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Missed It By This Much

We lost last night 6-5. The boys played good ball and the boy did an excellent job as catcher for 4 out of 5 innings last night, and he was tired this morning.

Today on our way to Grandma's we stopped by our new town's Youth Sports Club to sign up for Football (which we did) and lo and behold if they just didn't start a Fall Baseball League!! Signed up for that too!!! As the boy said when we left, "Baseball is never over for me!!!"

One Little Victory

We have advanced in the playoffs again. Our last game was halted due to rain, the boy hit a shot off the outfield fence. The coaches said it missed being a home run by the yellow foam pad that caps the top of the fence. Of course I was stuck at work! Anyway we were beating the other team but the rain was pouring and the boys were losing control of the ball. However the commish was pushing us to continue so we could get the games in (despite their safety) but the coaches had enough and said NO. We continued the game the next day and lost but we have an odd number of games and one team is picked to move on if they lose, well they decided that whatever the outcome of our game (the only one played in the rain) they would advance both of them. So tonight we face the team we eliminated in the first round of playoffs but got picked back in because of the odd number of games (10 teams in the league) needed to be played without giving a team a bye.

Side Note: Clinton has his book out and is doing a tour and interview rounds. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE would someone just ask the following question:

"Mr. Clinton you were getting blow jobs in the Oval Office yet told us you weren't having sex with this chick, what's up with that???"

Happy Father's Day

What the title says.

When I was about 13 I was in the Boy Scouts and my father was an active parent. My troop, Troop 1 Flushing New York, went camping every month year round. On our full troop winter camp that year I had a mishap. My brother had used my sleeping bag and had lost the carry bag you stuff it into, so the closest thing we had was a trash bag. Well some how my sleeping bag got left behind as trash and here we are in open lean-to's in Upstate New York with it being about 10-15 degrees. Not only does my dad give me his sleeping bag to use he also offered his afghans (Large wool blankets) to use as stretchers for our First Aid course. For the record it got down to -3 and Dad sat in front of a pot-bellied stove wrapped in a muddy wool blanket all night.

That is what being a Father is.

Happy Father's Day Dad!!

Damn Uniblab and That Bitch in the Bleachers*!

Alright so I got hit by something on the computer this week and have been busting my ass saving files while my C: drive is eaten. I saved all I could and have been up till 3 am for a few nights reformating and reinstalling Windows on my computer. I am now in the middle of loading about 44 "Critical Updates" to Windows since my version was made. What a pain in the ass!!! But the things I needed saved are saved and now I have a nice healthy C Drive......

Other things:
We had our last baseball game last night (8-8 Tie). The kids have a great time and so do us coaches, although one of these days these kids will give me a heart attack. My complaint today is the sideline parents.
Last night it starts when we get to the ballfields early and hear this nails on chalkboard "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, strike him out, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, that's a boy, he's no hitter, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, way to show him who's boss." coming from some mom sitting on the bleachers. We move over to Field 4 (our field) and hear "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, they can't field, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, he can't pitch, put one over the fence." Again another mom sitting in the stands.
Well we are on our way home after the game and the wife is pissed off. She sat in front of the mom of one boy who is pretty good. Not fantastic but was good early on ahead of the others and that rep has held even though a lot of the kids have caught up to and even passed him since they started baseball 3 years ago.

Side Note: The kid also has a chip on his shoulder because he was good early on. Doesn't listen to the coaches, stands in the fields alone while coach is talking to the team, throws the helmet and bat when he strikes out (ALOT) and leaves at the last out of the game. He is our ace pitcher, good speed, throws hard but is wild when the ump doesn't call them the way he likes.

Back to our story: Well last night we pitch him only one inning and try out a few others cause we have the playoffs coming and want to see ALL our options. Kid hears he is pitching one inning and complains to mom, "Well if he is only going to use you one inning tell coach you don't want to pitch at all." Nice.
Then during the game the mom is loud and obnoxious. Cheering the son not the team. When there is a misplay involving her son its "Don't worry son he should have caught that, not your fault!" and so on. Well the wife had had it up to "HERE" with it and during the 5th inning her son made a bad throw to second but the 2nd Baseman made a great play and got the out. Well there is mom "Way to go son, nice play, good thing he caught that". Well my mom (Granny) is there and stands up and says "Great catch 2nd Baseman" and the mom 'hrumph'ed. The wife turns around and says very loudly, "You do know there are other players on this team, and they are doing a great job out there!" I am surprised the wife didn't haul off and bitch slap her, she has no patience for shallow, ignorant women. And you all thought Sports DADS are bad, you women are down right HOSTILE!!!!!

