May 2007 Archives

In breaking Giants news (related to this entry), San Francisco just announced they traded Balkin' Benitez to Florida for Randy Messenger.

It's a move long overdue. As every S.F. fan knows, Benitez hasn't performed anywhere near the standard he set in 2004, when he saved 47 games for the Marlins. Apparently, it took Tuesday's debacle to finally convince the Giants front office to get off their bums and do something.

Messenger is a welcome addition to the bullpen. He has an ERA of 2.66 in 23 1/3 innings of work, which seems to indicate he is capable of preserving a lead. Now, with any luck, San Francisco's offense will come alive so he has a lead to preserve.

For the last week or so, I've been following Ben and Lauren's Adventure on the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). (I discovered it thanks to Two-Heel Drive.)

They've been thru-hiking the 2,174-mile trail that stretches from Georgia to Maine (or Maine to Georgia, depending on your point of view) since April 30th. They have hiked roughly 20% of the trail (or 460 miles) and will reach Mt. Katahdin in mid-September, if all goes as plans.

The couple, who originally lived in Hollywood, California, sold everything they had to undertake the nearly five-month adventure. While it's one of my dreams to hike at least a portion of the Pacific Coast Trail and the A.T., I don't know if I would be willing to give up everything like they did to do it.

I think they're both incredibly brave and I applaud them for doing what was necessary to make their dreams a reality. Some people only talk about living more simply or pursuing their passion if they only could. Lauren and Ben (or Figgy and Stitch, to use their well-earned trail names) are living theirs.

Besides the usual physical and logistical challenges that every A.T. hiker faces, the couple has to confront an additional hurdle. Figgy is a Type 1 diabetic. To keep her blood sugar levels up, she has been eating 15 figs a day (hence her trail name). In her latest post (from somewhere near Damascus, Virginia), Figgy did the math and calculated that over the span of the journey, she'll eat somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 to 50 pounds of figs. That's a lot of figs. (More than I'll probably eat in my lifetime.)

Fortunately, she was able to convince a California fig company to sponsor her. The company shipped a trip's worth of figs to Maine and the couple mailed five-pound allotments to the various resupply points along the trail so Lauren would never be without her much-needed fruit.

It's a great story to follow. They've already hit a few snags (inflamed knee and shin splints, lost wallet, mailing mishaps), but I'm wishing them well and looking forward to seeing them succeed.

Last night, the Giants played the Mets in New York. I thought it would be fun to list the four things that went right and the one thing that went very wrong for the Giants in the game...

Four Things that Went Right:

1. Tim Lincecum's Start - The Franchise allowed just three runs on three hits and struck out eight in seven innings of work. He's coming along just fine.
2. Dan Ortmeier's Homer - Ortmeier hit his first major league home run in the sixth inning to tie the game.
3. Middle Relief - Brad Hennessey, Kevin Correia, and Russ Ortiz, the recently reassigned starter, combined for four scoreless innings of work, which gave the Giants a chance to win...
4. The Top of the Twelfth - San Francisco manufactured a run on a walk, wild pitch, sacrifice bunt, and fielder's choice.

One Thing that Went Very Wrong:

1. Armando Benitez - With a fresh one-run lead, the Giants closer promptly walked Jose Reyes and balked (sending Reyes to second). After Reyes advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, Armando pulled a classic Charlie Brown move by balking in the tying run. Carlos Delgado, seeking to put the suffering stopper out of his misery, sent a Benitez pitch sailing over the right field wall to end the game.

Final Score: Mets 5, Giants 4.

Balkin' Benitez took the loss, his third loss of Month. Luckily, the month ends in another day, so maybe he can turn it around in June.

In preparation for Script Frenzy, which begins this Friday, I'm currently reading the script for Mystery Men. The film is a comedy about a group of struggling superheroes (Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, Janeane Garofalo, and Paul Reubens) who attempt to stop a supervillain (Geoffrey Rush) from destroying the city and killing the city's only real superhero (Greg Kinnear). It's one of the Top 5 films I forget to mention when asked to list my favorite films.

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I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Mine was pleasant. I spent Saturday and Sunday attending graduation ceremonies and spent Monday recuperating from Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday's ceremony, which took place at San Jose State's Spartan Stadium, had the highest concentration of cell phones I've ever seen. Everybody had a phone and nobody was self-conscious about using it.

Parents were calling their sons or daughters to congratulate them or tell them where they were in the stands; graduates in the School of Business were sending text messages to their friends in the School of Humanities; and everybody was taking photos with their phones, trying to capture as many moments as they could for posterity or to post on their MySpace pages.

It made me wonder how people survived graduation ceremonies before cell phones became so ubiquitous - when the only sources of amusement available to ward off boredom were toes to stare at, thoughts to retreat into, and the occasional beach ball to bounce around.

