Catching up on the weekend and some girls notes as we wrap up a sleep-over.
We swapped daughters with our neighbors last night. C. went next door to sleep with her 7-year-old buddy while M.’s 9-year-old pal came to our home for the night. Our evening was uneventful. We ate dinner, then the girls watched the newest American Girl Doll movie1. It took them awhile to get settled upstairs, and we had to make some fan and air conditioning adjustmenst so they could cool off, but by the time I went to bed at 11 they seemed to be out.
Watchmen - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
I was never a comic book guy. I did have some Star Wars comics1 and dabbled in GI Joe comics in the early 80s, but that was about it. I think because I was never into comics, I was also never into super heroes. So while it has become fashionable in some circles for men my age to “rediscover” comics and start building a library of X-Men and Avengers books, since I lacked that early love of the medium and the characters, I’ve spent my middle aged hobby money elsewhere2.
The promised thoughts on a few of the biggest sports news of the holiday week.
Brad Stevens to the Boston Celtics. I was walking into a local brewery to fill growlers for the weekend last Wednesday when I got a text asking what I thought about the move. My first response was “Holy shit!” There were no rumbles here in Indy that Stevens was interested in, or talking to someone about, an NBA job.
Our long holiday week went pretty well.
We had visitors from Denver, including the girls' two cousins that they loved seeing. The cousins are three years and 15 months, and our girls think they’re the best things ever. M., C., and L. could not have been happier than they were playing with them, helping the little one up and down the stairs, and trying to teach them all the things they need to know that the B.
Some weekend notes.
They did it! The Royals finally made the right moves and designated Jeff Francouer for assignment and called up second baseman Johnny Giavotella. Gio responded by going 3-4 Sunday and making a couple very good plays in the field. Eric Hosmer is warming up, David Lough has been fantastic. If they can just get Moustakas going they can get our hopes up for next year!
A few weeks back I jokingly told a friend of mine that the Pittsburgh Pirates would be good about 2-3 weeks longer than they were last year.
My first blog post, on the first version of this site, ten years ago was a Bill Simmons-like breakdown of the 2003 NBA Draft. Now, as I watch the 2013 draft, Bill Simmons is manning the ESPN table with Reece Davis, Jalen Rose, and Jay Bilas. Does that qualify as coming full circle?
I won’t mince words: this is a shitty draft. I’m biased about one of these guys, but I think there are two safe picks in this draft: Ben McLemore and Otto Porter.
The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First - Jonah Keri.
It is too tempting, and too easy, to call this Moneyball 2.0&. Where Michael Lewis examined how the Oakland Athletics built a winner on a meager budget through the use of (then) obscure, advanced statistical analysis, Keri details how the Tampa Rays went from MLB laughingstock to one of the best franchises in the game through their own innovative look at the MLB talent pool.
I’m sure this will suffer a bit for having waited through the weekend to put them together, but some thoughts about LeBron and the Miami Heat winning the NBA title thursday night.
It was a lot to ask but still slightly disappointing that Game Seven didn’t live up to the standard set by Game Six. It wasn’t a blowout, but neither was it two heavyweights trading punches for 48 (or 53) minutes.
All kinds of stuff going on today, not the least of which is another important mid-June anniversary that must be celebrated.1 I’ve been sitting on this magnificent ode to PNC Ballpark in Pittsburgh by Charles Pierce for a couple weeks. It seems like the perfect day to share it.
If you offered me a first-class ticket to a decent paying career in any field, after turning down the unrealistic options,2 I would likely select being a sportswriter.
I’m dragging a little but this morning thanks to that epic Game Six of the NBA Finals last night.
In case you missed it, San Antonio controlled the first 36 minutes of the game wonderfully. They stretched out leads, responded to Miami runs, and seemed to be utterly in control of the game as it went to the final quarter. Late in the third period Tony Parker missed an open baseline jumper from about 18 feet that would have put the Spurs up 14.
I’ve shared before how C. is an impulsive child prone to get herself into trouble when something shiny grabs her attention and pushes all reasonable thought from her brain. Here is the story of her latest impulsive moment.
We were entertaining friends a few weeks back and C. was teamed up with one of her seven-year-old buddies. The parents were in one room and the kids scattered about the house. Littered through the kitchen were several hours' worth of empty cans and bottles and the tops that had originally been on them.
Mid-June is always busy with remembrances large and small here in Casa de B. June 2013 is extra special, as it marks the tenth anniversary of many of these events.
Last Thursday, for example, was the tenth anniversary of S. graduating from residency. That’s not one we celebrate but, as it was a part of a huge weekend ten years ago, we did acknowledge it this year.
Then Friday was our (first) tenth anniversary.
A few assorted sports notes.
Last weekend was a big weekend for people around me who suddenly become big fans of sports they don’t usually follow. For us Jayhawks, our women’s track team won the national championship, the first-ever national title for a women’s team from KU. A big part of their championship was Lindsay Vollmer’s solo national title in the heptathlon, another KU first.
Locally, IU advanced to their first-ever College World Series by going to Tallahassee and winning two straight games over host Florida State.
I realized Saturday, as I was flipping through the latest Sports Illustrated, that I really should have written something about the retirements of Jason Kidd and Grant Hill. There aren’t many professional athletes still playing who were in college at the same time I was, and these were two of the very best to grace the game while I was a student.1
Grant Hill was the Duke player everyone secretly liked.
We made a brief trip to the pool yesterday, our first visit this season. You may recall that last July 4 was the first time M. and C. jumped off a diving board. M., who is always cautious, took several minutes to get the courage up to take her first plunge, and only, finally jumped when I threatened to throw her off myself. C., of course, took right to it.
Man, it’s been a busy two-plus weeks. Between county tournaments, sectionals, and state finals, I’ve covered seven events over that stretch, most of which were terrific events to write about.
In the county baseball tournament, I had a preliminary round game that was run-ruled after five innings because of a 14-0 rout. Three days later I covered the title game that was an excellent 5-4 game that ended with the tying run on third base.
I guess the Heat responded Monday night. They played like the team they were all regular season, like the team they were constructed to be, and after a sloppy first quarter, methodically took control and blew the Pacers out.
Before the game, I told my buddy E-bro in ATX that logic dictated the Heat would win. The odds were far greater that LeBron either had a huge game plus help from his supporting cast, or just a really solid game and big contributions from his teammates, than Paul George going off and getting big lifts from the people around him.
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War - Tony Horowitz.
Although a bit dated now that it’s 20 years old, this still stands as one of the best, recent books about the Civil War. But it’s not your standard rehash or reviewing of the 1861-1865 war. Instead it views the war through the prism of the 1990s South, where in some places you would think the war ended a week ago and in others every reference to the war is carefully buried and hidden behind more marketable local history.
So I drafted this earlier today, before the news that the Royals have replaced their hitting coaches with George Brett and Pedro Grifo. So I guess something did happen. Whether that’s big news or not is another story.
It feels like a big day for sports.
Tonight, the Pacers take on the Heat in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals. With the series tied 2-2. Huge game. The Pacers have to win a game in Miami to snatch the series away, but I don’t think that happens tonight.
I do, ohhh, let’s say 80% of the laundry in our house. S. will do a load or two on the weekend, and occasionally after a trip or long weekend she’ll get all fired up and spend 12 hours getting every single thing washed and folded and put away. But normally it’s me doing the day-to-day laundry, from start-to-finish.
Where I am not involved, though, is in the seasonal changes in the girls' clothes.