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Saturday, July 24, 2004

RUN RICKY RUN 

Ricky Williams has retired from the NFL at the age of 27.

With that, I bring you this.


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RANDOM-RRIFIC 

I just have to say that whenever I'm using the latest newly-tweaked version of the Blogger interface, I'm still using the Edit HTML flap instead of the Compose flap. You just get used to certain things, ya know?

-- Six weeks in a land far from anywhere as well as nowhere will land a Canuck fan like me into some major hockey withdrawal. One quick trip to the official site gave me a fix consisting of articles on drafting strategy, new free agent signings (veteran journeyman goalie Wade Flaherty, defenseman Johnathon Aitken, right winger Lee Goren), and the 2004-2005 schedule (we'll see how many of those games actually get played). From the schedule release, "[t]he Canucks sold out all 41 regular season home games last year and have now capped their season ticket base at 17,000." That, my friends, is nuts.

-- The Seahawks are only nine days away from starting training camp in Cheney. I've never looked forward to a football season with this much anticipation in my life, and it's pretty much coming at the expense of your Seattle Mariners. Anyway, the Hawks have four new TV spots that I haven't seen yet and will have to hunt around for them on the TV because 56k won't be able to hack it when it comes to online viewing. Also, I'm going to miss Brian Davis in the booth. I have a feeling that the radio broadcasts are going to be way too soft.

-- The Alex/Varitek brawl? Yeah, I saw it. It looked like Varitek was trying to pull a wrestling move on Alex, specifically the T-bar, which with proper execution tips the person over, but with improper execution can cause acute pain if the person is not wearing a cup.

-- Then I realized the Yankees are getting away with having Tanyon Sturtze on the roster. This shouldn't be allowed to happen. It's Tanyon Sturtze, for goodness' sake. Dartanyon.

-- Did Neil Patrick Harris just steal your car? If so, the Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle trailers may have drilled a hole into your head.

-- I'd like to thank ODOT for having the wisdom to close off two out of the three lanes of northbound I-5 just south of the Terwilliger curves at 10pm on a Friday night because after all, there'd never be any cars on the road at that time (it's preposterous). Raise your hand out there if you've had to drive with the window down and no shirt on (if you have no AC) at 10pm...

-- A surf across the Portland radio dial last night yielded the Mariner game on KOMO (I don't know the Portland station, but KOMO was pretty clear), and two radio stations carrying the single-A game between Salem-Keizer and Vancouver (BC). Since there were two stations broadcasting the same game, I'm led to believe that one of the stations could have been beaming in all the way from the Great White North. Amazing. The other faraway station I listened to had an ad for Walnut Creek Chevrolet. "No way," I thought, knowing that Randy Johnson was born in that town in the Bay Area. I listened for a few more minutes and through a traffic report and sure enough, it was News Talk 810 KGO out of SF. I'll be damned.

It might take me a couple posts to work out the rustiness, y'all, but I'll work back into form. You have my word.

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BASEBALL HALL OF FAME 

Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersley will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame tomorrow in Cooperstown.

Both men are very deserving of the HOF. Molitor was one of the best hitters I've ever seen and Eckersley was one of the best closers I've ever seen.

Congrats to both Molitor and Eckersley.

Dave Niehaus for the Ford C. Frick Award in 2005!

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MONKEY BOY 

In my recap of the Missions-Travelers game last night, I forgot to mention one important part of the experience:

Monkey Boy

If I can describe Monkey Boy in one word, he's insane.

Monkey Boy is one of the newer mascots in the sporting world. His schedule usually takes him to minor league baseball and hockey games. He doesn't have the fame of the San Diego Chicken yet, but then again, who does?

Some of Monkey Boy's highlights
---Used a Super Soaker and sprayed water on some guy in the front row, wearing an A's hat. He was legitimately pissed off about it.
---His dancing could give the Six Flags old guy a run for his money. Of course, Monkey Boy could also be that guy as well, but I don't want to think about that. Seriously, I don't.
---Chased this little kid wearing an LSU hat (the Arkansas fans loved that)

Usually, I don't care too much about mascots. But Monkey Boy's alright. Hell, you can't lose with a name like Monkey Boy.

Monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkey Boyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...you know the rest.



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THANKS AND PRAISE 

I reached Bremerton safely about three hours ago.

