Saberhagen v Nolan Ryan…25 yrs later

Before the 2014 wildcard game, this was the best baseball game I had ever attended.  I was only 10 years old  but I do remember it.  The hype around the game was incredible and it obviously lived up to it.  My dad took the day off work to take me and little did we know that we wouldn’t leave a 1:35pm game until after 8pm.  We did actually stay the entire time!  The two things I recall from this game were the pinch hit HR in the 9th to tie the game by Carmelo Martinez and I remember Seitzer dashing home for the winning run.  By that time we had left our upper deck seats for seats down low so we got a good view of it.  Seitzer was one of my favorite players back then because he went to my parents church for a time and I got to meet him.

Below is everything I kept from the game.  Its the oldest ticket stub I have (And I’ve saved pretty much all of them over the years) and my oldest souvenir cup. I also kept all the newspaper stories about the game as you can see.  It all meant a lot to me at the time and still does 25 years later.  Hopefully my kids will be lucky enough to experience something similar someday with me!

Christianity and Politics and Me…in 2016

Over the years, both on my blog and FB, I’ve gone round and round about how to handle political topics and posts.  I’ve sworn them off only to get sucked in time and time again.  Roughly 3 years ago I stopped posting political things myself, but I was still commenting on other’s political posts.  Unfortunately for me, while my responses were usually merited to some extent due to the insulting things that are out there, ultimately it accomplished little to nothing for the Kingdom.

I firmly believe now that focusing on individual issues in both the political and religious world is exactly what anti-Christian forces want.  It takes us totally off message.  Yes, things like abortion and homosexual marriage are important things to discuss and have a stance on, but not at the expense of the ultimate message of hope beyond this life.  Most people aren’t going to change their mind on individual issues without a complete worldview change anyway.  This coupled with the majority of online discussions devolving into pettiness and outright ugliness to where nothing is accomplished at all.

My goal now is to avoid these topic-based discussions and focus strictly on the only question/issue that matters.  That being what is going to happen to you when you die.  Not forcefully of course.  Many have made their decision out there.  But if i can steer things in that direction and get people thinking along that line, a line that gets right to the point of this life on earth, I’ll have certainly accomplished far more.  And oddly enough, I’ll have likely maintained my friendships on a stronger level in the process.

2015 K-State Football Season Prediction

Sep 5	South Dakota	6:10 pm		WIN
Sep 12	@Texas-San Antonio	11:00 am	FS1	WIN
Sep 19	Louisiana Tech	2:00 pm		WIN
Oct 3	@Oklahoma St.			LOSS
Oct 10	TCU #2			LOSS
Oct 17	Oklahoma #19			WIN
Oct 24	@Texas			WIN
Nov 5	Baylor #4	6:30 pm		WIN
Nov 14	@Texas Tech			WIN
Nov 21	Iowa St.			WIN
Nov 28	@Kansas			WIN
Dec 5	West Virginia			WIN

A quick revisit of last year’s prediction had me picking us to go 12-0….well we went 9-3 no thanks to some bad kicking in the auburn game and frankly Jake Waters just not being the big time QB I hoped he would be.  It appears he was injured halfway through the season which killed our already sub-par run game.  The defense did fine but wasn’t anything special.  Overall an OK year, but not what I had hoped.

So on to this season where we see a massive turnover at the skill positions on offense and what looks to be an improved defense.  The best comparison for this team to past teams is the 2011 K-State season where Klein was breaking in as the starter and we rode a strong defense and just enough offense to 10 wins.  As I usually do, I’ll break down the offense and defense separately then sum it all up.

The offense has to replace its QB, its top 2 WR’s, its TE, and its center.  Those losses are going to signify a change back to a run-heavy offense as we return our so-so RB Jones and our great FB Gronk in addition to 4 o-linemen.  From what I saw out of the spring game, its clear to me Ertz is the choice for QB as he had the best touch on his passes and can run a little.  Typically there is almost zero QB run game in the spring game so its hard to say what Ertz will be in that dept but word is he has good speed, better than what we’ve seen with the more power QB run game lately.  Burton should step in as a decent deep threat at WR.  He’s obvious no Lockett but he looks like he knows what he’s doing.  Klein looks like a nice big target over the middle as well.  I actually think the pass game will be better this year than it ever was under Klein if only because Ertz throws a better ball.  Whether he is the same level of decision maker is another story.  I imagine he will be told to tuck and run when necessary rather than force anything.  As for the run game it was really poor last season with the underwhelming Charles Jones.  Some people blame the blocking which was schooled more the pass block last season rather than impose our will like we normally do with a run-heavy offense.  Others blame Jones himself who looked slow overall.  I hope we see some of Warmack this season, he could be more of the game breaker we need.  Silmon the RB/FB showed flashes in the spring game of bringing a bulldozer style RB back to this offense.  I think we could see more true option play, not just the zone-reads with this team.  Overall though I don’t expect a lot of flash, this is going to be a “don’t throw the game away” offense that most K-State fans are used to in Snyder 2.0.

