Opening Day 2008

So far I feel like Mother Nature has cheated me out of baseball. It's the end of March and we are still battling 50 degree days and rainy days perfectly placed to ensure that we never get out on dry soil. It kind of feels like those days when you are trying to make a left turn out of your back alley and cars pass in intervals that won't allow you to make a move. Almost like someone is fucking with you...
Tonight was opening night and with the evening temps hanging out in the low 60's I opened up the windows and for the first time it sort of felt like Spring. Sitting in my living room on a Sunday Night watching whomever was on, painfully listening to Joe Morgan talk about himself and Jon Miller talk about Joe Morgan. But it's Opening Night and I love baseball and am excited to watch a game that matters...even if it does involve the Washington Nationals.
I'm still not happy with Direct TV stealing the Extra Innings package from cable...or maybe I am just mad at myself for not making the switch to the dish. I will not take for granted all the games they show on ESPN. Remember only getting Cubs and Braves games... remember how happy you were to watch the NBC game of the week when they showed an American League team... I miss Vin Scully and his solo act. The likes of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan should take notes from someone who knows what the hell he is doing.
It's nights like this where I almost go to my room looking for my 88 Topps set so I can sort through them and organize them in as many different categories as I can before bedtime...team, position, my favorite players. Now all I want is the Braves to win by more than a run so I can at least break even on the day.

**I don't think the Red Sox have the pitching to win it again this year
**Think it is the Cubies year to win it all
**Detroit will not be as good as people think...there will surely be an injury or two and if you can't pitch, you can't win games...even if you do score 1000 runs
**The Cardinals will be bad. Tickets will be available because Cardinal fans tend to be fairweather. Even with a pretty new stadium.
**Hanley Ramirez will be the National League MVP
**Manny Ramirez will be the American League MVP
**Verlander wins the Cy Young award, edging out Beckett

Sign of the Crow by The Mountain Goats

There is no bad time to hear a new Mountain Goats song. This generation asks for a sign....it isn't going to get one.

She and Him is Zooey and M.

She and Him...Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. This is a sweet ass cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hit from 1962. I liked her voice in Elf and this entire album, Volume One, is worth listening to. M. Ward's musical talent mixed in with Zooey Deschanel's silky country voice is a nice combination.

She and Him [mp3] You Really Got A Hold On Me

I Had A Dream...

One of my dreams as a child was to go on a long road trip with the ability to play hours upon hours of Nintendo in the backseat. More specifically, RBI baseball. This dream was well before Gameboy's and television screens on the back of seats and all the technology we have today. I still remember sitting in the back of Parker's mothers station wagon, facing following traffic, talking about how great life would be if somehow we could figure out how to get a Nintendo in that back seat. That dream that I had over 20 years ago came true this week in an 18 hour trip to Florida. Somehow a mini-television and an original Nintendo Entertainment System was hooked up through the cigarette lighter of a 2001 Toyota Sienna minivan. When this idea started to come to life I was convinced that the electronic gadgets would suck all the battery power from the mini and we would end up on the side of the road in Tennessee talking about how great it was to play RBI Baseball for 5 full hours on the road.
What ended up happening was 12+ hours of intense RBI game play through 4 states fulfilling those dreams that were born some two decades ago. I thought about Parker and how he might haven enjoyed that... wherever he might be.
After a shaky start I fell right into my dominance, going 15-4, highlighted by a 35 inning scoreless streak. Results aside, it was great to play Nintendo in the backseat on a road trip..

Its Ok To Be Poor If You Still Get Spring Break

Here is to the only profession where grown adults still get Spring Break. I haven't been this excited since Gary got me a wax box of 88 Topps cards before our trip to Sanibel Island.

Clem Snide [mp3] All Green

Window mounted air conditioning unit...

The greatness of the Mountain Goats new album Heretic Pride is worth repeating. It has passed the two week test. Initially, as you listen to an album the first two times, your excitement about that album is not yet official. There are lots of albums that sound good at first listen and then before you know it you haven't listened to it for 3 years (Ryan Adams Rock N Roll). Heretic Pride has yet to stand the long test of time yet...but getting past the first two weeks with the same excitement about the album as you did the first day you bought it is saying something. Pick it up if you haven't yet.
This song is not on the album...it is good...