Here's the last campish/Oregon-related post before I move back into the full swing of things. It's basically a thank-you list, so it might read like CD liner notes, except with hopefully a little more pizzazz, and it won't be totally bereft of sports, because we were shacked up with some OSU Beavers, after all. I guess I'll slightly forewarn that if I've ever made a post that I'd advise people they might want to skip it, it'd be this one. But you never know, there might be some nuggets in there you might like.

Thanks to...

(**Mitchell)
-- mapping partners at one time or another for their assistance; Andy, short Adam, big g'Adam, Brian, Cris, Kyle, Mark, Shane, Ryan, Seth, and Cody. Sorry y'all had to put up with my boundless field geology ineptitude

-- Kyle, who apparently is a cousin of Scott Hatteberg, for providing endless movie quotes (Arnold: Run to de chopper...do iiiit!) and endless slanguage. It's all in the delivery. For the record, he did marvel at my copy of Baseball Prospectus 2004

-- Ryan, the sports fan who doesn't care much about baseball, for not flying off the handle when I'd give him a Mariner score. I've told him to watch his step at the Beaver/Husky game at Montlake if he's in the bleachers

-- short Adam and Cris, whose musical preferences where quite aligned with mine (ball got rolling with Rush and Velvet Revolver, respectively), which led to timely musical discussion, a rarity outside my circle of friends

-- Mark (student) for putting some life into camp by getting frustrated, dropkicking his clipboard, driving his rockhammer through his map, then walking the 10+ miles from the field back to camp

-- Mark (cook) for cooking the food so we didn't have to, and giving us a ready-made source for impressions

-- Mikey Bizzle (Central) for being the big funny Norwegian dude he is

-- Angie, because it's totally worth it to see when she gets evil (hilarious and scathing impressions and/or semi-diatribes)

-- Joe for not playing dumb stuff like the Backstreet Boys on my guitar...oh wait, he did. That's pretty much all you need to know about Joe

-- Shane for giving the camp something else to talk about...we'll just say he was at a certain "nightclub" in Redmond (Oregon) where he was 86'd and tried to come back in, then wasn't at camp for the next day's activities

-- TAs Jeremiah, Mehgan, Kim, Deron (or DeRon, our fictional starting point guard), Kaleb, Denise, and John for their endless assistance and (usually) less geekiness and gung-honess compared to the professors

-- the professors -- the Jeffs and John for their assistance and knowledge; yes, six weeks in captivity may give you Stockholm Syndrome

-- Seth, three-year fellow geology cohort at Central, who has put up with my crap for the same amount of time, and got an extra dose of it when we were grouped for the final project. Cody and I pretty much would have been screwed without him. And I can't forget the Full Metal Jacket quotes (Don't touch me!! Lean forward and choke yourself!!)

-- Cody, because issues of Maxim and Stuff really aren't that bad when you're taking a long extended break from mapping in the field. Randy the Pineapple and Hiroki the Japanese food critic were starting to grow on me. Cody was also able to fill in quotes/references that I forgot, i.e., the Check Game on The Price is Right. The Brenda Braxton stories were great (a "will you marry me" sign when the news crew pulled up circa Civil War weekend), and so was the dog noise

-- that torrential mudslide-triggering rainstorm for chopping an hour or two of work from last Monday, though at the cost of water damage to everything we took into the field (notebooks, mags, playing cards, etc.)

-- Steve, the ex-Navy seal, who provided very worthwhile input

-- Kelly, who had a not-so-secretly evil mind as well (hilarious)

-- Sarah for being herself (quiet) and representing the Sequim contingent

-- tall Adam, the Nine Inch Nails and South Park freak, for not minding when people called him Big Gay Adam, or simply Big G'Adam or G'Adam

-- Andy, for making some of us feel like horribly inept hikers glad they didn't paired him on any of the later projects (my hand is raised)

-- Dan, notorious for being quiet, and for driving all the way to Sammamish and back with our July 4th "weekend"

-- Mike, for having a sense of humor about his last name. Depending on how you pronounce it, it may/may not have innuendo qualities

This leaves Jen (stratigraphic section drafter), Zeitel (final explanation editor), Mary (diligent), Matt (wholesome), and Morgan (out-of-his-way nice) as the people for whom I couldn't think of a witty reference. Sorry. I'm really hoping I didn't miss anyone, but if I referred to 25 people, then it's right.

