In preparation for the fantasy baseball season, this past Wednesday I ordered Ron Shandler's "Fantasy Forecaster 2008". When you purchase the book right from his website you get special access to all of the stats and charts in .pdf and .xls formats. Mmmmm.... stats.
I was like the kid in "A Christmas Story," waiting for my Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring. I was checking my e-mails every half hour at work on Thursday and Friday to no avail. I actually even called their customer service on Friday to see if the order had been processed. At that time I was informed that the e-mails granting access to the online files were sent over night. I came home and turned on my laptop... waiting... waiting... waiting...
I went to bed around 11pm, without receiving the e-mail. When I woke up on Saturday morning, there the files were, in my inbox - with a little bow wrapped around them in the form of a high priority flag.
I sat on the computer for most of the afternoon yesterday pouring over the complicated sabermetric analysis tools, thinking about the upcoming season, and drinking my ovaltine.
31 days until Pitchers & Catchers report.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Hotels & Yankee Tickets!
Dad made the reservations for the hotel today and I bought the tickets for the first game of our spring training season. Astros @ Yankees. Have I mentioned lately that I hate the Yankees?
I logged onto www.yankees.com at 10:00am and purchased the tickets. I logged on again at noon (just to see if anything was still available) and the tickets were all sold out. Unbelievable. SPRING TRAINING GAMES!! Not only that - the Yanks tickets are way more expensive than any other team's spring training tickets. Have I mentioned that I hate the Yankees? I guess they have to pay A-Rod somehow.
As a point of reference - I attempted to purchase the cheapest available seats - 200 Level way out by the outfield - $17/ticket. They would only let me buy the $27 tickets on the website - 200 Level behind home plate. There was not an option to buy the $17 seats until all of the other 200 level seats were sold, forcing those of us who are diligent enough to get online first to buy the more expensive seats... I didn't want to wait and try to get the $17 tickets for fear that I miss the window of opportunity and get shut out from getting tickets altogether. I got 4 tickets at $27 a piece (in two different rows).
Pirates' cheapest tickets are $9. I could go to three Pirates games or go to ONE Yankee game.
I logged onto www.yankees.com at 10:00am and purchased the tickets. I logged on again at noon (just to see if anything was still available) and the tickets were all sold out. Unbelievable. SPRING TRAINING GAMES!! Not only that - the Yanks tickets are way more expensive than any other team's spring training tickets. Have I mentioned that I hate the Yankees? I guess they have to pay A-Rod somehow.
As a point of reference - I attempted to purchase the cheapest available seats - 200 Level way out by the outfield - $17/ticket. They would only let me buy the $27 tickets on the website - 200 Level behind home plate. There was not an option to buy the $17 seats until all of the other 200 level seats were sold, forcing those of us who are diligent enough to get online first to buy the more expensive seats... I didn't want to wait and try to get the $17 tickets for fear that I miss the window of opportunity and get shut out from getting tickets altogether. I got 4 tickets at $27 a piece (in two different rows).
Pirates' cheapest tickets are $9. I could go to three Pirates games or go to ONE Yankee game.
Friday, January 04, 2008
The Bleak Mid-Winter
As the embers in my fireplace burned into the early morning, I poured over statistics in the latest release of Baseball America's 2008 Almanac. It was frigid outside and the bitter wind could be heard whistling in the night air. I smelled the musky smoke and heard the cackle of the fire and realized that we are entering the coldest two months of the year. Two months of coats and hats, gloves and scarves. Two months that are barren of baseball and where Sportscenter features stories on hockey and horseshoes. But, much like the warm fire in the cold arctic air, I had my XM radio. My little electronic device that brings me talk about baseball every day, every minute, and every second of the year - if only I choose to listen.
I fired up the gadget and on this particular night the talk was of Roger Clemens' possible steroid use and of the recent trade of Nick Swisher from the Oakland A's to the Chicago White Sox. Ahhh... the warmth of baseball.
While I listened to the voices talking at me about prospects and performance enhancing drugs, my mind drifted to our upcoming trip to Spring Training. I've gone twice before. The first time it was just Dad and me. The second time, we took Pap along.
Actually - now that I think about it - this will be the fifth "baseball trip" with my father. The first one was in 1988 or 1989 when my father and I drove around the mid-west and took in an Indian's game at old Municipal Stadium, a White Sox game in their brand new Comiskey II, and we tried to tune into Bucco games over the AM radio in our rental car as we drove through the night in far off cities. We took a train back from Chicago and got to ride in a sleeper car, realizing that it was less glamorous than we had expected and much more uncomfortable. Our second trip was more than 10 years later - after my graduation from college. We went to a bunch of parks along the east coast including The Vet, Shea, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Camden Yards, then we headed west to Wrigley, and Jacob's Field - stopping in Williamsport for the Little League World Series along the way. Our two trips to spring training followed that.