Taking a second to reflect, I don't know how I survived my own college graduation because I don't recall there even being a single beach ball. (That's what you get when you attend a tiny, Jesuit university.)

All I have to say is thank goodness for cell phones. No one should have to endure all of that sitting, listening, and toe-staring like I had to and no one will, as long as commencement ceremonies are held in places with strong reception.

Last week, on MLB.com Midday, a daily baseball show, Casey Stern talked with Paul Mercurio, a comedian and writer on The Daily Show.

The subject of Roger "The Rocket" Clemens and his 28-million-dollar ($9,000-a-pitch) contract came up and I got a laugh out of Mercurio's jibes...

First of all, the contract is 28 million, 22 dollars. The 22 dollars, and this is a fact, is for his number. And the 28 million dollars is the cost of building an actual rocket...

You know, there are a lot of little perks in his contract. He has to get taken to and from the mound during the game by helicopter...

And when he throws the ball, the catcher cannot throw the ball back to him. The ball is put on a silver platter and a butler brings the ball back to him...

Ah, baseball humor. It's so rare, you have to grab it wherever you can get it, even when it's on the mild side.

There seems to be an inordinate number of movie sequels hitting theaters this summer. I thought it would be fun to list as many as I can. I've broken them into three groups - those I plan to see on the big screen, those I plan to watch on DVD, and those I refuse to see unless the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Worth the Price of Admission:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - I'm curious to see what happens to Jack Sparrow and his crew.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - It opens a week before the last book hits shelves.

Worth the Price of Subscription:

• Shrek the Third - The first two were hilarious. The third might be, too.
• Spider-Man 3 - Critics have panned it, but I want to see why they did.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - Silver Surfer is one of my favorite comic characters.
• The Bourne Ultimatum - I probably should watch The Bourne Supremacy first.
• Rush Hour 3 - It will likely be awful, but it's Jackie Chan.

Worth the Price of Omission:

• Live Free or Die Hard - Why?
• Ocean's 13 - There's something about The Modern Day Rat Pack that annoys me.
• Evan Almighty - I'm a Steve Carell fan, so I might end up watching it anyway.
• Resident Evil: Extinction - Gore and horror just aren't my style.

Song on my mind... "Angel With an Attitude" by The Ditty Bops.

I got a chip on my shoulder
And a halo on my head
I'm an angel with an attitude
And my favorite color's red
I got God on my side
Who's that? Hell, I don't know
But I practice my religion
While I'm stepping on your toes
Goodness knows
I gave more than I took
Goodness knows
I ain't no saint, I ain't no crook

I wouldn't have heard of them if Bon Ton hadn't mentioned them. They have a sound that is old and new at the same time and I love their instrumentation and harmonies.

On a hunch, I checked to see if they had performed on A Prairie Home Companion and was delighted to discover they had two years ago.

In one week, Script Frenzy (SF) begins. SF is a month-long project created by the same folks who brought us NaNoWriMo a few years back. Think of it as yet another sequel (of the non-movie variety) in this long summer of sequels (ooh, that would make a good entry).

Instead of writing a 50,000-word novel in one month, SF challenges people to write a 20,000-word screenplay in one month. It sounds relatively easy by comparison (30,000 words easier), but when Elkit and Silvia first mentioned it at a blogger gathering not so long ago, I had no intention of signing up.

At the time, I felt a once-a-year workout in November was all my imagination could handle. Plus, I was in something of a creative funk (in other words, I was feeling lazy), so the idea of exercising my brain in June didn't sound appealing.

But two weeks ago, something changed. I don't know what triggered it, but the challenge of trying to write a screenplay in thirty days suddenly became alluring. Perhaps the attraction was there all along and I had been in denial. In any case, I signed up.

So far, my screenplay is called Missing in Mallville and its logline reads, "In a peaceful town, a private investigator is hired to find a missing child and stumbles upon a troubling town secret in the process." It's going to be interesting to see if I can inject any humor and excitement into that dull premise. One can only hope.

If you want to join in on the fun, you have seven days to decide before the frenzy begins.

Sports Illustrated recently conducted a survey that asked big league players to name the most friendly and least friendly players in baseball.

While it's interesting to know that 46% believe Detroit's first baseman, Sean Casey, is the nicest guy around and 26% believe San Francisco's left fielder, Barry Bonds, is just plain mean, I don't think the magazine did enough with the information they collected. Specifically, they didn't answer the burning question any serious baseball fan would ask: Are friendly players better than unfriendly players?

To help SI out and satisfy my own curiosity, let's compare the Average SLOB of the top five players on each list. SLOB is one of my favorite hitting stats. I like it because it gives equal weight to a hitter's power and his ability to reach base. It's also easy to calculate - simply multiply slugging average (SLG) by on-base percentage (OPS). The bigger the SLOB, the better the player.