Defensively I expect this to be the strength.  Much like the Arthur Brown led defenses of ’11-12 this one will also be led by a LB named Elijah Lee.  A true freshman who easily stood out to me as the best player on the field, certainly defensively in the spring game.  He reminded me of LB playmakers of old that lead many a K-State defense to greatness.  This is what we were missing the last couple of seasons and certainly in years where K-State’s defense was just OK.  I cannot wait to see him in action.  The front 7 overall will be a team strength as they return a lot of experience to a team that was already good against the run last season.  The key will be improving the pass defense.  We return our corners but we need to see improvement in the middle of the field with the safeties.  For a while we’ve been slow there and the teams with elite passing offenses have carved us up pretty good.  As a team that doesn’t blitz much and tries to keep things in front of us we need good speed out there.  It remains to be seen if someone will step up and be a big time player like we used to have with McGraw and Washington.  To sum up the defense, I think this will be the bedrock of the team.  I expect more turnovers from last year and more playmaking in general.  I think the defense will win a lot of games for us, much like in 2011.

Special teams should be its usual dominant self as we return all our kicking game and even though we lost Lockett as a returner, I really liked what I saw from Heath in the spring game.  He has that Banks look to him, a smaller guy that is going to do a lot of damage in the return game.

Schedule wise it sets up OK.  The early games are mostly gimmes though the road game at UTSA is tricky given that its an early start and UTSA will have a few extra days rest coming in.  La Tech is no pushover team either.  We get an off week before heading to Okla St which has been a house of horrors for a while now.  I’m actually trying to remember the last time we won there.  1999?  I think that’s right.  Course in the original big 12 we only played there every 4 years.  The games are always super close and exciting.  Hard to predict a win there.  Coming home after that we play #2 TCU.  I think we can beat them, but I won’t predict it.  TCU hasn’t ever won in Manhattan fwiw.  After that we play an overated OU team at home, I like our chances there.  Then on the road at Texas a team we just own.  I expect victory.  Then we get another bye before playing Baylor at home on a Thur night.  I like how that sets up.  I think Baylors defense can be had, what I’m also hoping for is that team will have imploded a bit by then as they have some internal issues there.  If we can pull that one off, I like our chances to coast to the finish with the 4 bottom teams left.  With any luck, 10-2 might just win the conference, but we’d likely have to beat TCU to do it.  Most likely we are tied for 2nd or 3rd.

EMAW!

Some self-improvement goals

Currently watching: Family Guy-Season 2 Currently playing: Zelda-Link to the Past

Currently listening to: Sufjan Stevens-Age of Adz Currently reading: Don’t Waste your Life-John Piper

Every so often its a good idea to evaluate yourself, to try and look at areas to improve to make yourself better.  This is long overdue for me as I’m not particularly proud of myself lately.  I feel rather “fake” more than anything…certainly as a Christian.  So here’s a list I came up with that I’d like to work on to improve how I feel about myself and how others see me.  I don’t mind putting these things out in the open, I think it helps make them a lot more real.

1. Be nicer to people online and in real life—I tend to be sarcastic and a little snippy…I’d like to tone that down.  Also I would really like to avoid too many needless arguments/discussions as I tend to not respect others feelings too well.
2. Drink less–pretty self explanatory.  I do well to not drink at home except maybe a beer here and there but when I go to friends or events I tend to have too many and it can lead to poor choices.  I’ve cut liquor altogether, but I need to limit beers too.
3. Spend more time with my family.  Now that I have 2 kids its become pretty clear that as much as I try to keep up with all of my friends and see them fairly regularly that I may need to divide up my time differently now.  Between work and an odd sleep schedule sometimes I don’t spend enough time with my kids/wife if I’m out of the house too much.
4. Regulate my internet usage better.  This is wide ranging…there’s obviously a lot of temptations online…things we shouldn’t look at. I’d like to make sure I stay away from those things.  Also would probably be good to not be on my phone/computer too much in general.

There’s probably a lot of things I could add on here, but these are the main things I would like to do better with.

A sad societal epidemic: The 13.1 car sticker

I’ve been wanting to write about these for a while because I see them all the time and they really annoy me.  Apologies if anyone I know has one of these on their car because I’m not holding back here.  Every time I see one, I think about this line: 50% an accomplishment, 100% a loser.

In case you don’t know, 13.1 represents a half marathon distance.  So presumably, people who put these on their cars ran/walked/jogged 13.1 miles.  There’s no way to verify this “accomplishment” as there isn’t some governing body that hands these out.  You can order them online anywhere and just stick them right on your car.  There’s also no way to know how long it took someone to move their body this distance.  For all we know it took several days with mini-campouts along the way.

The idea of distance running as any kind of sport has always been baffling to me.  Its not a skill.  Everyone with legs can do it.  Running for distance is mostly a “try-hard” thing.  It requires no coordination or ability at all.  Really, who among us with zero training couldn’t walk 13.1 miles if they had to (like if you ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere or something)?   This would never be something I would need to prove to anyone that I could do, and I certainly wouldn’t boast about it. If anything, having this sticker on your car only serves to cut down people who can’t walk.

