Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 2-5 week against the Dodgers and Giants. The Roxs currently stand at 72-59. Six games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and tied in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 36-26 at home and 36-33 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 654-582 (expected wins is 72 versus historical wins at 61). On pace for 89 wins with 809 runs scored and 720 runs against.

Well that didn't go according to plan! Monday and Tuesday were such promising wins! A grand slam dagger into the Giants on Monday followed by another walk off win against the Dodgers. Rox closed within 2 games! Dan Patrick and sports talk radio said the Rox were at it again. What seemed like an insurmountable lead was suddenly down to 2 games. The Rox win the pennant the Rox win the pennant...oh sorry got a bit carried away. From that glorious Tuesday night to Sunday the Rox dropped 5 games and suddenly find themselves tied for the Wild Card and 6 back from the Dodgers. This was the first losing week since Week 13. Well I guess on the bright side this slide came at the end of August! Thirty-one games to go. Yes it would have nice to put away the Giants for good and stay on LA tail but there is still a lot baseball to be played. Our Rox are struggling with some nagging injuries...Cook's is probably the hard one has the Rox try to find a consistent starter down the stretch. Fowler and CarGo's injuries are the frustrating because their one-two punch was really starting to catch fire. It certainly is a scramble and yet this is the first true test of Tracy managerial acumen. Up to this point I think he has basically pointed them in the right direction and allowed the team to find itself. Now a steady hand is required to get the team focused for the September run. Lot of home games...time to take Coors Field back!

Fastest Man Alive

Fascinating article in the NY Times on 100M Dash.

Love the graphic...amazing

Scott Pilgrim

Great little series. Read about the series somewhere and decided to give it a chance. First book was a bit tough to get into but then it just went wacky! I couldn't get enough of it. I am super bummed that I have to wait for sometime next year before the conclusion. I don't know what it is about the main character or what but it is gripping and down right hilarious.

Five volumes six boyfriends disposed of (err five actual "boy" friends) and twins no less! So the big question is what secret does Ramona Flowers hold. We shall see...does she break Scott's heart and what about Gideon? Hmmm

Things I love, Sex Bob-omb, Knives Chau, Siege Perilous rant (X-men nod), endless nods to old style video games (coins, extra lives, status bars), the epic boyfriend battles (epic girlfriend battles), subspace, Ramona and her magical subspace bag, and Wallace.

Haiku Wednesday

Football

That chill in the air
Weekend warriors gear up
Rabid fans rejoice

Sue Hubbell - A Book of Bees

Daunting...I thought raising bees might be a fun thing to do but after reading this I must admit that I am not sure if I have it in me. Wow good book and amazing how amazingly complex the world of bees can be. I think an apprenticeship might be the way to go. I mean bees deserve that at least.

Author was a bit interesting. Some of her asides were kind of revealing (in more than a lot of ways ;-). Either way need to find someone willing to take me under their wing before I launch into raising bees.

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 5-1 week against the Nationals and Giants. The Roxs currently stand at 70-54. Three and half games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and three games ahead in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 34-24 at home and 36-30 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 632-549 (expected wins is 70 versus historical wins at 58). On pace for 91 wins with 826 runs scored and 717 runs against.

Rox are starting to look like a playoff team. Playoff teams get it done against bad teams. Going into DC and sweeping that series before the look ahead 4 game series at home against the Giants was huge. The Rox are 52 - 26 (that's a 0.670 percentage!) under Tracy. That is an amazing number. Hard to believe either the Rox were that bad out of the gate or that unhappy with Hurdle at the helm.

Not to look ahead but with one more game tonight against the Giants and 3 with the Dodgers the possibility definitely exists for the Rox to be tied for the Division Lead come Friday! I have tickets for Thursday game so I will certainly be rooting for this to occur. Either way the Rox have made up a huge gap (15.5 games!). With 38 games to go the gap is so much smaller that September will just be a tug of war. I remember back in high school when the Braves picked up Fred McGriff and went on a tear catching the Dodgers and Giants and making the playoffs. Good times. And finally why is it the Rox get no respect? We are the last competitive division in baseball with three teams still in the playoff chase and what do we get? Nadda...give me Roxtober again!