Enough with the words, let's get to the numbers...

Friendly Players

Name	Team	%	SLG	OBP	SLOB
Sean Casey	DET	46%	.319	.301	.096
Jim Thome	CWS	7%	.630	.537	.338
Mike Sweeney	KC	7%	.406	.336	.136
Dave Roberts	SF	4%	.371	.283	.105
David Ortiz	BOS	4%	.604	.433	.262
Average SLOB					.187

Unfriendly Players

Name	Team	%	SLG	OBP	SLOB
Barry Bonds	SF	26%	.630	.503	.317
Jeff Kent	LAD	20%	.487	.363	.177
AJ Pierzynski	CWS	13%	.478	.303	.145
Alex Rodriguez	NYY	12%	.689	.397	.274
Jose Guillen	SEA	2%	.455	.351	.160
Average SLOB					.215

As you can see, the Average SLOB of the unfriendly players is 15% higher than that of the friendly players.

Moral of the Story: If you want to be a better player, don't be so nice.

I saw the video below on Mike's Civil War Herald and found it quite moving. It's a time-lapse map of the American Civil War. In four minutes (at a rate of one week per second), it shows the major battles fought, the exchange of territory between the Union and Confederate forces, and the tremendous casualties suffered by both sides as the war progressed. It features "Ashokan Farewell", the classic song written by Jay Ungar and made famous in Ken Burns' The Civil War. The animation, which may not stay on YouTube much longer (according to the person who posted it), was actually made for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. If it's pulled, you'll have to travel to Springfield, Illinois to see it, so enjoy it while you can...

Producers of ABC's Lost announced they had successfully completed their search for a "plot czar".

In a video podcast released this morning, J.J. Abrams, the show's creator and executive producer, said Mr. Wilson, the island castaway prominently featured in the movie Cast Away, would be filling the newly created position.

"Mr. Wilson is a survivor and a hero who understands plane crashes and deserted islands and knows a thing or two about delivering."

If approved by the network, Wilson would work under executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but would report directly to Abrams.

Wilson's position would carry the title of Assistant to the Executive Producers and Deputy Creative Advisor for Plot Development, Continuity, Clean Up, and Implementation.

"Wilson played an integral role in advancing the plot of his previous film," said Jack Bender, another executive producer. "We have complete confidence in his ability to tie up any loose ends, fill in any gaps, explain any inconsistencies, and solve any remaining mysteries to make our plot whole. A plot, I might add, we had planned, from start to finish, long before the show began."

Some in Hollywood are scratching their heads wondering why the show waited three years to hire a "plot czar". Some are wondering how Mr. Bender was able to finish his statement with a straight face. Others are puzzled by the position's responsibilities, which seem to be very similar to those of an executive producer.

Bryan Burk, an executive producer, attempted to explain, "Wilson will do what J.J., Damon, Carlton, Jack, or I would do if J.J., Damon, Carlton, Jack, or I had the time." Mr. Burk refused to say what he and the other producers currently did with their time.

Abrams concluded the podcast on a triumphant note. "We needed to get the right concept, the right man - or piece of sports equipment - and we have."

---

Inspired by a recent article in The New York Times, an entry on Daily Kos, and, of course, Lost. The third season finale is this Wednesday. The finale of Heroes is tonight. I can't wait!

(I bet Tim Kring doesn't need a plot czar.)

In an attempt to get back on my book-a-week pace, I've been on a reading rampage. Over the past month, I've managed to double my book count, an achievement made easier by the fact that the original count was a single-digit number. Some might consider the books in the list that follows to be "lighter fare", which may be true for two of the titles, but for the rest, I prefer to call them "concise classics".

• Very Good, Jeeves! by P.G. Wodehouse - A compilation of Jeeves and Wooster short stories. I revel in Wodehouse's ability to use the same formula (Wooster gets in trouble, Jeeves saves the day) to create so many fresh and funny tales.
• Jeeves and the Tie That Binds by P.G. Wodehouse - I was on such a roll that I had to read another Wodehouse novel before tackling another author.
• I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny by Bob Newhart - Part autobiography, part Button-Down Mind in book version. Both parts are entertaining. Newhart is an affable comedian who manages to disguise his sometimes subversive humor with his squeaky clean image. The book inspired me to rent the first season of The Bob Newhart Show, his hit comedy series from the seventies.
• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut - Before his passing, I hadn't read a single word by Vonnegut. It wasn't that I was avoiding him; I just hadn't gotten to him yet. I'm glad I finally did. The story of Billy Pilgrim is one of my favorites of the year.
• Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - While searching for Vonnegut, I came across Twain and decided it had been too long since I had last heard him tell a tale.
• Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck - And since I was in the section, I grabbed one of Steinbeck's novels as well. Tortilla Flat is a somber story (with touches of humor) about a group of friends (paisanos) living in Monterey.
• The Joy of Keeping Score by Paul Dickson - A book I found at a local bookstore. Filled with great anecdotes, quotes, photos, and trivia about scoring and the game of baseball, it's what inspired me to try my hand at keeping score at the Giants game last week.

