Baseball and Coffee: Two of My Favorite Things

Before I get to anything else: The Cardinals won the World Series last night. After being 10 1/2 games back in late August.

If you understand how awesome this is, well, then you understand how content I am today.

If you don't get it, I understand but I'm a little sad for you.

It was awesome.

And now I start the 5 month wait until I get to watch baseball again.

You know what else is awesome? That I've been at the coffee shop today for approximately 3 hours and am not planning on leaving anytime soon.

I've hung out with a friend, had an Americano, edited a video for club on Monday, spent some time aimlessly interneting, listened to some good music, and altogether had an awesome Saturday morning.

I like my life.

Song of the Day: Dirty Rain by Ryan Adams (Yes, there's a new Ryan Adams album out. And yes, it has helped make my life more complete. I love me some Ryan Adams.)

It's Time

It's March 1.

I think you can guess what I might write about today.

It's the same subject that starts featuring on my blog often this time of year. (Like here and here and here.)

Yes, that's right, it's time for baseball.

Did you know some people don't care about baseball? It's true. It's weird to me, having grown up right in the middle of Cardinals country, but it's true. Some people don't care about baseball.

I am not one of those people. (Nor do I really understand them. I can count on getting more comments on any facebook status involving the Cardinals than anything about my personal life. These are my people.)

I'm listening to the Cardinals spring training game against the Marlins right now. While drinking a cup of coffee.

THIS IS LITERALLY MY HEAVEN.

Sorry for the caps lock. It was necessary. Those are two of my favorite things in the world. And they have combined for a glorious afternoon.

Now, I no longer live in Missouri so I don't get to indulge in trips to Busch Stadium. And I also have a job that gets crazy busy during the summer, so I normally don't even get to go down to PHX to see my Cards play the Diamondbacks.

Sacrifices have been made by my move to Arizona.

However, there is one perk: Spring Training.

I always wanted to go to spring training and got my first chance last year. It was awesome. You get to go watch professional baseball games in college-sized stadiums. I almost got hit by a foul ball last time I went. And it's warm in March (unlike Williams where it snowed a foot this weekend).

Again, the Cardinals don't play in the Cactus League, they play in Florida in the Grapefruit League. So it's not a perfect situation. But it is pretty awesome.

This Sunday I will driving down the mountain, putting on my Ssekos, and watching some baseball.

Yes. Heaven.

Song of the Day: Live Forever by Drew Holcomb

Shameful

I don't know if you all know this, but I'm a wuss. Seriously. I know for sure that in a fight or flight situation, I will choose flight. I am not proud of this, but it is true.

I tell you this in order to preface the story I'm about to share. A shameful story from my recent past.

As you know, I love baseball. And in my top 5 life goals (along with traveling to every continent and being on the Wheel of Fortune) is catching a foul ball. I go to a lot of baseball games. I want this to happen.

And about a month ago, I got a prime chance.

Cactus League Spring Training was in Phoenix and there was approximately 6 feet of snow on the ground in Williams, so a few of my friends and I decided it was the perfect time to go soak up some sun and watch some baseball. We went to Phoenix, did some shopping, and headed out the beautiful Spring Training home of the Royals/Rangers.

We payed our $7 and got our seats. As we made our way, I realized we were sitting in the 2nd row, towards the outfield, on the 3rd base line. I turned to my friends and, in a very excited voice, yelled, "This is prime foul ball territory! I'm totally going to catch one!"

Three innings later and someone I wasn't really paying attention to was up to bat. (Turns out I don't really care about the Rangers.) I watch the pitch go in, I hear the crack of the bat, and I see it. The ball is flying directly towards us.

People around me start shouting, my adrenaline starts pumping, and what do I do? I scream (loudly), cover my face, and duck. Where does the ball land? On the empty chair in front of me.

I straighten up and realize my friends are cracking up, the ball has hit a grandpa in the face, and a man sitting 4 seats down from me ended up with it.

And I was shamed. Shamed, I tell you.

Next time I want to sit in prime pop-up foul ball territory. Much less scary.

Song of the Day: More Like Her by Miranda Lambert (It's getting to the point in the year where I like country music.)

