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...