Even with my recent reading gains, I'm still six books behind. To close that gap, I'm going to be implementing a new project tentatively called Prime Time Reading. For an hour every night, between 8 and 11, instead of watching a television show or DVD, I'll be reading a book. Why watch an unappealing episode of The Real Wedding Crashers when one can enjoy a few engaging chapters of Huckleberry Finn instead?

I wrote this last Friday, but forgot to post it.

In the United States, there are 388 national parks. Of those, I have visited 14 (12 in California, 2 in Hawaii). Of those 14, there are four I'd like to visit again (Haleakala, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite). That leaves 374 left to explore. Even if I were to travel to 12 a year (one per month), it would take 31years and 2 months to visit every park. I imagine it's possible to cut that time down if I were to plan trips to particular regions to maximize the number of parks I saw.

To make this potentially monumental undertaking more manageable, it would be helpful to prioritize which parks I wanted to see first. It would also be helpful to set a few constraints. Let's stick with 2007 and California for the time being.

Therefore, the top 5 national parks in I want to visit this year are:

1. Lassen Volcanic National Park
2. Whiskeytown National Recreational Area
3. Joshua Tree National Park
4. Death Valley National Park
5. Channel Islands National Park

It could be possible to combine Lassen and Whiskeytown in one trip during the summer. The Channel Islands might be neat in the summer as well. Then, later in the fall, when temperatures are cooler, a combined Joshua Tree/Death Valley trip sounds feasible.

All of this is still in the early fuzzy phase of planning. Anything and everything could change. Right now, it's just fun to think about it. In the next couple of weeks, I should do some research on those parks to see what is possible and what is practical.

(Alternate Title: Conspiricey Theory)

All I wanted was a bag of rice. That was the goal as M and I entered the supermarket last night. It should have been a quick three-minute find-grab-pay operation - one minute if it weren't for that pesky pay part. Little did I know that I'd actually be grateful to reach the checkout stand to pay.

While M went off in search of other grocery items, I headed for the rice aisle. I've been shopping at this supermarket for a few years now, so I know where to go: Aisle 3, right side, all the way at the end. I set my brain and feet on auto pilot and allowed my eyes to admire the recent store renovations.

For the past two months, the supermarket has been undergoing an extreme makeover. It has new flooring, new lighting, and new signage. The ceiling and the walls have been painted. Before, it felt like one was shopping in a giant food warehouse. Now, it feels like one is shopping in a giant Starbucks. There's something about a supermarket with mood lighting that strikes me as a bit bizarre.

That was the thought running through my brain as my feet stopped in front of the rice section. I grabbed a bag, put it in my basket, and walked away. As I reached the end of the aisle, I happened to glance at the basket and noticed a misprint on the bag. Instead of "white long grain rice", the words "wide egg noodles" were printed on it. An internal alarm went off and my auto pilot disengaged.

I raced back down the aisle, put the noodles back, and started scanning nearby shelves in earnest. It became readily apparent that there wasn't any rice in the immediate vicinity. I slowly walked the length of the aisle, carefully inspecting both sides, but found nothing even remotely resembling rice.

"It must be an aisle over," I said to no one in particular.

"You're probably right. I recommend checking Aisle 2 first," no one replied.

Heeding the advice, I checked Aisle 2, but didn't spot a single grain of rice. While silently scolding myself for listening to an imaginary no one, I ventured over to Aisle 4 and repeated the shelf-by-shelf inspection without success.

Flustered, I started walking the length of the store, examining the newly installed signs for a clue. Pet Food and Supplies? No. Kitchen Organization and Gadgets? No. Chips and Cookies? Maybe. Juices and Sodas? No. This went on for several aisles until I ran out of store. For good measure, I doubled back, but it was useless. Everything anyone could possibly want was listed except rice.

At this point, you might be asking, "Why didn't you just ask a grocery clerk for help?" That seems like a reasonable idea, but the situation had progressed beyond the realm of reason. It had become clear that I had discovered a storewide conspiracy. It was obvious they didn't want the public buying rice and since the clerks worked for the store, they weren't to be trusted. It was up to me alone to find the rice and I had to use every ounce of wit and wile I could muster.

I was contemplating how to best implement a grid-search technique in a grocery store environment without raising suspicions when M found me and asked if I was ready to go. Before I could fill her in on my plan, she spotted the empty basket, shook her head in disbelief, and promptly led me to the rice.

