Stop the Phony Imposed Civility in Sports

Many years ago, when there was such a team in baseball as the Montreal Expos, and the Houston Astros were considered a year-to-year contender, there was a reasonably successful manager who brought success to the teams he worked for.  His name was Bill Virdon.  Known for his perfunctory, no-nonsense style, Virdon seemed to bring a sense of discipline and a corresponding cohesion to the teams he managed.  Both the Expos and the Astros did well during his tenures with them, although neither was able to get to the World Series, much less win it.  Once Virdon had on his Montreal team the wildly exuberant and enthusiastic catcher Gary Carter.  Apparently, the two didn't exactly see eye to eye regarding what it took to make a team a winner, and when Virdon established himself there, Carter had to tone down his behavior.  I wonder, though, what the point of it all was, since often it seems that, in the heat of a pennant stretch run and in the playoffs, it is the most emotionally elevated team that prevails and sweeps through on momentum.  Virdon, to me, squelched that momentum instead of encouraging it.  And now we come to 2013 and Yasiel Puig...

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been blessed with an extraordinarily talented young hitter in rookie Yasiel Puig, only 22 years old and already a standout.  Yesterday, with his team down 2-0 in their National League Championship Series with St. Louis and himself mired in an 0-for-11 slump (with 7 strikeouts), Puig got an impressive hit for a triple, breaking out of his slump and substantially contributing to his team's 3-0 victory.  Some are criticizing him, though, for standing there for a moment and admiring and celebrating his hit.  The Dodgers fans in the ballpark, though, were beside themselves in glee and excitement. This celebration and showmanship, in my opinion, helped to turn the momentum around to the Dodgers for the game...and who knows, maybe eventually the series.

Emotion and celebration should be emphasized and encouraged in professional sports, not discouraged, criticized, or even penalized as it often is.  Pro sports is entertainment: it is a big SHOW, duh.  Let the fans have what they want.  Hitters admiring their hits, pitchers pumping their fists after strikeouts, end zone antics in football in all of their varieties,....whatever can serve to get everyone's interest and attention (and FUN) going a little stronger.  Stop boring me to death with all of this phony imposed civility...

Hollywood Beach Walk

Last Friday evening Melissa and I paid a brief visit to Hollywood (Florida) Beach, standing on the shore and then walking a bit up and down the "Broadwalk" as they call it (I've always called it the "Boardwalk").  Along the way, at the Hollywood Beach Theater, was a rock band performing called "Rockin' Jake".  They performed original music, which I liked.  Those two cute little kids dancing in front of the stage, though, stole the show!  It was an interesting walk as we passed by various shops and restaurants.  There were several live bands performing in different spots.  The people visiting the Broadwalk seemed to be a perfect mix of just about every ethic group, age, gender...you name it.  I even heard Russian spoken by people from three separate parties there.  There were a lot of joggers and bicycles/scooters/dog-walkers, etc...

As for the shoreline, this beach was the prettiest I've seen in a long time.  I took a picture of the gigantic and spooky Ramada Hotel (originally the Hollywood Beach Hotel; later, for a while, Florida Bible College).  We stayed there on a visit a few years ago, and it reminded me of a few Stephen King stories.  My sister says it has a reputation for being haunted: I'm not surprised.  Actually, come to think of it, the entire beach/"Broadwalk" experience, looking back on it, now seems a little on the "dark" side...

This Weekend in Sports As I Saw It

I missed out on the recent happenings in the sports world, partly due to travel and partly due to an acute allergic reaction.  Now that normality seems to be creeping back into my life, I can look back on what's been going on.  Let's see... in college football, the University of Florida Gators, as expected, went to Baton Rouge to play favored LSU and lost, this time by a score of 17-6.  That's all right, as far as I'm concerned.  I already knew that Florida wasn't a national champion-caliber team this year and just hoped for them to be able to win their own Eastern Division within their conference.  Losing to a Western Division school won't hurt them much as long as they do well in their own division.  Besides, Georgia, the Gators' arch rival, lost out to a surprisingly strong Missouri team on Saturday as well.  In the National Football League today, I was pleased to see previously unbeaten New Orleans lose, although I'd have preferred someone other than New England to have performed this task.  Miami was off this weekend, and the other two Florida franchises, both thinking themselves far too smart to hire someone like Tim Tebow to play for them, have each fallen to 0-6 records with predictable losses.  In the baseball playoffs, Detroit surprised Boston by beating them in the first game of their series while Los Angeles is disappointing me after having lost two close low-scoring games at St. Louis.

