Tag: Baseball

Opening Day

Today is opening day for the Boston Red Sox. The first game is a little more than four hours away. They are on the road against the Rangers. Game time is 4:05pm Eastern time.

This is the third opening day since my mother passed away and the first since my father passed away. I am missing them both a little extra today.

Here’s hoping my Red Sox tear Texas a new one to cheer me up. After suffering through garbage hockey for nearly a full season, I am not going to take any crap from baseball. I have spoken.

Unrelated note, here’s today’s photo a day thing (day 208 of 365). I hope you’re not getting tired of the toy camera app black and white stuff because I most definitely am not tired of it. I might use black and white exclusively next month. We’ll see. I’ll probably change my mind before then, but it could happen.

208/365

Spring Training

I enjoy Major League Baseball’s Spring Training. Why? Because most of the games are afternoon starts, usually 1:00pm. They coincide with me going on my lunch break and I like to listen to the radio broadcasts while sitting at my desk.

Granted it is Spring Training so after a couple of innings the actual Major Leaguers all leave the game and it turns into the minor league prospects show and I literally know maybe 3% of the players. That’s okay. The best of the bunch will eventually break into the Majors… though many will do it for other teams. Whatever, it’s pro baseball and it’s always a fun listen.

Today’s work day has been weird at best. Having a Red Sox vs Orioles game playing in the background is a good thing. Even if my Red Sox are trailing 5-0. That’s another plus for Spring Training. If the Red Sox get trounced it’s okay because the game doesn’t count.

Happy Spring Training, everyone.

Spring Training

I missed the big day. I had too many other things going on to notice it. Boston Red Sox pitchers and catchers reported for Spring Training two days ago. Later that night they signed the biggest free agent on the market, Alex Bregman. We have a few new pitchers this year, including one who looks like an ace in the making, and now we have a power hitting infielder with a couple of World Series rings to bolster the lineup.

Know something? The Red Sox might not suck this year. Are they World Series contenders? Maybe, but probably not. Might they make a run at the American League East title? They might. Given that my beloved Bruins are more or less shitting the bed this year after years of excellence (in the regular season, at least), and the Red Sox have been a gigantic suck-fest for the last few years… a reversal of fortune is timely. I wish my dad were still around to see one more good season. He suffered through so many awful Red Sox teams in his life that it would have been nice to go out with a winning team. Okay, now I am equal parts excited for the new season and sad for the past. Shit.

Anyway, I snuck in a photo before I left the house to go to work this morning so that I could make sure I had something for the photo a day challenge. Here it is… it sucks even more than the Bruins.

167/365

Write Something

I feel this almost overwhelming need to write something today, but I don’t have anything to write about. Usually I when the drive gets annoyingly persistent I can come up with something to prattle on about, but today I am drawing a blank.

The Bruins won. That’s two wins in a row on a road trip that started out awful. I think the last game of the trip is in Edmonton tomorrow night. Can they beat the Oilers? I would say probably not, but I didn’t expect them to beat Calgary last night either so what do I know.

I keep seeing the Boston Red Sox mentioned as potential destinations for big name free agent players. Unfortunately I heard the same thing over and over again during last year’s off season and we landed exactly zero big name free agents. We’ve made a big trade to get a potential ace starting pitcher. Will that be a sign of better things to come this winter? Who knows.

Harry is coming to stay with us this weekend. He was supposed to be coming over on Friday at some point but now he’s coming on Thursday! For those of you reading this at some future date allow me to clarify by stating that Thursday is tomorrow! Nice! I am working in the office tomorrow so I have to move some of my stuff out of his room before he comes over. When he’s home his room is… ya know… his room. When he’s not home, his room is my office. The only thing I need to move is a backpack and some camera stuff that is sitting on the day bed, and a table I have been using as a gift wrapping station. All of that needs to move down cellar to the space I use as an office when he’s home.

What else… what else… anything else? I don’t know. My lunch break is over. I have a meeting in about half an hour. I think I need to wrap this one up. Will it scratch today’s weird “write something, you dope” itch?

Probably not.

Lunch Break

It’s Wednesday afternoon. My lunch break is coming to an end. If I were to sneak a post in before getting back to work, what would I write about?

I have no idea. My mind is a blank! So I guess we stream of consciousness this sucker? Ready… Go!

The Bruins beat the Red Wings last night. They play the Blackhawks tonight. Two teams that aren’t very good. Theoretically we should beat them both pretty easily. Last night they needed overtime to squeak out a win. Tonight? I’m almost afraid to watch.

If I could watch, that is. The NESN app is being a jerk. Well, I don’t know if it’s NESN or FiOS. I think it’s FiOS. It tells me I’m signed in, but when I try to watch something it tells me I’m not signed in and then won’t let me sign in. Maybe during tonight’s game I’ll pop in a single air pod and listen to the radio broadcast. I’m following each game but I am not listening to the goings on and I am starting to feel very much out of touch. I feel like I am too old and easily distracted to really give my full energy to a team that isn’t very good… lately they have been better but… yeah. They are currently in third place in the division so they are higher than a wild card seed for the playoffs. That’s good. Let’s keep it up, folks.