As I had suspected, the store had nefariously hidden it in the last place anybody would look – Kitchen Organization and Gadgets. I grabbed a bag, double checked it for misprints, and was grateful to reach the checkout stand to pay.

Yesterday, I went to my first baseball game of the season. It was the second game of a three-game series between the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. This was the only time the Mets would be in town, so I didn't want to miss it.

To avoid traffic, I took Caltrain to the park. I wanted to arrive early so I could eat dinner at one of the nearby restaurants and still have time to wander around the park before the game began. The first place I came across that looked appealing was Nama Sushi. It wasn't busy, so the service was quick. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I went with the moderately priced salmon entree ($12.50), which came with the standard rice, miso soup, and salad. It wasn't bad.

From there, I strolled over to the stadium, entered through the main gates, and wandered through the promenade level. There is something about AT&T Park that I just love. It feels old and new at the same time. It also has an energy that one doesn't find in many places.

Big, bright signs on the walls advertised food and drink vendors with memorable names like Say Hey! Willie Mays Sausages, Stinking Rose Restaurant, and Murph's Irish Pub. I stopped by the Cable Car Bar and ordered a glass of chardonnay because I had recently read a newspaper article touting the wines at AT&T Park. A glass will set you back $7.75, but that isn't as bad as the beer, which will set you back $8.00.

I was lucky to get a seat on the left field side. I was only about nine rows back from the field, so Barry Bonds and Moises Alou weren't too far away. As luck would have it, nobody hit a thing to left field the entire night. Wait, that isn't true. Alou did fly out to Bonds in the first inning, but I think he did that just to keep Bonds on his toes. Otherwise, nothing was hit to left, as evidenced by the following photos of two very bored outfielders...

Matt Cain was the Giants starting pitcher. The kid (he's only 23) is my favorite pitcher on the team. He had a rough outing in his previous start, so I was rooting for him to rebound. Unfortunately, he ran into trouble straightaway.

Jose Reyes led off the game with would have been a triple if not for the fortuitous bounce the ball took over the center field wall to make it a ground rule double. David Wright followed with a double that scored Reyes. Then Carlos Beltran hit a double, which scored Wright.

By the way, if you remember this post, then you know of my affinity for the first two men in the Mets' lineup. I'll admit that I was secretly hoping they would do well. By doing well, I mean I hoped they would reach base, but wouldn't actually cross home plate. They did better than I had hoped and three Mets crossed home plate; the third scoring on Alou's sacrifice fly to Bonds.

The Giants responded promptly with an out, a single, a caught stealing, and another out. Tom Glavine was pitching for the Mets. At the beginning of the game, he was seven games away from his 300th win. By the end, he was six games away. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the second inning, Cain gave up a single to Paul Lo Duca, who would go on to single two more times before the night was done. Cain got the next two men out, but gave up a sweet triple to Jose Reyes that scored Lo Duca.

After that run, Matt Cain shut the Mets down for the next five innings. He ran into a little bit of trouble in the sixth by loading the bases with two outs, but he somehow managed to get Reyes to fly out to center field before any damage was done.

The only Giants run came in the fifth inning. After Rich Aurilia grounded out to second, Bonds came up and promptly launched a solo home run over the center field wall for No. 745. My camera wasn't ready to catch the actual home run, so I settled for taking a photo of the sign of the leader board in center field.

That made the score 4 to 1 in favor of New York and that's the way it would end. Both Cain and Glavine would pitch seven innings. Kevin Correia pitched two perfect innings for the Giants, while Pedro Feliciano held the Giants scoreless in the eighth and Billy Wagner got the save in the ninth by striking out Pedro Feliz to end the game.

The most valuable player of the game was New York's Jose Reyes. He doubled, tripled, scored a run, and drove in a run. The least valuable player was San Francisco's Todd Linden. He struck out all three times he batted.

As I left the park, I took one last photo for memory's sake...

For fun, I tried my hand at scorekeeping last night. It's the first time I've ever successfully scored an entire game. It isn't perfect by any means, but I'm pretty proud of my attempt. My happiest moment came in the third inning when a late-arriving Mets fan took a seat next to me and asked for a game update. I was able to give him a quick recap with the help of my scorecard. Here it is...

Every once in a while, I check my logs to see what search terms have brought people to this little site in the middle of nowhere (a.k.a. the internet boondocks). As it is in the boondocks of the real world, most people got here by complete accident. They started out looking for something on the information superhighway and wound up taking the wrong exit.

I thought it would be good to help a few folks out and try to provide them with the answers to their queries (or at least what I think are the answers; some of their queries are rather cryptic).

