My Week In Baseball: 5/12 - 5/18

This is an installment that I'm starting simply because I love baseball. As many of you know, I grew up in the baseball rich state of Florida. Currently, I'm on something of a high by how the sport has done within the Sunshine State this year. In these installments, I'll cover every level of baseball, in particular, the Tampa Bay Rays, Florida Gators, and Pensacola Pelicans

The Tampa Bay Rays finished off a home stand against the New York Yankees this week, taking three out of four. The pitching, as it's been throughout the year, was solid against New York, only allowing six runs in four games. The pitching has been the major difference in the Rays' season, so far. I would tell people over the last few years, having watched this team mature, if they got any kind of consistent pitching, they'd win.

This Rays squad, over the last three years, has always had the ability to hit and I noticed they never seemed to give up, despite losing 90+ games. When the Rays spent the winter getting pitching over everything else, I started to get the feeling they weren't far off. I honestly didn't think it would be this soon, but I'm glad it was. Hopefully they can keep it up.

The Rays then started their inter-league portion of the season with a three game set in St. Louis. Pitching was again the story on Friday night, allowing only one run. However, Saturday afternoon's game turned into a slugfest with the Cardinals taking the game in extras. The Cards would then take Sunday's game, walking off again in the bottom of the 9th, ending the Rays week at 4-3 dropping them a half game behind Boston for the AL East lead.

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The Florida Gators went 4-0 during the week, which included a three game sweep of 13th ranked Vanderbilt in Gainesville. With the wins over Vandy, the Gators not only sealed up a spot in the SEC Tournament next week in Hover, ALA, but they earned the third seed in the tourney. Ironically, Florida will face Vanderbilt in the first round on Wednesday.

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I got a special treat this week as the Pensacola Pelicans made their first ever trip into Lincoln this week to face the Saltdogs. I was giddy to see the Pels play, until they got down 8-0. But still, it felt good to get a taste of home in my home away from home. The entire night I marveled at the uniforms, the aqua "Pensacola" script on the navy blue jerseys, which in my opinion makes them look like a team from the Gulf Coast. I have photos from Friday nights game on Flickr.

Still, after a 3-1 start in Pensacola last week (against the Saltdogs nonetheless), the Pels dropped two of three in Sioux Falls and got swept in Lincoln for a pretty dismal week. The Pels return home on Monday to face the Shreveport Sports in a four game set before ending the week with a three game set against El Paso. Monday night is Mutt Monday, where fans can bring their fluffy best friend to the ballpark, so hopefully it doesn't rain.

A Gator Went Down to Georgia

First off, I apologize for waiting two weeks to post anything on this.

So, I'll guess I'll be giving a brief summery instead of a day by day account.

My time in Georgia was short as we only had two and a half days to spend with my folks there. The first day was spent traveling in the first half, and basically lounging during the second half. This is also where I got reacquainted with my Aunt Janet's constant asking "Are you sure you don't want more?" at the dinner table. Mom complained about gaining weight after the trip. I'm not so concerned, I'd like another five pounds.

The second day there, we took a trip to Amicalola Falls, the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi River in North America. The area there, as for a lot of northern Georgia, is beautiful. Being mid-spring there, the leaves were filling in enough on the trees with still a few blooms. The trees ride along the hills that make up the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain range. During a lot of the driving time we had out there, rock laden streams often ran along the roadside. Overall, the landscape there is much more interesting to me than the Nebraska landscape I see everyday.

My last full day there was spent lounging around a lot. It rained off and on until mid-afternoon, which kept my second cousin Will from catching lizards until then. A little later on, we all went to church in downtown Ellijay. For the first time in years, I actually enjoyed sitting in church.

I stopped going to mass within a couple years after moving to Lincoln, mainly because of the mood of the mass. Apparently, that's due to the diocese that I live in, as it's more cold and old world, in contrast to the more warm and liberal diocese I lived with in Pensacola. Also, the church that I'm to go to here, which is just around the corner from me, seems to be very family oriented. Being from a divorced family, I constant felt like an outcast there. The situation in Ellijay made me wonder if I'll go again once I return to Pensacola.

