Archive for the ‘Baseball’Category

Learning Economics at the Ballgame

Upon hearing about yesterday’s gorgeous weather in Chicago, Darren and I made plans to see the Cubs play last night. I bought the tickets on a ticket reselling website and other than the 30 minute rainstorm, the weather was gorgeous. The game itself turned out to be pretty good too.

Today, just by chance, I got an email from cubs.com thanking me for attending the game, which seemed kind of strange, given that I didn’t buy the tickets from the team. Of course, I’m not that naive … Read the rest of this entry →

12

05 2011

Blast(s) from the Past

A few memories from the past have resurfaced in the past few days: Read the rest of this entry →

17

01 2007

The oddities of major league baseball

I already posted once tonight about game seven of the NLCS being a classic in the making. Now I’d like to offer a little piece of trivia for all of you. Read the rest of this entry →

19

10 2006

Baseball Update

The playoffs have sucked up to this point. And that’s a huge dissapointment. Read the rest of this entry →

19

10 2006

Free the Birds!

On September 12, 2006 the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox clinched the 9th consecutive losing season for the Baltimore Orioles. They haven’t won more than half their games since their AL-best 98 wins in 1997.

During Thursday’s make-up game with the Detroit Tigers, many fans dressed up in black T-shirts reading ‘Free the Birds’ to protest Peter Angelos’ mismanagement of the Baltimore Orioles. Read the rest of this entry →

22

09 2006

The almighty golf course ranger and the Cardinal camera

I spent the past weekend in Chicagoland. On Saturday, I played golf with Darren, Bova and Gartley. The course was Crane’s Landing in Lincolnshire. Anyways, as we got ready to tee off the golf course ranger comes up to us and starts explaining the rules of the course. He also tells us that the pace for the course is 2 hours on the front nine and 2:20 on the back nine.

The GPS unit on the golf cart is also nice enough to keep time for you, so it warns you about how you are doing relative to the course pace.

Anyways, we get to the 9th teebox and some guy from a charity accosts us and starts asking us to donate. We listen to his spiel for 5 minutes and finally tee off. As we are standing on the 9th green, the almighty ranger walks up to us and tells us we are running 10 minutes behind.

We explain that half of that time was lost due to the charity guy that the course gave permission to harass on the golf course.

He just shrugged his shoulders.

Anyways, we finish the hole and I’m still walking back to the cart when Darren gets in and yells, “Hey I don’t know where he got 10 minutes. The cart only says we’re 5 minutes behind.”

I yelled back, “Maybe he added our 5 minutes to the other carts 5 to get 10.”

The ranger was standing about 50 feet away. Oops.

Anyways, we teed off on the 10th and another ranger comes by and starts harassing us. We tell him we’ll try to hurry up but mostly ignore him.

We continue to play at the EXACT same pace and at the 11th hole, the first ranger drives up to us and thanks us for hurrying up.

For the record we finished the course 4 minutes ahead of pace.

After the golf course, Darren and I headed to Wrigley for the Cubs-Cardinals game with Tim and Paul. I, of course, was decked out in my Cardinals regalia — jersey and hat. The Cubs won the game and we actually ended up leaving early, in the 8th inning.

On the way out, I wanted a picture of the four of us, so I asked the usher to take one. He tried to take it, but I hadn’t set the time on the camera so it wouldn’t take a picture. The Wrigley crowd started yelling at us, “Who knows if that thing works, dude, it’s a freakin’ Cardinal camera!!!”

True, but I’ll guarantee one thing: It works in October.

Anyways, I came to a big realization on my drive back to Detroit today: The Washington Redskins have won more championships at Wrigley Field than the Chicago Cubs.

NFL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
December 12, 1937, at Chicago
Wrigley Field, Attendance – 15,870
Washington Redskins
7
0
21
0
28
Chicago Bears
14
0
7
0
21
Was – Battles 7 run (R. Smith kick)
ChiB – Manders 10 run (Manders kick)
ChiB – Manders 37 pass from Masterson (Manders kick)
Was – Millner 55 pass from Baugh (R. Smith kick)
ChiB – Manske 4 pass from Masterson (Manders kick)
Was – Millner 78 pass from Baugh (R. Smith kick)
Was – Justice 35 pass from Baugh (R. Smith kick)

30

07 2006

It’s October 28th

What’s happened in the last 2 months?

– I turned 25
– I went to work a lot
– I gained 15 pounds in Jacksonville
– The Illini are 2-5 and apparently, on probation now
– The Redskins are 4-2 and playing well.
– The Chicago White Sox won the world series.

The last one is a bit of a shocker. Since I came to the U of I, I’ve always had a fondness for the Chicago White Sox. In the late-90s they had some good teams but were always overshadowed by their AL central counrparts, the Cleveland Indians. Anyways, I was amazed during my freshman year at Illinois, that Chicagoans were a 70/30 split towards the Cubs. So I always felt for them. Anyways, after the game on Wednesday night, Tom, Anshul and I popped some Champagne. And even though I was cheering for the Sox the whole playoffs, it was strangely an empty feeling once they won. I guess in my heart, I’ll never stop loving the Orioles. And although I’ll always be fond of the Sox, its not close to the same for me.

So congrats to the few but proud Sox fans out there. These Sox are what the Illini were to basketball last year — A really fun team to watch.

28

10 2005

Now batting, number 5

I was working late tonight (desktop refresh, woohoo!) and I walk into the Bevo cafeteria and the guy mopping the floor tells me I look like Albert Pujols … sorta.

So … decide for yourselves!!!

(Unfortunately, in the process of moving this blog over platforms multiple times, all of the pictures were lost at some point, which is really a shame, because this was truly awesome.

One of them is me at Gauri’s graduation, and the other is Albert Pujols, at last years NLCS. I can’t even tell ’em apart …

16

06 2005

Who’s Rookie of the Week?

I’m watching the Orioles on sportsline.com’s game tracker today and they load the bases up in the bottom of the 7th with one out against the Yankees. Being the impatient person I am, I can’t stand watching on the internet any longer, and I go on DirecTV’s website and buy the MLB extra innings package. The Orioles score 2 runs (with me watching on TV now) and win the game, sweeping the Yankees. And I spent $170 to watch 3 innings of baseball. Granted I get to watch every game for the rest of the season now too 🙂

The O’s and Nationals are both 8-4 and leading their divisions and just swept a 3 game series at home (granted, the Nats’ opponent Diamondback’s aren’t exactly the $200 million Yankees that the Orioles played this weekend). I’ll take that any day 🙂

17

04 2005