In order to make this more enjoyable for all involved, this will take the form of a question and answer session. The queries will remain intact, but instead of giving boring IP addresses, I will make up names and places. Let's begin, shall we?

Stephen D. from Vermont queries, "who ran against lincoln in 1864".

Stephen, the answer you were seeking was General George B. McClellan. He briefly led the Army of the Potomac before Lincoln relieved him of his command. Not too long afterwards, he became the Democratic nominee and promptly lost the election to his former boss.

Sly S. from New York queries, "gonna fly now".

Sly, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're looking for "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)". I found a nifty Youtube video featuring the song that you might like. I hope that helps.

Barry B. from California queries, "distance to mccovey cove from home base splash hit".

Barry, the answer you're looking for is 336 feet. It's 309 feet to the right field foul pole and the sidewalk beyond the gate is another 27 feet. At least that is what a San Francisco Chronicle article claims. So, there you go.

Scroobious P. from England queries, "thou shall not make repetitive generic music".

Scroobious, I don't know if that is so much a query as it is an order. Assuming it's an order, I promise I won't make repetitive generic music. I also won't write repetitive generic journal entries. Just in case you were hoping to find a useful link, this one should fit the bill.

Finally, Angus M. from Minnesota queries, "macgyver music note".

Angus, I'm a big MacGyver fan, so I can tell you right away that the show's theme song has more than one music note. MacGyver was handy, but not that handy. You can find the sheet music here. If you want, you can watch Adrian Holovaty play an acoustic guitar version of the song.

That's all the time I have to dedicate to answering what querying minds want to know for now. In a couple of weeks, I tackle another batch.

When I tuned in to hear yesterday's Giants game, I knew I was tuning in to hear a pounding. It was the only possible outcome after all of the media hype over San Francisco's hottest pitching prospect, Tim Lincecum.

For the last couple of weeks, the local media has been in a tizzy over Lincecum's stellar minor league numbers: 1 earned run in 31 innings of work (a 0.29 ERA) in Triple A Fresno. It was actually embarrassing to hear those stats repeated ad nauseam by talk show hosts, sportswriters, and broadcasters. Some said it so often, I wondered if they had it tattooed on their foreheads. It seemed so ridiculous. Lincecum hadn't thrown a single pitch in the Majors and people were already calling him "The Franchise" and saying, "This kid isn't a fluke. He's the real deal."

Of course, yesterday's pounding (5 runs in 4 1/3 innings, some might consider it a light pounding) doesn't mean he isn't the real deal. It just means he's human. And like any human, he's susceptible to nerves. In his case, they were nerves partly produced by the fact that he was pitching in his first big league game and partly produced by the honking heap of media-generated hype.

The only player to receive more hype than Lincecum this season is Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is currently laboring under the weight of high expectations from two nations (Japan and Red Sox Nation). In his last (and worst) start, Matsuzaka allowed seven earned runs in five innings, further inflating his ERA to very ordinary 5.45.

In a way, I think yesterday's less-than-perfect start was a good thing. It diffused the anticipation and expectations that had been building around Lincecum and effectively switched off the insane hype machine that had been running nonstop for the past few weeks. In other words, it gave perspective and reality a chance to reassert themselves.

Lincecum has the potential to be a great baseball pitcher and a great addition to the Giants starting rotation, but in the same breath, he isn't the second coming of [insert name of random Giants Hall of Fame pitcher here]. Now that he's gotten his first start out of the way, I'm looking forward to his next one.

It's the seventh of May, the Giants have a winning record (16-14), and the New York Mets are in town for a three-game series. I'm stoked because I'm attending my first game of the season tomorrow night. Matt Cain (who got pelted in his last start after so many outstanding outings) faces Tom Glavine. It should be an exciting match up and I can't wait to see it.

To celebrate Cinco De Mayo, I went hiking in Mt. Madonna County Park, which is located roughly ten miles west of Gilroy, on Highway 152.

The plan was to follow the hike outlined on bahiker.com. It's a 4.6-mile loop that begins and ends at the Sprig Recreation Area, as long as one follows directions and walks in a counter-clockwise fashion along the Merry-Go-Round, Loop, and Ridge trails respectively.

Of course, I'm bad at following directions and managed to tack on an extra mile due to something I like to call "impulse hiking". This happens when you come across a spur trail or detour that you had no intention of exploring initially, but since you're actually there, the temptation to take a quick peek is too much to resist. Sometimes, the most memorable parts of a hike are a direct result of impulse hiking. Yesterday's stroll is a good example of that.

I reached the Sprig Recreation Area sometime before 11:00 AM and started up the Merry-Go-Round Trail. Up is the key word in the previous sentence. One starts from an elevation of 500 feet above sea level and climbs approximately 700 feet over 1.5 miles. The trail is meant for both horses and hikers, so it's wider than your typical path.