Seasonal Depression is Real

So, Bryce is taking out his misguided anger on me daily by A) yelling at me about the fact that I haven't watched Lost since Season 3 and therefore can't join in this mania that is happening and B) constantly criticizing the fact that my entire blog consists of Bachelor posts right now.

I'm here to make a public apology. (Only about the blog thing, though. You're just going to have to get over Lost.) I'm sorry, Bryce.

I have Seasonal Blog Depression. (It's a real thing.) It's been a dark blog time for me. There's nothing going on in my life besides the Bachelor. It's sad but it's true. I live at 7,000 feet and there has been snow on the ground for weeks now. This would be awesome if I snowboarded or something, but I'm too uncoordinated. So, I just read books and obsessively watch Dexter.

None of that is all that blog-worthy.

Lucky for you, that all changed today.

Why, you ask? Well, the Super Bowl was yesterday. Football's over and that means one thing: BASEBALL!

I am excited.

It's 9 days until pitchers and catchers report.

This means so much for my life. I'm getting satellite TV so I can watch the games (I love being employed). It signals that Spring is around the corner which means I will be able to go outside without being worried I'm going to fall down on the ice. I get to start talking about the Cardinals to a lot of people who don't care. I will read the Post Dispatch Sports page everyday. I will start getting random texts from my friend Allie commenting on real-time pitches, plays, etc. (because she knows I'm watching the game too). And I will be wearing my lucky Yadier Molina jersey pretty much all the time.

This all makes me very happy.

Oh, it also means that I start writing about baseball on my blog. Sorry to all of you who don't care at all.

Song of the Day: Angela by Missy Higgins

If You Hate Baseball, Don't Read This One

I am going to say it right now:  The Cardinals are going to win the World Series this year.

Let me explain my prediction:

The Cardinals were in town this weekend.

That's right, the I-70 Series was this weekend and that means that I got to see my Cardinals live.

Not only did I get to see them play, but I got to see them win... Big.  The game I saw on Friday was commandingly won by the Cards 10-5.  I then got to watch them on TV Saturday (7-1) and Sunday (12-5).  

To top it off, Cards vs. Mets is the Monday Night Game on ESPN tonight.

That's a whole lot of Cardinals, people.  And that means that I am very happy.

(Just to put some icing on the baseball cake, we also went to Royals-Dbacks on Thursday and got to sit in the Diamond Club- the awesome club seats right behind home plate.  Danny Haren was pitching and I irrationally love him (mainly because he came up with the Cards), so it was also awesome.)

I walked away from the weekend with the certainty that this is the year the Cardinals are going to win their 11th World Championship.

Now, I know that beating the slumping Royals isn't exactly the most impressive feat out there.  (Sorry, Royals fans.)  But it was the way they beat them that has me so convinced.

We had crazy offense.  On Friday, I saw Ludwick hit a grand slam after Pujols was intentionally walked.  On Sunday, el Hombre hit 2 home runs, one being another grand slam.  We were manufacturing runs left and right.  

We've had the pitching all year.  At one point, our starting rotation went something like 43 innings with 4 earned runs.  It was crazy.  We were 16-7 at the end of April.

But still I wasn't sold.  We have a lot of young players and our offense was questionable.  We were committing a lot of errors and I wasn't sure how long it could last.

We slumped a little in May, but then our offense caught fire.

Now I love where we're at.  We're commanding, but still a little under the radar.  That's right where we need to be.  As long as everyone stays healthy (knock on wood), there's not a team in baseball who can stop us.  

If you disagree with me, we'll talk in October.  (And I will say I told you so, loudly and often.)

Go Cards!

Watch Out for the Sausages!

Thank you to Anne Rulo for finding both video (found at 1:25) and a picture of the ill-fated sausage race...  So hilarious.  

Enjoy!

Too Funny to Not Post About

So, I've previously stated that I was going to try to not post a lot about the Cardinals, but something happened in their game today at Milwaukee that is too hilarious to ignore.

Jason LaRue is our back-up catcher and a major league veteran.  He was playing today to give Yadier Molina a day off.  The Cardinals were taking the field in the bottom of the 6th when the unthinkable happened.

