Month: October 2017 (Page 2 of 2)

Big Night

October 12, 2017 / DB

Some night Tuesday night.

L was attending her first ever Pacers game – a preseason game against a team from Israel – with a buddy from school. Their family gets tickets from a family friend, so several times a year they get to sit on the floor, right next to the basket on the visitor’s end of the court. She was super excited.

So that she was attired properly, I ran out to find her a Pacers shirt. Now I know it was only October 10, we’re in the midst of football season, and the Pacers are kind of a hot mess right now. But I was only able to find one kid-sized shirt in nearly two hours of searching. Basketball capital of America my… Clearly the basketball gods were mocking me, because that shirt was a Victor Oladipo shirsey. You know, the IU alum and general good guy who was the centerpiece of the return for Paul George, but is dramatically overpaid for what he does and drew my ire when the trade went down last July. I presented it to her after school and her reaction was, “Ola-what?!?!” I helped her to pronounce it properly, explained who she was, and she seemed cool with it.

I would have been cooler with a Myles Turner shirsey, but whatevs, it’s not my shirt.

She popped up on TV just seconds into the broadcast. As the teams were walking to mid-court to do the international ball exchange of gifts, we saw her head between two players, tilted up to look at the scoreboard above. We could also tell she and her friend had been playing before the left for the game because her hair was all jacked up. Par for the course with that kid.

All night they were right on the edge of the camera view when the ball was on their end of the court. They were a little hard to see because the two floor cameramen for TV were right in front of them. Three times the ball rolled to them and they got to flip it back to the ref. We also saw the Pacers mascot, Boomer, messing with them a few times. He gave them a sign to hold up, but it was pointed to the crowd rather than the screen. And he gave them the big cat paw gloves he wears and we saw them waving them to the fans around them. They got some pics with Boomer and made the scoreboard screen dancing before the night was over. They were also just feet from Larry Bird, Donnie Walsh, and Kevin Pritchard. I thought about texting the dad to send Lia over to Pritchard to give him some shit about losing the Paul George trade, but figured that wouldn’t work well for anyone.

She got home pretty late, but was so wound up it took her nearly two hours to relax and get to sleep. She had a great time and wants to go back. Hope she’s not disappointed when we are not sitting in the front row next time.

While watching the Pacers game, I was also following the final night of World Cup qualifying on Twitter and the ESPN app. As most of you know, it turned out to be an utter shitshow of a night. The US men’s national team went down 2–0 to lowly Trinidad & Tobago in the first half. But, because both Honduras and Panama were also losing, the US was still in the World Cup at that point. When Christian Pulisic pulled one back early in the second half, it looked like the US would find a way to salvage a tie and move through by the narrowest of margins. But they continued the theme of this qualifying campaign, and sleep walked through the next 40-plus minutes and fell 2–1.

Meanwhile Honduras tied Mexico, then put a ball off the crossbar that ricocheted off the Mexican goalkeeper’s back into the goal to take the lead. And Panama got a very controversial winning goal. The soccer gods were saying, “Yeah, you don’t belong in the World Cup,” to the US.

First time the US won’t play in the World Cup since 1986.

It was both a disaster and a completely deserved fate for this team. Whether the fault of the players, the two coaches who have guided them through this 18-month process, or the folks who run US Soccer, this team looked terrible throughout the qualifying games. They played with disinterest, got pummeled far too often, and never found the spark they needed to beat teams they should have beaten. They didn’t deserve to go to Russia. I guess this saves them the embarrassment of being the worst team in the tournament as they were in France ’98.

Not only do they miss the next World Cup, but if they somehow get their shit together and qualify for the 2022 World Cup, that one will be played in the fall, when most of the US is focused on football and the baseball playoffs. The USMNT is going to have a very hard time moving the needle in the US again until 2026. Along the way they may waste the prime of Pulisic, the first “Savior of American Soccer” who appears deserving of that title.

Oh well. I root for the USMNT because I’m an American, and I hope someday they can consistently go deep into international tournaments. But I’m generally rooting for Italy in the World Cup, and whatever other teams are joys to watch in that particular year. Or against the countries I don’t like. The US not being in Russia doesn’t mean I’m not going to watch the World Cup.

