Things that bother me...

Three things that bother me:

1. People who tailgate.

Whoever thought this would be a good idea? I mean, when I'm going the speed limit and you are riding my bumper, it's not going to make me go faster. It's only going to make you get more mad, and I hate to see the day that the person you are tailgating has to slam on brakes and you slam into the back of their car.

2. People who drive in the pouring rain with no lights on.

I'm going down the interstate at 60 mph and can't see cars coming up behind me because they are driving a gray car in the pouring rain with no lights on...very dangerous.

3. People who park in non-parking locations when there are parking spaces nearby.

Yesterday, Kimberly and I were at the park and a guy pulls up and parks on the grass. The crazy thing is there were dozens of parking spaces within sight of where he parked. My first assumption is that he was just lazy, but no he was there to do a run. So why couldn't he just park 20 feet down in a parking space?

La Máquina

That up above is translated from Spanish to "The Machine" and it's the nickname that has been given to Albert Pujols, first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.

I just saw a statistic this morning on ESPN that was absolutely stunning and had to share it.

With the bases loaded this year, Albert Pujols is:

7 for 9 with 5 HRs and 24 RBIs.

That means if you are pitching against him, it's pretty much better to walk him and give up a run than to possibly give up his average of almost 3 RBIs per AB with the bases loaded. The 5 Grand Slams in one season ties the National League record. The Major League record is 6 by Travis Hafner and Don Mattingly.

Bad Luck Charm

I mentioned in my previous post that Kimberly took me to see the Braves play the Nationals in Washington, DC. It was my first Braves game away from Atlanta, but the 7th one overall. While I've enjoyed myself, the Braves haven't had much success when I'm in attendance.

June 7, 1991 (Montreal Expos) - Steve Avery vs. Oil Can Boyd - Braves held it close at 4-1 before giving up 3 in the 8th and 4 in the 9th and lose 11-2.

June 8, 1991 (Montreal Expos) - Pete Smith vs. Brian Barnes - Braves scored early and held off the Expos for a 7-6 win.

September 5, 1999 (Arizona Dbacks) - Tom Glavine vs. Randy Johnson - Chipper hit 2 HRs and put the Braves in a position to win before with 2 outs in the 9th and a one run lead, Eddie Perez threw away a dropped 3rd strike. The Dbacks scored 3 more runs and won 7-5.

April 5th, 2001 (NY Mets) - Odalis Perez vs. Rick Reed - Reed gave up 1 run on 3 hits and the Braves were never in it, losing 7-1.

August 12, 2001 (Arizona Dbacks) - Greg Maddux vs. Albie Lopez - Junior Spivey of the Dbacks went 5 for 5 with 5 singles against Maddux and the Braves lost once again, 9-1.

June 22, 2003 (Baltimore Orioles) - Shane Reynolds vs. Jason Johnson - I don't remember anything about this game except it was blisteringly hot and the Braves lost 9-3.

July 4, 2009 (Washington Nationals) - Tommy Hanson vs. John Lannan - Hanson pitched 7 innings and gave up 3 hits and 1 run; the Braves bullpen pitched 1 inning and gave up 4 hits and 4 runs; Braves lose 5-3.

So there you have it, the Braves are 1-6 and have been outscored 22-54 in the games I've been to. Maybe I should buy season tickets to see the Yankees play?

Daytrippin'

So, a little update on what's been going on lately with us.  Last weekend, Kimberly took me to Washington, DC to go see a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals.  It was a great experience since I'm a huge baseball fan.  On the way, we stopped in Richmond to see her grandmother and Uncle Lee.  I had only seen her grandmother one other time and that was at our wedding 3 years ago, so that was nice.  After we returned on Sunday night we had supper with Kim's sister Heather and her husband Chris as they were in town for a concert.

This past weekend, we drove to her parents Friday night and stayed with them one night, visiting with them and her other grandmother and Uncle Roy.  Saturday, we drove down to Georgia and saw my brother and his wife, who we hadn't seen since Christmas.  It was good to catch up with them and see their new apartment that they moved into last month.  Then it was on to see Allison and Patti who we hadn't seen in over 2 years.  We stayed with them Saturday and and Sunday night and went to Faith's wedding reception Sunday afternoon down near Atlanta.  We were also able to hang out with the other Allison Sunday night, so that was good as well.  Finally, Monday morning we made the long trek back to Durham.

For the past 10 days we have driven/ridden 1300+ miles, visited with 11 family members we hadn't seen in quite some time and a handful of friends that we hadn't seen in over 2 years.  It was exhausting, but we definitely had a good time.  To our friends down in Georgia, thank you for a great weekend and it's a shame that we don't see more of each other.  It was almost like old times again.

What was your best day?

I'm reading a book right now called A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America. Buck O'Neil was a Negro League ballplayer who never got the chance to play in the Major Leagues because of segregation. Regardless of this unfortunate restriction placed on him, he remained a person full of life and joy and kind to all. In the book he asks the author, "What was your best day in baseball?" Buck's was the day he hit for the cycle and then later met his future wife. He says remembering that will keep you young.

But this doesn't just apply to baseball, thus the title of my post. Ask yourself, "what was your best day?" Remember the times in life when you felt like you were at your best. Hold on to that.

What was your best day?

Baseball rant time!

Just thought I would warn everyone.

So, for those who know or care, Manny Ramirez (Man-Ram) was suspended back in May for testing positive for steroids. It is a 50-game suspension without pay (meaning he'll lose 7 million in salary this year); he's set to return to the team on July 3rd.

So, I just learned this past week that he'll begin playing with the Albuquerque Isotopes (LA's triple A team) until he can go back to playing in LA. Also, ESPN is going to feature each and every one of his at-bats. Is it just me or does it seem odd that he can play professional baseball while on suspension from professional baseball? ESPN should be speaking out against this too, not going along with it and profiting off of it.

I was so happy to see an actual professional baseball player get penalized decently, but baseball allowing this is just depressing.

Stranded on the Front Porch

I've been drawing blanks on what to post here lately, and I even talked about that on Saturday afternoon. Who knew that what happened late Saturday night/Sunday morning would provide me just the story to break my draught.

So Kimberly and I were house sitting for a lady that Kimberly knew from a previous job. The lady, who was going on vacation to Florida, lives in the northern part of Durham county. In Durham county, once you drive north of the city there is pretty much a 15 mile stretch of nothing but farmland and really big houses with lots of property. The house is located in a new neighborhood with probably only 20 homes.

We were also watching and feeding her dogs, and Saturday night one of them started to bark pretty crazily at around 2:30. We woke up to investigate and decided to let the dog out of the garage. I stepped out the back door, went through the yard, and opened the back door of the garage to let the dog out. In the meantime Kimberly stepped out the back door also, to tell me something. It was then that we realized we were locked out.

It was 2:30 AM, I'm wearing only shorts and some shoes, Kimberly is wearing only pajamas and no shoes. No keys to the house, no keys to our car, and no phone and a nearly empty neighborhood. After checking all of the doors and windows, and trying to break into the house, we decided the only other option was to go to someone's house. So at now approximately 3 AM we walked through the neighborhood half dressed and rang a doorbell.

Let me tell you, that was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, because there is no telling how the person is going to react. Luckily, we got a friendly if not confused elderly couple who was nice enough to let us use their phone. After calling several people and still not being able to get in the house, we called my dad to make the 20 minute drive from his house to pick us up. We made it to their house a little bit after 4 and crashed into the bed.

It was easily the most bizarre night of my life, but one that I'll never forget.