The Mountain Goats [mp3] Surround (live)

Don't Forget To Give An Hour Away on Sunday

Snow is still hanging around on the ground...taking its sweet time to melt into slush. Cold as winter and just as gray. But it still is winter...technically. Daylight savings day on Sunday will make it seem a little more like Spring. Don't forget to add an hour or you will show up for work an hour late and you will be put on probation and will have to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder and saving more money than you should because you know your days are numbered and unemployment is a cold cold place without a little stashed away. SO DONT FORGET.
Been listening to the new Destroyer album called Trouble in Dreams. Haven't really soaked it in yet, but I like what I have heard. Dan Bejar's voice teeters between sinister and mystical and insanity...a young David Bowie if you will.
Destroyer [mp3] Dark Leaves Form a Thread

Some older Belle and Sebastian. There are times when I think I could listen to them all day long. I am afraid that Barry (from High Fidelity) would call this sad bastard music...and I am alright with that.
Belle and Sebastian [mp3] The State I Am In

If you haven't seen these movies rent them today or tuesday
Into The Wild
Darjeeling Limited
No Country for Old Men (tuesday)

Remember to Look Pretty Before Bed-Ce N'est Rien

It's important when ordering a ukelele that you make sure it is not a baritone.
Ce N'est Rien [mp3] Remember to Look Pretty Before Bed

Everything You Need To Know About Life and Relationships You Will Find In The Natural

Opinions are opinions. Facts are facts. It is not an opinion that The Natural is the best baseball movie in existance. It is a fact. I know the Bull Durham fans out there are throwing fits, but fact is fact. You can't argue it. The Natural has it all...hero's and villans and muses, devils and angels, glory and shame. If you have a child and would like to give them a head start on figuring out life, go ahead and sit them down in front of the television and put in the VHS tape. Besides the obvious, your kid wanting to throw baseballs through the side of a barn, and wanting to carve a baseball bat out of the first tree he comes across in the back yard, and wanting to wow onlookers by whipping baseballs into wooden bottles at the county fair, and wanting to sleep with a pretty woman in a full length fur coat, they will learn the importance of good people vs. evil people and how the world always catches up to the evil...even when you think they have gotten away with everything.
--Lessons Learned---
1) LOYALTY--
At first Roy Hobbs does not like Pop...mainly because Pop doesnt give him a chance until the pinch hit appearance that ends up with Roy hitting the cover off the ball. Later Roy goes down...gets paid off to sit the final game out...gives the money back only to win the pennant for Pop.n
Pop Fisher---You know my mama wanted me to be a farmer.
Roy Hobbs---My dad wanted me to be a baseball player.
Pop Fisher---Well you're better than any player I ever had. And you're the best God damn hitter I ever saw. Suit up. (Wow! If that doesn't fire you up you are dead...or close to it.)
-don't sell out for cash--especially when your head coach is Wilford Brimley-
Money does not make you happy---hitting game winning bombs does
2) THE DANGERS OF THE "WRONG WOMAN"
Roy has everything going for him. He is young, he just banged Glen Close in the barn, he is on his way to try out for the Cubs, and he strikes the Whammer out on three pitches. He succumbs to the temptation of the girl in black...who ends up shooting him "Roy, are you going to be the greatest to ever play the game"
--"Thats right"
boom!!!!!!...and off she goes...splattering on the sidewalk.
Then you have Kim Bassinger. It's not an accident that after going on an absolute tear Roy goes into an immediate tailspin from this chick...Sex with a slut will put you in a slump...and you won't realize this until they poison you at a party.
3) THE GREATNESS OF THE "RIGHT" WOMAN
Roy Hobbs + Glen Close at Wrigley Field= the end of the slump. There is nothing evil about this woman. She is pure. Her big white circular hat shining in the sunlight. A halo? Yes. After two horse shit swings she stands up for Roy to see her. He sees her and hits a game winning bomb. The second finest moment in the film.
The right woman makes everything in your life alright.
4) IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE AN EMBARRASSING DEATH BY CRASHING THROUGH A WOODEN FENCE YOU WILL BE A TEAM PLAYER
Bump Baily was not a team player and look what happened to him. After half assing it for an entire season he decides he needs to turn it on, just as Roy Hobbs is about to take his spot. He crashes through a fence and dies.
--If you are a lazy dickhead you will end up dead because you crashed into a fence--
5) THE MEDIA IS A BUNCH OF ROTTEN, LIFE SUCKING ASSHOLES WHO WILL SELL YOU DOWN THE RIVER AT FIRST CHANCE...THEN BE THE FIRST ONE TO TELL YOU THEY LOVE YOU WHEN YOU ARE ON TOP
Max Mercy is this guy. He is ripping young Roy Hobbs up and down as he sits with "The Whammer" on the train. "Keep up those no hitters or they'll be looking for you back at Soda Pop Valley"...dick
Then Roy mows down the big guy and...oh look, he loves him...then Roy slumps and Mercy tells him that he's "yesterdays news kid". Exhausting
-Dont trust the fairweather friend-
6) CHILDREN WILL MAKE YOU HIT THE GAME WINNING HOMERUN BY SMASHING A PITCH INTO THE LIGHTS CAUSING A SPONTANEOUS FIREWORKS DISPLAY
I can only imagine that this is true. I don't have children, but those of you that do probably know that this is true. It is not a coincidence that after Roy finds out his son is at the game he hits the game winner. I really don't think it is his son though. At the end of the movie Roy and his "son" have a catch in a field. The kid throws like a girl throwing with her off hand.
It is important that at the beginning of every baseball season that you sit down and watch this great film. It reminds me of my childhood and how much I wanted to be a Big League baseball player. It will help you remember how great the game of baseball is.