The Milwaukee Brewers have a traditional 6th inning sausage race (much like the the hot dog race at Royals games that relish clearly dominates).  It consists of adults dressing up in 5 different, extremely tall sausage outfits (such as polish, bratwurst, italian, etc.).  They then race down the 3rd base line and the winner receives a whole lot of glory.  Here's a picture of the sausages for you, just so you can get an idea of what we're dealing with...

I guess Jason forgot about this awesome tradition because he trotted out right into the middle of it and, oh yeah, almost got trampled by some sausages.  Oh, man.  My favorite part was when he realized he was surrounded by stampeding sausages and went into a defensive run.  You could see him panic a little and brace for the impact.

Unfortunately for me, he made it out without actually getting hit, but I'm still laughing about it.  The Sportscenter guys are having some fun with it, but I can't seem to find a video or even a picture to post anywhere.  So you'll just have to settle for my awesome description of the event.  If I find a video, I'll post it.

This is a lot of the reason I love baseball.

I Miss Dr. Becky

Cool kids wear sandals.

So, I finally broke down and went to the doctor.  I've been slowly hacking up my left lung for the past 3 weeks.  But I live in Kansas City and there's no Dr. Becky there.

(Dr. Becky is the doctor I've gone to literally all my life.  I have seriously only ever seen maybe 2 other doctors.  Both were at the student health center.  Both sucked.  There's something weird to me about seeing a doctor that doesn't also lead music at my church.  It's just how I was raised.)

I rarely go to the doctor, not because I don't believe in modern medicine, but because I'm always worried that I'm going to go and they're going to tell me that I have a common cold and I should stop whining.  However,  weeks of coughing is too much.  The taste of cough drops gets really old.

So, I came home and asked my mommy to put me in contact with my doctor.  Dr. Becky has retired (seriously, can I stop getting old please?), so I had to go see a new doctor.  But she's in the same office that Dr. Becky was in, so that was comforting.  

She determined there's really nothing wrong with me.

Awesome.

She gave me an antibiotic "just in case" and told me to come back if it doesn't get better.  I'm really hoping it gets better.

On a completely unrelated note, Rick Ankiel had the worst face-plant I've ever seen last night.  Ouchie.  Phil astutely pointed out to me that it was probably because he shaved the 'stache.  I think he's right.  Really though, it was a scary hit and Ankiel's one of my favorite players, so I'm hoping he heals quickly.  

Mucho amore.

People Watching is My Fave

So last night I attempted to go to the Royals game with some friends.  And, oh yeah, it was sold out.  

Huh?  

The Royals sold out?  That doesn't really compute.  

But it was Buck Night and Zach Greinke was pitching.  (He's good.)  And the Royals are leading their division.  Kansas City is stoked.

So we didn't get to go to the game.  But we did make $20 scalping tickets and went and got ice cream.  So not a loss.

Today I actually made it into the Royals game.  It was Jersey Day so that was awesome.  And these 3 hilarious things happened:

*Preface:  My absolute favorite thing in the world is catching people doing hilarious stuff that they didn't intend for me to see.  It's the little things that crack me up.

1)  On our way to the game, we drove past a giant billboard for a gun show.  Standing in front of it was a 20-something man.  His girlfriend was taking a picture of him as he hilariously flexed.  You have to love a guy who will pull over his car to make a "gun show" joke.

2)  Walking back to our car after the game, we were walking behind a couple who were in a little bit of a tiff.  From what I could gather, girlfriend was annoyed at boyfriend but he was making funny jokes about it that were making her laugh a little and therefore pissing her off more.  I understand that this is extremely frustrating.  So, in justifiable retaliation, girlfriend (without missing a step) noticed some trash on the ground, picked it up, and threw it in boyfriend's face.  Boyfriend started cracking up and yelled, "You just hit me in the face with Jimmy John's.  You got mad and hit me with Jimmy John's!"  Girlfriend kept walking but was clearly also cracking up.  Sometimes all a relationship needs is some trash throwing to diffuse a potential argument.  Also, I like boyfriend a lot for thinking that was funny.  Because it was.

3) My friends Ben, Ryan and Pat were on the Jumbotron winning a seat upgrade.  Ashley and I started screaming, "That's Ben!  And Ryan!  And Pat!"  People all around us thought we were crazy but it was irrationally exciting.  