As the years pass, I wish I had a better chronicle of each of our trips. What stands out in my mind the most about our spring training trips was the Bloody Marys that Pap ordered us at a local bar in Tampa, the Mustang convertible that we rented, and the college hoops that we watched in our hotel room each night. It's funny that the baseball games seem to be secondary on these vacations. Ironically, you look forward to the trip thinking about the cold beer and the games that you'll watch and enjoy, but when you come home what you remember most is the time that you spent with your loved ones.
Pitchers and Catchers report in 40 days.
I fired up the gadget and on this particular night the talk was of Roger Clemens' possible steroid use and of the recent trade of Nick Swisher from the Oakland A's to the Chicago White Sox. Ahhh... the warmth of baseball.
While I listened to the voices talking at me about prospects and performance enhancing drugs, my mind drifted to our upcoming trip to Spring Training. I've gone twice before. The first time it was just Dad and me. The second time, we took Pap along.
Actually - now that I think about it - this will be the fifth "baseball trip" with my father. The first one was in 1988 or 1989 when my father and I drove around the mid-west and took in an Indian's game at old Municipal Stadium, a White Sox game in their brand new Comiskey II, and we tried to tune into Bucco games over the AM radio in our rental car as we drove through the night in far off cities. We took a train back from Chicago and got to ride in a sleeper car, realizing that it was less glamorous than we had expected and much more uncomfortable. Our second trip was more than 10 years later - after my graduation from college. We went to a bunch of parks along the east coast including The Vet, Shea, Yankee Stadium, Fenway, Camden Yards, then we headed west to Wrigley, and Jacob's Field - stopping in Williamsport for the Little League World Series along the way. Our two trips to spring training followed that.
As the years pass, I wish I had a better chronicle of each of our trips. What stands out in my mind the most about our spring training trips was the Bloody Marys that Pap ordered us at a local bar in Tampa, the Mustang convertible that we rented, and the college hoops that we watched in our hotel room each night. It's funny that the baseball games seem to be secondary on these vacations. Ironically, you look forward to the trip thinking about the cold beer and the games that you'll watch and enjoy, but when you come home what you remember most is the time that you spent with your loved ones.
Pitchers and Catchers report in 40 days.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Alone Time
One of the things that I'm realizing I miss a lot about the quads is the opportunity to have short, individual moments with each one. In a way - because there are so many of them - we miss a lot of their individual moments and realizations simply because we are trying to spend time with each of them. For example - Ella peed in her bed last night and came running into our room - all wet. I cleaned her up, pulled off her pajamas, threw one of my t-shirts onto her and brought her into bed with us. She's so small and cute. As we were laying in bed, she kept putting her little arm around me to give me a hug. (We never fell asleep because of Mommy's snoring).
On the other hand, I'm sitting in the playroom with Robby and James and we're playing with our computers. They with their toy laptops and me with my real one. They are talking with one another and having entire conversations and interactions. People with just one kid (or with kids at different ages) miss out on this unique aspect of having multiples. Here was a conversation that was just had about the toy computers and the toy kitchen in the playroom:
R: Maybe the laptop can fit in the dishwasher.
J: Don't put it in the dishwasher.
R: Why?
J: Because.
R: Go play with your digger.
J: Ok.
J (to Daddy): Robby's putting the laptop in the dishwasher and I think it should go in the refrigerator.
It's a delicate balance that we try to achieve around here. Having special one on one moments and then encouraging them to interact with each other and play together.
Fun times.
On the other hand, I'm sitting in the playroom with Robby and James and we're playing with our computers. They with their toy laptops and me with my real one. They are talking with one another and having entire conversations and interactions. People with just one kid (or with kids at different ages) miss out on this unique aspect of having multiples. Here was a conversation that was just had about the toy computers and the toy kitchen in the playroom:
R: Maybe the laptop can fit in the dishwasher.
J: Don't put it in the dishwasher.
R: Why?
J: Because.
R: Go play with your digger.
J: Ok.
J (to Daddy): Robby's putting the laptop in the dishwasher and I think it should go in the refrigerator.
It's a delicate balance that we try to achieve around here. Having special one on one moments and then encouraging them to interact with each other and play together.
Fun times.
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