Moneyball 2: The Rise of the Rookies

Yeah!

Woohoo!

A Brainteaser for You

You know that trick where someone tells you "don't think of a pink elephant" and you can't think of anything else for the next ten minutes or so? Well, in that vein, I'd just like to challenge you to read this article and not think of Jason Giambi in a gold thong.

You're welcome.


(Credit/blame for this goes to Dave Barry's blog.)

Are You the Manager Or Aren't You?

In honor of the return of BASEBALL! (see below), a classic of American comedy:



Some things just never get old.

Baseball!

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BASEBALL!!



(p.s. go A's!)


Update: Okay, not the best start. But hey, it's a long season.

Notes From Arizona

1. The Phoenix Metropolitan area is very large, and sometimes they close large sections of their freeways for no apparent reason.

2. I wasn't kidding about the strip mall thing. Despite that, it is surprisingly hard to find a grocery store around here.

3. I have the power to influence anyone to buy shoes, up to and including my Mom.

4. A's vs Brewers: 3,000 fans. A's vs Cubs: 10,000 fans. There was a lot of blue in the stadium today.

5. Spring training is one of the very few times when the line for the men's room is longer than the line for the ladies' room.

6. The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix is a lovely place. There are a lot of cacti there.

7. There is a restaurant in Chandler called The Carlesbad Tavern. It is decorated in a very tasteful bats-and-faux-stone motif (with a moat!) and serves New Mexican food. Which is, for the most part, spicy, and also good. After some discussion with our waitress, who warned us that certain menu items were on the intense side, I decided to be adventuresome and order one anyway (with sauce on the side) despite my well-documented recent experiences with doing exactly that. At least no one can accuse me of learning.

Baseball, Nachos, Sunburn

Daisy and Mom's Baseball Adventure, now in its second day, and for the first time including actual baseball! Plus nachos and a sunburn. The baseball came courtesy of the A's, playing an exhibition game against the Brewers. It was easily the most relaxed I have ever been at the ballpark, particularly compared to the last game I saw, in the playoffs last year. For example, at no time did I have to put a rally towel over my head because I couldn't bear to watch. (I probably should have, considering the sunburn, but we'll get to that in a minute.) We had terrific seats, out along the third base line, one row back from the field, which should have put us next to the A's dugout, but for some reason they had them reversed so that the visiting teams was on our side. But it was still cool and, despite never leading until the eighth inning, the A's won, which was nice even though it didn't matter.
The "nachos" were provided by the concession stand, and consisted of a small basket of corn chips and a little plastic cup of "cheese". I know it was fresh because I saw them dispense it from the machine right there.
The sunburn is not as bad as it might have been, thanks to the nice lady sitting in front of me who let me borrow her sunscreen (she also knew one of the Brewers' players, which made for some cool evesdropping). And yes, you read that right: we managed to go to Arizona and not bring sunscreen. But I got pretty good coverage, not perfect, because when you're borrowing a stranger's sunscreen you don't get to be really thorough, and I thought I would be okay. I didn't do my face, because I knew my maekup had sunscreen in it. What I didn't know, unfortunately, was that while I was applying my makeup I must have gotten distracted, and I missed my nose. Let's just say that right now, if anyone needs help guiding a flying sleigh through the fog, I'm your girl.

5-2!

Now this is how you start a season.