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Civil War Wounds; Baseball in Portland

March 29, 2009 in Sports | 1 comment

Oregon staring pitcher Bennett Whitmore

Oregon staring pitcher Bennett Whitmore

Today I attended my first full baseball game of the season, having previously seen pieces of three separate games, but no complete contests.  My family and I witnessed the reconstituted Oregon Ducks take on Oregon State Beavers in a Civil War contest at PGE Park.  After having split the first two games of the series, the Sunday rubber game showed exactly how far ahead in talent and experience the Beavers program is when compared with the Ducks (not surprising, given the Beavers are only one year removed from back-to-back NCAA titles).Oregon State pitcher Jorge Reyes (2007 College World Series Most Outstanding Player) was marvelous, giving up only one run in his seven innings pitched, while striking out six and allowing only two hits. The Beavers took advantage of every opportunity presented to them and displayed superb situational hitting in route to a convincing victory.

Beyond the 8-1 score, nine walks, three wild pitches, three errors, and several instances of puzzling defensive lapses surrendered by the Ducks, the day was not a total loss.  For the first time in my life, I was able to root for a Ducks team play my favorite sport - and despite the throttling they received, it was a pretty good day spent with my parents, Brandon, and 13,709 fans of baseball in the state of Oregon.

13,709 watch the Ducks get slaughtered

13,709 watch the Ducks get slaughtered

For me, this is what it is all about: over two days in Portland, over 29,000 fans attended (or at least purchased tickets for) two college baseball games. Granted, a large amount of the interest likely had to do with the rivalry between the two schools, but this goes to show once again how much interest in baseball there is in Portland, and in the state of Oregon as a whole. This comes at important juncture for baseball In Portland, as it was recently announced that a new stadium for the PCL’s Portland Beavers will be built to accommodate MLS’ expansion to Portland.

The stadium being proposed at this point in time is a roughly 9,000 seat park to be located either in the Rose Quarter (taking the place of Memorial Coliseum) or in SE Portland’s Lents Park (please let it be the Rose Quarter). The city of Portland should take into account the future of sports in Portland as plans are developed. Hopefully, they will build the park with a potential expansion and upgrade to Major League facilities in mind, regardless of Portland Beavers owner Merritt Paulson’s likely interest in preserving the market for his AAA club.

At some point in the next decade Portland will have a genuine opportunity to attract a Major League team, much like the one that was wasted in 2004 when the Montreal Expos chose to relocate to Washington, D.C. This opportunity may come sooner than expected, as it was recently announced (and has remained under the radar) that the Oakland Athletics will no longer negotiate with the cities of Oakland or Fremont for a new ballpark. San Jose is said to be interested in starting negotiations for an A’s ballpark, but the San Francisco Giants hold the MLB territory rights to Santa Clara County, which could prove problematic for such a move. If this cannot be resolved, Portland would become a natural relocation option for the team.

The only other serious candidates for relocation (Las Vegas and Sacramento) each have much larger obstacles standing in the way of actually attracting MLB – economics (Sacramento has fared worse than Portland in the recent economic meltdown, is smaller, and, let’s face it, just isn’t as attractive in general… sorry, Gio) and gambling (last time I checked, MLB was not a fan of gambling… ask Joe Jackson or Pete Rose). I know this is all a pipe dream at this point; and not a very realistic one given Portland’s unwillingness for bold action, but a guy can dream, right? Besides, as much as I love the Ducks, I’d much rather join 30,000 Oregonians in rooting for a Portland Beavers team to take down the Seattle Mariners in an AL West matchup.

Spring Training, 2008

April 23, 2008 in Random, Sports | No comments

Giovanni and I; Phoenix Memorial Stadium

Keeping with this line of thought, I repeated the Spring Training trip last month, this time bringing Giovanni along on the road portion with Miller joining us mid-week in Phoenix. This year’s takeaways: I will never, ever make this drive again - all subsequent trips to the desert southwest will be made in the air; game tickets will be purchased no later than the end of January; and more sights will be seen around the town and state on scheduled days off, gained from the lack of four travel days. Among the sights yet to be seen – The Grand Canyon, Barringer Meteorite Crater, Sedona, Saguaro National Park, and the ghost town where the Brady Bunch was wrongly jailed on their way to the canyon (I know, this was filmed on a set… but how cool would that be?).

