Game 1 of the World Series, Dodgers vs. Yankees.
You couldn’t have written a more amazing ending. Freddie’s hit will live on in my dreams for the rest of my days! Just unbelievable.
(I’ve already rewatched this like 34 times today)
Last Game Vibes
I went to the Coliseum to watch the Oakland A’s play their last home game. I’ve have so many great memories at this stadium over the past two decades or so that I’ve lived in the Bay Area.
One of my favorite memories: Taking Benson to Bark at the Park in 2014
Book Review: “The Wax Pack” by Brad Balukjian
The premise: a baseball fan fondly recalls his childhood memories of obsessively opening and collecting packs of baseball cards.
While watching an A’s game one afternoon at the Coliseum (which he rightly describes as a “post-apocalyptic crater ringed with hot dog stands”), he wonders what the players featured on the cards he collected as a kid were doing with their lives after their baseball careers had ended.
After purchasing a pack of cards on eBay from 1986, (the first year the author remembers having baseball cards), he sets off on a road trip across America to find and hopefully meet the 14 players featured in this 30-year-old card pack.
High jinks, hilarity and even important life lessons ensue.
This was just a great read and I highly recommend it for any baseball fan. Check it out on Goodreads.
At Game 1 of the World Series!
Finally achieving a life long dream of mine: At Dodger Stadium and watching the Dodgers play in the World Series!
Armchair managing my favorite baseball team in OOTP 16
One of my favorite computer games, Out of the Park Baseball, released its latest version just in time for the 2015 baseball season (one of the biggest features this year is the official MLB license — that means real team names and logos!). I’ll have to write up a more in-depth review later, but first I wanted to share this screenshot from a recent game.
The situation: I took over management of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015 (sorry, Andrew Friedman, I know you just got this job and all, but it’s time for a new sheriff) and I eventually navigated them to the 2017 World Series!
In game 2, Zack Greinke is pitching for the Dodgers, and LA ends up scoring 7 runs in the first inning! Greinke hits TWO homeruns during the game and on top of all that, Texas still came back and nearly won. Crazy!
(Click screenshot for larger view.)
Anyway, the Dodgers would go on to win the 2017 World Series by sweeping Texas in 4 games. 😉
Baseball Twitter: Fun with the jQuery and Twitter’s API
This past weekend, I played around with jQuery, JavaScript, and Twitter’s API to create a web app that displays realtime search results for various baseball teams. I figure this is particularly important since pitchers and catchers report in about 10 days! 🙂
Anyway, the goal of this project was to rapidly build out a web app that could search and parse publicly available data (e.g., tweets!) for mentions of particular baseball teams while using various jQuery and JavaScript libraries. I could see this app having potentially wider uses beyond baseball such as returning the latest tweets from an event or hashtag. It also gave me a chance to use various libraries and frameworks as well. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
You can see it in action right here and the source code is available on Github.
Bark at the Park in Oakland
I took Benson to the Oakland A’s “Bark at the Park” game yesterday. He was rather confused about baseball.
(Side note: What an AWESOME event!)
San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera banned for PED use…
I’m not one to gloat (okay, I sure am), but let’s take a trip back in recent time. Back to the good old dog days of summer, July 27th, 2012.
A surprised Melky Cabrera [San Francisco Giants outfielder] categorically denied an Internet rumor that he had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, saying neither he nor the Players’ Association has received any such information from Major League Baseball.
The article continues…
Cabrera said he had nothing to be worried about and credited his success to hard work. He speculated that perhaps a Dodgers fan created the rumor as a way to distract the club heading into the big, three-game series between the two rivals.
That’s a pretty awesome conspiracy theory!
Just over 3 weeks later, the sports news today is all about:
All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games without pay Wednesday after the San Francisco Giants outfielder tested positive for testosterone
[…]
Flashing bright orange spikes, Cabrera singled and hit a two-run homer last month in the NL’s 8-0 All-Star win, which secured home-field advantage for the World Series.
Oops!
It’s going to be especially awesome when the Dodgers get home field advantage for the World Series later this year. Thanks for the kind words, Melky!
This team is so frustrating to watch sometimes
This loss against the San Diego Padres last weekend was especially embarrassing. Double steal of home in the top of the 9th inning.
Of course, the blame rests solely on myself. About 10 minutes before this, I was telling some friends who are Giants fans that, “there’s a reason we’re in first place.”
Yeah, no.
I’m going to rename my fantasy baseball team the “God Damn Dodgers.”
Baseball season is almost here!