As one approaches the Old Mine Trail, the path flattens and offers some wonderful views...

It also provides a large canvas for silly silhouette photo possibilities...

I should take a moment to say that one of the reasons I like hiking alone is the flexibility it offers. I can walk as fast or as slow as I like without feeling like I'm rushing people or slowing them down. It also gives me a chance to do dumb things as shown in the photograph above. As I wrote in my hiking journal, "If you can't be a total dork when you're alone, then what's the point?"

On the other hand, one of the reasons I don't like hiking alone is that I become extremely paranoid about being attacked by a mountain lion. Experts say one way to reduce the chances of a mountain lion encounter is to "avoid hiking alone". Another way is to "make noise while you hike so as not to surprise a lion". Since I obviously ignored the first piece of advice, I made an extra effort to follow the second piece. While I hiked, I sang every song I knew by The Mavericks so any mountain lions within earshot would know I was coming and skedaddle.

Anyway, on an impulse, I decided to venture down the Old Mine Trail to see what there was to see and discovered a hidden lake located on private property.

This was such a secluded spot, I thought it was the perfect place to do a little reading and writing. I had brought along Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson for company. Twain makes an excellent hiking companion.

I retraced my steps until I reached the Merry-Go-Round Trail and followed it westward until I reached the Loop Trail junction. This half-mile section involved another 500 feet of elevation gain. Luckily, that was the last of the climbing.

I cut over on the Loop Trail Cut-Off (a hikers-only path) to visit the Miller House Ruins (all that remains of the one-time summer estate of a rancher named Henry Miller) and the white fallow deer. They are descendants of a pair that were a gift from William Randolph Hearst to Miller.

From here, I took the Upper Miller Trail back to the Loop Trail, headed south until I reached the Ridge Trail, and followed that trail east until it reconnected with the Merry-Go-Round. For the first mile, the way was well-shaded, but just beyond the Tie Camp Trail junction, the trees gave way to shrubs and the shade disappeared. Fortunately, I was heading downhill all of the way. I would have dreaded coming up this way in the scorching sunlight.

All in all, it was a good hike. Mt. Madonna is definitely a park I want to visit again.

I deleted at least a dozen sentences before this one. How the preceding sentence survived the editing process is a mystery to me. Well, actually, it isn't. It survived because I temporarily removed the Backspace and Delete keys from my keyboard. Of course, if I really wanted to delete anything, I could simply hit Insert, navigate anywhere in this paragraph, and overwrite it. If you think about it, editing is like time travel. If you don't like how events (or sentences) are progressing, it's easy to jump back in time (up a couple of lines), and change them. It's the one place where we all can be a little like Hiro (from Heroes). Luckily, I thought of every possible way I could delete these words and took the necessary steps to ensure it won't happen. The fact that I had to remove a dozen additional keys (and the mouse) in order to silence my inner editor (my inner Hiro, if you will) was a small price to pay. My only hope is that I don't make a typo. That would bug the daylights out of me, which is why I'm typing slowly and carefully. I thought about intentionally misspelling "carefully" to be funny, but decided against it. There's nothing worse than being preductible. Agh!

This Bat Was Made For Swinging (And Missing)

Sometimes it's fun to see who the wild hackers are in the league - those who would rather wail away than let ball four pass them by. They're at the plate to use that bat, even if it mean knocking the stuffing out of the air above home plate. Cincinnati's Dave Ross leads the league in whiff production. If his strike outs were hits, he'd be batting .393.

Player	Team	AB	BB	SO	PA	PA/SO	PA/BB	SO/BB
Dave Ross	CIN	61	3	24	64	2.67	21.33	8.00
BJ Upton	TB	77	7	28	84	3.00	12.00	4.00
Alex Gordon	KC	84	11	31	95	3.06	8.64	2.82
Craig Monroe	DET	87	6	29	93	3.21	15.50	4.83
Adam Dunn	CIN	92	15	33	107	3.24	7.13	2.20

And I Would Walk 500 Miles

It's also fun to see who is patient at the plate, has "good eyes", or is somebody the opposition would rather pitch around. Jim Thome leads this category. He walks every third time up.

Player	Team	AB	BB	SO	PA	PA/SO	PA/BB	SO/BB
Jim Thome	CWS	50	25	15	75	5.00	3.00	0.60
Barry Bonds	SF	63	23	10	86	8.60	3.74	0.43
Ryan Howard	PHI	79	26	29	105	3.62	4.04	1.12
Pat Burrell	PHI	75	22	20	97	4.85	4.41	0.91
Todd Helton	COL	91	25	6	116	19.33	4.64	0.24

Once Is Enough

While I was at it, I wanted to see which players were in base-on-balls "slumps". I arbitrarily set a one-walk minimum for the sake of calculation. I'm not a fan of dividing by zero (seeing #DIV/0! makes me cringe). The interesting player in this table is Yuniesky Betancourt. He rarely walks and he rarely strikes out. So, if you need a guy to put the ball in play, Yuni is your man.

