "performance enhancing drugs" and who may or may not be accused of using them by people who've been supplying them and been promised immunity for testimony. In fact, I haven't heard any of the baseball fans I know talk about this very much, beyond wishing that everyone who was named without hard evidence in the Mitchell Report could sue for defamation of character and potential restraint of trade. As for people I know who are lapsed fans, they have been turned off for a lot of other reasons: salaries, ticket prices, beer prices, season length, no big league team in Salt Lake, spoiled brat athletes, spoiled brat owners, poor officiating, on field promotion nonsense at minor league games, Bud Selig, The Yankees being in too many/not enough World Series... the list just keeps going. But steroids and HGH are not on the list in my circles.
One of the reasons I'm not in charge (someday I'll make that list and post it) is that I say we cannot judge ball players in the "steroid era" any more harshly than we can judge the hard drinking, cocaine using athletes of the past. The league and the union need to sit down and decide that as of Opening Day 2008 (or whenever) all players will be subject to random testing. First offense is one month without pay or play, second is a season suspension, third strike and you are out (of course).
I'll make my serious Series prediction between June 1 and the All-Star Break, just remember I've gotten at least one team right the last five years.

Spring in the air

Today feels like spring and I'm jonesing for baseball. I haven't been to a movie in weeks because grad school is filling so much of my time, and I am missing movies, but it's spring and I want baseball. Here. Now.
I'm sure it's the changes in the weather. There's a bit of a breeze today that's making the weather chilly, but it smells like spring, and there are crocuses and daffodils in bloom if you look in the right places.
I turn on Sports Center and see highlights from the spring training games and long to hop in the car and drive down to Arizona for a Cactus League game or 10. I'm antsy and baseball seems to be the answer to my discontent. Well, one of my discontents, the one I'm thinking about now.
It's St. Patrick's Day, less than a week from Easter and I took the new Flogging Molly disc (Float), which has been rocking my world for over a week, out of the car CD player and put on some bluegrass because it feels right for the weather.
I'm just done with this long cold early spring we've been suffering in Salt Lake City and want some summer, right now. Baseball ≈ summer, or maybe I've got that backward.
Anyway, I may hit the U of U v San Diego State games at Franklin Covey Field this weekend, even though metal bats don't sound right.

Crossposted with my Beck's Day blog.

100 Years of Runnin' Utes

So the beloved Runnin' Utes have announced their all-century team.
Andrew Bogut - 2003-05
Jerry Chambers - 1963-66
Tom Chambers - 1977-81
Mike Doleac - 1994-98
Arnie Ferrin - 1943-48
Vern Gardner - 1945-49
Josh Grant - 1988-91/1992-93
Alex Jensen - 1994-95/1997-2000
Jeff Jonas - 1973-77
Jeff Judkins - 1974-78
Bill Kinner - 1932-36
Billy McGill - 1959-62
Andre Miller - 1995-99
Mike Newlin - 1968-71
Keith Van Horn - 1993-97
Danny Vranes - 1977-81
Fantastic choices, but I wonder why Manny Hendrix wasn't included. Could it be because he went on to play for the Dallas Cowboys instead of sticking to basketball?

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. Schmalentine's Day. I don't remember the last time I had a Valentine's Day date and even more than usual this year it doesn't matter.
This year, today, February 14, 2008, pitchers and catchers start reporting for Spring Training!
Despite about 8 inches of snow yesterday afternoon and last night (you wouldn't have know this morning that I shoveled at midnight) spring is in the air.
As always, I don't predict but hope for a Tigers/Brewers 7 game World Series.

Baseball movie at Sundance

What a weird Sundance, yesterday, Wednesday, I finally made it to my first movie.
Well, I wasn't able to get a locals pass or ticket package for the first time in years and I just started my grad school classes last weekend and would've missed Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday - about 8 films.
Anyway, my first movie for this year was "Sugar" brought to us by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the fine folks who have brought us the short "Gowanus, Brooklyn" and it's feature length follow up "Half Nelson."
"Sugar" is, in the words of Ryan Fleck at the Q&A, "just a baseball movie."
(Baseball, movie -- two words that rock my world)
It is, of course, more than "just" that. "Sugar" is the story of Miguel "Sugar" Santos (Algenis Perez Soto), a young Dominican pitcher who has been signed from a development camp in the Dominican Republic by the fictive Kansas City Knights. With minimal English skills he and some of his compatriots are sent to Phoenix for Spring Training. He does well enough that he skips Rookie League ball and is sent straight to 1A in Iowa, where he starts strong. After he is injured and has a hard time coming back Sugar runs away to New York, to find his friend who was cut from the team a few weeks earlier.
I enjoyed this movie, but after sleeping on it I saw so many threads that could've been stronger: the contrast between the bargain basement Dominican Sugar and the million dollar baby second baseman who graduated from Stanford; language and cultural barriers in Iowa while he lives with an older couple who speak almost no Spanish; what to do when the dream (whatever dream it is) falls apart...
It is also nice to be reminded that just because a movie doesn't have the best of all possible endings, it doesn't mean it doesn't have a happy ending.
It's not the best baseball movie ever (in my opinion that would have to be "Bull Durham") and it isn't the best immigrant story ever but "Sugar" is fairly good at being both.