Getting the Shot

October 10, 2017 / DB

The photo of Carlton Fisk waving his home run fair in game six of the 1975 World Series is iconic. I had no idea there was such a deep story behind it and the man who captured those frames. Harry Cabluck not only caught Fisk dancing down the first base line. He also shot Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception in 1972. And he was just behind John F. Kennedy’s car in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Quite a life.

Here is a rundown of both Cabluck’s career and what went into catching Fisk deep into that Boston night.

The Legendary Baseball Photo That Almost Didn’t Come Out Because The Stadium Was Shaking Too Hard

Winding Down the Seasons

October 9, 2017 / DB

The last big, kid sports weekend of the fall is in our rearview mirror.

C ran at the City championships on Saturday. That’s where she ran the best race of her life a year ago to finish 6th in the 3rd/4th grade race. This year it was much warmer and very windy, so not ideal running conditions. But coming off the 5th/6th grade girls winning the biggest meet of the regular season three weeks ago, we were hoping they could add a City title.

The course is great for runners in that it’s very flat. It’s great for spectators because you can see the runners several times as they wind back-and-forth if you’re willing to move around. We caught them near the 1K mark and our girls were doing great. The sixth grader who has won every race this year was well out in front. Our two other fast sixth graders were together in the low teens. And C and her fifth grade buddy were in the high teens. We yelled at C that she was doing great then cut back across the field to catch her again.

When they came through this time, our leader was still way out in front, but one of her classmates had fallen back. And C and moved up. She was 11th with just under half the race to go. More yelling of encouragement then over to the finishing stretch.

Our sixth grader cruised to another win, finishing her perfect season. A reminder that she never ran competitively before this year. She’s incredible. Our next sixth grader came over the rise at #9. Then the waiting and counting. C appeared in the 14th spot, but she looked like she was struggling. We yelled and then I ran with her, yelling from the side, for the last 200 yards. “COME ON, C! KEEP GOING, C! YOU’VE GOT IT, C! STRIDE OUT, BABE!” A girl passed her with about 100 yards left and another was closing. I ran faster and yelled louder, but she was clearly on fumes. That girl caught her right at the line, putting her in 16th place.

She didn’t set a PR – she was 11 seconds slower than her City time from a year ago – but it was still her fastest race of the year by nearly 30 seconds.

She was the third St. P’s finisher.

She was the fifth fifth grader to finish.

She beat 112 other girls.

A pretty good day for her!

We had three more races to wait through before we got official results. During that 90-minute stretch all the St. P’s parents were walking around asking where everyone finished, and seeing if anyone was counting for other schools. Our top four, who score for the team competition, were all in the top 19. We just weren’t sure if anyone else squeezed in four runners in front of them.

Turns out a school we hadn’t run against all year had four in the top 15, which was good enough to edge our girls by five points for the team title. That girl that nosed out C? Yep, she was on the winning team. Fortunately those points were not the difference, as that would have only cut it to a three point difference.

Still a great day for our girls. They got another trophy and got recognized at school this morning. Football has another month left, but so far that group of girls are the only St. P’s athletes to add any trophies to the school lobby. And each time C has been one of the girls earning points for her team.

For the year C placed in every race she ran, had one top–10 finish, and twice was the #3 finisher from St. P’s. Not bad for being in the younger half of the age group.

L had two soccer games this weekend. We missed Saturday’s game while we were at the XC meet. She scored three goals in a 12–0 win. Sunday she scored three more in a 13–1 win. She’s so humble. When she scored her third goal yesterday, she turned and looked at me and said, “That’s a hat trick!” She has 13 goals on the year with one game to play. As good of a weekend as that was for L, our best player scored nine on Saturday and six on Sunday.

Since I was at Sunday’s game I can claim a very proud coaching moment. We have a kid that is huge; he looks more like a sixth or seventh grader. He’s both tall and wide, so he’s not the most mobile or graceful kid in the world. He really struggles to control the ball. We’ve been working with him all year to not worry about taking the perfect shot. If the ball’s on your foot, hit it. What we don’t tell him is that everyone is afraid of him and they’re going to get out of the way when he winds up. He scored a goal a couple weeks back, but remained reluctant to shoot. Partially because he hits the ball so hard that it often sails well over the crossbar.