We finished off the night by watching the movie Once which is now one of my all-time favorites.  (See the song of the day if confused about why.)  

Oh, and my Cardinals beat the Cubs.

Life is good.

Song of the Day: Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Seriously, watch this one.)

More on the 'Stache

http://americanmustacheinstitute.org/cs/blogs/ami_2009/archive/2009/04/23/bearing-witness-to-a-powerful-st-louis-cardinals-mustache.aspx

My favorite part of this article is when they refer to his mustache as a "mouth brow."  Sick.

Rick!

I'm not going to lie, I was concerned when my favorite starting pitcher turned outfielder, Rick Ankiel, was struggling a little throughout the first few weeks of the season.  He couldn't seem to get a hit to save his life and the Cardinals are playing with an extra outfielder.  It didn't look great.

But then he stumbled upon the perfect good luck charm: a super-de-dooper creeper mustache, a la my dad in 1992.  

He rolled this out earlier this week and has since gotten several hits including a home-run tonight and won the top spot in Sports Center's Top 10 with an awesome catch in center.

I hope he also believes the 'stache is his good luck charm and keeps it all season.  I wouldn't want him to pull up next to me in a van, but I think he looks awesome on the field.

Also, is it weird that every time I hear/see the name Rick, all I can think of is that Amy Poehler SNL skit where she plays a tween that screams at her stepdad Rick for 5 minutes straight?  I'm laughing right now just thinking of it.

The Jumble

OK, I have several things to talk about today:

1) I'm trying really hard not to over-post about the Cardinals.  I know that most people don't necessarily care about them as much as I do and therefore probably don't care about how heartbroken I am that Carp is back on the DL and whether or not I think it was a good move to bring up PJ Walters.  

But just in the name of full disclosure, I love my Cardinals more than most people in my life.  It's true.  And I am very happy after a week in mid-MO because I watched every game I could and listened to the others on the radio, 2 things I can't do here in stupid KC.  Also, I'm sitting at Caribou right now, watching the Game Day pitch-by-pitch and getting excited about the fact that the Sunday Cards-Cubs game is going to be on ESPN.

2) A group of Red Hatters is meeting right next to me.  They are loud and have names like Norma.  They are wonderful and I want to be them when I grow up.

3) It is a beautiful day outside and I had an interview with an awesome new coffee shop going in in Power and Light.  I don't want to say any more about it until I hear something from them, but I'm excited.

4) I went along with my oldest brother on sales calls yesterday which meant a whole lot of time in the car together.  It was really fun.  I don't get to spend a lot of time with him, especially one on one.  It reaffirmed that I think he's cool and we both decided we feel really old when we realized that he's only a couple years younger now than my dad was when he started dating his mom.  In fact, my nephew (his son) is only a couple years younger than I was at that point.  Weird.  

We also talked about how freshmen in college make us feel ancient because we both still feel like we're college-aged until we see 19 year-olds.  They look like babies all of a sudden.  But he's 10 years older than me, so I would imagine that feeling's worse for him.

5)  I officially have health insurance!  My mom found out that I can still use her insurance through the entire year that I turn 25 even though I'm not in school.  So I'm going to have insurance for another year and a half.  Which is good because I still have a wicked cough.  I'm going to have to go to the doctor soon.  I have a serious concern that it is TB.  

6) Why is people falling down so funny?  (The ESPN highlight is way better because it shows David Wright cracking up at him.  But you get the idea.)

7)  This is a really long post.  My brother only read #1 and #6 on this.  If that's you as well, go back and read the rest.  I'm witty and entertaining and I do this for you.  (Actually, I do it so that I have a reason to be in the coffee shop for 3 hours.)

See you tomorrow.

Action Shots are Never Flattering

The Beauty of the Written Word

Have you ever coughed so much and so hard that you literally thought your head was going to explode? That is how I've been feeling for the past several days. Everyone please pity me.


On a separate note, I think one of the reasons I love baseball so much is that it brings with it one of my favorite kinds of people, the baseball beat writer. These men (and the occasional woman) are true poets of sports writing.