I spent my last day out of town traveling for nearly 18 hours. It was tiring to say the least. I was also very annoyed by the fact that both the Memphis and Minneapolis airports use the same Boingo wifi service, which only gives you up to an hour of free wifi and then recognizes if you happened to use the service in a different airport that day. The idea of paid wifi services in a place where a lot of people only pass through on occasion is just not very practical to me.

Anyway, I did enjoy the time with my Uncle Jerry, Aunt Janet, cousin Steve and his wife and son. I thank you all for showing a good bit of hospitality to Mom and I while we were there.

I have some photos and video up that I took while I was out there.
Feel free to check out the photos on Flickr here.
And you can view the video here.

Old Classmate of Mine Signs with Orioles

I ran across this article in today's Pensacola News Journal:

It's been the toughest five years of Tim Spooneybarger's baseball life.

Now there is a happy ending in sight.

Battling back from two Tommy John elbow surgeries and countless sessions of intense physical therapy, Spooneybarger, a 28-year-old relief pitcher and Pensacola native, signed a one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles Monday.

"Oh, man, I'm thrilled to death," Spooneybarger said. "I've just been throwing, getting back into it, just waiting until the time was right. Now that it's finally happened, I can't believe that I'm sitting here. I'm back doing it again. I'm excited as can be."

Drafted in the 29th round of the 1998 MLB Draft, the former Pine Forest standout broke into the major leagues in 2001 as a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves and started his promising career with the Braves (2001-02) and Florida Marlins (2003).

Everything changed in June of 2003 when Spooneybarger was sidelined with what was thought to be a minor elbow injury. It proved to be the first of two reconstructive elbow surgeries — he re-injured his throwing elbow in 2005 — and he hasn't thrown a major league pitch since.

Spooneybarger left Pensacola for Sarasota Monday morning and will participate in the Orioles' extended spring training. He will get game action moving up through Baltimore's minor league system and hopes for a return to the major league club by the All Star Break in July.

Spooneybarger was a classmate of mine at Bellview Middle School up to 1994. I remember watching a Braves game one night and suddenly there's this pitcher warming up for the Braves, who just happened to be from Pensacola. So, I looked him up and sure enough, there he is in my class. Glad to see he hasn't given up on his dream and hopefully he makes it back.

So, I Went To a Baseball Game & Froze My Ass Off

While at work on Wednesday, I was offered Nebraska baseball tickets for Friday's game vs. Kansas, by my store's back room manager Randy. I've told him in the past that anytime he had to give them up, I'd be interested. At $10 a ticket, I can go with that.

At the time of buying these tickets it was supposed to be about 65 and sunny. Then this low pressure system that came through on Thursday decided it liked the Midwest and hung around for another day. So, upon starting the game at 6:40 pm on Friday night, it's 45 degrees with winds out of the north at about 25 mph with dark grey skies. Even though it had stopped raining about four hours earlier, the air still felt damp. Not exactly baseball weather, unless it's April in Seattle and you're taking in a game at Safeco Field. I thought with how the stadium was positioned, we'd get a break from the wind. But, of course, it found a way to swirl it's way around from several directions, as if to make sure every inch of us was cold.

Oh yeah, Pensacola was in the 70's.

As for the baseball, the normally reliable Johnny Dorn, Nebraska's starting pitcher, seemed to have two Kansas baserunners or more on in just about every inning. Nebraska, however, seemed to rally and get back into the game, eventually pulling out a win. Unfortunately, I only saw the first six innings due to time constraints (mom had to go to work) and, oh yeah, it was COLD!!! She actually went to the car about two inning ahead of me.

But I did take advantage of one thing I wanted to do, and that was take pictures of the very nice Haymarket Park, the home of Nebraska baseball and the Lincoln Saltdogs. Those photos are on my Flickr now.

I'll be back to Haymarket Park next month as my hometown Pensacola Pelicans make their first trip into Lincoln. If you happen to be attending that series and wonder why there's one completely insane Pelicans fan in the crowd, you now know why. For the third year in a row, the Pels will host the Dogs in Pensacola to open the season. It's about time the Pels made a trip up here.

Take care folks.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

The video speaks for itself.