This week we put him up front and told him to stay there. Don’t chase on defense and waste your energy. Sit up front and when the ball goes forward, get into the box. He scored our first goal on an absolutely beautiful kick. He took his time, got the ball lined up, and ripped it past the goalie from outside the box. It was 1–0 for a long time before L put us up 2–0. Then the big kid scored two quick goals to break the game open. When we subbed him out we were high fiving him and telling him how awesome he was playing. I high fived our head coach and jokingly told him he had tapped into the potential coaches had been trying to get out that kid for the past two years.

On the other hand, we have a couple kids who have no idea what’s going on. Worse, one of them whines all the time, tries to score on our goalie, or gets stuck way out of position. Yesterday we had him playing defense. At first he was drifting forward and we told him to get back in his position. He gave us his usual response, a whiny “WHY?” She he shuffles his feet back to position, head down, pouting. We yell at him to watch the game and he finally picks his head up to see the ball slowly rolling toward him.

Does he run up and kick it forward, like he’s supposed to? No.

Does he trip and fall and let the other team get a clean shot on goal? No.

Does he settle the ball then turn and shoot it on his own goal, as he’s done multiple times this year? No.

Nope, instead he kneels down, puts his hands out, and waits to pick the ball up as if he’s the goalie.

The best thing about this play was the the ball was rolling very slowly, no one from the other team was chasing it, and he was on the opposite end of the field of us. It was like it was all happening in slow motion. The head coach and I were screaming at him not to touch the ball. But, sure enough, he picks the ball up and hugs it close. Free kick for the other team.

The referee told him what he did wrong and he put his head down, stood in the middle of the penalty box, and pouted while the game continued. He’s lucky his head and assistant coaches are pretty laid back dudes. We just looked at each other and muttered, “What the hell is he doing?”[1]

Later in the game this kid asked to play goalie. When we said no his response was, “But I’m one of the best defenders on the team!” Before you say, “Well he did make a good goalie play there,” I’ll let you know the two times we’ve put him in goal this season he’s literally run away from the ball when he had a chance to pick it up. One time he made an amazing save as he fled. He had his back to the ball, was running away, and the ball pinned between his legs. He tripped and fell, but he saved the shot!

We have a group of about four knucklehead boys on the team, that kid included. They never pay attention, at practice they’re always pushing each other, kicking each other’s balls across the field when we’re trying to do drills, etc. I spend about 35% of practice yelling at them to shut up and listen to what the head coach is trying to teach them. Last week I got sick of telling them the same thing over-and-over and told them the next time someone kicked a ball when they weren’t supposed to, they were going to have to run laps.

Mr. Best Defender on the Team raised his hand and said, “What’s a lap? I want to run one! Coach, what’s a lap?”

I just walked away. Later I told the head coach and he muttered, “Make him fucking run it if he wants to run one.”

Youth sports!

Also fun is apparently S yelled the same thing from where she was sitting, not knowing the kid’s mom was right in front of her. I think the mom is kind of used to it, though, and may have said the same thing. ↩

Friday Playlist: Petty

October 6, 2017 / DB

So I kind of missed out on Tom Petty.

I always loved “Refugee,” “You Got Lucky,” and his epic duet with Stevie Nicks, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” But when he really hit his stride, both artistically and commercially, in the mid/late 80s, I was off listening to other stuff. Hip hop and R&B. When I got to college I shifted to alt rock. All genres that stood in stark contrast to what Petty was doing. Even then, his songs were so big you couldn’t miss them – “Free Fallin’” and “Runnin’ Down A Dream” are two notable examples – and I enjoyed them. But I just never counted myself as a huge fan.

That began to change a few years back. First, I realized that “American Girl” was written and recorded in 1976, which fucking blew me away. Released in the magical music year of 1977, there wasn’t anything else that sounded like that song. It was at least five years ahead of its time.