There's more that happened, of course, but I'm just rattling off the major reactions to the stuff that interests me the most...

Tough Health Day on Saturday

Yesterday was a particularly disturbing day for me, healthwise.  The previous day (Friday) I found myself in a situation in which I was in a recently fumigated house, in a room full of old books, magazines, letters, and papers, trying to help clean up an accumulated mess that at one time had taken up the entire room.  There was dust all around, and I should have known better than to be there for the several hours I spent sorting out piles and piles of old material.  But that night and the entire day yesterday, I felt a bad sense of inflammation throughout my body.  Any point on my skin that had been broken and was healing suddenly felt painful upon touching it.  I felt weaker, coughed, ...but worst of all, I had an irregular heartbeat the entire day yesterday.  I stayed away from that place, though, having learned my lesson...and after a lengthy period of sleep, woke up Sunday morning with the symptoms gone...no pain, weakness, coughing...and a typically regular, strong heartbeat.  I think that, if I know what's good for me, I had better be very, very careful in the future about the type of environment I expose myself to...

Hotel Room Ramblings

Here I am late at night, sitting in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room watching the Los Angeles Dodgers play the St. Louis Cardinals in the first of their series to decide who gets to go to this year's World Series.  I really don't care who wins...I rooted for each team to lose its previous series.  Still, this is a good, close game (2-2 in the 7th inning).  I think I'm finding myself slightly leaning toward the Dodgers, but I can't figure out why.  About an hour ago I finished up my four-mile treadmill run in this hotel's exercise room (one treadmill, one elliptical...that's it). Oh, and from time to time the lights would go out for a second, right in the middle of my run.  Fortunately, there was a TV on in the room, which would provide a little light during the blackouts.  I guess I'll repeat this tonight, since I'm planning to stay here until Sunday.  My hotel is way out west, smack dab in the middle of what should be Everglades swampland and dominated by water, sawgrass, and alligators.  Instead, there's an Interstate and heavy development running through this thoroughly drained out area.  I don't know how they are capable of swinging this: aren't we supposed to be conserving our wetlands?  I guess the answer is yes, as long as it doesn't conflict with the almighty dollar!  And when isn't that really the case?!?!

2013 Baseball Playoff Results Disappointing So Far

In the Major League Baseball playoffs so far this 2013 season, I've been pretty disappointed.  My teams Tampa Bay, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh all lost their series against Boston, Los Angeles, and St. Louis respectively.  The only series left, to be decided tonight between Detroit and Oakland, is one that I really didn't care who won.  But the funny thing is, whoever wins that game tonight, and with it the series, will by default become my favorite team for the rest of the playoffs.  That being said, with the five teams presently left in the run for the World Series, I see some potentially interesting prospects if certain combinations get there:

Boston-St. Louis: This would be a rematch of the great 1967 series that spotlighted the Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski and Cardinals greats Bob Gibson and Lou Brock. 

Detroit-St. Louis: And this would be a rematch of the also great 1968 series, with essentially the same Cardinals lineup as the previous year and the Tigers with their aces Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich (and slugger Al Kaline).

Oakland-Los Angeles:  These two played against each other twice, with the Athletics winning 4-1 in 1974 and the Dodgers doing likewise in 1988.  Neither was a very exciting series, but this does have the added intrigue of being an intrastate rivalry.

