One lousy game can change everything. The Royals were looking good Wednesday afternoon. They got another strong performance from a starting pitcher. Alex Gordon finally got off the schnide, getting two hits including a home run. Billy Butler had gone deep for the second time this year. The bullpen was nails for six innings. And there they were, going into the bottom of the 12th with a one-run lead and a 4-2 season-opening road trip three outs away.
For the next month or so, the Indiana High School Athletic Association is holding public hearings around the state to discuss multi-class basketball. Even if there is an overwhelming outpouring of support for going back to the old system, no one really expects the tournament to change. The final decision is in the hands of the state’s principals, who are overwhelmingly for keeping things the way they are. I’ve written before about how my opinion on this has changed after living here.
A follow-up to the 3 Things post from the weekend: M. has mastered the art of riding a bicycle. Early Saturday she was doing a great job of riding with me just barely guiding her, but was more interested in doing other things and cut the practice short. In the evening I made a quick trip to the grocery store and when I turned onto our street, there she was riding all on her own.
Some things I’ve enjoyed about my daughters over the past week. M.: M. is always talking. Even if just to herself, her lips are always moving and sounds are coming out. We catch her whispering things to herself all the time. We’re working on bike riding. A week ago we took off her training wheels. She made some great progress the first few days, but with the weather cooling off and her back in school, we let things drop this week.
The off season is over; baseball is back! I’ve activated my MLB.TV subscription, loaded up At Bat on my iPhone and iPad, and am ready to go. It’s been an extra-long off season for Royals fans. After the solid finish to the 2011 season and encouraging results from the next wave of the youth movement, there was a sense that the off season could go a long way towards determining whether the Royals contended in 2012.
Since I remember things like this, a good time to look back at how I felt on four mornings that were similar to today. April 5, 1988. Exhilaration, amazement. April 2, 1991. Disappointment, sadness. April 8, 2003. Depression, anger. April 8, 2008. Relief, pure joy. April 3, 2012. Proud, at peace. One last deficit that could not be wiped out. A terrific year for a terrific team. Rock Chalk, bitches.
Monday night, for the fifth time in my life, my alma mater will play for the National Championship in men’s basketball. If this year, in which I’ve pulled back my obsession for the Jayhawks in order to find a better, healthier way of following them, has meant anything it’s appreciating that fact more than the brutal losses of Marches past. Is this team better than last year’s, or 2010’s?
I find myself in the uncomfortable position of defending John Calipari. With the long week before the National Semifinals, columnists around the country have been laying into Calipari, saying if Kentucky wins the National Championship with their Rent-A-Star system, it’s going to somehow destroy college basketball. I don’t get it. What is Calipari doing that every coach of an elite program hasn’t been doing for 20 years? Just because he is less shameless and more successful at restocking his starting five each year doesn’t somehow make his actions different, or more dangerous, than other coaches who have been chasing one-and-done talent.
KU’s Midwest Regional championship was the cherry on top of both the basketball season and our trip to Kansas City. Oddly enough I never felt nervous Sunday. Not before the game, not during the game. I was at peace with the season and satisfied with how far the team had advanced in the tournament. I was just hoping they would be competitive. In fact, I was on record as saying they would either win by 20 or lose by 20.
If we had to put a letter grade on our trip to Kansas City over the weekend, we would give it an A-. We had a great time seeing and catching-up with old friends. We hit a couple of my favorite eateries, although again with the kids present, I can’t go quite as nuts as I used to. And, obviously, the big, unexpected thrill was being about to watch a couple basketball games with people I used to spend a lot of time watching hoops with.
Tomorrow morning, we’re packing up the family truckster and heading west. By mid-afternoon, we will be in the land of burnt ends, fountains, and boulevards. It’s the first time we’ve taken the girls back to Kansas City in over two years, so it’s a special trip. Well, other than the eight hours in the van. But we have lots of movies and books, snacks, and a couple surprises to try to keep the girls occupied.
Three year olds are always observing, cataloging, and analyzing the actions and speech of others. Then they throw it back at you and crack you up. Example: The other night the girls were playing outside after dinner. First M. came in saying that L. hit her. A few minutes later C. came in, crying, with the same complaint. I brought L. in and told her not only could she no longer play outside, but also she had lost access to the new DVD we picked up at the library just for her that day.
A couple more notes I forgot to include in Monday’s post. A couple people asked if I watched with any of my Purdue friends. I did not. The late start on a Sunday made it difficult to get people together. My closest Purdue buddy had another obligation that night, but we did send a few texts back-and-forth during the game. Probably better that we didn’t watch it together. Strangely enough, that was the first time KU has played Purdue or IU since we moved to Indiana in 2003.
There was a moment, late in Sunday’s KU-Purdue game, when I admitted that it had been a terrific game and I could live with a loss. It certainly helped that KU was the better team for the last three minutes of the game, but I have a feeling I would still feel that way today had Purdue been able to hold off the Jayhawks. Which means I guess my stepping-back this year has paid off.
M.: Each morning when I drop M. off at school, she mumbles a goodbye to me as she scans the sidewalk between the van and the front door. She’s looking for friends who may be walking in. On the mornings she does run into someone she knows, I love the way they both light up, run to each other, start talking and laughing, and then walk inside together. It’s nice to be 7 and get along with everyone.
Following up on last week’s link to the Atlantic article about on-line advertising, a few thoughts about Internet privacy in general. As we spend more-and-more time online, more-and-more people are airing concerns about what happens to the bread crumbs of data we leave in our wake. It seems like every week or so brings a new ‘scandal’ regarding how some online services provider handles user data. Some people believe that no personal information of any kind should be logged and archived when they visit a website.
Thursday night is going to be big. After three months off air, Community returns! It’s such a big deal even The New York Times has a story about the show’s return in today’s edition. It remains unlikely, though, that “Community” will suddenly wade into the mainstream in search of more traditional viewers. Coming episodes revolve around a collegewide pillow fight (substituting for the regular paintball-shootout episode) and a full-scale “Law & Order” parody.
It’s mid-March, which means I should be sharing some NCAA tournament thoughts, right? This has, of course, not been a normal basketball season for me. So I honestly don’t have a whole lot to say. I’m pleased KU got a #2 seed. That seems right. I’m pleased they get to start in Omaha, and should they be fortunate enough to win two games, have another reasonable trip to St. Louis the following weekend.
Parenthood is a long, hard slog. It’s easy to get lost in all the negative things that wear you down each day/week/month. Thus, I’m going to attempt to end each week with three things that pleased me about my daughters over the previous seven days. Perhaps the public sharing of these acts will help me cope with the constant battles we’re having with them over other things. M.: M. is our reader.
An important subpoint to my recent admission that KU basketball meant less to me than it used to is that I’ve drifted back to my first love: baseball. Baseball was the first sport I was nuts about. For a good chunk of my childhood, nothing else came close to my love of baseball. Danny Manning and Michael Jordan changed that, beginning in 1985, and soon baseball was much less important to me than it used to be.