Jack Cust's 2007 Portland Beavers Jersey

But enough of that – the last month has seen a few other items worthy of note. The most significant has been a change to my role at work. I am no longer traveling in my claims adjusting duties, rather, I will be controlling my files and conducting coverage investigations from the comfort of my northwest Portland apartment, which means less work travel, more freedom to make plans outside of work, and hopefully, the ability to advance myself a little further in my career in the not so distant future… hopefully.

If the insurance thing doesn’t work out… (I’ve only been doing it for five years now) I’ve always got minor league basketball to fall back on. That’s right, I served as an official scorer a few weeks ago for the Portland Chinooks of the International Basketball League. Sadly, this was even more stressful than my day job, as it was the first game I have scored since at least high school, and the final score ended up being 125-112. That’s a lot of points, by the way. I didn’t screw up too badly… at least not in the end. After the first half I failed to calibrate my mind to the fact that the teams do in fact switch hoops, something that resulted in my scoring the teams exactly opposite what they should have been for the first half of the third quarter. After a brief panic attack, I figured it out and corrected my error… good thing no one reads this website…

Speaking of this website, I am currently sketching out some ideas for the first major overhaul since adopting the Saturatedpratt name nearly six years ago. Hopefully the coming months will bring a better overall design, working comments, a dedicated sports page, and possibly even a pod cast covering news, commentary, an attempt at humor, and of course, music. This is pretty ambitious, and I make no promises, but I do hope to have all of this (or at least the pieces I decide to keep) online in the coming months. Stay tuned for more details.

Summer Travels, Vacation

December 5, 2007 in Sports, Travel, Website | No comments

As the seasons once again change, with (albeit mild) hurricane force winds blowing the Pacific Northwest headfirst into winter, I turn back to the pages of Saturatedpratt – the silent companion to literally tens of readers throughout the dark months.  Its been a rather fast four months and change since my last update, so as always, a quick re-cap should brings us up to speed. 

August and September were filled with, as has become the norm for summer, work and baseball.  Unlike the first half of the year, the late summer and early fall found me working fairly close to home – the longest work trip being a brief two-day jaunt to Klamath Falls.  This being the case, I had to augment my relatively light work travel with a baseball-centered road trip with Miller to Vancouver, B.C. and all stops in between. 

On this trip, I completed my second complete tour of a professional baseball circuit, adding the last two Northwest League parks I had yet to visit (Vancouver’s Nat Bailey Field and Everett’s Memorial Stadium) to my collection.  The Northwest League now joins the Cactus as the two I have completed with no realistic successor in sight, barring a move to another geographic region.  I will likely focus my efforts next year on seeing the Dodgers’ last spring training in Vero Beach, followed by hopefully being able to get some tickets to the their two-game exhibition series against the Red Sox at the L.A. Coliseum, where they played their first two seasons on the west coast.  The big trip for the year will probably be New York sometime in spring or early summer to see Yankee Stadium in its final season – I think it’s a must for any true baseball fan to see the house that Ruth built before Steinbrenner knocks it down.

But wait – this update isn’t about the future, it’s about the past four months.  After the September trip, the next big event was a quick weekend trip in October to Seattle to see Karen & Emily’s wedding.  I don’t get to see them very often (or anyone who doesn’t live in the Portland area, for that matter) so it was great to catch up them, as it was with Brunner and Megan, and Lauren and Garth, who once again volunteered their extra bedroom for the night.  I always have a great time whenever I see my friends from my Carson days, and I hope to see them a lot more often than the once every two years at someone’s wedding plan I’ve been on of late, especially with all the sports-related travel… (well, except for the Yankee Stadium trip – that is a necessity.)

The rest of the time from October until the present has been spent dividing time between work, Ducks football, Blazers basketball, and going to the gym.  As always, the colder months are bringing with them a lot more work for me, so I’ve been doing more traveling of late.  Last week’s work-related adventuring took me to Aberdeen, Washington, one of the last places in the state of Washington I had not seen on the company dime. 

Between making visits to agents, lining up contractors, and conducting interviews, I found a little time to poke around town.  My findings are as follows: it is very gray and damp, the area is in serious need of an economic kick-start if the vacancy rate downtown is any indication, and I can totally see how the region would rear a kid like Kurt Cobain.  I wandered the downtown and snapped a few pictures, including some of what I am sure was a spectacular electric company building in it’s time – a stocky two level structure speckled with hundreds of sockets that were once filled with lights lining the windows and nearly every other architectural line on the building’s façade.

After taking in civic utility buildings of a bygone era, I went to see the historic bridge crossing the Wishkah river, the same river by which Cobain myth dictates he slept while periodically homeless in Aberdeen.  After being there at high tide, I agree with Krist Novoselic’s assertion that this myth was only that – a myth.

So, that basically catches us up to the present.  Next week I will be taking a week off for a random “use it or lose it” vacation – I will probably spend most of the week wandering around town taking pictures, going to the gym, and just relaxing before what is shaping up to be a very busy next couple of months at work.  If I find enough time, I just may throw a couple updates online, as well as a story or two.  Stay tuned.

Assorted Travels, Spring-Summer 2007

July 26, 2007 in Sports, Travel | No comments

Oh, the places I have been! Since I last graced this site with an update, I have experienced Spring Training, visited Denver twice, driven through Wyoming and into South Dakota, seen Albuquerque, flown into Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League and ventured into Montana, then Wyoming for a second time. (Technically, the Spring Training and Dakota trips occurred prior to the last post, but since I wrote the post before I took the trips, I’m counting it… sue me.)

In short, a lot has happened. So in lieu of making an in-depth post about each of the individual trips, I will burn through them at a rapid-fire pace so I can get on with making a real update… look at this as a sort of “here’s what happened last season on…” portion of a television show, except instead of some actor named Chris Pratt, you get me. Speaking of lawsuits, I’ve got to go after that guy.

Our journey begins on Wednesday, March 8, 2007 when I set off in my Honda Civic Hybrid for the sunny southwest and the six-week orgy of baseball that signals the actually new year – Spring Training. On the way I went through Idaho (Saw the Blue Turf), Utah (saw the Mormon Temple… impressive, and a little scary), Las Vegas (got frustrated by traffic, then gave up and went to Hoover Dam), and finally all nine Cactus League ballparks. Miller joined me on the 15th and stayed through the weekend. I caught a foul ball off the bat of Chicago Cub Ronnie Cedeno, while sitting in the first row of Tuscon Electric Park, and was horribly sun burnt. In addition, I saw the best scoreboard announcement ever – skeptics may say I only caught a small segment of scrolling text, but that’s why they are skeptics. Personally, I can’t agree more with the scoreboard operator.

Upon returning to Oregon, I was immediately sent off to South Dakota for work, after first flying into Denver and driving through Wyoming to reach my destination. While there, I visited Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse Memorial, which has been under construction for a ridiculous 59 years I would have contributed to the construction effort with a donation had the visitor’s center been open when I arrived… instead, I simply stole a look at the sculpture… I’m sure that’s a theme the Lakota are used to. On my way back to Denver, I found myself stuck in the heaviest snowstorm I have ever experienced, complete with freeway driving in complete whiteout conditions. I have a feeling Crazy Horse intended on getting his revenge.

April was relatively quiet, consisting mainly of attempting to recover from the month of constant travel that March brought.

With May came yet another trip to Denver, this time for a meeting after which I took a few personal days, saw the Denver Mint and the Rockies beat the Giants, and ventured into New Mexico to catch an Albuquerque Isotopes game. While I did not enjoy a hot dog brimming with southwestern flavors, I did enjoy the victory the Portland Beavers achieved over the ‘Topes. Oddly though, I ended up being seated next to a Portlander who is currently living in Albuquerque, which meant that the two people wearing Portland Beavers garb in a crowd of several thousand were sitting right next to each other, and had never before met. It was a little strange, but it seemed to make sense. Isotopes Stadium was by far the best minor league facility I have seen yet in my travels, easily eclipsing the next night’s stop, Colorado Springs’ Security Service Field. My takeaways from this trip: Jesus is HUGE in Colorado Springs, as are many of the women; and the omnipresent hold the military has on this region is simply unbearable. I could never live there.

Early July saw a quick three-day jaunt to Las Vegas to witness the beginning of Greg Oden’s career as a Portland Trailblazer, facing off against the once-great Boston Celtics. In fact, I sat courtside for Oden’s first game, which would have been nice on its own. However, my attempt to slum-up the normal haunts of the beautiful people brought with it the somewhat surreal experience of sitting right next to the Celtics’ brain trust of GM Danny Ainge and head coach Doc Rivers, who were joined by onetime wunderkind Sebastian Telfair. In all, it was a little awkward when Telfair sat down… I mean, aside from maybe Pacman Jones, there really isn’t anyone with whom I have less in common. On top of that, he was absolutely swimming in some sort of cologne.

When he arrived, I simply gave him a welcoming “hey”, to which he responded with a nod. It was a good enough response for me. The Celtics ended up blowing out Greg Oden and the Blazers, but not before I exchanged comments with Telfair over a few horrible calls, and had a conversation with Rivers about Portland and how great the fans are, and how Rivers would kill to have two bigs like those gracing the Blazers’ roster. The guy sitting next to me caught the scene on my camera, but I think he had a case of the shakes, judging by the blurriness of the photo. Giovanni came down that evening and we spent the rest of the weekend taking in games, people watching, and losing a small amount of money in penny slots while stocking up on complimentary drinks.

As was the case in March, immediately upon my return I was sent to the Mountain Time Zone on business, this time to Billings, Montana. While there, I took in my first Pioneer League games, first in Billings where the Mustangs beat the Orem Owlz (they should have had to spot the Stangs 10 runs for the Z in their name alone), then in Casper, Wyoming, where I saw the hometown Rockies get trounced by the Missoula Osprey. More importantly, I ended up with two Pioneer League baseballs as souvenirs that night – the first a homerun ball off the bat of Osprey second baseman Taylor Harbin that came sailing toward me while I was parking my trusty rental car beyond the left field fence prior to entering the ballpark, and the second a foul ball that apparently only I noticed land while standing in line for a bratwurst. While in Casper, I struck up a conversation with the guy who was sitting behind me after he had recognized the Isotopes hat I was wearing. It turns out he also went to Spring Training, and tries to see as many ballparks as he can while traveling, including the California League and the Pacific Coast League. It was a little comforting, and at the same time a little troubling, seeing as he was praising my dedication in driving from Billings to Casper, only to turn around an return to Billings after two and a half hours of Rookie League ball. Also, he was probably in his 60s, which made me feel a bit like an RV-ing snowbird, and less like a guy who just turned 27… failing that, I should at least bring a girl along next time, so long as I don’t find her in Colorado Springs.

Topps Baseball Cards and the Sorry Tale of the Airbrush

April 9, 2007 in Random, Sports | No comments

Please excuse me a moment for plunging headfirst into dork-dom. Now that I have your attention, let us examine the special time of the year that is once again upon us – spring. It has long been considered the season of love. It is the beginning of the end of darkness for sufferers of SAD, the beginning of mega-profit season for big oil, which awakens from its winter slumber of merely very large profits, and most importantly, it marks the beginning of the greatest game ever invented - baseball.

Before we get too far, let us not confuse this post with the one that will follow chronicling my March month of travels beginning with ten days spent seeing the Cactus League. No, this update centers on the event that serves as notice that the season is just around the corner – the release of Topps Baseball, series one.

Before you have to ask, yes, at twenty-six I still collect baseball cards, though not at the staggering pace I once did. So does Keith Olbermann, and he’s the most trusted man in cable news, so shut up.

As you may have seen, the release of this year’s edition of Topps baseball cards was met with some level of notoriety, even making the network news rounds. This was due to a few celebrity appearances on the front of Derek Jeter’s card. Joining the Yankees’ future Hall of Fame shortstop on the card’s front was the image of a current Hall of Famer, Mickey Mantle, who was beaming at New York’s favorite son from the home team’s dugout. Apparently, this was a very special day at the stadium, as future convicted felon George W. Bush joined number seven at the house Ruth built, waving at the camera from his box seats in a fashion not unlike those jackasses you see on television talking on their cell phones and waving behind the backstop in a desperate attempt for the attention of ESPN 2’s cameras.