(**Bend)
-- a woman named Billie, the first person I talked to in Bend, at the Saturday Market. It was very welcoming and I learned about the 45-foot height limit on Bend's buildings (preserves views and skylines, apparently, but promotes sprawl). Fittingly, she was selling postcards with rocks on them

-- the Bend PD, and the movie theater on 27th for not nailing me when I slept in my car in the parking lot. I didn't totally freeload because I did watch "Dodgeball" in that cineplex

-- Juniper Park, Safeway, and Barnes and Noble for letting me use their spacious bathrooms. Safeway was not freeloaded, but BN was.

-- Wall Street Guitars and Collectibles (I think that's the name), who let me play a vintage Martin 12-string acoustic that sounded great, and would sound even better if I had money

-- the Deschutes County Public Library (I forgot the proper title again) for their useful one-hour temporary internet login/password handouts

-- Pilot Butte, for sticking up above the entire town and offering great photo-ops of the nearby Cascade peaks

-- Mike and the folks at Bleachers (inside Lava Lanes, south flank of Pilot Butte). I can't plug them enough. They were great to me. Mike didn't even give me crap for not sipping a drop of alcohol (I don't drink) the whole time. Yes, no social ridicule for nursing sodas, eating bar food, and watching sports. Basically, I went to Bleachers for dinner when I went to Bend. Bleachers is great now, but they'll blow the doors off the joint when the three plasma screens get put in for football season. They have NFL Sunday Ticket to boot

-- a blond waitress at Cheerleaders (3rd and Greenwood) more restauranty than bar, as Bleachers is). We'll guess she's in the 18-24 age demographic. Whereas the work uniform I'd seen on other waitresses was a shirt bearing the establishment's name, this unfortunately nameless (no nametag) blond waitress wore a lip ring and a Dead Kennedys shirt. I saw it a couple weeks ago as well as yesterday. Point is, I don't know who in management she had to run that through, but she's wearing a Dead Kennedys shirt and a lip ring to work. I took that as gutsy, and frankly, cool as hell. So in the horribly unlikely event she's reading this (seriously, stars would have to align), that's why you got the $2 tip on the $7.50 order, which is an almost 27% tip, greater than what I usually give (double the sales tax or 10%). Keep keepin' it real. She'd be a real woman of genius. (Bickler: Miss Dead Kennedys shirt-with-Lip Ring and Nicely Styled Hair Standout Waitress Gal) (to clarify: I had lunch/breakfast foods at Cheerleaders)

-- the Bend Fieldhouse for letting me use their batting cages in the first place and also letting me finish off the tokens from last month when I stung my hand somehow and couldn't go on. I got some good hacks in today. There's a high-schoolish kid that works there that kinda looks like a mini-Bret Boone. It's hilarious.

(**lastly)

-- the Kirks and Justin Adrian, for giving me something local to root for

-- Jeremy for keeping Sports and B's as close to full speed ahead as possible

-- you readers for sticking with us and sticking with Jeremy for the past six weeks
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For those of you who read this post, I hope you were at least mildly entertained.

It's good to be back. I've missed everything about this.

Sports and Bremertonians now returns to its regularly scheduled programming...

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Friday, July 23, 2004

RAY ROCKS, MORSE DOESN'T 

The hype is definitely warranted. Ray Winder Field in Little Rock is a great minor league ballpark. And as the old saying goes around these parts, "it never rains at Ray Winder Field!"

However, San Antonio lost to Arkansas 7-1. It was a nice little pitchers duel between the Missions' Chris Buglovski and the Travs' Yoshi Mizou for about 5 innings. Mizou was making his first start of the season for Arkansas. He didn't disappoint, going 5.2 IP, giving up 4 hits and no runs. He was pulled in the top of the 6th with 2 outs and that's when the Missions would capitalize.

Michael Morse would get on with a base hit. T.J. Bohn then tripled to center, scoring Morse. That would prove to be San Antonio's lone run of the night.

Buglovski pitched well until the 6th, when his defense let him down big time. Morse, who can't play defense worth a damn (paging David Cameron), can't field a routine ground ball from Christian Guerrero, throwing it away, allowing a run to score. The Travs would score 4 runs in the 6th, all unearned.

The Missions have lost 5 in a row, but are still tied with Round Rock in the West.

