My two favorite baseball essays are by Roger Angell, "In The Country of Baseball" and "The Web Of the Game ( Read more... )

So last Thursday, after our bitter loss and the end of our otherwise excellent Double-A Little League season, our team got together at La Loma field for a picnic and to hand out trophies and goof off. We had a lot of fun ( Read more... )

So last Saturday our Double-A Little League team finished off its regular season and capped it with an 8 team playoff series. We were scheduled to play the Orioles, and had beaten them the week before on Emmett's Best Game Ever (when he pitched three shutout innings, collected four hits and played excellent defense). I arrived before the game with ( Read more... )

They've been showing clips from Morrissey's new live Manchester concert DVD on The Alternative, and as I watched him singing "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" with thousands of rapturous fans mouthing that the pleasure and privilege of dying under a two-ton bus is theirs he just seemed very Sinatra-like all of a sudden. In part because he ( Read more... )

Emmett's Little League team was scheduled to play four games this last Memorial Day weekend, and Emmett managed to play five.

Friday, La Loma Park, 5:30 game vs. Yankees

La Loma is the backup ball park for Albany Little League.  It's tucked up in the Berkeley Hills and frankly it's one of the most beautifully situated baseball fields I've ever seen ( Read more... )

Stopped by the Zam Zam Room after a very stressful workday last night. As I think I've mentioned before, all of the bartenders at the Zam Zam are preternaturally attractive. Darcy was behind the bar and she's always cheerful and chatty. She's tall and slender, and has very tight brown curls stylishly short. She's got big, almost Anime eyes, and ( Read more... )

Usually winning is fun. But we won on Saturday's game and it wasn't so much fun. Well, most of the kids enjoyed themselves, particularly Emmett who hit a solid double into the outfield that ended up with him scoring through overthrows. But it was a lopsided game, and we got most of our outs through strikeouts so it didn't have the lively infield ( Read more... )

Yesterday was our anniversary. JZ and I celebrated with a sauna and hot tub. Next time I'll opt for less sauna and more hot tub. It was an amazing display of genetic tendencies, as I (germanic) was pouring out rivulets within seconds and JZ (mediterranean) was barely even aglow after five minutes ( Read more... )

Tim, our Little League Manager, was gone for the weekend so I ran the team for two games ( Read more... )

I woke up at 4:30am this morning, stressed about work and couldn't get back to sleep. I frittered away time on the internet until the dawn broke and the birds started chattering. I looked out my kitchen window and there were big trees, abundant green leaves and flowering plants all lit with the pale morning light. Quiet and lovely. When I walked up ( Read more... )