Point to all this is support you kids but not at the slighting of others. And if your kid is really good, teach him also humility.

/rant

* Title is wife quote not something I would say ;-)

Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio?

I have moved around a lot! Since I was a child we were always on the move. Mostly because of my father's job, he was mostly being promoted and had to move to the next level, which usually was a new headquarters in a new city. Here's a brief rundown:

Birth till not sure: Woodhaven, New York/Staten Island, NY
Not Sure till 2nd Grade: DelMar, NY (2 different Homes)
2nd-6th: Bayside, NY
6th-8th: Flushing, NY
9th-12th: Yorktown, NY
I go to college they move to Cleveland, OH

Now that seems a lot to my wife who lived in the same town all her life and that seems a little to my cousin who is a Marine Brat and traveled all over the county. I didn't want all that moving for my child and that was why we bought a house the day he started kindergarten, I wanted my boy to have what I didn't, a stable past. Don't get me wrong, I had an excellent childhood. I make friends easily, I've been places and experienced many things. But the one thing I've always missed is that 'lifelong' friendship that you start in kindergarten and you are the Best Man at the wedding. I've made and lost a lot of friends over the years. I remember my Elementary School Friends, my high school friends, my college friends, my adult life friends. Yet none of them are the same people. Every 4 years it was the same: I was the new kid, made some friends, had some good times and then was gone. While I am to blame for not keeping up with them, distance played a major role in that. I lived in one part of New York and they lived 4-8 hours away. In a time before e-mail, it was very hard to keep in touch. I found a lot of letters last month when my parents basement flooded between me and several of my old friends. They start off 3-4 pages long, but by the end they were post cards and holiday wishes.

It is mostly the High School/College friends I miss. Starting my High School freshman year, to the freshman class I was a sophomore who got left back and to the sophomore class I was just another Freshman. As always I made friends very easily, joined some clubs, hung around the neighborhood, dreamed of the future, but in 4 years we were gone again. My to college and my family left New York for Cleveland. We had a tight group then and I went back every so often during my College years, which was hard as I didn't have family there anymore and nowhere to stay for extended vacations and I had to visit my family in Ohio. Several of our group went back home after college but by then I was stuck in nomans land, return to my 'home' with no job, nowhere to stay or go back to my family and start over AGAIN. I stayed near my college and landed a job, hung with the people I knew for the past 4 years and started building my own family.

Here we are 12 years later and I am in another state, making new friends, and leaving behind people I've known for the past 8 years (longest I have ever been in one place!). I hope I stay in contact with the friends I left behind. It's easier now being an adult I can take some vacation and drive out for a week or take a 3 day weekend for the baseball draft or RenFaire and drop in for a visit.

But if any of the following ever Google themselves and find this, drop a line to an old friend: Mike LoBue, John Newcome, Joe Martin, Vinny Duffy, Kevin Raphael, Terry Peterson, Ed Jakabowski....What have you been doing these past 16 years?

I Can't Drive 55

Was talking about things I miss from New York. And one of the most major things I do miss is New York Drivers!!!! Yes, you heard me, NY drivers. These 'Hoosiers' have NO IDEA how to drive. They use the left lane as the 'slow lane'. Listen people, if you are driving the speed limit or LOWER please move over to the right. I understand those of you who must turn left will stay in the left lane for awhile but for the love of god do NOT make me pass you on the right if you are not turning left. These people drive 5mph below the speed limit in the Left Lane, even on the 3 lane highways. MOVE OVER!!!! And I know I am not the only one! Just last night I was listening to the radio when the DJ starts complaining about Indiana drivers and how they just about park in the left hand lane (he is from Illinois). Thank you, not just the cranky New Yorker thinks you people need to go back to driving school.

