A Cool Stat

Winston-Salem, NC -- As a stat geek, I found this snippet in today's paper very interesting. I will be posting my annual MVP and Cy Young Winner predictions after season's end. While the focus of the season, the playoff race, has reached its apex, there are some other great stories that have fallen through the cracks. At the top of that list has to be the Washington Nationals. The Nats were predicted by many to have one of the worst seasons in baseball history -- in the ballpark (no pun intended) of 110-120 losses. I predicted a 63-99 season based on their pitching staff comprised of cast-offs and spare parts. The Nats, as of today, have 72 wins! That's one more than last year when they had Alfonso Soriano, Livan Hernandez, Jose Guillen, Jose Vidro and a healthy Nick Johnson on the roster. What was the best move that the Nats made last offseason? Hiring Manny Acta -- the guy knows how to use the bullpen, effectively communicate with his players and coaching staff, and rarely throws a tantrum. It's time to "acta-vate" baby!

Anyways, check out this stat, dug out by the Elias Sports Bureau, and reported by the Washington Post's Barry Svrluga (9/28/07):

"The final start of the season for left-hander Matt Chico will bring the last chance for the Nationals to become a statistical oddity. Washington has employed 26 pitchers this season -- including 13 starters -- yet no one has more than Jon Rauch's eight wins.

Moreover, no one has more than Chico's nine losses. Thus, should Chico get a win or a no-decision (tonight) in Philadelphia and Rauch not pick up two wins in relief, the Nationals will finish with neither a 10-game winner nor a 10-game loser. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that has never happened in a full season; it happened only in 1981 and '94, seasons shortened by labor strife."

The Art of Puking

Winston-Salem, NC -- On one of the great radio stations in the Piedmont Triad this morning, a discussion was held on the art of puking. I don't have too many personal stories in this subject matter. However, if you know me well, I'm sure you've been informed about the infamous red wine party during my junior year.

Several callers proceeded to share their unique stories over the radio waves. Thankfully, each story had a funny ending. I was worried that the session would be dominated with personal, bland stories of drinking too much, then pulling the trigger. To provide you with one example of a good story, one caller mentioned that he was a manager of a bank that neighbored a bar. In the mornings when he arrived to open the bank, the caller would often find puke covering his door and the ATM! The bank had to install an outside spicket to attach a hose for the frequent scrubbings. When I heard that story, I will always wash my hands after using the ATM from now on.

The topic was sparked by this YouTube clip. Watch it carefully -- it's a foreign game show host performing the infamous "puke n' rally." Leave it to the professionals to do that. Usually, I'm done moving for the day/night when it happens to me. This girl resumes her position after the deed -- what a champ!

If you have an unusual or funny story revolving around this topic, please share. You can click the "Anonymous" user tab to post.

Alliteration Tuesday

Greensboro, NC -- After returning home with some battle wounds from a ferocious night of "Tuesday Trivia," team "Campus Brewers" ended up victorious. I'm confident that a pack of high schoolers would dominate the field of 10 teams out there. Every Tuesday night, my favorite bar in Winston-Salem hosts team "Trivia night." Quick!... can you name the first three elements in the periodic table?

H, He, and a Nirvana song. That was tonight's first question. Spelling is sometimes mixed in. So, feeling nostalgic towards my high school lessons, I decided that we're long overdue for a music theme blog. Today's grammatical vocabulary word is "alliteration." The dictionary defines alliteration as: The commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration), as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable.

I've developed a list of certain band names that feature the use of an alliteration. Here goes:

• Foo Fighters
• Mighty Mouse
• Jack Johnson
• Counting Crows
• Thompson Twins
• Tom Tom Club
• Til Tuesday
• Tina Turner
• Blues Brothers
• Michael McDonald
• Robert Randolph & The Family Band
• Culture Club
• Jesus Jones
• Rusted Root

Quite a few good bands and quite a few bad bands. Have any of your own?

Football is back

Greensboro, NC -- It usually takes me a couple of weeks into the season to acquire the football season because the baseball pennant races are winding down at the same time. Living in the Southeast has its perks and benefits with the chief reason being the sports scene. A couple of observations from this past weekend:

• The SEC Conference is hands-down the best NCAA football conference.
• Just as Herbstreit and I predicted, Georgia took down Alabama on their home turf (in OT). The loss was Nick Saban's first in the crimson red.
• Florida is better than last year's championship team.
• One of the best football games that I've ever attended was this past Saturday's Wake Forest-Maryland game. With MD up 24-3 with 1:51 in the 3Q, the CB for Wake interecepted a pass in the endzone and ran it back 100+ yards for the score. With 4 seconds left, Wake would tie Maryland, then win it in OT; 31-24.
• Wake Forest will beat Vandy in November on the road.
• Keep an eye out for Michael Oher, LT from Ole Miss. He'll be the next Orlando Pace in the NFL in 2 years. Read his unbelievable story in "The Blind Side" (see the blog in June) and he will prevail.
• When the Giants scored a TD in the 3Q to bring the score to 17-10, a sick feeling came to my stomach when the Redskins went 3 and out.
• The Panthers took care of the woeful Falcons in a meaningless game. Check out DeAngelo Hall's blowup incident.
• If the Nats can defeat the Mets and Phillies on the road this week, the Braves still have a shot. However, the Wild Card is probably their best route at this point. The Rockies are smoking hot (oxymoron).
• NC State is the worst football team in the state.
• LSU will win the National Championship when it's all said n' done.

Fall, while not my favorite season, is one of the best times of the year for sports.

Dining out with The Wicker Show

Winston-Salem, NC -- This afternoon for lunch, we had the opportunity to chat with the crew from 98.7 Simon's "The Wicker Show." The reason why I enjoy this station especially is that they do not play the same 15 songs every hour, like every normal rock or country station. Instead, the set list is completely random, ranging from hip-hop rap to classic rock to country. Last week, a couple of us had the opportunity to meet the host of The Wicker Show, Jeff Wicker himself.

If you're in The Triad area, be sure to tune in between 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. during the week to hear the crazy and creative stunts, games, and prizes on the show. A musical guest usually joins them on Fridays, along with the best storyteller in the world, "Tim Bob." While Jeff, Carmen, and Skip "The Prize Guy" are very talented, the show emphasizes listener interaction. Who would Skip The Prize Guy give prizes to if all they did was turn people away by talking about themselves?

I was hooked to the show when I first moved down here in January. In DC, I listened to 98.7 WMZQ Country quite frequently. During my initial drive to Carolina, I popped in a CD because the signals from radio stations began to fade. So, during my first drive in to work the following day, I turned on the radio and a song that I enjoyed was playing. I proceeded to keep the dial tuned in to 98.7 that morning and really enjoyed the DJ's of this morning show. Haven't stopped listening since.

While many people in TV and radio can be snobby, the Wicker Show falls at the opposite end of the spectrum. When discussing birthdays and look-alikes at last week's Simon Mixer, Jeff had to do an on-air drawing and said that he'd be right back. Usually, when someone (especially the emcee) is forced to leave a conversation like that, they never return. Jeff was back pronto after the drawing. Cool, laid back guy. So, I advise you to listen to their show every morning because they're down-to-earth people -- and jam out to the DJ-less blocks of music during the rest of the day! Thanks for the Wake Forest tickets, Jeff; Picnic in the Plaza with Carmen; and my black Simon t-shirt, Skip!

What to do with 756?

Winston-Salem, NC -- In recent news, the fan who caught Barry Bonds' record-breaking 756th homerun ball auctioned it off to clothes designer, Marc Ecko for a hair over $752,000. I'm sure you've seen the "Ecko" design on certain clothing. Ecko has set-up a website, vote756.com, which will allow the public to decide the fate of the sacred/tainted ball. Your options:

• Bestow It: Donate the ball to the Hall-of-Fame.
• Brand It: Burn an asterisk onto the ball with a branding iron, then send it to the Hall-of-Fame.
• Banish It: Put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it to outer space.

A recent quote on ESPN.com from a fan read, "I don't believe that even our own universe deserves such 'space junk'."

I can just see in the year 2027 that rays in the shape of asterisks will be shining down on our planet.

My first reaction was to "brand it." The record is forever embroidered in controversy. Would the HOF accept the ball with the * on it? But now, I sort of want to see it "banished." How will they shoot it into outer space? Will it be taken in the next NASA launch and then an astronaut just drops it on his evening spacewalk stroll?

What do you think should happen to the ball?

Pirate Talk

Winston-Salem, NC -- Folks, today is a very important day. September 19th is "International Talk Like A Pirate Day."

Does anyone have any pirate jokes? And no, please don't tell me a Bob Saget-esque joke:

Q. What's a pirates favorite letter?
A. Arrrrrgghh

Over and Out

Greensboro, NC -- I promise that this will be the last blog about my hamstring -- because I am out for several weeks. After 4 days of solid rest, I re-aggervated the hamstring during my first kick in Monday's game. We walked away with an easy 10-1 win.

Playing back-to-back games and being the stubborn person that I am, I attempted to play through the pain. I kicked two solid singles, scored what would be the winning run, and turned an unassisted double play at first base. We won the game 4-3.

But tonight's victory and my participation paid a price. I believe that I have torn my left hamstring; a "left leg contusion." The back of my upper leg is purple, approximately 4 inches in length and 3 inches in width. Ice is glued to my leg this evening. However, if the excruciating pain doesn't dwindle by tomorrow morning, I will be visiting the orthopedist shortly thereafter.

For now, the best doctor that I know (my dad) has advised me to shut it down for 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, I think he's right.

Make That Two

Greensboro, NC -- Here's the latest on the hamstring injury. After icing it down last night, I woke up to less pain, but I still felt a knot, which forced a limp. By the end of the working day, I felt fine until I started to run. In pre-game warm-ups, I further tested the leg with some light stretching and slow jogging.

I did not start in the field, but I was able to kick 9th in the lineup. A pinch runner had to come in when I reached second base during the first at bat. In my second time up, I kicked a liner to the third baseman. A slight "pop" incured. Shelved. With our next game on Monday night, I have 4 full days to recover. We managed to win the game 7-5 thanks to some great fielding plays in the infield.

I've learned one misconception about kicking. I kick with my right foot. One would think that my "power" foot is my right one. However, if I cannot plant and pivot my left foot, power cannot be generated. In my second at bat, I was unable to produce power because my left leg was in bad shape. Instead, the ball went as far as my right leg could whip itself around.

Hamstrunged Out

Greensboro, NC -- After a championship season in the Winston-Salem Dodgeball League, we have decided to try our hand at kickball through the City of Greensboro. After two practices last week, there was much anticipation for today's first game. I've been pretty active during the summer, so it takes me less time to recover after a grueling event. When we played kickball in March, then again around Memorial Day back in Maryland, it took me several days to recover.

I completed my usual routine of stretching prior to the game. I followed that up by running some strides down the left field foul-line. Because league rules dictate that the fielding positions must alternate between boy-girl, I played "left-center" to start the game. Since 95% of the kickers are right handed, we stacked our best player and me on the left side of the diamond. However, on the very first play of the game, a ball was popped up to the shortstop. A natural reaction led me to break in and that's when my left hamstring popped. I was able to hobble around until the bottom of the inning. The lineups are filled out similarly to the fielding positions; a team must alternate boy-girl to prevent stacking. I batted second and lifted a solid single up the middle, but that just about did it for me. The team captain poked an infield single just over the shortstop's head. With our strongest leg at the plate, standing on second base, I took myself out of the game. Our team is another version of the 2007 Nationals. Our pitching and defense are adequate, but we need as many runs as possible. The clean-up hitter flied to left. Inning over.

An 1-1 dogfight in the 7th eventually became a laugher when the opposing team scored 5 in the 8th. We ultimately fell by a score of 8-1. It was the most stressful game to watch. My spot in the order came up twice with runners in scoring position. I'm rocking the ice pack on the hammie right now.

We have another game tomorrow, then we're off until Tuesday. If I can't go tomorrow, I hope to be ready for next week's game or else a trip to the 15-day disabled list is in order.

9/11 Remembered

Greensboro, NC -- This month has flown by due to a flurry of activity both inside and outside of the office. With today being the 6th anniversary of 9/11, everyone has their own story of where they were on that fateful day. Before I get into my story, I was talking to one of my co-workers at dinner tonight. She flew from Washington-Dulles airport to Greensboro. In between mentioning how sparse the crowds were, my co-worker said that the occupied waiting areas were extremely quiet. The atmosphere was very tranquil and solemn. I'm wondering if the mood was like that in other airports around the nation, because two of the four hijacked airplanes took off from Dulles.

Site: Georgia, 9/11/01 -- After prolonging to get up for my 9:00 a.m. Religion 200 class, I walked through the lobby of my dorm at about 8:55 a.m. to run to the cafeteria to grab some food to go. Some construction workers were gathered around the lobby's TV and I asked what happened. After one of the guys responded that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, I took a few steps closer to the tube to get a better look. I thought that it was some small Cessna plane that would be backpage news by the end of the week. Right then, in what I thought was a replay of the first airplane, the second plane struck the other tower. I returned to my dorm room immediately where my roommate was asleep. My roommate during that year was from New York and he informed me the night earlier during "Monday Night Football (Giants vs. Broncos)" that his mom was flying to San Francisco for business. After a few scary minutes, my roommate was able to track down his mom on her cell. Her flight never took off. One of the locals in the area, a fellow named Burton Crews, called our dorm shortly afterwards. (Ed. Note: Burton failed out of college after one semester.) I picked up the phone and Burton shouted, "Brian! Dan! Both of your cities are under attack!" the hung up the phone. FYI, Burton sounds like Barney from "The Simpsons."

A day that I'll never forget. A couple of friends and I drove through the bare streets of Atlanta. Downtown, the bustling Peachtree Street was nearly vacant on this typical business day.

Give me your site and any memories that you may have...

Hatin' Traffic

Greensboro, NC -- Back to the grindstone today. With an extra day off, the work has certainly piled up. With today being this week's Monday, have you ever noticed that the worst traffic of the week is always on a Tuesday? We hear all the time how people alter driving patterns to circumvent traffic. Monday is supposedly the worst day on the roads, while Fridays are the easiest. But I think Tuesdays are the worst because some people pull the I'll just work from home stunt when they see the roadways on Monday morning. Another example of this is the North Carolina DMV. Katie went to switch driver's licenses and license plates on a Friday. Expecting a glut of people taking a day off before the weekend, Katie prepared for the worst. However, it was quite the contrary. Most people, as told my the DMV clerk, complete their DMV errands at the beginning of the week, fearing that long lines gather at the end of the week. So, you can never be so sure when the traffic will hit you. Here are some traffic songs to help you through the mess:

• Ozzy Osborne - "Crazy Train"
• Elvis Costello - "Accidents Will Happen"
• Drivin' N' Cryin' - "Fly Me Courageous"
• Crazy Numan - "Cars"
• U2 - "Running To Stand Still"
• Dishwalla - "Counting Blue Cars"
• The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Crosstown Traffic"
• 3 Doors Down - "When I'm Gone"
• The Jam - "Town Called Malice"
• The Cars - "Drive"
• Talking Heads - "Road To Nowhere"
• AC/DC - "Highway To Hell"
• Crash Test Dummies - "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm"

All of the above songs encompass a traffic theme to them. Got any of your own?