Some interesting sites:

Fan Graphs - Those wacky odds against Rox

NY Times - Ichiro, modern day Pete Rose...what is wrong with hitting base hits?

Olbermann - Gotta love baseball history!

Cirque de Soleil - Kooza

Saw my first Cirque Du Soleil tonight. Had no ideal what to expect. From Vegas I only imagined it to be a show with people doing stunts and body tricks. In reality it was just a simple circus with a story and I was actually impressed. A wide variety with a story to boot. It was well thought out and a good story. Best of all it didn't have any circus animals! Not that I am freak about circus animals but to see them in the circus it just seems to be sad. Bad enough we stick animals in zoos but then to parade them around...yuck. Anyway loved the show...especially the contortionist, the unicycle guy with the dancing woman, and the music was good too.

Mellow Yellow or Mr Pibb?

Mellow Yellow or Mr. Pibb?

Comic store with no new comics? Is that a comic store?

Sun Chip made with Beef Fat?

Picked up an IKEA catalog didn't bother looking at it and it was in Spanish!

Yeah on the United flight home Star Trek was suppose to play...and of course it didn't...and the flight attendant said there was nothing they could do!!!! It is automatic...what the heck does that mean? Don't they control anything! Ughhh

Haiku Wednesday

Stars

Gazing upon thee
Wonder if someone watches
and Haiku's about us?

Magazine Spew

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opinion/17douthat.html?ref=opinion

With all the debate about health care I thought this editorial was good. I have nothing against old people...they certainly deserve what they have earned but has the greatest generation become the Selfish Generation. Medicare is great but at what expense are we losing the future generation. Everyone deserves health care or at least the opportunity to have it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16FOB-wwln-t.html?ref=magazine

Again why has our country gotten so fat? Think if we fix the fat problem we could fix the cost of healthcare? Only going to get worse...maybe $8 gas isn't too bad make people walk more...you know healthcare, fat problems, and recession...has America become too entitled...have we forgotten what it means to work hard? Do we care? Or does what Britney latest clothing trend mean more to us then trying to fix anything. I we wonder why Empires crumble...they get complacent (and fat!).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16beatles-t.html?ref=magazine

Fascinating article...

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 4-3 week against the Pirates and Marlins. The Roxs currently stand at 65-53. Five games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and one and half ahead in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 32-23 at home and 33-30 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 598-522 (expected wins is 66 versus historical wins at 55). On pace for 89 wins with 821 runs scored and 717 runs against.

A wacky week. Cubs series over with Tulo's cycle. An uneventful Pirates series and then a frustrating Florida trip over the weekend. All in all we still gained on the Dodgers and mounted a lead in the Wild Card. 44 games to go with a big end of the month series with the Giants and Dodgers. Unfortunately we have a looming 3 game series in DC. BEWARE Will Robinson this series has the doom song written all over it....

Good Beer

Beer of the year so far. Great deep hoppy flavor. Very refreshing. Yummm

Haiku Wednesday

School

Alarm clocks, class bells
A clean slate, sharpened pencils
Groans heard everywhere

Happy 70th Birthday Marvel

Timely Publications, started in 1939, is Marvel Comics grandfather. Starting with the Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America it became the basis of the company today. After Timely came Atlas and then finally in 1961, Marvel Comics was born with the release of Fantastic Four. So to me the 70th anniversary is just a cheap celebratory non-sense. Really in 2011, Marvel will celebrate 50 years which should be pretty huge especially with Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben.

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 3-3 week against the Phillies and Cubs. The Roxs currently stand at 61-50. Five and half games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and tied in the Wild Card. Currently 29-22 at home and 32-28 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 551-490 (expected wins is 61 versus historical wins at 51). On pace for 89 wins with 804 runs scored and 715 runs against.

Pretty uneventful week. Road trip finally go the best of them. Team looked tired in Philly. The offense struggled. Arrived home to play the Cubs. Good start to home stand. It is going to be a dog fight all the way in. Only 5.5 out...could we dream of an actual division title?