WTTS, the radio station down in Bloomington that is our lake soundtrack, plays tons of Petty in their regular rotation.[1] Two summers ago I heard one of the secondary tracks from Damn the Torpedoes, either “Here Comes My Girl” or “Even The Losers,” and made a mental note to listen to that whole album when I had a chance. God damn that album is a beast. The first six songs are all classics, an entire career for 90% of artists. I was mad at myself for not getting beyond the album’s two biggest hits for nearly 30 years.

Then there was the modern music I’ve been drawn to in recent years that has been influenced by Petty. Ryan Adams’ last three albums have a ton of Petty in them. The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel has been likened to The Heartbreakers Mike Campbell in his guitar playing style and prowess.

For a few months I’ve been thinking, “Man, I should really dive into Petty’s music some day.” I’ve finally been doing that the past couple days, sadly because of his passing rather than me finally pushing aside other music and devoting some time to his work.

Here’s what strikes me most about his music. It’s timeless. Those 1970s songs sounded ahead of their time. His most recent music doesn’t sound all that different. His songs never sounded of a specific era; they just sounded right. His genius was finding some sweet spot between Top 40 and rock, 60s jangle pop and Southern Rock, Florida and California, that sounds perfect no matter what kind of music you normally like. He wrote these amazingly simply pop songs full of hooks and riffs that got stuck inside your head forever. His lyrics lend themselves to multiple interpretations, sometimes optimistic, sometimes pessimistic, depending on your mood.

Some music will be played on the radio forever because they were massive hits and wove themselves into our cultural fabric. Tom Petty’s music will be played forever – big hits and small – because it is just so perfect. I’ve focused on his bigger songs and albums the past few days. But when a song I’ve never heard before, a deep cut off a lesser known album pops up, it sounds just as great as the hits.

One more thing: no one I know who has ever gone to a Tom Petty concert has ever complained after. I know folks who saw him this summer, or even over the past 10 years, and while my first thought was “You paid how much to see a guy who hasn’t had a huge hit in 20 years?” their first comment is always, “Man it was a great show!” There’s something to be said for touring deep into life not just to make money, but to also put on a hell of a show.

Petty’s death didn’t hit me as hard as Chris Cornell’s, or certainly Prince’s. I was never a big enough fan to be unsettled by his passing. But this week has driven home the point that he was one of the finest artists of his generation. His legacy is a catalog of songs that will be delighting listeners until we stop listening to music. Here are a few of my favorites.

“American Girl” – So far ahead of its time it didn’t become a hit for years after its release. What a perfect pop song.
“Refugee” – As I said, I could include any of the first six songs from Damn the Torpedoes. But the first track remains the best. Like many of his best songs, there’s just a hint of disgust in Petty’s delivery.
“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” – Written by Petty and Campbell for the Heartbreakers, producer Jimmy Iovine convinced them to share it with Stevie Nicks. It was an incredible way to begin her solo career. Again we hear disdain in Petty’s delivery.
“Runnin’ Down a Dream” – One of the greatest road trip songs ever. That acoustic guitar in the chorus will never get out of your head. And the solo at the end may be the best of Campbell’s career.
“You Wreck Me” – Another song I’ve fallen in love thanks to WTTS. It was just this summer that I heard it at just the right time of day and I thought, “Damn, that’s a great freaking song.”

“You Got Lucky” – I’m kind of proud of myself for always liking this song. A lot of folks weren’t so sure about it when it was released back in 1982. The lack of guitar and reliance on synths didn’t please many people. But I was just 11 and enjoyed its very 80s sound. And while some found the video cheesy, I thought it was cool as hell. And another great kiss-off line from Petty, “You got lucky, babe, when I found you.”

I’m guessing he’s second only to Mellencamp in terms of breadth of songs by one artist they spin. ↩

Finally

October 5, 2017 / DB

Our contractor put the last touches on our guest bathroom renovation project last night. After eight weeks, we finally kicked the girls down the hall and have a bathroom to ourselves. Two toothbrushes! A clear countertop! No piles of ponytail holders scattered all over the place! Now if we can just keep them from ruining the new bathroom…

We had hoped to be done several weeks back. But we had a big snafu with one custom-ordered piece that set us back three weeks. And our contractor just has one plumber, one drywall guy, etc. and each of them added in a few extra days as they worked our project into their schedules.