Cooler Weather Auspicious for Running

Today, even late in the morning, the temperatures remained in the upper 60's, providing me an opportunity to run outside in the elements without exposure to excessive heat.  The humidity was still high, but with the lower temperatures all that did was to slow my running a bit.  In fact, it's been generally cooler for the last two days: yesterday I ran 3.5 miles outside and today it was for 4.05 miles.  I'll be out of town for a few days, going down to South Florida, so I'll probably be using the treadmill at whatever hotel I stay at until Saturday or Sunday.  Still, the cooler weather is an auspicious sign for me as I want to do more outdoor running as I train for the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon scheduled on November 16 here in Gainesville.

The more runner-friendly weather couldn't have come at a better time, as my local gym, Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, in spite of its recent media blitz touting its expansion by several thousand square feet, is in reality restricting access to its machines by moving them over into tight, cramped spaces with some of them not functioning.  The last few times I've been there have not been very enjoyable, to say the least...

My Father Dies

My father has passed away earlier today, at the age of 87.  He had been sick for a while and was suffering through life for the past few years and especially during the last few weeks.  I am sad about his death, but am relieved to know that his pain has ended and that he is finally at peace.  I got to see him and be with him a little while about a week ago.  I know I'll miss him terribly, just like with my mother when she died nearly eleven years ago.  He was a decent, hardworking man who took care of his family.  He also was very mentally sharp until the very end, and was deeply aware of his health woes and misery, wishing only to be able to pass away with some dignity.  God Bless Him!

I love you, Daddy!

I Find an Indie/Alternative Show on Broadcast Radio

A couple of days ago I wrote about how I had gotten out of touch with the current music that is coming out in the genre of indie/alternative/rock, with several musical acts I like having released new albums of which I had been unaware.  Last night at work I was about to listen to the radio and, at little after two in the morning, tuned in to my local Public Radio station WUFT-AM, expecting some news, analysis, or a talk/magazine show.  Instead, I was treated to something called Earth Cafe, which presented music that targeted the same genre I'm interested in.  On this particular show, they featured Vampire Weekend, whose first two albums I have but evidently now have a new one out.  They were interviewed on the air, played some songs live in the radio studio and discussed various older hits of theirs as they were played.  Then, after their segment on the show was finished, I got to hear other independent/alternative songs, some brand new and some pretty old.  It was a pleasant listening experience.

I know I can go online to hear this type of music, but on regular broadcast radio there hasn't consistently been any programming since 2008.  I welcome this one show, although it IS only one show...

Now a Kindle Owner

Earlier today, as a sweet birthday present, my wife bought for me a Kindle electronic reader.  It's probably going to take me a while to figure out all of its "bells and whistles", but for now I'm happy with being able to download onto it and read books.  So far, I've obtained just one book...Stephen King's newly released novel Doctor Sleep, and have read 52 pages.  This particular type of Kindle was relatively inexpensive, but it does offer touchscreen control and lighting that enables reading in darkness.  It should be a fun project to see just how many different ways I can use it.  One of my major personal goals is to drastically reduce clutter and simplify my material surroundings.  Hopefully, this Kindle will do for me in the area of books much of what my MP3 players have done with CDs, cassettes, and phonograph records...

Now Out of Touch With New Indie Music

I was having lunch with Melissa earlier this afternoon at a TGI Friday restaurant on Bruce Downs Road just east of Tampa.  As usual, we thoroughly enjoyed our meals there and the service was great.  Once thing I noticed was the music being piped in to us.  It sounded like a college/alternative/indie rock station and I recognized several of the featured acts.  But although I really liked all of the music I heard, I didn't recognize a single song that was being played...bringing me to an interesting (to me) revelation.  I have lost touch with the indie/alternative rock scene that I had been so closely following for several years.  I'm sure that I am missing out on many of my favorite musical artists' latest releases, while at the same time I listen regularly to their older works on my MP3 player.  And I'm not exactly sure why I stopped keeping up with new releases, except for possibly the fact that I have enough material already that I enjoy listening to.  Still, I DO keep up with certain acts I like the most: Regina Spektor, Radiohead, and Sufjan Stevens.  But for most of them I am completely oblivious as to what they've been up to lately, or even if they are still making recordings.