Player	Team	AB	BB	SO	PA	PA/SO	PA/BB	SO/BB
Ivan Rodriguez	DET	96	1	19	97	5.11	97.00	19.00
Garret Anderson	LAA	95	1	13	96	7.38	96.00	13.00
Shea Hillenbrand	LAA	80	1	5	81	16.20	81.00	5.00
Kevin Mench	MIL	71	1	5	72	14.40	72.00	5.00
Yuniesky Betancourt	SEA	70	1	4	71	17.75	71.00	4.00

I Don't Want To Miss A Thing

Finally, there are guys who seem incapable of missing the ball. They get out just as often as any other ballplayer, but they aren't as likely to get themselves out. While it's pretty incredible that David Eckstein has only struck out once in 93 trips to the plate this season, it's even more incredible that Placido Polanco, in his career, has only struck out 275 times in 4,047 plate appearances (or just 7% of the time).

Player	Team	AB	BB	SO	PA	PA/SO	PA/BB	SO/BB
David Eckstein	STL	87	6	1	93	93.00	15.50	0.17
Placido Polanco	DET	109	6	3	115	38.33	19.17	0.50
Adam Kennedy	STL	73	5	4	78	19.50	15.60	0.80
Todd Helton	COL	91	25	6	116	19.33	4.64	0.24
Yuniesky Betancourt	SEA	70	1	4	71	17.75	71.00	4.00

Last weekend was John Muir's birthday and Earth Day. Despite the the rain and possible snow in the forecast, I wanted to be in Yosemite to celebrate both occasions, so I booked a spot at Curry Village on Friday and we were on the road to the park early on Saturday.

In all honesty, even if it were just another weekend, I still would've made the reservations because I had been itching to get outside and play for weeks. Plus, it had been nearly three months since we had last set foot in Yosemite and I had been wanting to return. The weather on Saturday was perfect...

We got into the park just after eleven and headed straight for the Earth Day celebrations happening in Yosemite Village. We first stopped by the Earth Friendly Product Fair.

Vendors were giving away all types of goodies and offering free samples. I tried some organic chocolate, organic juice, organic beer, organic milk, and organic tea. We'll skip the part where I went in search of an organic bathroom.

I perused the various products on display (recycled steel jewelry, organic t-shirts, eco-friendly cleaning products, etc.), but only grabbed one goodie: a paper bookmark made from recycled elephant poop. It's the sturdiest bookmark I've ever owned. Unfortunately, it doesn't smell anything like an elephant.

We continued on to the booths in front of the Visitor Center. Their focus was on the park's environmental efforts (like reducing the presence of non-native plants and operating low emission shuttles). There was also a Sustainable Salad Bar where we sampled more organic food...

Afterwards, we took a quick tour of the recently renovated Visitor Center. Besides being nice, clean, new, and educational, the retrofitted displays were also interactive...

Okay, they might have been hoping for more mature interactions, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, we left the Visitor Center and took a short stroll over to Yosemite Falls...

It was approaching 4:30 in the afternoon and I still wanted to get in a small hike, so I decided to venture up to Columbia Rock, which is a 3.5-mile round-trip trek. It's considered a strenuous hike because there is an elevation gain of about 1,000 feet.

On my way to the trail head at Camp 4, I passed a group of rock climbers. They were so busy climbing, I don't think any of them knew I took this photo...

The climb took longer than I expected, not due to exhaustion, but due to constantly stopping and stepping aside to let hikers coming down pass through. I tried to keep track of how many people were descending, but I lost count around fifty. Most smiled and said hello, but a handful simply gave me disapproving stares, as if to say, "You should know better than to be hiking in that direction so late in the day."

I wholeheartedly agreed with their glares, but pressed on. After thirty minutes of continuous climbing, these views were my reward for reaching Columbia Rock...

After a brief five minutes of enjoying the scenery and watching the sky begin to darken with rather ominous looking clouds, I headed down and reached Lower Yosemite Fall 25 minutes later. All told, it was a fun hour-long adventure.

Sunday came much too quickly. As expected, the perfect weather was replaced with rain and snow. Overnight, the landscape took on a distinctly wintery feel...

After a hearty brunch buffet at Curry Pavilion, it was time to say farewell to Yosemite...

On the way out, we made the usual stops to take photos, including the typical view of the valley...

While I was at Columbia Rock, I shot a panoramic video clip. For fun, I added some music to it ("Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton) and embedded it here for your amusement...