They follow the team around and create prose that can make you weep, such as this excerpt from a Bryan Burwell article in the Post Dispatch describing the joy of seeing a healed ace back on the mound:

Since sweet dreams really are supposed to be made of this — jaw-dropping and outrageous and perfect beyond your wildest imaginations — then surely this was the epitome of Tony La Russa's sweetest baseball dream in many years. The manager stood there in the drizzle on the top steps of the Cardinals dugout on this gloomy Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium, mesmerized by this absolute thing of baseball beauty:

Chris Carpenter was out there on the hill again, tossing all these precise darts between the raindrops, buckling knees and painting the plate, doing the impressive things that aces always do.

That is just plain pretty. And I do love pretty writing, especially when it's applied to something manly.

Just so you have an accurate look inside my brain, I completely imagine all baseball beat writers as 1920s journalists complete with "press" hats and suspenders. It just makes it more fun.

Let us be for real, baseball is beautiful. Not only are these word-smiths vomitting out this beautiful prose for newspapers everyday, but Walt Whitman himself wrote about baseball in Leaves of Grass:

I see great things in baseball. It's our game--the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.

Word up, Walt.

Long story short, intelligent people love baseball.

Call Me Picasso

It physically hurts me that I'm not watching my Cardinals play right now.  The Fox Sports Midwest feed here is replaying this afternoon's Royals game.  Here's what I say to that:

BOOOO!!!

But I am listening to the game online.  And Idol was awesome tonight.  So the evening is not a total loss.

Actually, I have had a great past couple of days.  And that is all because of my awesome friend Elizabeth.  She puts me in a good mood just with her presence normally, but this time it's because she bought a house and I get to help paint it!

That's right, the past two days I have gotten up and had somewhere to go.  That is all I needed.  It makes me ridiculously happy.  On top of having a purpose to my day, I also get to hang out with Elizabeth and John because he's helping too.  And Liz came and painted with me yesterday.  And there's a lady named Tracy laying tile.  That's a whole lot of people to talk to.  

It's even alright when there isn't anyone there to talk to because then I get to play whatever I want on my iPod player and sing along very loudly.  Today it was a lot of Rascal Flats and Panic at the Disco.  

On top of all of that, I get to paint all day which is one of my favorite things to do.  Really, it's weird but I love it.  I think it's because it makes me feel a little creative without having to have any talent.  Also, it reminds me of the Canyon and I get to wear my painting outfit.  

Does it get any better?

I sent in another resume today.  Keep your fingers crossed until I tell you otherwise.  I would like to keep this feeling alive.

Song of the Day: What Hurts the Most by Rascal Flatts

The Best Thing About Spring

I found a Caribou Coffee only 5 miles from my house.

I am happy.

Maybe they'll hire me?

This is definitely a strong contender in the GNKCCSS09.

On to more pressing matters.

I actually feel as though I have failed you all a little and misrepresented myself in the meantime.  There is something very vital to humanity happening right now and I have not blogged about it at all.

That's right.  Spring training!

The boys of summer are back, although it is hard to believe when it's supposed to snow tonight here.  But it is true.  And, even though I'm living in freaking Kansas City, my Cardinals have been dominating my thoughts and a large portion of my internet time.  (And thus, a large portion of my overall time.)

If you've been keeping up with me for a while (or if you know me at all), you know that my heart was broken a little by missing a large portion of last season because of the insane craziness of summer in the Canyon.  

I feel like I'm behind the curve, like I know very little about what happened in the collective life of my team.  But daily reading of the Post-Dispatch Sports Page has me feeling quite a bit better.

The beginning of baseball season means one thing for me: optimism.  I am excited, I am enthusiastic, I believe that we are going to win the World Series.  I'm rooting for my favorite underdog players to make the team and I'm grieving the loss of a couple of my favorites to trades.  But I'm a believer.  

I have discovered that we do get the Fox Sports Midwest feed here, but I do not know if they play the Cardinals games.  I haven't seen Cardinals Live or anything, so I'm a little scared.  But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I need my Cardinals games.  And Dan and Al.  I've missed them.

In the meantime, I'll be counting down the days (26) until I don my lucky Yadier Molina jersey and root my Cardinals on to a Opening Day win.  And I'll get excited about paying $8 to go to Royals games.  Definitely still fun.

Thank you Lord for baseball.