Maybe I'll just tune in to one of those Internet indie stations from time to time to try to keep up.  I had forgotten how good most of this stuff sounds!

Gutfeld (Briefly) Spot On About Government Shutdown

Yesterday I was channel surfing the coverage of how the D.C police gunned down an unarmed, emotionally disturbed young woman, carrying a young child in her car,who had been driving erratically near the "fixtures" of national government the White House and Capitol.    I briefly touched upon Fox News Channel's show The Five, where there was some reporter stationed in Washington, D.C., stately scenery pictured behind him, discussing the goings-on among Congress and between it and the President regarding the shutdown of the federal government.  The reporter was mentioning that different parties to this dispute were starting to meet behind closed doors to try to find a compromise that would resolve it.  To which panelist Greg Gutfeld, with what appeared to me to be a mischievous gleam in his eyes, posed what he termed a couple of statements disquised as questions: first, about this "behind closed doors" strategy, why weren't they always doing that from the beginning, if they now think that it's useful to reaching a deal?  Second, reports keep coming out that the shutdown is costing the government X amount of dollars...so NOT doing things that would have had to be funded ALSO has to be funded??!!

Oh, to be in the "Beltway"!

Baseball 2013: Rays Advance Past Indians

Last night the Tampa Bay Rays stopped the momentum-heavy run of the Cleveland Indians dead in its tracks with an impressive defensive effort, winning 4-0 in the one allotted wild card playoff game between them.  Now they can go back to playing in a real multiple-game series, the next opponent being division winner Boston.  It was a little harrowing, going through the strange final games in the regular season, as three teams were vying for the two available wild card spots.  Night after night, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, and the Texas Rangers played and won.  The Rays were interesting in that they swept the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, both good teams that had been in the playoff picture.  Meanwhile, the Indians and Rangers would go off on their own winning streaks, but their opponents were weak, inferior teams.  I felt that it was an almost hopeless uphill battle for Tampa Bay, but finally for the last three games of the 162-game regular season, they got to play Toronto, which was in dead last place in their division.  The Rays, going into that series, were still one game ahead of Cleveland and two ahead of Texas.  I'll just go on to say that the latter two won the rest of their scheduled games.  But Toronto surprisingly beat Tampa Bay decisively in the first two games of their series, putting the Rays' playoff hopes in jeopardy.  Tampa Bay managed somehow to just barely squeak out a 7-6 win, though, in the final game, putting them in a tie with Texas for the final playoff spot.  The two played a tiebreaker game (in Texas) and "my" team prevailed.  Then they went on the road to Cleveland for another winner-advance-loser-go-home game and here we are, with the Rays being one of the "final eight" left in the running for World Series glory in 2013...

Jury Duty Blues

Last week I had the misfortune of having to serve on a jury.  Never mind who was on trial, what it was about, or how the trial ended.  It was, to me, utterly abysmal...comparable on my scale of personal suffering to having kidney stones, getting multiple fillings at the dentist, or undergoing a colonoscopy.  On Monday, when it was jury selection day, one of the interviewing attorneys asked the panel of prospective jurors one by one whether they enjoyed the previous times they served on a jury.  All who had served before assented...yes, they enjoyed it.  Until the hotshot prosecutor got to me, that is.  I told him no, I did not enjoy being on a jury.  I think the SOB held that answer of mine in the back of his mind as I was later selected, to my dismay, to be on a jury in a trial that lasted from Thursday morning to Friday evening. 

I dislike many things about jury duty, but I dislike the most how the jurists are bunched up together all of the time.  I couldn't even get away from the others for lunch. They seemed to be nice enough people to me, but they were not what I was there for, and I tired quickly of the few jurists who talked a lot, with me cooped in a small room with them, all of us seated facing one another around a circular table.  Yes, that got very old in a hurry...