Unlike those jackasses, the images of Mantle and Bush were not genuine – they were Photoshopped. I know this because Mantle died in 1995 and George W. Bush probably wouldn’t risk the treatment that comes with a 30% approval rating. Putting two and two together, someone at Topps was obviously playing a prank. What is surprising is that at first glance it’s hard to notice the insertions. In fact, I completely missed them while rifling through the first box of cards I purchased this year. While I may have overlooked what became a national oddball news story, I spotted several examples of a painful practice that I thought had disappeared several years ago.

This practice of which I speak is the magic airbrushing of photos of players involved in off-season transactions. You see, back in the 1970s and 1980s, and up until the early 90s, Topps released their sets in one series of 660, 726, and finally, 792 cards. This allowed for insertion of the vast majority of major leaguers and even some prospects. The release of only one series (at least until the late-season release of the small “traded” sets) meant that many of the players would be pictured in with last season’s team. The solution? The same as the solution to so many of life’s problems – call an artist!

Photos of the offending old unis were magically transformed into new uniforms, showing an ultra-mod use of watercolors, and sometimes taking extreme liberties with team color schemes.

Take for instance two of my favorite examples – the 1977 Topps Dave Pagan (#508) and the 1987 Topps Mike Laga (#321). Informed baseball fans will know that the Seattle Mariners did not exist in 1976 – they were an expansion team for the ’77 season along with the Toronto Blue Jays, so obviously, any new Mariner was a candidate for the artists at Topps. In fairness, a lot of attention was paid to shadowing on Pagan’s trident cap, making it ultra-real. A little too real, and while we’re at it, a little too blue. As for our friend Laga, he wasn’t so lucky. His 1986 Detroit Tigers duds were transformed into a great pink variant of a Cardinals uni, with oddly orange and blue Tigerish striping around the collar. Like the clubhouse manager “accidentally” left the really red cap in the laundry with his new jersey. No wonder the Twins were able to dispatch the Cards in the ’87 Series, and no wonder Laga only hit .138 with the Red Birds. And this treatment for a former first round pick.

Then, like a great shooting star, they were gone.

Years went by without so much as noticing a Mets “NY” fudged into a Yankees “NY.” Every now and then a prospect would have his college or minor league team’s logo wiped out for use on a major league card, but that just wasn’t the same. Hell, they’d even gone to the extent of breaking sets into multiple series and throwing most of the off-season transactions into the later series. Other times, prospects were shown in their (gasp) spring training garments. Hope appeared to be lost for yet another childhood tradition – gone the way of Indian red crayons and tan M & Ms.

Then, like a grand old friend, there he was, in glimmering Oakland green. Mike Piazza was wearing a jersey greener than any I had ever seen a player for my team wear. In an instant, I knew a seemingly dormant habit had returned, and more confident than ever. Bengie Molina (#4), Julio Lugo (#11), Miguel Batista (#13), Chris Britton (#21) and Gary Matthews, Jr. (#25) all received in the artists’ treatment (now done digitally, rather than with a brush). That is five out of the first twenty-five! That must be some kind of record, and those were just the no-doubters. Others looked kind of funny, but I’m willing to give them the benefit of doubt on Corey Patterson, if for no other reason than the others were just so brazen.

While some would view this as a step backwards, I can only see this as a clear sign of progress on the march. If Topps can bring the Mick back from the dead and put him back in the dugout, then putting Alfonso Soriano on the Cubs doesn’t look all that hard after all. Now if they could just cut and paste success over the Cubs franchise, we’d know they can truly design miracles.

The Wells Wedding

September 18, 2005 in Life, Sports | No comments

Fall is nearly here, and with it comes my yearly reflection on the summer months – the time when I invariably failed to regularly update this site. Which really commemorates the even more time-honored traits of procrastination and sloth, which have been part of the Pratt repertoire (or reprattoire, if you prefer) for a little over 25 years now (it’s our silver anniversary!).

