Re: Idle Chatter

1520
Darkstar wrote:We disagree on the team you root for - but cool that you two got together nonetheless.
Hey Darkstar, YOU and I are coming up on our One Year Anniversary of dining on the Live Music and out of the way food and entertainment venues in San Francisco.

As I shared with J.R., perhaps one of the things I miss most about San Francisco.....and I'll note I am thrilled to have moved to Southwest Florida......I miss the morning time kickoffs for NFL and College Football.

Re: Idle Chatter

1521
J.R. wrote:Watching Letterman show - no studio audience tonight!
Same thing with Jimmy Fallon.

It was an easy thing for them to do, perhaps, but I'll applaud the old school "the show must go on" effort.

Good thing Brittany Spears was booked on Leno. She likely wouldn't have shown up if booked in New York.

Re: Idle Chatter

1522
Cali

too bad you didn't move to Fort Collins, CO. On election day (after voting!) I'm making my 3rd trip out there since May1 of this year. There's some nice local brews, and a bar with a large selection of single malt scotches - including a 25 YO McCallan that sells for 65 bucks a glass. I've not sampled that, as it seems a bit...extravagant.

That said - I would trade it for an afternoon with you, Applejack and his bandmates!

Re: Idle Chatter

1523
Darkstar wrote:Cali

too bad you didn't move to Fort Collins, CO. On election day (after voting!) I'm making my 3rd trip out there since May1 of this year. There's some nice local brews, and a bar with a large selection of single malt scotches - including a 25 YO McCallan that sells for 65 bucks a glass. I've not sampled that, as it seems a bit...extravagant.

That said - I would trade it for an afternoon with you, Applejack and his bandmates!
I drove through Fort Collins on my way for my second courting of my now wife after leaving my work of the week in Littleton that particular week of that particular year.

The skies were ominous as I approached the Wyoming state line to eventually head west on I-80. I snapped a photo of the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign on the state border on US 287.

I have the photo around here somewhere, but it caught three "finger clouds" reaching down to the ground. Later that night I heard on the car radio in the night on I-80, about 200 miles west from the camera shot, that Laramie, Wyoming had severe tornado damage.

Before that drive I had already been to Leadville CO and had amazing filet mignon and prime rib in a restaurant I have written about before. I was told the beef was from Greeley CO, when I asked.

I noted Greeley was near as I drove North to Wyoming from Colorado that late afternoon.

It made me hungry.

True story, on the way along my first business trip to the Denver suburb of Littleton, I was talking to my best friend of the day in South Carolina. I told him that when I made Denver I was going to spit on John Elway's grave.

He noted that he believed John Elway had not yet passed away.


I reminded him I had not yet reached Denver.




These days when I have remembrances of John Elway, I just remember when The Bears of California ripped victory from him.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jA6mf-3 ... re=related

And I'm not that much of a California Bear Fan.

Re: Idle Chatter

1524
Darkstar wrote:Cali

too bad you didn't move to Fort Collins, CO. On election day (after voting!) I'm making my 3rd trip out there since May1 of this year. There's some nice local brews, and a bar with a large selection of single malt scotches - including a 25 YO McCallan that sells for 65 bucks a glass. I've not sampled that, as it seems a bit...extravagant.

That said - I would trade it for an afternoon with you, Applejack and his bandmates!

Don't tell anyone we really innocently ended up in the bar for Larry Flint's Hustler Club.


I just thought at the time we found a good live music blues and rock bar......

Re: Idle Chatter

1526
Tribe Fan in SC/Cali wrote:

Don't tell anyone we really innocently ended up in the bar for Larry Flint's Hustler Club.


I just thought at the time we found a good live music blues and rock bar......
Too late hombre. It makes such a great story, of already shared it....stressing, of course, the innocence in our arriving at that particular establishment....

Re: Idle Chatter

1528
Pascual Perez killed in stabbing
Pascual Perez won 67 games during his 11 seasons in the major leagues.

SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (AP)

Former major league pitcher Pascual Perez, who had a troubled 11-season career that included two suspensions for drug use, was killed at his home in the Dominican Republic in an apparent robbery, police said Thursday.

Perez, who last played in the majors for the New York Yankees in 1991, was found with a severe head wound in a town west of the capital, Santo Domingo, and there was evidence at the scene to suggest that whoever killed him had been searching for money, said Joel Valdemiro, a prosecutor who is involved in the investigation.

No one was in custody and authorities did not reveal whether they had any suspects. Police said there were several assailants and that the house in the town of San Gregrorio de Nigua appeared to have been ransacked.

''It's an act of criminality, unfortunately,'' Valdemiro said.

Perez's brother Carlos, a former pitcher for the Dodgers, confirmed his death.

Perez's ex-wife Maritza Montero found his body about 8:30 a.m. Thursday and investigators said he appeared to have been slain about eight hours earlier.

The precise cause of death has not been determined but officials said Perez, who had suffered severe kidney problems in recent years, had a fractured skull from a blow to the head.

Perez, 55, played 11 seasons of in the majors and compiled a lifetime record of 67-68 with the Braves, Pirates, Expos and Yankees. But he was in and out of trouble for much of his career.

''We were shocked to hear the news of Pascual Perez' death earlier today,'' said Braves president John Schuerholz in a statement. ''Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during the aftermath of this tragic event. Pascual left his mark with the Braves organization and will always be remembered fondly by Braves fans.''

Perez pitched for Atlanta from 1982-85. He was 15-8 in 1983 and 14-8 in 1984.

The right-hander was first signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in January 1976 as an amateur free agent, according to Baseball-Reference.com, an online sports information site. He came from a baseball family that included brothers Carlos, a left-hander with six years in the majors, and Melido, a right-hander with nine professional seasons, including four with the Yankees.

Pascual Perez's career was a rocky one.

In 1982, Perez helped Atlanta win the National League West title with a 4-4 record. But in August of that season he missed a start because, as he later explained, he missed a highway exit sign and spent almost two hours circling Atlanta Stadium.

While playing for the Braves, he was suspended in April 1984 following his arrest in January of that year in the Dominican Republic on charges of cocaine possession.

He spent two months in drug rehabilitation in 1989 while with the Expos, after failing to complete rehab programs twice before, and avoided a suspension only by agreeing to accept a minimum one-year suspension if he tested positive for cocaine again.

In March 1992, the commissioner's office suspended him after a failed test the day he arrived for spring training with the Yankees. At the time, he was entering the final season of a three-year, $5.7 million contract. He never returned to major league baseball.

Re: Idle Chatter

1529
Pascual Perez.

That guy had a live arm and was fun to watch pitch in his prime in my years of watching Atlanta Braves Baseball....that ended in 1995.

Pascual when he came up was painted with the rep of not being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

One Atlanta evening he was exceptionally late to a Braves game, and I recall he did not reach the stadium until after first pitch. My recollection is the Braves announcers were talking about his unexpected absence.

Turned out he got turned around on the Interstates around the City of Atlanta, and ended up circling multiple times on I-285 trying to find the cutoff to the old Atlanta stadium.

Pascual's teammates later had a jersey made for him with the moniker, "I-285."

Pascual's natural fast ball was sharp.

Reflecting, I consider that even with the pocket change of his million dollar years he might have kept, Pascual elected to go home to The Dominican as opposed to staying in The United States.

And I recall George Carlin's routine about the differences between Football and Baseball.




With Baseball being a "gentle game," because everyone just wants to go "home."

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!



____________________________________________________________________

Baseball and Football

by George Carlin

Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.

Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you'd know the reason for this custom.

Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.

I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!


http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml