Thursday, April 05, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, this week marked the beginning of the 2007 baseball season.

This is exciting to me for three reasons:

1) I get to watch and listen to my beloved Giants play. It's highly likely that they'll suck this year, but in April, even the lowliest team has promise and hope. I keep little bottles of The Cream and The Clear near my TV for good luck. Go Giants!

2) Last week, for the first time, I got into an argument at the grocery store with a sports fan about the merits of the Giants newest pitcher, Barry Zito. Having been a sports idiot for the majority of my life, it was immensely satisfying to trot out the 99% useless knowledge that has accumulated in my brain the last few years and use it to smack down my local butcher. We both look forward to future confrontation.

3) My baseball program! Although I ignored my baseball Predictatron over the off-season, I revived it just in time for this season. I made some good tweaks to it, and over the first three days of the baseball season, it has performed remarkably well. Although I realize that three days of data is insignificant, I am remotivated to try and find a legal way to make money off this thing. Go me!

9 comments:

Tasty said...

OK, I admit to zoning out after the first few sentences (it's sports, not you) but I did learn something about doping and I LURVE "go me!" Happy baseball season!

patsy said...

i have been ill for 2 months so have not been around much, i am sure you were relieved!BUT today i read your post and baseball is not my cup of tea but would you explain about the family who had medical expenses and you said, they didn't have a wheel barrow, or a holocaust coat, i don't understand the meaning of those two terms.

Mike said...

Hi Tasty, well, happy Ignoring Baseball For The Next Six Months to you!

Patsy, welcome back! I hope you're feeling better. The "wheelbarrow and holocaust cloak" reference is from one of my favorite movies, "The Princess Bride". There's a scene in that movie where the good guys try to figure out how to storm the castle. They're vastly outnumbered, they review what meager assets they have on their side, and come up with a short and bizarre list including a wheelbarrow and a holocaust cloak.

tinyhands said...

I loved NPR sports commentator Frank Deford's verbal sneer on Wednesday morning when describing how, after only one game had been played, the Cubs were already a game and a half out of first.

Mike said...

Tiny, a game and a half? I'm not sure that's possible after one game.

Anonymous said...

Other team in division has played two games, won both. Your team has played one game, lost. Your team is now one and a half games out of first after just one game. I'm sure the Giants have done this before, maybe even this season.

Larry "better than you in golf" Dorfman

Mike said...

Larry, yes, I know how games are computed in baseball standings, thankyouverymuch. But, after the Cubs had played one game (which they lost), the only other team in their division that had played two games was the Cards, and the Cards had lost both their games.

Anonymous said...

hey, Mike! I didn't know you were a baseball fan. Did you know that Bill's the national baseball writer for the LAT? Perhaps we should all get together when he is in town. That way we can go out with a married couple (something I expect we will do more of once we are married, so it is good to practice), and you and Hank can get out of the house and try not to scare us off the institution of marriage.
--Jill Jacobs (and yeah, even though there are umpteen Jill Jacobs in the world, I'm thinking I am going to keep my name, at least for now ...)

Mike said...

Hey Jill, that sounds very pleasant, but baby sitters are hard to find for us, so we might have to drag the wee little one along.