Missions stars:
Dustin Delucchi 2-for-4, 2B
Shin-soo Choo 1-for-4 (was the DH tonight)
T.J. Bohn 1-for-4, 3B

Anyways, the highlight of the night for me was Ray Winder Field. The park was built in 1932 and is still serviceable. I was in the box seats along the first base line, just a couple of rows up from the field. Not too bad at all.

There's been talk of building a new ballpark for the Travs in Little Rock for a while. While I wouldn't mind a new park, there isn't anything wrong with Ray Winder Field. The only addition I'd make to Ray Winder is add an extra scoreboard with lineups, ala PGE Park in Portland. Other than that, I think Ray Winder Field is just fine. One more thing, I'd sell beer from the tap or in bottles, not in cans. But I digress.

Ray Winder Field is what it is, an old time ballpark. You can't go wrong with the ticket prices (8 bucks for a box seat, 6 for a G.A. seat), the parking is free, and instead of crappy music being played over the speakers, organ music fills the air. I'm a sucker for good organ music at a sporting venue. Chicago Stadium's organ was great.

I'll definitely watch another game at Ray Winder Field. That next game will most likely be next season, but there's no doubt about it, I'll be back at Ray Winder Field. So when somebody complains to me and says "there's nothing to do here", I'll just mention Ray Winder Field. Who in their right mind would turn down a good ol' ballgame?

Baseball is a beautiful game, yes it is.

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WORRY NOT 

I didn't leave the field camp at Mitchell last weekend, the sole purpose being that I wanted to preserve my post-graduation cash so that I had enough left to drive all the way home to B-town when camp ended.

I left the field camp for the last time about four hours ago and once again I am in the gracious city of Bend, chilling here for the last time for the time being.  Let's just say that there's a lot better chance that I'd be coming back to Bend in the future as opposed to Mitchell. 

By the way, I can collapse a tent, but I can't fold it back into the box worth a damn. 

So my full posting habits should resume just one day after the Mariners complete an authoritative two-game sweep of the division rival Oakland Athletics.  Ha. 

And yes, if the shortest way to Portland from Bend ends up going through Wilsonville, I am SO going to Fry's because apparently the OSU people tell me they have a lot of cheap crap.  Aqua Teen Hunger Force volume 2, here I come. 

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RED RAY ROCK 

From the Mariners official site:

Winners of two straight and four of five, the red-hot Mariners welcome the Angels to town for three games starting Friday. Lefty Jamie Moyer gets the call for Seattle.

Well, I guess the way 2004 has gone, the M's performance so far in the 2nd half would qualify as being "red-hot". But of course, it isn't. It's just more corporate b.s., that's all. Speaking of corporate b.s., the Edgar Bear could be the worst promotion in Mariners history.

Anyways, depending on the weather, I'm headed to Ray Winder Field in Little Rock tonight to watch San Antonio play Arkansas. Chris Buglovsky is scheduled to pitch for the Missions. The Missions lost 7-0 to the Travs last night.

Recap will be up (if the weather holds up) later tonight...

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Wednesday, July 21, 2004

BIG BUCKS, NO WHAMMY! 

BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, this isn't shocking news, but I'm loving the Bucky Jacobsen Era.

Good stuff, indeed.





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Monday, July 19, 2004

BLOW POPS 

Curtis Leskanic blows.
 
Mike Hall blows.
 
Somebody tell me how Mike Hall is more deserving of a SportsCenter job than Michael Kim, who's been in Bristol since the days of Til Tuesday it seems like.
 
NO I WILL NOT KEEP MY VOICE DOWN...VOICES CARRY!

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BOONE! 

Chicks dig the longball.
 
I do as well.
 
So far, the second half has been fun. It's too bad that it's too little, too late. But at least I'm not in a pissed off mood when talking about this ballclub right now.
 
By far, tonight was the best win of the season. No question. Tonight is one of the reasons why I stick with the Seattle Mariners.
 
Joel Pineiro vs Derek Lowe, 1:35 p.m. start, i.e. a U.S. Bank Nine Inning Lunch. Remember those?

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BACKERS 

WOW.
 
Back-to-back home runs by Miguel Olivo (who has his #8 back) and Edgar Martinez (who's probably telling Melvin to go f**k himself right now) and we got a tie ballgame at 4-4.
 
The long ball is overrated.
 
And I'm a Willie Bloomquist Backer. Ha.

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TILES 

Time sure flies by fast, doesn't it?
 
