Saturday, March 20, 2004
BRUSH WITH GREATNESS...
So I'm reading through the newest slew of Mariner articles and I'm seeing nothing too shocking on a late Friday night after finals. Barry Bonds smoked two homers off Ryan Franklin in a spring game (yes, Dan Wilson caught in this game, and no, Bob Melvin didn't rail on him afterward). Having bat-wielding Evel Bastida in the California League will make for one hell of an Inland Empire/Lancaster rivalry (he didn't outdo what Izzy Alcantara did as a Pawtucket Red Sock though). Ramon Santiago is batting .480 this spring, guaranteeing him high regard in Bob Melvin's mind.
But I don't give a crap about the Mariners right now, and I've got two reasons.
Reason number one: Miah Davis and Pacific getting to the second round. Jeremy covered this, as will many others in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Reason number two: the girl that sat in front of me in calculus class four years ago now holds a world record. Congratulations to Tara Kirk. At the NCAA swim championships, Tara posted a 1:04.79 in the 100m breaststroke, running her Stanford winning streak (spanning her entire tenure there) in the event to 35. Three cheers for Tara Kirk -- a world-class swimmer, an amazing student, an extremely diligent, poised person, and one of the most down-to-earth approachable people anyone could ever meet. I'll take this moment to say I put a message into her 2000 yearbook that said something to the effect of all B-towners being on her side in the Megan Quann-Tara Kirk tilt. Hey, I was leaning more along the lines of competitiveness, not antagonism.
Semi-related story: as a Knight baseball player, one of the first few practices we had every year (when the ground was still mush outside) was a mental preparedness practice. Coach McKnight would put us through these visualization techniques and some other mental awareness exercises to kind of get us thinking in different ways and to sharpen our minds. At one point in one practice, he asked us if we thought we could teach ourselves to walk again if we were hypothetically stricken with a wheelchair-binding paralytic injury. Answers were scattered among the group of players. Coach McKnight said he knew of only two people in the school that had the mental strength and wherewithal necessary to go from paralyzed to fully locomotive. He said they were both female. He then said they were sisters. At this point, everyone in the room knew who he was talking about. One sister holds a world record tonight, and her younger sister and Stanford teammate, Dana, finished second in the 100 butterfly. In the realm of mental strength, it's been said that the Kirks have a sort of competitive switch that gets turned on when necessary. Mix this with hard work, and results pay off, tonight being the case in point.
Miah Davis, Class of 1999, Bremerton.
Tara Kirk, Class of 2000, Bremerton.
What a day for the Knights...KNIGHT PRIDE!!! I almost tore through a set of Bremerton spell-out jumping jacks while I posted this.
But I don't give a crap about the Mariners right now, and I've got two reasons.
Reason number one: Miah Davis and Pacific getting to the second round. Jeremy covered this, as will many others in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Reason number two: the girl that sat in front of me in calculus class four years ago now holds a world record. Congratulations to Tara Kirk. At the NCAA swim championships, Tara posted a 1:04.79 in the 100m breaststroke, running her Stanford winning streak (spanning her entire tenure there) in the event to 35. Three cheers for Tara Kirk -- a world-class swimmer, an amazing student, an extremely diligent, poised person, and one of the most down-to-earth approachable people anyone could ever meet. I'll take this moment to say I put a message into her 2000 yearbook that said something to the effect of all B-towners being on her side in the Megan Quann-Tara Kirk tilt. Hey, I was leaning more along the lines of competitiveness, not antagonism.
Semi-related story: as a Knight baseball player, one of the first few practices we had every year (when the ground was still mush outside) was a mental preparedness practice. Coach McKnight would put us through these visualization techniques and some other mental awareness exercises to kind of get us thinking in different ways and to sharpen our minds. At one point in one practice, he asked us if we thought we could teach ourselves to walk again if we were hypothetically stricken with a wheelchair-binding paralytic injury. Answers were scattered among the group of players. Coach McKnight said he knew of only two people in the school that had the mental strength and wherewithal necessary to go from paralyzed to fully locomotive. He said they were both female. He then said they were sisters. At this point, everyone in the room knew who he was talking about. One sister holds a world record tonight, and her younger sister and Stanford teammate, Dana, finished second in the 100 butterfly. In the realm of mental strength, it's been said that the Kirks have a sort of competitive switch that gets turned on when necessary. Mix this with hard work, and results pay off, tonight being the case in point.
Miah Davis, Class of 1999, Bremerton.
Tara Kirk, Class of 2000, Bremerton.
What a day for the Knights...KNIGHT PRIDE!!! I almost tore through a set of Bremerton spell-out jumping jacks while I posted this.
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