It’s almost time for baseball to start! I can’t wait. (Photo taken from the outside of right field at AT&T Park.)
It’s baseball season!
Earlier this week, we went to AT&T Park for a Dodgers vs. Giants game. Sadly, my boys in blue lost.
Still, AT&T Park is probably one of my favorite places to see a ballgame. Fantastic place!
How I almost became a San Francisco Giants fan
“If the Giants win the World Series, I’ll give you this hat.”
I was 7 years old and we were on a family camping trip with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Southern California. Really, it was more like pseudo-camping — there were motorhomes and such involved, but all the kids got to sleep in tents.
It was a Saturday night in October of 1989 and the San Francisco Giants were playing against the Chicago Cubs in the third game of the National League Championship series. The series was tied at one game a piece.
Someone had a television on in their motorhome and had turned it around so those of us on nearby picnic tables could watch. Since we all had grown up or lived in Southern California, I don’t think anyone there was entirely interested in the game — my cousins were California Angels fans and I had decided to like the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game was probably on more for background noise.
One of my uncles was wearing a Giants hat that evening. I don’t think he really cared for the Giants, or even liked baseball for that matter. But for some reason, he was still wearing it.
I remember my initial impressions of the hat though. It looked absolutely sinister! Maybe it a combination of the colors (black and orange) and the fact that it was October and Halloween was approaching. But I think I kind of loved it.
So, my uncle made me an offer. If the Giants went on to win the World Series, he would give me his hat.
I thought it was an awesome deal!
Unbeknownst to me at the time, my recent newfound love of baseball and the responsibilities of being a Los Angeles Dodgers fan (who had won the World Series the year prior) would be diametrically opposed to everything related to that sinister looking hat.
The Giants would eventually go on to play against the Oakland Atheletics in the 1989 World Series, famous for two things: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred during the middle of the series and the fact that the Giants would be swept by the Athletics in four games.
A few months later, during a family Christmas party, I saw my uncle and remembered that sinister looking hat. For some reason, it still tugged at my heart. I asked him what he did with it.
“Oh, that thing? I threw it away.”
And just like that, I threw away the chance for me to ever become a Giants fan.
My love for the Dodgers would continue to blossom, and when I eventually moved to San Francisco 15 years later, it would be one of the few things besides my friends and family that I would still stubbornly cling to that were from Southern California.
I love living here in San Francisco. However, when I see that hat, I still think it looks sinister. But now it’s for different, more nefarious, and even loathsome reasons.
Supporting the Boys in Blue
The National League Championship Series begins on Thursday. Just wanted to support my boys in blue.
We only need 4 wins and then we return to the World Series for the first time in 20 years. (Should the baseball gods grant it, it would be exactly 50 years after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles)
The Boys of Summer
Baseball is back! I have to say last year’s playoffs was some of the most amazing baseball I have ever seen. From the Cubs to the Red Sox and even the Marlins, all the games were just phenomenal. And now that Murdoch and Fox have finally sold the Dodgers, I can like them again without a guilty conscience. Not a moment too soon too, because they are ON FIRE this year!
I just got back from a game tonight with some of my fellow geology classmates. Oakland A’s versus the Yankees. While I’m not necessarily a fan of either team, I am always down for hating on the Yankees. It was a great game and went all the way to the top of the ninth inning, when in true Yankees fashion, they tied it up and then drove in the winning run. While I wasn’t rooting for them, I can definitely appreciate some fine baseball.
Plans for the weekend:
» Wait for more info on that internship.
» Friends from high school, Emily and Brandy may be in town on Saturday night.
» Write a paper for paleontology.
» Finish up TWO late labs for geomorphology.
» Start looking for people to sublet my room for the summer.
Tomorrow is advising day as well. Looks like next semester is going to be another tough one. Currently on my plate is Mineralogy, Stratigraphy and Structural Geology. However, I might not be able to take the Structure class due to some funky prerequisites, so I may be taking Hydrology instead. In the next year I will need to squeeze in Physics 3 and Chemistry 2 somewhere also. Perhaps if I kick butt, I can take field camp in New Zealand in the winter of 2006! That would be so amazing! I think I can save up the roughly $4500 it will cost between now and then. Definitely worth it for 6 weeks!
Some various cleanup on the website too. I’ve added ratings for songs in the music section. Also, for those using Internet Explorer or Mozilla derivatives, you might notice the new background graphic up above. I thought it added a nice bit of personality to this blog. 🙂 The background picture doesn’t render in Safari for some reason though. Not sure why at the moment.