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!