This Week's Aside

MLB and Topps began an interesting relationship this week. Beginning in 2010, Topps will become MLB exclusive provider of baseball cards. What does this mean for Upper Deck? Who knows but it seems they signed a deal with the Player's Association so perhaps that means we will just get player cards with no logos? Who knows and probably who cares. Topps and Upper Deck ruined the card market years ago with multiple sets and gimmicks galore. The high cost of cards pretty much priced out the younger generation (is it any wonder kids don't have a clue about baseball and its players?). I love baseball cards but it just became too hard to keep up with what was coming out. I loved the retro sets but then it became increasingly hard to find someone who sold cards. Going online through eBay became key but somewhat expensive. Anyway it will be nice to get back to a simpler time. One player card a year maybe?

Also NY Times on Sunday had an interesting article on APBA. I have played strat-0-matic but not heard of APBA. Have to investigate further....hmmmm

John Hughes R.I.P

A true movie artist has passed on today. A huge part of my childhood was filled with Hughes imagery and imagination. Many of Fri/Sat afternoons friends and I would watch the Breakfast Club. Anytime Simple Minds comes on you have to think of high school detention! Then came Ferris which during my junior became somewhat an obsession and eventually formed the basis of a classic skip day with 3 really close friends. Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles didn't do too much for me but the love triangle of Some Kind of Wonderful really did it for my romantic side. I always remember the opening scene with her hitting drums...crazy cool! Back then not for sure if I had a bigger crush on Lea or Mary! Weird Science was fun but kind of silly. Finally the last really good movie I remember he did was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. For anyone who travels a lot for business this movie is just too classic...too true, too true!

A true genius it is sad to see him go. Never has someone matched a movie to the music as well as he could. Amazing...

Pattern Recognition...

Yesterday was one of those days to make you go hmmmmm...First off it was new comic book day so I was excited to read through Captain America Reborn issue #2. The issue basically was laying the groundwork of Capt's return to the Marvel Universe. In the issue Steve Rodgers relives some of his historical moments and in one such case he revisits the lab and day that he became Captain America. I knew he had taken the serum but after that I had no ideal what happen...but it makes sense now that the scientist was blown away and thus the secret to the serum died with him. Good issue and then later that evening I was reading Essential Captain America, going back and trying to get the historical feel of the character and guess what issue I should read? Yup Captain America issue 109 which is his origin issue that Stan Lee put together. So basically read a panel by panel re-read of the reborn issue and in issue 109 it even says Steve Rodgers is "reborn"! Wow pretty weird

The other weird consequence was when I was running I was stung by a bee. Not a big deal although don't think I have been stung in at least 15 years! Anyway later that night I was reading a book about raising bees and just happened to read the section on bee stings! How weird and strange that was...

Haiku Wednesday

Peaches

Soft fuzzy outside
Juicy, sweet on the inside

Prunus persica

David Herter - Ceres Storm

Fascinating book. Confusing and frustrating but beautifully written. Kind of like reading a sci fi Sound and the Fury. Passages were simply unobtainable in the understanding department but instances of clarity kind of kept the plot in site. The only disappointment was the book just kind of ended without a really definite finish. Big build up and then either the author ran out of ideals (or possibly whatever drug of choice he was using!). Went on line to try and get another view and there is nothing out there giving any great in depth analysis...too bad would have been nice to fill in some of the gaps...

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 4-3 week against the Mets and Reds. The Roxs currently stand at 58-47. Seven games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and half game ahead in the Wild Card. Currently 27-21 at home and 31-26 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 520-464 (expected wins is 58 versus historical wins at 48). On pace for 89 wins with 802 runs scored and 716 runs against.

Good finish to a horrible start of the week. For the naysayers the Rox's awful start in NY only added fuel to the fire that this team was simply smoke and mirrors. Hopefully 4 straight wins proved that we are still contenders. A relatively quiet trade deadline. The Rox's picked up Betancourt and Beimel for the stretch run. Good pickups especially with Corpas out. Sadly no Halladay. Long-term probably good for the Rox but for the NL Championship series probably not so good having to go into LA and win with out a dominant front line starter. We saw see...

Below is the list of road wins since the team's inception. Their 16 year average road wins has been 31. True indication that the Rox are a good team this year...they already have 31 road wins through 57 games. Mighty impressive. Funny how it seems the team has played better on the road and yet seem to still struggle at Coors. Welcome to Bizarro Rox World!