We go through this every GDMF year, yet for some reason, even though we ‘gain’ an hour of sleep, I always struggle for consciousness on the Monday after the end of Daylight Savings Time.
*continue drinking afternoon coffee*
***
My co-worker dropped off an NFL Gameday Magazine that another co-worker picked up from the last Broncos-Raiders game, with Case Keenum on the cover.
I may not be able to say it in person, but thank you, Michael Q.
#fuckcancer
***
I’m still trying to figure out what to watch during my elliptical sessions in the morning, once I finish off The Expanse Season 3. I’m narrowing it down to the new Jack Ryan series or maybe a rewatch of Babylon 5.
In related news, I’m almost finished with last season’s DC Legends of Tomorrow. It’s the one DC CW show that does not irritate me, which is sad. I may give Black Lightning a shot.
***
If you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to VOTE tomorrow. Please.
***
It feels strange that for the first time in 3 years, I didn’t have to buy Star Wars movie tickets for me and my friends and family.
Meanwhile, SW Resistance has yet to really get interesting.
***
Going back to The Expanse, I don’t know which faction or side (Earth, Mars, Belters, OPA) I’d want to be on, truth be told. They’re all fucked up in one way or another.
I have no memories of ever seeing Willie Mays playing for the San Francisco Giants.
In those early years of going to the ballpark for Sunday doubleheaders and Bat Day, my focus was more on whatever food Mom and Dad bought for us.
Later on, when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old, I began to pay attention more to the games, especially on TV when the Giants were lucky enough to be on in the days before cable TV. Not all games were televised.
And I do remember seeing Willie McCovey.
Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images
Even on TV, you could see how big this guy was, the way he towered over the umpire and catcher at the plate.
I remember learning about his 500th home run while we were in the Philippines in 1978.
In 1980, the Giants had a ‘good student’ program that allowed students with good grades to pick pairs tickets to maybe three home games. I got to pick that year, and I chose July 3rd as one of my games.
Later that year, Willie McCovey announced his retirement, with his last home game as… July 3rd.
I thought it was pretty cool that I happened to have tickets to that game.
I asked my Grandpa to go to the game with me.
Grandpa loved sports, especially Giants baseball and 49ers football. During either season, up until he passed away, you could find him holding a small pocket transistor radio, tuned in to whichever radio station was broadcasting the game. If the game was on TV, he’d be parked in his chair at his house or even ours. And if things were getting exciting, his foot would begin to stretch out as his leg moved.
Anyways, I can’t recall who dropped us off at the game, but I remember that I was carrying a bag of cheese-filled Pillsbury biscuits that I had made for the game. Grandpa did eat a couple.
The seats were in the upper deck, and I was a little mad at myself that I had dragged Grandpa to the game where he had to climb up the rows to our seats. But I don’t think he complained about it.
The rest of the day is lost to memory. I had to look up the details of the game, including who they were playing (the Reds), who pitched (Bob Knepper) and who won the game (Giants, 4-3, Greg Minton got the save).
I didn’t think it was such a big deal about bringing Grandpa, until I recently told the story to my cousin Rich, and he was impressed that a 13-year old kid would think of taking his Grandpa to such a special game.
At that point in time, Grandpa was the only one in the family that had gone to a Giants World Series game, in 1962. I’m not sure which game he went to, so I’m not sure if he saw McCovey line out to Bobby Richardson to end the series.
I just figured that Grandpa should see McCovey’s last home game, since he’d seen him throughout most, if not all, of his career.
I recall hearing the interview with McCovey when he announced his retirement on KNBR, and he said “It’s not a sad day.”
But today is.
Rest in peace, Stretch. Thanks for everything you’ve done.
When I get home tonight, do I set up one of the Leader games (Corsair, Hornet, Phantom) or a Sunday double header, Braves @ Giants, 1967?
I can probably play the double header tonight.
Any of the Leader games will probably be played over a couple of days.
And I found that I had been playing wrong, adding a phase that is only used in B-17 Leader.
I would include a round of homeward bound air/ground combat, which isn’t even listed in the sequence of play.
Whoops.
I was used to a phase like this because of playing B-17 Queen of the Skies for so many years, which requires a possible Luftwaffe intercept in every zone on the way back to base from the target. Again, B-17 Leader has this step, the other games don’t.
While I know the first race I ever watched from start to finish was the 1997 Daytona 500, I honestly can’t recall what was the first race I ever watched, period.
But I figure it must have been the Indianapolis 500. Somewhere along the line I was a fan of A.J. Foyt, and knew names like Al Unser and Rick Mears.
There was a time that I knew I’d miss watching the race because we’d go camping over Memorial Day Weekend. I’d hear about who won after we got home from the camp site.
This is the last time that ABC will be broadcasting the Indy 500, handing the reins over to NBC in 2019. I’m hopeful that they’ll do as good a job, they’ve come a long way since that terrible coverage of their first ever NASCAR race, where they had interviews and spotlight segments DURING THE RACE, and didn’t even show what was going on during those segments.
We’re a few minutes away from the command to start engines. I have my favorite drivers, like Danica, Helio, and TK, but unlike NASCAR, there’s not a single driver in this series who I don’t like.
I’m hoping one of my favorites win. Or maybe one of the NorCal drivers, Kyle Kaiser or J.R. Hildebrand.
There was a brief moment, shortly after I took this picture, as I sat in my seat, alone, at the ball park, with an eerie almost silence around me, when I felt something.
I woke up this morning to some very familiar feelings of nausea.
Food poisoning.
I immediately went back to bed.
I woke up about 4 hours later to email work that I’d be out before I went straight back to bed.
Another 3 hours later, I got up and took a shower since I was sweating a lot while I was sleeping. I made some tea, but only drank half of it and went back to bed.
I woke up again about 4 hours later and made some toast and finished my tea. Back to bed.
Got up again 2 hours later and seem to have shaken off most of the effects, though I do have a bit of a headache.
I tossed the foods that I ate the night before, though I suspect it was the milk, which expires tomorrow, but it had a faint odd smell, but tasted okay with cereal. Never again.
Currently eating dry toast and tea.
As a result of this, I got a ticket on my car for street cleaning violation, and 3 packages (game stuff, camera accessory, Kickstarter reward) that I was expecting at work have been delivered, but I’ll wait until Monday to get them.
Wasted day. Though in my semi-sleepy state I had the TV on to the Giants game, though I missed Bumgarner breaking his hand, and there’s a James Bond marathon on MGMHD channel.
