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.