So next time you see me haulin ass in your rear view mirror you better move over or I will board you!!!

Avast there matey!

Summertime Blues

Starting to get into the daily grind funk, same thing day in day out. Must get out of rut. It is really nice though not having mandatory house work needed to be done. By house work I mean going to Home Depot for wiring, drywall, patch, tiles, etc that Has to be put in. Now I just do the stuff we want to do, painting, light fixtures, workshop because the home is only 3 years old and doesn't need rebuilding.

Been a slow week work wise, with the whole Reagan story filling the news the national networks have taken over. We cancelled 3 shows this week (which is ALOT) and there are no real local angles to take on this, so no local story/special to produce.

We are looking forward to a nice quiet weekend, maybe even just relaxing on the deck Saturday night....now that would be nice!!

TGIM

I just commented at another blog this little note:

When did the weekends become work filled, they are supposed to be a break from the work week!!!!!!!

Now I have to go and finish the dishes before I mow the lawn, wash the cars and clean the garage, I can't wait till Monday to get back to work!!!!

While maybe funny it is true, I do more work on the weekend than during the week. That's not to say I do nothing at work, it's just that my weekend time is filled more with work and appointments than during the week. There is little to no time for just 'being a bum' on your days off.

But you are on the computer writing this! You say, that is true but it is 11am on a Sunday morning, I have already unloaded then loaded the dishwasher, put all the clothes in the laundry room to wash, vacuumed the family room (complete with moving of the furniture), made the beds and cleaned the kitchen, left a voice mail for my insurance agent and paid some bills on-line. Before this little computer visit is done (in 10 minutes) I will also have filed the week's paperwork; bills, statements and paystubs. I still have to enter this week's moves for my fantasy baseball league, take my shower and gas up the car. We are at the ballpark by 1pm today.

Enjoy your Workend!

Ronald Reagan

I was my sons age and walking home from school on a rainy day. My mother was out on errands and all the doors were locked at the house. My usual alternative entrance (the basement window) had been locked but my father that weekend and I was stuck outside until my mother got home (We were a lot more safer back in the late 70's early 80's). We had a pop-up camper in our driveway and it was set up to air out as we were getting ready to hit the trails soon so I set up in the camper to stay dry and get a jump on my homework. So here I am sitting at the camper table (that doubles as a bed) working on my spelling sheets with rain hitting the canvas sides and thunder shaking the camper. I reach into one of the many storage areas and pull out a little transistor radio and tune it to 1010WINS (the true NEWS station of New York City and the voice of school closings in the winter months). Those familiar tones go off and the bass voiced man tells me that President Reagan had been shot. My world stopped, this was the first president I knew. Sure I remembered Jimmy Carter but this man (my father's man) was the president when I could truly understand what a president was and now he was shot and possibly dead and I was locked out of my home and my mother was nowhere to be found. What would happen now, who would run the country, who would stop the Russians from invading (we still performed nuclear Bomb drills in school). My entire world was the little speaker from which that voice came out of. While in reality it was only an hour tops, it felt like I was alone in the world for hours until I was told it was OK, the assassination attempt had failed, the gunman was in custody, doctors were working on the President and The Vice President would run the country until he was out of surgery. All was well and mom got back from Waldbaums with several bags (paper in those days) needed to get out of the back of our VW Bus.

RIP Mister President

Where to start.....

The boy was promoted to 6th Grade during an 8am ceremony Friday. We were very proud (all of us, Granny, Popit and Uncle too) and the boy showed up like 6 times in the school video. It was very nice but also we were detached. We just got here, the boy was in the school for less than 7 months and spend 1 month of that in the hospital. It would have been different if it was our school from NY and I knew someone other than my wife.

Great game this morning!!! We won 12-7 and the boy had 2 hits that hit the fence in Left field and made an spectacular inning ending catch that even the other coach shook his hand.

Finally, RUSH last night! AWESOME!! The venue is a mere 5 minute drive from our house and that is the back door. We had great seats, center right behind the sound board. The boys played out and enjoyed themselves. My only complaint was that they recycled most of the Vapor Trails tour I saw them twice on. Pretty much the same line up with few exceptions. The nice surprise was the playing of a few tunes from the new album, Feedback, which they cover The Who, Cream and other influences when they formed in 74. They played Summertime Blues, Heartful of Soul and Crossroads...fantastic.