But the good news is we’re done, right on budget, and it looks fantastic.

Bigger for me is that now fall can finally begin. I’ve had to hang around the house during this whole process to let folks in, hand out checks, approve materials,[1] etc. It’s been tough to get into a routine while I stick around and wait for a plumber to show up, not knowing if he’ll be here at 11 on Monday morning, or 4 on Tuesday afternoon.

I’m looking forward to finally getting out with the camera again, something I’ve not been able to do much since the school year began.

I actually started running again a couple weeks back, as I realized all my time on the bike and elliptical might be saving my joints from pounding, but were also killing my hips in the process. I’m sticking to the cross country course nearby, but no issues so far.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence, but today is cool and rainy, the first day we’ve had like this all season. The forecast shows a few more warmer-than-normal days, but then beginning to feel a lot more fall-like next week. Part of me is still in mid-August, but I think I’m going to get pulled into fall pretty quick.

We’ve not been down to the lake since Labor Day weekend, which has been a damn shame given how many hot weekends we’ve had since then. But we’re headed down in a week to grab the boat and haul it back for the winter. Always a bittersweet day. Especially when we’ve only used it twice in the past two months!

Who am I kidding? I would text S and she would make the approvals. ↩

Reader’s Notebook, 10-5-17

October 5, 2017 / DB

The Force – Don Winslow.
Winslow writes excellent epics anchored in the world of organized crime. In the past he’s focused on the drug trade, specifically the cartels of Mexico. Here he shifts much farther to the north to look at the life of Denny Malone, Manhattan’s toughest, best, and most powerful detective.

Malone’s crew runs North Manhattan. Nothing happens in that part of the city without either his permission or his punishment. His crew makes the biggest drug busts, snatches the most rapists and murderers, and attempts to keep the peace between the various drug gangs that harass the locals.

Stephen King offers a cover-blurb for The Force and says is is reminiscent of The Godfather for both its scope and quality. I would argue the book more closely mirrors Goodfellas if you want to compare it to a classic tale of the American mob. The first third of the book is a very Scorsese-like setup: we see Malone and his partners reaching the pinnacle of their power, and enjoying the spoils of that success. Everything builds up to a single night of celebration after a huge bust. The next morning everything falls apart: the FBI has Malone on tape committing multiple Federal crimes, and demand his cooperation in order to save his badge. He has to weigh the value of saving himself, and his family, against becoming the worst thing a cop can be: a rat.

The whole thing is typical Winslow: sprawling, detail rich, great characters, and filled with moral ambiguity.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
I had never read this classic before. But I recently came across a list of best dystopian novels and picked it from several I had not knocked out in the past.

I hate it when I read a book that is revered and it just doesn’t connect with me. I enjoyed the central concept of the story: a society where citizens are numbed by constantly staring at screens that feed us videos designed to make us forget the struggles of life and wipe out independent thought, and where all books are banned and any found are burned by a crew of firefighters. But, man, Bradbury’s writing style was just so dry and tedious to my eyes. I struggled mightily to get through the first 100 pages. M said she will read it at school next year so the one redeeming quality is now I can discuss it with her. I wonder how it will read to her 21st century eyes.

The North Water – Ian McGuire
Here’s a fine book. Set in 1859, on a British whaling ship that is embarking to Canada with a crew full of misfits and men trying to salvage their lives after past failures.

One crew member is an Irish surgeon who was on the wrong side of a battle with a commanding officer while serving in India. He is educated and worldly, and thus doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crew. Another crew member is a sadist who has equal appetites for liquor, prostitutes, physical conflict, and teenage boys. And the captain has had a series of disastrous whaling trips and is torn between redeeming his reputation and fulfilling a troubling order from the ship’s owner.

Their trip to Baffin Bay goes poorly. A young deckhand is murdered and while a crew member is charged with the murder, no one is really convinced he is the guilty party. After some early luck with the whales, the hunting soon runs dry. Yet the captain persists in staying deep in the Northern Canadian waters even as the winter ice begins to regenerate. Soon their ship is trapped, and then destroyed, by the freezing pack. The crew soon dissolves into chaos: there is another murder, they argue about whether to seek a ship that can rescue them or travel toward the nearest known settlement, all while winter weather begins to bear down on them. The story builds to an expected, but satisfying, final confrontation.