Current television binge watching projects:

  • Star Wars Skeleton Crew season 1
  • Silo season 2
  • What We Do in the Shadows season… 6? I think it’s 6. Only a couple more episodes before the series ends for good. All I can say is, BAT!
  • Better Call Saul season five. Two seasons left.
  • Gotham season 1. I hear it gets easier once you get past the first season. Here’s hoping that rumor is accurate. I want to watch this show but some of the episodes have been tough. Some of the acting is really bad. I don’t want to give any names because I am afraid Will Smith might slap me at the Oscars. Sorry. Just calling them as I see them.
  • Dark season 3. This one is a slog. I am having a really hard time getting through it, but I am determined to finish it.
  • Black Mirror. I don’t remember what season I am on, but I am having a hard time sticking with it.
  • Doctor Who, rewatching the last season to prep for this year’s xmas special.
  • The Walking Dead season 3. Rewatching along with the The ‘Cast of Us podcast. I fell behind by one week but I am caught up on both the show and the podcast now.

Seriously, does anyone really believe that Juan Soto is going to sign with the Red Sox? Seriously?

We are going to Vermont this weekend. I want to bring my new/ancient film camera but I can’t really see a time or place where I could use it. Maybe. We’ll see. I did order my first roll of 120 color film yesterday. It won’t be delivered until after we get back though. Oh well.

I have to buy a gift for our work yankee swap. It’s Tuesday. Holy crap that came up fast. Yikes.

Okay. Back to work, Robert.

A Nice Halloween Gift

I did not watch a single pitch of the World Series this year. Why would I watch a series played between two teams that I loath? Nope. Not a single pitch.

I did check the scores each day to see if the team I hate more than the other team I hate lost. Last night before I went to bed I checked the score and the team I hate the most was winning again. Shit.

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween!

As I was getting ready to start my morning routine I checked the score again. The Dodgers came back and took the lead in the eighth inning and won the game and won the World Series! I hate the Dodgers, but they are practically family compared the the fucking Yankees.

The Yankees lost!
The Yankees lost!
Happy Halloween everybody, the Yankees lost!

The Horror

Last night the Bruins lost to a team that has been playing pretty bad this season so far. They got shut out.

In the World Series, the fucking Yankees, who were trailing 3-0 in the series, beat the Dodgers to stay alive.

Basically, it was the worst pro-sports night imaginable for me.

The horror… the horror… the horror…

Lunch Break

I am just about to wrap up my lunch break on this fine Tuesday-in-the-office. I have a few minutes before the next thing starts so I figured I’d come here and write something… anything…

Unfortunately, I have zero inspiration for any topics at all. Way to have an empty brain, Robert. Ugh.

So… here’s a topic. If the Dodgers win tonight they will complete the sweep of the Yankees and win the World Series. I freakin’ hate The Dodgers with the passion and fury of a thousand burning suns. Fortunately I hate the Yankees even more (with the passion and fury of a million, million burning suns) so that’s actually a good thing. As a lifelong Red Sox fan, watching the Yankees lose is fun for me. Watching them get humiliated by their (former) cross town rivals, The Dodgers, is even more fun. The only thing better would be watching them lose in humiliating fashion to The Red Sox… like they did in 2004. ‘Member that? Yeah, I ‘member!

What else I can I write about… hmmm… oh, here’s a quick topic worth mentioning. My step son, Harry, has been trying to get me to watch Better Call Saul for months now. He’s actually taking a class on the show at UVM and has been rewatching and loving the hell out of it. I told him I would start it this week, and last night I did. One episode down. Who knows how many to go. I did not see the twist at the end of that first episode coming, but when it happened I was all shit-eatin’-grins. I have to work episodes in around the shows that are currently airing, though most of my watch list is ending in the next week. There’s Daryl Dixon (which has been a little disappointing this season but this week’s penultimate season two episode was good) and The Penguin (which is excellent) and Only Murders in the Building (which is always fun) and Agatha All Along (which took a couple of weeks to suck me in but has turned out to be really good) and What We Do in the Shadows (which kicked off with three episodes last week, all of which were excellent). That’s a lot of TV. I’ll get to it all, somehow.

What else, what else… the Bruins have been pretty mediocre to start the season. They play Philly at home tonight and Philly has been pretty bad. Here’s hoping the offense wakes up. Also the defense. Also the goaltending. Yeah, it’s been a long first nine games here in Bruins nation. The same cannot be said for my old school, UMass Lowell. I actually saw a poll last night (I think it was US College Hockey Online’s poll but I’m not sure) that had them break into the top 20 teams in the country. They are 4-1 overall and 1-0 in Hockey East. The spanked Merrimack College last weekend (that’s my brother’s old school. Sorry, John). I should pay closer attention to my alma matter. Did I spell alma matter correctly? Google tells me I did not. It’s alma mater. There. Better.

Okay, folks. Time to go join a conference call or two. Hope you’re all having a good Tuesday afternoon. I hope you all had a good lunch. Hang in there, folks. Talk to you later.

World Series Blues

It’s bad enough that the Bruins have lost three games in a row and can’t play defense and can’t play offense, but we’re a few minutes away from the start of the World Series and no matter how it turns out a team that I royally hate is going to win. The question is, will it be a team that a hate with a burning passion, or will it be the team that I hate more than all other teams I hate combined?

Some times I just think that pro sports can just bite me, you know?

On the upside, we’re going to Vermont tomorrow and we’re going to see the kids. That’s some first class, grade A good news right there. It’s the weekend and it is a kids weekend. Just like the old days, right?

Happy Friday, oh my brothers and sisters and only friends.