Baseball team was scheduled to play five games in five days, and we actually managed to get four of them in. Despite a few close calls on rain, only one of them actually got rained out. And on the bright side, we went 2-2 in those games. One of the two wins came against a AA team, which is one division below us. Realistically, we should have been in that division, as it is meant for the teams that have players who don't really know what they're doing. That is our team. Both Chris and I had the same assessment of the team we played tonight. If you had us coaching that team, and their coaches coaching our team, the score would have been reversed. They had just as much talent, but no idea what to do with it.
My pitchers are finally starting to throw some strikes. Unfortunately, the pitchers who are throwing strikes are the kids who are unable to strike anyone out. That means that we have to field the ball, which we can't do. So we've gone from giving up 10-15 runs a game on walks, to where we're giving up 10-15 runs a game on errors. Both are frustrating, but at least the errors are something that I don't have to feel as bad about. If my pitchers do their job, I feel like I've done mine. Walks are directly attributable to me and my pitchers, whereas errors are not. I'd be happy if neither happened, but if I have to choose, I'm going to choose the path where I've done my part.
I do now realize that we're going to have a tough time coming in higher than last place in our division. The only AAA team that we have beat is Springfield, and unfortunately they play in the South division while we play in the North. I've now scouted every team in the league, and it's not looking good. If I can get my actual strikeout pitchers to throw strikes, maybe, MAYBE we can come in third or fourth out of our five team division.
At the start of the year, like I do every year, I felt that if both Chris and I did our jobs to the best of our ability, that we would at least compete for a title. I realize now that you can only do so much when your entire team is younger than the youngest kids on every other team in the league. No matter how good the 7 and 8 year olds are, they just can't compete with the 10 and 11 year olds that we're playing against. But we're teaching them the fundamentals, and hopefully they will begin to grow as players in the next couple of years.
Poker karma worked out, as I did indeed cash at AIPCO. I took third, which brought another $500 into the coffers. Puts me up almost $6K since losing my job last September. It was a funny night, though. It's amazing how quickly you adjust your expectations, and how getting close only makes the defeat that much more bitter. I should never have made the final table. I should have gone out about 23rd or so. With only 9K in chips, the blinds were 2K-4K, and I was in the big blind. Someone raised, and I threw my last chip in without even looking at my hand. She had pocket Jacks, and I had 9-2 off-suit. I was 11% to win, but I did, and then went on a pretty good run to get to the final table. Once I was there, I got lucky once again when I had someone fold pocket Queens to my reraise preflop with pocket 9's. So, I should have been happy getting as far as I did. But I wasn't. I had the chip lead 3-handed, and almost never lose when that is the case. So when I busted out in third, I felt as though I had let a tremendous opportunity (as well as another $700 or so) slip away from me. Even though I knew I had been extremely lucky to get there, once I was there, my expectations had been adjusted and I felt like I should have won. You only get so many opportunities to take those down, and you need to capitalize when you do. Still, $500 is a nice night of work, and I can't complain too much.
We finally have a winner in the WSOP tournament too. Not who I thought it would be. Randy came back from the big chip deficit, and won the trip down there. I'm happy for him. I had pegged him to be the first person out, and he did exactly the opposite. But no one would enjoy the trip more than him. It was fun to watch, really. If I can afford it, I'm going down there to cheer him on. Even if he's out on the first day, he'll just enjoy the experience so much.
Not much else going on with me outside of baseball and poker, so I don't have a lot of random thoughts this week.
However...
Just watched Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Not bad, but not as good as the original. The thing that stood out to me more than anything though: Damn, Val Kilmer has let himself go. I mean, it's not like I can say anything, because I'm not nearly as svelte as I once was, but damn! Val can obviously afford to hire either a personal trainer or Elvis' old cook, and he chose the latter. Hasn't been that long since he was in damn good shape. Now he just looks fat and old. I mean, I know you're 50 now, but Brad Pitt is 46, and still looks like Brad Pitt. You now look like this:
Seriously, you can afford a personal trainer, dude.
I read today where some of the cities in Europe that have had flights grounded for the last week after the volcano eruption are now seeing the clearest skies in the last 50 years. Amazing how quickly things can correct themselves if we let them. The haze created just from the jet engine exhaust was enough to limit the air quality in dozens of cities. But once they went a week without flights, the skies were all blue.
Reminds me of the show on the History Channel a couple of years ago, that showed what would happen to the world if humans were gone. The biggest change was the oceans, where fish populations would skyrocket in only a few years. As it is, we'll probably hit the tipping point towards many species of fish extinction in my lifetime. Not that I care, I will have died from mercury poisoning from my swordfish long before they will have become extinct.
Okay folks, until my next post, or at the worst, next week, I hope all of you have nothing but health and happiness. Sorry about burning that image of Val Kilmer into your retinas.