McGuire is brilliant in setting the scene for us. He describes all the sounds and smells of Hull’s shipping yards and the taverns that surround it where the crew spends its time while onshore. It’s not a pleasant description, but it is very effective for putting you there. The process of stripping a whale carcass is laid out in tremendous detail. He knows his way around a ship, and supplies all the necessary nautical terms and functions.

Nine

October 3, 2017 / DB

Yesterday L marched into her classroom and immediately proclaimed that it was the last day she would be attending school as an eight-year-old.

Girl is not afraid of attention.

Yep, nine years ago today we became parents for the third time. And, as I say every year, L is the ultimate third child. She can size up a room quickly and know how to entertain everyone in it. She can sense when her sisters are fucking up, do the exact opposite thing, and make sure we are aware that her behavior is different. Example: M and C are both in messy bedroom stages. Actually that’s being kind. Their rooms are both total disasters. S and I have reached the point where we won’t even walk into them. Each weekend L will carefully and thoroughly clean her room, then cheerfully announce in front of the entire family, “I put all my clean clothes away and got my room cleaned up!”

She’s also a little but of a suck-up. We get stories all the time from parents who either substitute teach or serve as recess supervisors at St. P’s about L hanging out with them and volunteering to help them. I was in the pickup line early one day last week and saw her literally racing people to see who could pick up the most playground balls before they went back inside. Her current teacher is always her “favorite teacher ever,” and she makes sure they know it. Fortunately she manages to do this in a manner that is still charming and not Eddie Haskell-ish.

She has a wide range of interests. She reads constantly. She’s not as artsy as C, but when the mood strikes she’ll whip up all kinds of crafts. She’s always down for throwing, kicking, shooting, or hitting any kind of ball. Regular readers know about her prowess on the soccer field, kickball diamond, and basketball court. She’s one of those kids that can quickly and easily take to any sport, and play them with an equal desire to win and have fun. She has a drum set and electric guitar that she enjoys writing her own songs with. She and her sisters love to watch cooking shows then go into the kitchen, or outside, and do their own mock cooking competition shows. She enjoys coming up with impromptu plays for the entire family.

L has always been a leader amongst her friends. It’s weird how that both came naturally to her, and her friends always seem willing to follow her. I suppose that’s another side of being the third-born: she watched her sisters do things for years, so when she started preschool, she had everything down and became the guide for everyone else. It’s not just about her leading games at recess, being an excellent student, or being the best player on her teams. She’s been selected to represent her class and school at several events over the past year, including introducing the keynote speaker at an educational symposium and telling a room full of parents about her experiences at St. P’s.

We all need balance in life, and L is a bit of a surprise on the ways she balances out her personality. We finally got her onto the tube in the lake in the summer of 2016. This summer she again refused to go out, and preferred to stay at the dock and fish rather than even go for a ride on the boat. For all her adventurousness the kid is still in our bed at least one night a week because she can’t sleep or something woke her up and scared her. Fortunately we’ve at least got her to go to the basement if it’s a storm that wakes her up. Oh, she’s terrified of storms. If I mention that it might rain in the evening, she’ll immediately ask, “Is it going to storm?” I feel bad lying to her, but I want her to at least have a chance to sleep instead of stressing out about a little thunder. A few times this summer she actually slept through loud storms. The next morning I would tell her, “See, you can do it! No big deal!” The next time it thundered she’d either be in our bed or fleeing to the basement.

L’s ability to read the room has always meant she’s gotten in less trouble than her sisters. That’s changing just a little, though. She’s developed a little bit of an attitude over the past year. Sometimes she’ll snap at us, or argue when we correct her. I think that’s equal part stubbornness, which she gets from both parents, and simply growing up. I admit I look least forward to her hitting her teenage years because she’s always been the B girl who went out of her way to avoid conflict with us. We’ve been fighting with M and C for years; what comes next with them is just a natural progression. When we start fighting with L, it’s going to rock my world a little bit.

Hopefully she can put that off for awhile and we still have several more years of her goofy, good cheer.