This summer started with a sputter, finding me attending the occasional Portland Beavers game, renting movies here and there, and exploring Portland via Max. In all, it was relaxing, which was needed after what has been a year of essentially one family tragedy after another. Things sped up quick in July, with Wells’ bachelor party and subsequent wedding. The bachelor party was held at Safeco Field in Seattle, where about twenty of us pitched in to rent a luxury suite for a Saturday evening game against the Baltimore Orioles, narrowly missing Rafael Palmeiro’s 3000th career hit, which would have been great to witness, especially since that was in the days when we all simply thought he was on the juice. The evening was filled with memorable moments, from Miller’s antics to the appearance of the Moose, who subsequently mauled Wells, to a game winning RBI single by Mike Morse in the bottom of the ninth (himself a ‘roid casualty by early September). Most importantly, it was our formal send-off of Wells into the married world.

The actual send-off came July 23, 2005, when Wells married girlfriend Jessica on the grounds of her family’s ranch in central Oregon. I took a week off from work the week of the wedding, hanging out with Miller for the first few days before traveling with Wells and his cousin Jaeger to Redmond to help with setting up the wedding and reception site. It was a beautiful ceremony, with the backdrop of a canyon during the ceremony, and with the Three Sisters of the Cascade Range serving as background for the reception. As best man, it was my duty to eat my prime rib in the seat to Wells’ immediate left at the reception, as well as stumble through an ad-libbed toast to couple’s new life together, making delicate jabs at Wells’ many foibles over the years, while trying not to disparage him too much in front of the people who now found him to be a member of their family. I think I did ok, but I can really only remember bits and pieces of what I said. On the bright side, I didn’t freeze under the pressure, nor did I cry, so that’s always a plus.

A vacuum of sorts appeared in the wake of the wedding, and August was dedicated mostly to relaxation when not at work. I was able to get in some much-delayed reading, as well as a little writing – the fruits of this work will likely appear here in the next month or so, after some fine-tuning.

So after a brief August slumber, September is here, and with it comes one of the most eagerly anticipated happenings of the year – Oregon Ducks football. I once again have my season tickets (courtesy of my mom… I imagine I will someday have to actually spend money on tickets…). Through three games, all is seemingly good, with the Ducks undefeated, but staring tenuously at the upcoming home contest against USC, which has evolved into what is simply the most dominant college football program in decades. I will be in attendance this Saturday, expecting the outcome that most level-minded analysts are predicting, but hoping for another Michigan-like miracle, that is as long as Sports Illustrated promises not to put Oregon on its cover if the unthinkable happens.

In other news, after a false start last year, I am actually serious now about trying to buy a home. I am having a lender look into what I can be approved for, and hopefully, if all goes well, I will have a home of my own by December, when my current lease will expire. Hopefully, I will know what I can realistically spend within the next week or so – from there, the search should come to life. Currently, I’m looking as far west as Newberg, south to Woodburn, and north and east to their prospective sections of Portland. I guess we’ll see if anything turns up.

That’s it for now. As always, I’ll work on updating more regularly, but again, I probably won’t…

Work Continues; Baseball is Approaching

March 31, 2004 in Sports, Website, Work | No comments

Well, I needed a March update, so I guess you could say that I’ve been under the gun. It’s not that March has been uneventful, it’s just that it’s been tough to string together the time to make a truly good update. So, in lieu of a truly good update, I offer this: an update. (somewhere, someone just pressed the “back” button on their browser…)

March was, in spite of the lack of updates, really pretty good. Work has been going well, and I’m really beginning to feel as though I fit.

I’m getting the hang of my job, and I’m actually starting to feel pretty productive. On top of all that, I get along with my co-workers, despite the playful ribbing and continued “golden boy” taunts.

Life away from work has also been pretty good of late. In the last month we’ve had about ten days of legitimate sunshine, including a couple of days where the temperature was dangerously close to eighty degrees. With the sunshine, the trees have begun to blossom and it growing more and more apparent that we’re only about a week away from days packed with a full MLB schedule- yes, life is indeed good. (how’s that for a positive paragraph?)