It was 10 years ago today that four ceiling tiles of the Kingdome roof fell into the stands, sending the Mariners on the road until August 11, the last day of the 1994 baseball season.
 
Where was I on July 19, 1994? I was in California, less than a week away from heading up to Washington to visit my relatives. I wanted to go to a Mariner game during my vacation, but it wasn't to be. At the time, I had no idea that I was going to be living in Washington a year from then. At least the Kingdome was fixed by the time I had moved up to Bremerton (for the umpteenth time; I had lived in the Bremerton area 3 previous times).
 
While the events of July 19, 1994 left the Mariners homeless, for lack of a better term, it also proved to be a prelude to what would happen in the future.
 
---The Mariners win the A.L. West in 1995
---Safeco Field opens
---The Kingdome is reduced to rubble
 
The ceiling tiles falling proved to be the best thing to happen to Seattle sports off the field. 10 years later, two relatively new stadiums take up the landscape, not to mention an exhibition center as well.
 
Outdoor baseball and football, what a concept, eh?

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Sunday, July 18, 2004

STAGES 

Post titles. Fun. Why not put "ramblings", Jeremy? Because "ramblings" sounds boring to me right now. "Stages" sounds better to me for two reasons:
 
---It's Tour de France time
---I'm wearing the hell out of my Boston "Third Stage" CD in my CD player
 
(HOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!)
 
---The ESPY's are worthless. Of course, it's very hard to top the original edition of the ESPY's, which was in 1993. You're simply not human if you didn't get chills listening to Jim Valvano's speech.
 
"Don't give up, don't ever give up"
 
---Willie Beamen or Paul Blake?
 
---It's way too f***ing early to be discussing the 1990s. VH1 couldn't stand to wait another 5 years to produce the "I Love The 90s" series. The 1990s just ended 5 minutes ago, dammit!
 
---Stuart Scott and Linda Cohn hosting the Sunday edition of "SportsCenter".
 
At this point, just play Ja Rule/Ashanti's "Mesmerize" and then I can say I'm in hell.
 
---I didn't have much hope for the new ESPN game show "Stump The Schwab" going in. And I'm glad I didn't. Mr. Tar Heel himself Stuart Scott is the host.
 
You mean to tell me that Kenny Mayne is so busy where he couldn't host that show?
 
---In related news, I WANT "2 MINUTE DRILL" BACK ON THE DAMN AIR!
 
---Shaq > Kobe
 
---The Los Angeles Lakers are the 7th best team in the Western Conference right now. Who's better than the Kobes (because after all, Kobe is running the show)?
 
Minnesota. San Antonio. Sacramento. Dallas. Houston. Denver.
 
Any questions?
 
---Can you say "Los Angeles Lakers at Miami Heat" Christmas Day on ABC?
 
---I like Rudy T, but you know damn well that Kobe will get him fired soon enough. The current, up-to-the-minute Lakers remind me of the Nick Van Exel Lakers, minus the playoff upset of the Sonics in 1995. The Lakers will be done in the 1st round in 2004-2005. I have no problem calling this.
 
---Shaq will dominate in the East. After all, he's in a division that features Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, and Washington.
 
---Enough of the Shaq/Kobe/Laker talk.
 
---Wow, Mike Hall makes his SportsCenter debut this week...alongside Linda Cohn.
 
Egads.
 
---Cotton needs new shorts!
 
---Stay classy, Sports and Bremertonians readers.
 
--- --- --- --- ---
 
Yes, "Dodgeball" and "Anchorman" are still fresh in my mind.

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BIG BUCKS 

He's only been with the big club for 4 games, but I'm already loving the Bucky Jacobsen Era in Seattle.
 
Once David gets back from Oregon, we'll definitely add the Bucky Backers site to the sidebar. (David runs the technical part of this site, i.e. links)
 
There aren't a whole lot of positive things to be taken from a disasterous season. But if Bucky keeps this up for the rest of the 2004 season, then that's definitely a positive. It's more than likely that Edgar will hang it up after this season, so the Mariners need to figure out who will be the heir apparent at DH. Instead of spending millions of dollars on a DH-type player in the free agent market, the M's might as well let Bucky handle the DH role, provided that he keeps doing what he's doing.
 
One thing's for sure, Mariner fans are actually excited about a HITTING PROSPECT! Hell, it's not just Bucky, but Justin Leone as well.
 
No, Willie Bloomquist doesn't count. Too bad, so sad.

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