aka Blog v4.0
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.
Joy.
Bliss.
Happiness.
More so than I’d felt in quite a long time.
I almost started to cry.
And then we all stood for the National Anthem.
I started my day off by running to the grocery store to pick up hot dogs and buns, the only food you need for Opening Day.
I also picked up chips and soda.
At home I steamed the dogs and ate a couple as the first game of the day started (Cubs @ Marlins).
A half hour later I switched over to the Cards @ Mets game, and began playing my table top baseball games. One game turned out bad, the other good.
And the Mets beat the Cards.
Now waiting for the Giants @ Dodgers game in a couple of hours.
Welcome back, baseball. I missed you.
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.
Finished reading “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck”.
Picked up the Infinity Gauntlet (prop).
Sorted/organized Massive Darkness and Rising Sun.
Got a couple of Infinity War Pop! figures from my sister.
Watched baseball on TV.
Continued the 1967 San Francisco Giants season replay.
Did my taxes.
Watched the Oscars.
Finished reading “The War of Jokes and Riddles”.
If you thought that a 2017 Spring Training cap would be marked down when 2018 Spring Training has begun, you’d be wrong.
Dammit.
I meant to get one last year, for my 50th year of existence, but then I figured that I’d get one when the season was under way, and then when the season was over, thinking that the price would drop at some point.
Nope.
And then I thought for sure that they would drop the price once the 2018 ST season would begin.
Nope.
The main reason why I want one is that the year (2017) is on the cap. Except for All-Star Games and Postseason, no other caps have years on them.
Ah well. Maybe I’ll buckle down and get one now, as I was going to last year anyways.
Update: out of stock in my hat size. Ah well.
Watching Ken Burns’ Baseball on MLB Network.
The commercials show that they’re doing MLB divisional previews, which I think may be premature, with the Winter Meetings coming up and Spring Training a couple of months away.
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If the Giants do not get Mike Stanton, maybe they should pick up free agents Brandon Morrow and Curtis Granderson from the Dodgers.
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There I was, the black grandson of a slave, the son of a black sharecropper, part of a historic occasion, a symbolic hero to my people. The air was sparkling. The sunlight was warm. The band struck up the national anthem. The flag billowed in the wind. It should have been a glorious moment for me as the stirring words of the national anthem poured from the stands. Perhaps, it was, but then again, perhaps, the anthem could be called the theme song for a drama called The Noble Experiment. Today, as I look back on that opening game of my first world series, I must tell you that it was Mr. Rickey’s drama and that I was only a principal actor. As I write this twenty years later, I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
― Jackie Robinson, I Never Had It Made
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I do miss baseball. As I do every year, after Thanksgiving Day.
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I’m gonna play a couple of games of my 1967 San Francisco Giants season replay.
I feel… 80% better after this Election Day than I did a year ago.
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Why are vanilla-flavored Tootsie Rolls a ‘limited edition’?
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My dream Marvel film would be a team up with Korg, Groot, and Luis.
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While I enjoy watching basketball now, I really wish my Broncos or the 49ers were doing better in football.
Or maybe baseball should just start already.
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November 17th is gonna be a busy day.
Seriously, it’s November?
AND Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend?
Damn.
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I need to remind myself to keep blogging here every day until the end of the year, so there’s an entry every calendar day in 2017.
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If the Astros win tonight, I’ll be happy for them. If not, oh well.
Duck the Fodgers.
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2 days until Thor Ragnarok.
16 days until Justice League.
I’m excited about both.
Long before everyone jumped on the Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner bandwagons, there was Matt Cain.
He was the ace of the staff during some lean times, specifically those years near the end of Barry Bonds’ career.
It’s odd to think of him as the longest tenured Giant, but he’s the one player left from the pre-World Series Champions era.
His career 104-118 W-L record with an ERA of 3.69 is more telling of the years that the Giants couldn’t score runs than anything else. He’ll be remembered as a quiet leader on the team. And of course for his perfect game in June of 2012.
I’ve always been a fan of his, but never got a shirt of jersey with #18 on it, because of my supposed jersey curse. Over the years it was disappointing to see him pitch well time and time again, with no run support.
I’ll get to see him pitch in person one last time as he takes his final start this Saturday, September 30th, against the Padres. Star Wars Day.
May the Force of others be with you, Matt Cain. And thank you.
Glenn picked me up for the Giants game at the usual time.
The clouds in the distance looked dark and were cause for concern.
It appeared that there might be some light showers at game time.
There were, along with thunder and lightning, which caused the start of game to be delayed until 7:55pm.
During that time, we found shelter and ate our Cha-Cha Bowls.
The rain subsided and we returned to our seats for the starting lineups and the National Anthem.
The rain started up again during the anthem.
Chris Stratton retired the first Dodger batter, Curtis Granderson.
And then the downpour started again and Glenn and I hightailed it out of there. It wasn’t enough to get soaked, and the temperature was warm enough that it didn’t feel as uncomfortable as it should have.
We stopped by the Dugout Store to do some browsing, but didn’t pick up anything.
Glenn dropped me off at home, where I got to watch the second half of the Chargers-Broncos game, which was more stressful at the end than it needed to be, with the Broncos blocking the game-tying field goal to seal the win.
After the game I switched channels back to the Giants game, where they said that the game would resume at 10:50pm.
Ack.
So I went to bed listening to a live Giants game instead of the midnight replay.
I woke up around 2:30am and heard the end of the game, Giants 8 Dodgers 6.
Woohoo.