When the trial began, the bailiff passed out blank yellow legal pads with pens to each of us serving on the jury.  The reason was to give us something to take notes on during the trial. The judge told us, though, that we didn't have to take notes if we didn't want to, and that suited me fine.  For I had discovered many years earlier that since I wasn't in the habit of ever reading my own notes, then writing them down would be pointless.  Besides, I listened to the attorneys present their evidence and was attentive to the different witnesses, remembering just about everything without needing to write anything down.  Unfortunately, it became clear to me that I was the only one who didn't take notes, while everyone else had written down copious amounts of stuff on their pads.  So I may have appeared to everyone else to not be engaged, while in fact the complete opposite was true. My ears and eyes were all wide open and I absorbed everything.

I felt bad about the eventual verdict, although I believe it was the correct and just one. I feel worse about the way the prosecutor and defense attorney went about manipulating the feelings of the jurists.  I disliked both of them and wondered how, under this system of justice, anyone could ever truly arrive at an accurate accounting of events with so much speculation and insinuation being thrown around.  On top of that, perhaps the most crucial witness in the entire case, one who was right there in the middle of the pertinent events and whose testimony could well have exonerated the accused, was mysteriously ignored by both sides. This reminded me of the previous time I had served on a jury in a trial.  That time it was the peculiar, unexplained behavior of the arresting police officer that left me scratching my head.  But what really left me wondering about last week's trial was the apparent rush to an arrest when matters could have been settled with neither party suffering any substantial harm.  Yes, that bothered me...although I ended up voting on the case based on the evidence, although incomplete, that WAS revealed to me.

After it was all over, the judge said that I would have at least one year before my name could once again be selected for jury duty.  Oh boy, I can hardly wait...

When in Boca Raton, Check Out This Restaurant

My wife and I were down in South Florida this past weekend, one of our destinations being Boca Raton.  I find that the Palm Beach County area is quite enough of a "South Florida" experience for someone like me who grew up further south, in southern Broward County.  Others can have Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, and the countless suburbs surrounding them: it's all just one big nasty urban sprawl to me.  No, around places like Lake Worth or Boca Raton I get all of the trademark South Floridian semi-tropical climate and, while it is admittedly crowded there, it's doesn't seem quite as insanely congested as it is in points south.

While in Boca Raton Saturday night, we stopped off at an Asian-style restaurant on Yamato Street near the Turnpike that is called "5-Spice Asian Street Market".  It has Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai cuisine.  I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed something they call "Singapore Fried Rice", which has curry as one of the spices.  Delicious.  The menu had lots of items on it, and I found myself regretting that I probably would never get around to eating there again...seeing that the one reason I had for going to Boca Raton in the first place would end this coming Tuesday.

My September 2013 Running Report

September was marked by a feeling of stagnation with my running, although I kept my total mileage up.  Whatever the reasons, I just didn't enjoy the activity as much as before.  I avoided running outside whenever the temperature or the humidity seemed too high, as was usually the case.  However, I intend to stay the course with my running, hoping that this period of relative lack of enthusiasm will pass.  I covered 110.73 miles for the month, missing just one day of running.  My longest single run was 6 miles.  I had earlier planned to run in a local half-marathon race scheduled on September 28, but changed my mind as the date approached.  That turned out to be just as well, because I had a rush of personal matters arising that took up my time anyway.  Maybe if I feel up to it, I'll run the next half-marathon in town, which will be in November.

