Weekend Fun
For some X marks the spot, for me X-It and The Acoustic Cafe marked the spot where my weekend was jumped off on Saturday night. I had seen X-It on The Acoustic’s schedule and since the lead singer / bass player and I used to train at the same dojo a few years back I wanted to stop in and show some support. I also wanted to see my friend again, who I hadn’t seen in a handful of years.
Not only was it great seeing a few friends I hadn't seen in a while, but it turns out that X-It is really good! I enjoyed their music a lot, especially their ballsy cover Prince’s "When Doves Cry." It takes a lot of cajones to cover such a unique legend but they did it correctly by infusing enough of their own personality into it to make it less of a cover and more of an interpolation. I was diggin that song so much even a few of the girls around me noticed. Oh yeah, there were girls there, lots of girls, and yes I was lovin every second of it. The cute female bartender even bought me a drink saying "you have a nice face, this one’s on me." The place was too busy at the time to get her number, though. Maybe next time.
Sunday I headed out to Shae Stadium with a few friends to watch my Mets. Victor Zambrano, AKA the human walk machine, was on the mound so my hopes weren’t high, in reality I was just glad to spend a day at the ballpark with some friends. As it turned out Zambrano was only one of the Mets’ problems on this day, new manager, and yankee name dropper, Willie Randolph ended up an even bigger threat. There were two instances where Willie blew really easy managerial decisions. The first slip up was in the bottom of the third, already down 4-3, Zambrano up with two men on and two out. Zambrano’s pitch count was already in the 80’s and it was clear he wasn’t going to last much longer. After terrific outings by Pedro and Seo this past week our bullpen was pretty well rested so my thought was, put in a pinch hitter like Marlon Anderson to try to drive in one of those runs and tie the game up. Instead our genius manager left Zambrano in, who turned out to be an easy out.
After leaving him in to bat you’d think maybe Willie knew something we didn’t, after all, he’s the manager, he should know more than the fans. In this case, he didn’t. Zambrano started off the top of the fourth by plunking Livan Hernandez, the opposing pitcher, and then promptly giving up a monstrous two run jack to Brad Wilkerson. So now, rather than the game possibly being tied 4-4 it was 6-3 Nationals. Of course, Willie couldn’t take Zambrano out of the game at this point, that would mean we would have all been right about pinch hitting for him. Oh no, we’d suffer with Zambrano till the top of the 6th.
It was during the top of the sixth that, after getting knocked around some more, Zambrano was finally pulled from the game. Willie, however, having taken his stupid pills on this morning, pulled a double switch and took out power hitting third baseman David Wright. Yes, Wright was the last person to bat in the previous half inning, but the reliever he brought in was Manny Aybar, not exactly a long relief guy, which is part of what made the double switch so odd. Why do a double switch when you know it’s more than likely that you won’t be going through nine batters in your lineup before pulling the pitcher again? Making this double switch doubly stupid was the fact that Willie took out one of our best run producers while we were losing the game. Hey, Willie, to quote Herman Edwards, "you play to win the game!" Inserting Chris Woodward in the lineup for David Wright is never a winning move.
In the end the Mets got killed but it was a day at the stadium with friends, so all was not lost. I even brought home a plastic souvenir beer mug. The game capped off a six day span where I went to five events. It was almost six events but I ended up missing one because I passed out on the couch on Friday night. Hey, I deserve some sleep, right?
This week I have two artist interviews set up and a concert to go to. Other than that I’m working on a kick ass cover letter in hopes that my resume will finally be noticed. I’ve put in all the work-work, now it’s time to clean up all the BS stuff companies want to see before they look at a person’s work. Tiring? Yes, but it something that needs to get done. I refuse to freelance for the rest of my life, I’d end up burned out by 30.
Fantasy Update: I’ve had to make a handful of moves recently. Brad Penny finally came of the DL so that meant sayonara to Tomo Ohka. Derrick Turnbow took over the closer’s role in Milwaukee so I had to snatch him up, dropping Victor Zambrano (which I delighted in), and with Penny being off the DL I moved Khalil Greene to the DL and picked up Astros backup Catcher Raul Chavez. With J.D. Closser being in what looks to be a season long slump I needed someone, anyone, would give me a few hits once in a while from the Catcher position. This also begs the question, how can a player slump while in Colorado?