Speaking of positive paragraphs, I’ve received some feedback lately critiquing the negativity on this site… in response to that, I guess I could promise to attempt to accentuate the positive a bit more, but I’m not sure that would be very honest. After all, I try to write what is currently on my mind. For instance, at the present time I’m pretty happy, despite a few unneeded developments at work and the continued transition from a comfortable, cozy existence in Eugene to one in my new (old) home where I suddenly know very few people. In all, everything is going well, and it is not lost on me. But at the same time, if something is really bothering me, or something is on my mind, I am likely to write about it whether it is euphoric or as depressing as anything that’s ever graced these pages. With that said, it’s sometimes a lot easier to write a narrative of recent events if I have the freedom to include some of the trials and tribulations of the daily life of pratt… not to the degree that it would be self-pity, but to just enough to make me laugh a little when I read it in a few months.

In other words, any negativity seen on the opening page of this site is there mostly to serve as comic fodder, and is not evidence of any deep-seeded malaise hiding just under my surface. No, my deep-seeded malaise is out there for all to see…

Mike and Me

October 23, 2003 in Life, Politics, Website, Work | No comments

Yeah, I said that there wouldn’t be an update until I move to the new domain name, but here I am, updating. I expect to move to a new server in about a week, at which time I will hopefully adopt the name listed above. In the meantime, a short update will suffice, a little farewell of sorts to the University of Oregon’s Gladstone server… Really, I’m just looking for a way to be able to post the Meatwheels photo again.

Let’s see- what’s new? I’m still working at DPS, where I was moved to graveyard shift in September. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t too happy about joining my fifth new watch in a year and the job search has intensified a bit. I guess there’s nothing quite like genuine unhappiness to light a fire under my ass. Anyway, as I said, the job search has intensified, and as a consequence I’ve been looking at careers in nearly every field- from insurance to finance, from finance to public service, and on to baseball, I have literally sent out resumes and applications to nearly everyone I can imagine- hopefully I’ll hear back from some people in the next few days.

As for other things, I spent most of October watching postseason baseball, and witnessed perhaps the greatest playoffs in baseball history. I was a bit disappointed that the Cubs or Sox didn’t make it (of course, I was more disappointed that the A’s again choked, but that’s besides the point) but I was somewhat satisfied that the Yankees again collapsed. Speaking of collapse, I’ve gone to each Duck home game this year and have witnessed another round of historically bad defense, coupled at times with horrific offense. However, last week’s shutout of Stanford brings back memories of the Michigan game, and will hopefully be a harbinger of successes to come.

My biggest news of October would probably have to be meeting Michael Moore last Thursday. As you can see, while passing through the book signing line, Mike grabbed and pulled me across a table where one of his handlers took our picture. Before another person asks, no, he was not wasted, he was just very excited at the prospect of seeing me. Actually, I was among the last people to go through an hour and a half long line to have stuff signed by Mike after his speech in Portland, and he looked absolutely beat by the time I got to him. All things considered, he was in very high spirits, thanked me for coming, and stuck out his hand for me to shake before he would pass back my copy of “Dude, Where’s My Country?” In all, it was a successful brush with one of my heroes.

All of this will be covered in greater depth in the upcoming weeks as I get this site fully up and running, hopefully at its new web home. I plan on having the photo album and writings sections fully operable by then, and I will hopefully have more news on the employment front. Oh yeah, and I’ll be able to fill ya’ll in on how Simon & Garfunkel was…

Rejection Letter & Baseball - Just Another Day

May 1, 2003 in Life, School, Sports, Travel | No comments

While a few months have gone by between updates, not a whole lot has really changed. This of course is not entirely true- for instance; I found out that I will officially be graduating in June, and that I was not accepted to the UO College of Education secondary ed program. This wasn’t entirely unexpected- my GPA isn’t the best in the world, and I have very little education experience (save for the 18+ years that I have spent in school) but this news was disappointing still. After all, my test scores were very good, and of all places to gain experience, aren’t you supposed to do it while training to be a teacher? Oh well.