One Game Is Too Short for Baseball Wild Card Playoffs

Monday night the Tampa Bay Rays will play against the Texas Rangers in "game 163" to decide who gets to turn around and play Cleveland for another one-game series in the playoffs.  I think that, given the way baseball teams are composed with their rotations of four to five regularly starting pitchers, not to mention that they play a 162-game regular season to sort out who's the best, it's ludicrous to think that ONE game should ever decide who gets to advance in the playoffs.  I get it regarding the Rays/Ranger game tonight: they finished with identical 91-71 records, tied for the final playoff spot.  But within the playoffs, part of what determines a team's greatness is the potency of its pitching rotation...and not just the best "star" pitcher.  I remember one year, back in 1972 in a strike-shortened season, when the Philadelphia Phillies had an awful team, finishing with around 59 wins and more than 90 losses...in dead last place.  But they also had an ace starting pitcher in their generally pathetic rotation by the name of Steve Carlton, who went on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.  In spite of the rest of the team's poor performance, he went 27-10 that year and won the Cy Young Award for best pitcher (one of four he collected over his career).  Had the Phillies engaged with ANY team in a "one game playoff", even the best, they most likely would have prevailed with Carlton pitching.  But there was much more to them than just their star pitcher.  The same applies to the upcoming game between Cleveland and the Texas/Tampa Bay winner.  They could at least have a best-of-three series between them.  I don't think the current format will last anyway, and perhaps my idea might be adopted...

GOP House Instigating Debt Ceiling Crisis

It looks as if the federal government will be soon entering another politically-inspired crisis when the vote to raise the debt ceiling once again comes up in the House of Representatives...and the Republicans, as is whenever they are in control of that body under a Democratic president...will again hold the nation hostage while they risk economic disaster just to push their own agenda.  This time the partisan pet peeve is their opposition to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which was passed by both houses of Congress, signed into law by the President, and upheld by the United States Supreme Court.  Regardless how you feel about this bill, how they are going about trying to destroy it is reprehensible.  I don't mind Republicans in Congress...I just wish there would be a few with the backbone to stand up to the extremists pushing this counterproductive policy.  The GOP had a chance to end ACA, or "Obamacare" as it is more widely known: they could have taken both the Senate and House...AND the Presidency in the last national election in 2012.  But the people spoke...yet the "Grand" Old Party persists in their delusion, despite the consistently abhorrently low poll ratings for them in Congress, in thinking that playing this brinkmanship game with the country's economy will somehow bear positive fruit for them.

Florida-Kentucky Football Game Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be the first opportunity for replacement starting quarterback Tyler Murphy as the University of Florida football team travels to Lexington, Kentucky to face the Wildcats in a continuation of a series that the Gators have dominated for decades. Since Kentucky doesn't appear to have one of their better teams this year, I don't expect Florida will have too much trouble in this game.  I think the most interesting thing about this game for Gator fans is to see how well Murphy does in his first full starting college game...

Running Progress Not As I Like It

Although I have generally been keep my running mileage at projected target levels, I somehow feel as if I am going backwards instead of forwards with my running progress.  I used to run more or less daily outside on the streets around my neighborhood, but this year I have been spending more time in the gym running on the treadmill.  Treadmill running is a good stopgap measure to maintain continuity in case of bad weather or the need to run at night because of daytime scheduling conflicts.  But as the main focus of my running, it doesn't match up with the degree of intensity that hard contact with a surface provides, especially in the mental area of me determining my own running pace instead of some machine doing that important job.  My excuse has been a good one, though, with the weather being so terribly hot.  Two other factors have contributed to my current running stagnation: one is my change in March to a 11 PM to 7:30 AM work shift, which has turned my running opportunities on their head.  I used to, when earlier working the afternoon/evening shift, run around the 'hood in the late morning hours when temperatures were still reasonable and the humidity had dropped to a bearable level.  Nowadays, though, that time period is when I need to be asleep.  So I have as a choice early mornings when I am tired from work and the humidity is high, late afternoons when the temperature is highest, or....just pick a convenient time and run at the gym in air conditioning!  The temperatures are finally beginning to dip as autumn sinks in.  Hopefully, this will usher in more afternoon outdoors running.  The other factor limiting my running progress has been my gradual weight gain over the last couple of years.  Since early 2010 I have gained some 25 pounds, and that means that I am lugging that much more than I need on me with every step I take.  Not sustainable!  I need to focus on what I am eating more...