Diary of a (Raceday) Virgin

It started at 3:45am at the station when we left for the track to begin the long day. We arrived at our suite by 4:00am passing hundreds of RV's and already a line was forming to enter the Speedway. We had Media passes and drove under the track to park behind the great Pagoda. At the suite the milling began as engineers and photogs got ready for our live broadcast starting at 5am. I was allowed to wander for a few moments and get a picture of where my cameras were set up. We were on the 4th floor of the Pagoda, in the Pits and at the Garages. The track is a HUGE place, the oval is 2.5 miles long and the interior (were I was) houses the garages, the media center, the Pagoda, 40 Transport Tractor Trailers, 40 Luxury Tour Buses for the drivers, a hospital, 2 Helipads, The Indy 500 Museum, parking for several thousand vehicles and 4 holes of a local golf course.

My job this morning was to send 5 different sources back to the station using two Transmit Sites. I was the eyes and ears for the Producers and Directors back in sub. We got several drivers, owners and celebrities as they got to the track. We went on the air at 5am and signed off at 11am moments before the race was to begin.

My shift over I was able to get outside and see the speedway in the light. Rain had delayed the start so I transported several co-workers back to the station so they could get home. I returned to the track around Noon and was let right back into the Media Lot off the starting line. I don't know if it was my credentials or that I spoke with several security people that morning and they remembered me but I got right up to the grandstand where Jim Nabors, Jessica Simpson and the rest were set up, they were about 15 feet in front of me (and 20 feet up on the platform). They finally got to the opening ceremonies and the boys started their engines. I stood behind the Penzoil Pit for the start of the race. At first the cars just cruised by doing about 70mph for lap one, it got quiet when they left Starting Lane then came around for Lap 2 averaging 90 mph, loud but not bad and the sound disappeared all together, but then from above me and across the track the green flag dropped and 33 Cars flew past my position in a deafening roar! After that you could hear the cars for miles and all I saw from the pit area was little helmets with wings going zipzipzipzip as they passed. We got to Lap 11 when the rains hit again and the cars were pulled in.

They started up again a little later (using jet engines and terry cloths to dry the track) and 2 co-workers were heading for the vans to grab a nap. They arrived with me at 4am but had to stay and do live hits for the 6pm news. I hitched a ride in one of our Golf Carts to make a trip to the NorthEast Vistas where the wife and boy were watching the race. As we drove off from our suite they looked at me and said, "This is your first time out, let's give you the nickel tour." From the pagoda we went to the Drivers area, here they keep the Transport Trailers and Luxury Buses. In front of every bus was a brand new BMW, Mercedes Benz or Lexus sportscar. Then we hit the Garages were the mechanics work on the backup cars and can work on the Qualified cars during a rain delay (new rule I guess). During this time we heard the cars drop down in speed, "Wreck or rain" said one of my tour guides and sure enough as we are leaving the garage area here comes a green Indy car all smashed up hanging from a crane, we pull over to let it by, "Foyt's car" says the other guide. "Where is he?" I ask, "Right there" points my new buddy. And there he is going into the track hospital (mandatory for any driver in a crash) and not looking too good (actually crying, later telling the press he was not looking forward to seeing his grandfather, AJ Foyt, the First).

From there we went around the whole track, stopping at the museum, the golf course, the family Viewing area inside the oval, driving over the Formula One course (later this month) and then heading back to the suite as it started raining AGAIN!!!!

By the time I got over to the wife and boy they were lost in the sea of fans (over 300,000) hiding from the rain. I went back to my car and headed home after spending 13 hours at the track it was time to call it quits.

The race was finally run, short but we had a winner, and by all accounts some of the best driving we had seen in many a year. When they called the race (around Lap 178 out of 200) they immediately asked everyone to evacuate the track as dangerous weather was heading our way. It hit and hit hard. When daylight appeared Monday morning 8 F-2 Tornadoes had devastated southern Indianapolis mere miles from the Speedway (more on this later).

I had a grat time, the work was hard but the reward was great! I look forward to next years race, just without the tornadoes.