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Tuesday, September 28, 2004

DA RETURN 

...no, I'm not talking Shaq-Fu.

Well, all, it's good to be back. The quick summary of what I missed was basically that Ichiro didn't get to 257 hits in 154 games (he'll need a few more games than Sisler) and that the Seahawks pasted the 49ers at the Q, prompting KJR callers to say that it was almost Kingdome-loud there on Sunday. All this and apparently the hot topic on KJR (Gastineau show) as I was driving home was that ISC has chosen the Marysville site as their choice of site for a NASCAR track in western Washington. Of course, from everything I've heard, the traffic infrastructure there needs work, badly, and that Snohomish County doesn't have a definitive plan yet. And yes, to anyone wondering how NASCAR could possibly make it onto KJR airwaves, Mike Gastineau is from Indiana (so is Kevin Calabro). Basketball and racing.

I just saw the second episode of Making the Cut, and I enjoyed it just like I thought I would. Once again, I have to say that the CBC would get a few of my dollars if they end up putting the series on DVD. Anyway, they cut a few players off of Scotty Bowman's team in tonight's episode and they'll be showing Mike Keenan's guys in the next episode. I was surprised to see a 5'5" guy and a 5'7" guy make it into the main field of 68 that went up to the resort in Vernon, BC, though. The first round of cuts is from 68 players to 40 players. Apparently the players that are cut can stay aboard and possibly play themselves back onto the elite squads, or they might be injury replacements, too. I've only seen one show, so I only know so much.

I only kept the following up for three days, but it was a short little running thing I had for the first three days I was out in the prairie.

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21 September (Tue)
-- Lauren Phinney of KTVM 6/42 (NBC) in western Montana...my goodness. Is there any way we can bring her to the Seattle market? Anyone wanting visual proof of this will have to get some friends in Montana with VCRs or something, though, as I've failed to get any images from a simple Google search [Edit Fri ~1:12a -- Jeremy found some visual proof. She's still better in motion, but you get my drift.] I'd put her on par with Elisa Hahn, except she does anchor work for the Montana Today morning show rather than the on-scene stuff that Hahn does.

-- 6/42 sports guy Jeff Lasky mentioned a football team with a Montana team facing a Canadian team. If the Montana team had the ball, they played by American rules. If the Canadians had the ball, it was Canadian rules, with 12 men on the field and everything. Lasky's delivery was something like "you get to see the other kind of football. That. Nobody. Really. Cares. About. Down. Here."

-- Ichiro was 5-for-5 when I left the television. I think he was at 242, needing fifteen by Sunday to break the real record.

-- Props to guy at the Taco Bell in Butte for nicely handling the drunk guy cursing up a storm over freakin' sour cream. So they got it wrong twice...just calmly tell them you'll never go back there again, but don't cause a freakin' scene. You never it's never a good thing when the employee says "if I ever see you in this establishment ever again, I will call the cops. That's a promise."

-- Most politically incorrect team name ever: the Warriors from Savage, Montana. That's right, they're the Savage Warriors. They've got a logo that looks kinda like the Chicago Blackhawks logo and everything.

-- The peaks surrounding Bozeman are snow-covered already. Absolutely beautiful.

-- Montana and North Dakota run tickets for the governor's office, I think. It's weird.

22 Sept (Wed)
-- Ichiro is at 245, 3-for-5 when I turned in for the night. Raul Ibanez was 5-for-5. What the hell is wrong with Bartolo Colon? Damn. The Mariners had 22 hits when I saw the last look-in.

-- Tambrey Laine of KXMC 13 in Minot...not quite Phinney, but good nonetheless.

-- After seeing Baseball Tonight "Switched," I must say that Kelly Barons should be every team's ballgirl and every team's ballpark ambassador. The number of Kelly Barons fan sites going up on the internet is probably going WAY UP! OH, HEMOGLOBIN!!

-- Noah Lowry was very impressive tonight, with his only mistake a Jeff Kent solo shot in a 5-1 complete game over the Astros. You don't know how badly I want to deflect all credit away from Phil Garner regarding the Astros' turnaround.

-- There's a couple of ballfields out by the school that look ripe for hitting balls, and I did bring the bat bag, and I did buy two new balls before I left to replace the two that I lost the last time I went to West Hills (sad day).

23 Sept (Thu)
-- A further update of last night reveals to me that Ichiro is at 247, ten away from Sisler. Of course, if Ichiro remains his torridity and Bucky Showalter actually lets his guys pitch to him, Ichiro can break the 154-game record with 11 hits in the three games this weekend. I highly doubt it, though. I doubted he'd be this close a week ago, but if he can get that 154-game record, I'll be absolutely floored.

-- I was searching through the ESPN channels over here tonight to see how the Mariners did, but then I forgot it was an off day. Fiddlesticks. I'm used to them having Mondays off, but not Thursday.

-- I tried out the southeast-facing softball field at the Kenmare Public School for blasting off with baseballs. I ran into some thick grass patches, which I've unfortunately had too much experience with over at West Hills. However, the grass thinned out over the centerfield fence, which is where I aimed my hitting for the rest of the time. The fence is much less of a chipshot than at West Hills, but at the same time, the West Hills field seems a bit downhill and the Kenmare field seems a bit uphill. The farthest I got a ball was into a (dry) ditch on a bounce, next to a road. The road is about ten feet above the ditch. If I get any chances for the remaining time I'm here, my goal is to park one and at least get it onto the road, if not hit the road on the fly. Of course, I've got to make sure no cars are coming by.

-- Message seen above gate upon entry into Minot Air Force Base: "ONLY THE BEST COME NORTH"

-- Message seen above gate upon exit from Minot Air Force Base: "AND THE BEST GET BETTER WHEN THEY GO FORTH!"

-- Every time I play computer solitaire, I always play Vegas style, draw three, with cumulative scoring. I fired it up tonight here, and (this never happens to me) I won the first two times. After winning the second time, it lands the winner $416 into the black. This may never happen to me again, so let it be known that yes, I indeed did win solitaire twice in a row on the 23rd of September, 2004.
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Once again, it's good to be back, and I should be firing up the Mariner recap machine in the next hour or so, or whenever the game ends and my computer stops being dumb.

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