The people at Hertz surprised us with an unusual ride last weekend. That’s right, we rocked a Nissan Cube in Kansas City all weekend! When we got to the appropriate spot in the Hertz parking lot, we looked at each other, and then around, unsure if we were in the right location. We double and triple checked the number. We looked to either side to see if maybe a Focus or Corolla was sitting there, and that was the correct car.
The latest installment in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries is a funny look at the origins of fantasy sports: Rotisserie Baseball. I enjoyed it for many of the same reasons the AV Club reviewer enjoyed it: while the idea of fantasy sports appealed to me, I must admit I was more in love with the books that explained the game. I remember first noticing the original Rotisserie baseball book sometime in the summer of 1985.
It’s time to clear out the comment spam folder, again. This post is beyond awesome. I am always wondering what to do and what not to do so I will follow some of these tips. The subject is fully clear but why does the text lack clarity? But in general your blog is great. Thanks the author for article. The main thing do not forget about users, and continue in the same spirit.
M.’s first soccer game was Saturday. As with her first practice, it went about as well as we could have hoped. She wasn’t the fastest player on the team, nor the best, but that fit our expectations. After trailing the action for awhile, she finally got in the mix and even managed to gain possession a few times. It was a tough day for soccer, at least if you’re five. After a week of warm days, the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the winds were howling at 20-25 MPH.
M. had her first soccer practice Wednesday night. It went about as we expected. She was a little tentative, but active. Her team of eight is split evenly between boys and girls. A few of the boys and one of the girls have some skills. M. will get comfortable and get more into it in time. But at least she wasn’t crying and refusing to participate like another girl. The first game is Saturday.
There was a situation I ran into a few times before I became a parent that I never really knew how to handle. It always involved a child who had an older sibling who was either learning to read, or had just mastered reading. I would say to the younger child, “Let’s read a book,” and that child would soberly respond, “I can’t read.” That response always took me aback; I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to encourage them, reassure them, ignore it, or what.
I made my first-ever visit to Cincinnati’s Great America Ballpark on Thursday to catch a Cardinals-Reds matinee. Good times all around. We cruised down I-74 and arrived in Cincy just in time to hook up with some friends who just happened to have a pocket-full of extra tickets. I’m pretty sure you can’t beat $20 for three tickets on a day when you can pick your seat. With only about 13,000 people in attendance, we were able to sit with our friends who had front row seats down the right field line.
Evil Gail’s comment on my Butler post brought up an interesting point: as with last year’s Missouri team, it was hard for me not to like this year’s Kansas State team. Rival or not, I like teams that have a personality/style, play hard, and have players that make big shots in important situations. This year’s Wildcats fit that description to a T. I don’t think I’m the only Big 12 fan out there who will admit I was wrong about Frank Martin.
So I guess I can watch the Final Four now. Traditionally in the years when KU goes out of the tournament early, I stop watching basketball. When I was younger, it was pure pouting. My team wasn’t playing anymore, so I was taking my remote and going home. Now it’s more to protect my circulatory system. I don’t need to watch Northern Iowa miss seven free throws and shoot 25% from three point range against Michigan State.
When I was a kid it would have been among my greatest dreams to have one of the players from these little cardboard rectangles walk into my world, big as life. What I didn’t realize is that I’m the kind of fan who needs distance. Duane Kuiper « Cardboard Gods This quote serves two purposes. First, it allows me to link to the always excellent Cardboard Gods site, specifically to a Joe Posnanski-centered post.
She was not the cure for cancer And all my questions still ask for answers There is nothing like someone new This girl she was nothing like you Like many fans of Frightened Rabbit's amazing 2008 album The Midnight Organ Fight I was worried how they would follow it up. It was obvious that they were a band of great talent, centered around the lyrics and vocals of Scott Hutchinson. However, Organ Fight was so intensely focused, it was natural to wonder if the magic would still be there when they moved on to other subjects.
Some weekend. Two days in Kansas City to honor a good friend who is getting married in about a month. Plenty of good food* and good times. A spring snow storm that made travel treacherous Saturday night and the weekend extra memorable. A dicey Sunday morning in which I wasn’t 100% sure I was going to be in any condition to fly home. (Oklahoma Joe’s, Gates', and The Peanut.) And then the bad, a certain basketball game in Oklahoma City.
A little more stressful of a start for KU than I had hoped, but a W is a W. And perhaps their early struggles last night will get them focused in on Northern Iowa. Now for a post that’s been sitting in the drafts folder all week. I’m getting to be old enough that I can start pining for the good old days. Of course, it’s weird to think that to my generation the good old days took place in the 1980s.
Hardest year ever to make picks. Because of the parity that college basketball has seen this year? No, because I don’t have a feel for any of these teams. Usually, right or wrong, I can look at the brackets and have a feel for each team. I like this team’s style, dislike that one’s. I think that team is peaking, this one is toast. That coach is a tool. Etc.
If you think I have some thoughts, you thought right. I think. Let’s just get this out of the way: someone at Duke called in some serious favors. It’s one thing if they had earned the top overall seed to be rewarded like that. But there were reasonable voices who said, on Sunday, that Duke was not deserving of a #1 seed. The way their bracket looks, I’m surprised the committee didn’t do a last second switch and move some games to Greensboro or Charlotte, too.
A quick update on local basketball. First off, EHS fell one game short of taking their first regional title in 59 years. They won their Saturday morning contest in overtime,* their third straight one-point win, but dropped the championship game by 12 points. Still, a great year for a school that hadn’t had a winning record in ten years. They return almost their entire team, so I’m looking forward to following them again next year.
Periodically we buy the girls spiral notebooks to use however they see fit. Most of the time they turn into sources for paper when they want to draw and color. But, as M. learns to read and write, hers has taken on a new use: her first diary. While she was insistent at first that we were not to read her diary, since she’s broadcast every entry to the entire family I feel comfortable sharing some of my favorite entries here.
In recent weeks I’ve covered the state swimming and diving finals, a sectional gymnastics meet,* and a few hoops game here and there. Saturday night, though, I may have covered the perfect game. Save this one for lunch or a coffee break; it will take a while to get through. (Awful. I forgot from last year how tedious gymnastics meets are because of all the dead time between rotations. For some reason things were exceptionally slow Friday night.
28 days, three books. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman - Jon Krakauer. Most of you should know Tillman’s story: an NFL player looking at a lucrative, long-term contract turned his back on professional football and joined the Army Rangers in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. After he died in combat in Afghanistan, he became the face of the sacrifice to win the war on terror, despite his insistence while alive that he not fill such a role.
”Just got back from Kansas-Okla. This KU team fascinates me. I cannot tell yet if they're good, great or legendary." That Tweet from Joe Posnanski on Monday night perfectly sums up how I feel about this year’s Jayhawks. The only team in the nation in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency, yet most observers believe they’re capable of playing better than they have. Is that fair?