About ten minutes after the game, the good folks at Safeco field decided that it was time for us to leave, and instead of allowing the customary trip around the ballpark to look at stuff that so many people normally take, they began to shut off the stadium’s interior lights. It was really an odd experience, something similar to about 9:45 pm at K-Mart. While attempting to take photographs of the ballpark and essentially soak up the atmosphere of a Major League park, the stadium gradually grew darker, accompanied by announcements of the time and a message asking everyone to leave. After a brief group shot (pictured without flash to the right) we got the hint and left the 300 level. Apparently the city of Seattle also closes at about 10:00, as the gentleman on the concourse who I later dubbed the Sodo Asshole also forbade me to photograph the city skyline from the northwest corner of the ballpark.

We all eventually left, making our way south on I-5, (missing the Krispy Kreme in the process) and arrived back in Eugene at about 3:00 am. In all, it was a very successful trip, though next time, I will have someone else drive at least part of the way.

Beyond the trip to Seattle, Spring term has been occupied primarily by work and the search for a new house. In other words, most of my time is spent either chasing bad guys or looking for shelter. As far as the latter is concerned, the highlight of the quest to date may actually be the sign at the Abby’s Pizza on Barger Road, which is quite possibly the most patriotic thing I have ever seen, despite the curious wording. (so what, I’m immature)

As far as the future goes, I’m not really sure what is going to happen. Not getting in to the education program threw a bit of a wrench into my plans for the immediate future, but I still intend to eventually teach. For the time being, I suppose that I’ll commence the great job search, as my job at DPS is still officially temporary, while also attempting to apply to a few other local schools (Pacific, WOU to name two.) As for this site, I’ll probably be moving it to a new server sometime in the next few months, possibly even adopting a new domain name as well. For now, I think that I’ll get back to work on my LIB 199 Baseball Research project. Who knows- if all goes well, this little project will turn in to a book earning me millions, and I’ll retire at 25.

Summer Update

June 24, 2001 in Life, School, Work | No comments

Summer is again upon us and with it this page once again finds itself the focus of a major update. If you’re a frequent visitor (and I know there’s more than Peter and myself), you have probably noticed what has become a long period of inactivity on this site. I won’t go into the drawn-out “I really meant to update” excuse that I would normally use, rather I will simply skip over it. You know, like the details in a Reader’s Digest condensed book, or the period in George W’s life between ages 16 and 45. It’s really not that important anyway.

The important thing is that yet another year of college has passed by, with it another year of my life, as I have turned 21 since my last update. (Insert your own excuse for my online absence here.) I made it through last term relatively unscathed, earning an A and two Bs while also surviving my final week as an RA on Ham Staff 2000-2001. Even though I once again had to force myself to stay up in excess of 40 hours as the end of the term neared.

After all- what would college be without the end of the term procrastinator’s test of manhood? Oh well. With all the idiocy that comes in saving a final paper (which I had a week to write) for the last ten hours of the term, I managed to earn an A on the paper itself (my third such A paper in two terms, I might add). In all, I must say that I’m rather proud of my grades this term. After all, it is only the second time in my life that I’ve earned a 3 point. I am so smrt.

In other news, my life on summer staff has officially started. So far I’ve taped meal cards and handed out blankets to people. In other words, they may as well be paying me to live at the mission. But hey- they’re paying me, so there’s no complaints here. Aside from that, there really hasn’t been much going on with me in the past couple of weeks. I’ve moved across campus, but with that nothing has really changed aside from my phone number and where I put my TV. I did buy some new furnishings, but I’ll be damned if I spend more than a sentence talking about my splendid new entertainment center and poster frames.

As for this coming week, I’ll be going home Wednesday to travel to Seattle with my family and watch the Oakland A’s kill the Mariners. In the process, I’m hoping to get the Mustang insured so I can bring it down to Eugene for a month or so and actually get some use out of the roughly $500 that was spent getting it to run. While I’m in McMinnville, I hope to see some people who I’ve inadvertently been ignoring for the past month. In addition, I will be wishing my brother a happy 13th birthday, as I don’t think I’ll be around for his actual birthday, July 2nd.

That will have to be it for this update. In the coming week I hope to have several new pictures online, including the infamous “swollen lip” shots, which I have now had developed. Watch this page and all attached, as this should be a week of updates. In the meantime, farewell.

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