Not only was it great seeing a few friends I hadn't seen in a while, but it turns out that X-It is really good! I enjoyed their music a lot, especially their ballsy cover Prince’s "When Doves Cry." It takes a lot of cajones to cover such a unique legend but they did it correctly by infusing enough of their own personality into it to make it less of a cover and more of an interpolation. I was diggin that song so much even a few of the girls around me noticed. Oh yeah, there were girls there, lots of girls, and yes I was lovin every second of it. The cute female bartender even bought me a drink saying "you have a nice face, this one’s on me." The place was too busy at the time to get her number, though. Maybe next time.
Sunday I headed out to Shae Stadium with a few friends to watch my Mets. Victor Zambrano, AKA the human walk machine, was on the mound so my hopes weren’t high, in reality I was just glad to spend a day at the ballpark with some friends. As it turned out Zambrano was only one of the Mets’ problems on this day, new manager, and yankee name dropper, Willie Randolph ended up an even bigger threat. There were two instances where Willie blew really easy managerial decisions. The first slip up was in the bottom of the third, already down 4-3, Zambrano up with two men on and two out. Zambrano’s pitch count was already in the 80’s and it was clear he wasn’t going to last much longer. After terrific outings by Pedro and Seo this past week our bullpen was pretty well rested so my thought was, put in a pinch hitter like Marlon Anderson to try to drive in one of those runs and tie the game up. Instead our genius manager left Zambrano in, who turned out to be an easy out.
After leaving him in to bat you’d think maybe Willie knew something we didn’t, after all, he’s the manager, he should know more than the fans. In this case, he didn’t. Zambrano started off the top of the fourth by plunking Livan Hernandez, the opposing pitcher, and then promptly giving up a monstrous two run jack to Brad Wilkerson. So now, rather than the game possibly being tied 4-4 it was 6-3 Nationals. Of course, Willie couldn’t take Zambrano out of the game at this point, that would mean we would have all been right about pinch hitting for him. Oh no, we’d suffer with Zambrano till the top of the 6th.
It was during the top of the sixth that, after getting knocked around some more, Zambrano was finally pulled from the game. Willie, however, having taken his stupid pills on this morning, pulled a double switch and took out power hitting third baseman David Wright. Yes, Wright was the last person to bat in the previous half inning, but the reliever he brought in was Manny Aybar, not exactly a long relief guy, which is part of what made the double switch so odd. Why do a double switch when you know it’s more than likely that you won’t be going through nine batters in your lineup before pulling the pitcher again? Making this double switch doubly stupid was the fact that Willie took out one of our best run producers while we were losing the game. Hey, Willie, to quote Herman Edwards, "you play to win the game!" Inserting Chris Woodward in the lineup for David Wright is never a winning move.
In the end the Mets got killed but it was a day at the stadium with friends, so all was not lost. I even brought home a plastic souvenir beer mug. The game capped off a six day span where I went to five events. It was almost six events but I ended up missing one because I passed out on the couch on Friday night. Hey, I deserve some sleep, right?
This week I have two artist interviews set up and a concert to go to. Other than that I’m working on a kick ass cover letter in hopes that my resume will finally be noticed. I’ve put in all the work-work, now it’s time to clean up all the BS stuff companies want to see before they look at a person’s work. Tiring? Yes, but it something that needs to get done. I refuse to freelance for the rest of my life, I’d end up burned out by 30.
Fantasy Update: I’ve had to make a handful of moves recently. Brad Penny finally came of the DL so that meant sayonara to Tomo Ohka. Derrick Turnbow took over the closer’s role in Milwaukee so I had to snatch him up, dropping Victor Zambrano (which I delighted in), and with Penny being off the DL I moved Khalil Greene to the DL and picked up Astros backup Catcher Raul Chavez. With J.D. Closser being in what looks to be a season long slump I needed someone, anyone, would give me a few hits once in a while from the Catcher position. This also begs the question, how can a player slump while in Colorado?
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