All this said, full marathons are at least a real thing…like the Boston marathon.  So I kinda get training for that, especially if you have some kind of time goal in mind.  26.2 miles is no joke, even walking.  But a half-marathon?  What’s the point? Why only halfway?  Why do anything in life halfway?  How can you possibly be proud of this?  Why would anyone set out to accomplish this halfway “goal” and then display it?  I feel like these stickers sum up our society these days…doing things half-assed, praising participation-level “accomplishments”, and self-boasting.

Please people, take these things off your car and stop celebrating meaningless things.

Time to fire up the blog again…Summer 2015 life update

Reading: The A Swing-David Leadbetter  Listening to: Super Furry Animals-Rings Around the World  Playing: MLB 12 The Show-PS3

Its been a few months since I’ve updated my blog so here’s what’s been up:

Abbie and I have a (Lord willing) perfectly healthy kid on the way due in early August (no we don’t know the sex) and to prepare we’ve cleaned out our guest bedroom/storage room and are about to paint it and get some new baby furniture.  Hopefully that will be done by the end of this month.

Eliana continues to amaze me personally with how quickly she learns new things like her alphabet and counting.  Also things like puzzles and saying new words and phrases.  She’s an adventurer, nothing seems to scare her much.  She’s a lot of fun but also she’s very good at testing any and all boundaries that we set forth.  Part of being two I guess.  It will be very interesting to see how she adjusts to the new baby.

In mid-July Abbie and I are going to go to Chicago for a few days to celebrate our Anniversary.  We wanted to do it last year but weren’t ready to leave Eliana for multiple days yet.  We are going to eat at a “Top Chef” winner’s restaurant called Girl and the Goat as well as see the Shedd Aquarium.  We are taking Amtrak there and back too.  Should be a fun time.

Last month my dad and I completed a mini-project putting an attic fan in the house.  The house actually already had one but it was covered up and disconnected.  We removed the old fan, cut a hole in the hallway ceiling, built a wooden support box for the new fan, braced it in there, hooked it up, then put the shutters in and some decorative boards around it.  Took a couple of weeks but now we have a cheaper alternative to A/C in the spring/fall.  I meant to take a before pic of the ceiling and also a pic from in the attic but I didn’t so I just have the ones I am posting. This was my main house project this year other than the new baby’s room.

 

I’ll save talking about my golf game for its own blog piece, though that still remains my main hobby in my free-time. I also play some video games and board games from time to time. Outside those things I’ve generally stayed busy with work (and its ever changing schedule), house/yard work and of course spending time with Eliana (we like going to the park).

I’ve got a lot of ideas for blog posts that I’m hoping to hammer out.  I don’t really speak my mind much anymore online, which is typically to my benefit, so I’m not sure exactly what I’ll actually post yet.  That’s it for now though.

Royals playoff photos

It was too devastating to post any photos after the Royals lost game 7 last fall so I delayed it to the point where optimism typically peaks for the Royals…right after spring training.  Here’s the pictures from the 2 games I went to, the wildcard game (aka greatest game of all time) and game 1 of the World Series.

WILDCARD:

Where I briefly sat before moving to standing room only which is what my tickets were for.

Where I stood for nearly all of the 12 inning affair.

This fella was standing nearby us, had to take a pic of his badass shirt.

Me, Alan, and Adam. I’m sure after a few pops.

This pickup was right behind our standing area, and yet security would not let you stand in it. But we still did.

This was a celebration photo after the game. If I remember right (got a little fuzzy late in the game there) I put my hat on George in the extra innings for luck. Obviously worked.

WORLD SERIES:

Joe and I right before World Series game 1 at our standing room only spot.

This was during the starting lineups.

And during the national anthem.

And later in the game after there was really nothing left to do but drink heavily.

Its time to update our national holidays

On this most revered President’s Day I thought about how our official holidays are pretty outdated.  At my work I get 11 paid holidays…Here’s the most typical ones:

1. New Years Day
2. Martin Luther King Day
3. Presidents Day
4. Easter/Good Friday
5. Memorial Day
6. Independence Day
7. Labor Day
8. Columbus Day
9. Veterans Day
10. Thanksgiving Day
11. Christmas Day

Some companies might mix in Christmas Eve or New Years Eve for one of these.

As I set out to redo our holidays I went with 2 core philosophies: One is I think its more important in a lot of cases to have the next day off rather than the actual holiday for “recovery”.  Most people with typical schedules are off in time to celebrate in the evening so you don’t actually need that day off.  Secondly I think its important to spread out the holidays over the full calendar so we don’t have big gaps month to month.  Using those philosophies I present what should be our national holidays (with commentary):

1. New Years Day–This is an obvious one to keep because it serves as a full recovery day from all new years celebrations.
2. Valentines Day–I don’t care for Valentines day myself but since most women do I think having this be a paid day off would serve as a solid reminder for men to do something.  Also it doubles as a near-guaranteed get-laid day so long as you don’t botch it too badly.
3. Day-After St. Patrick’s Day–There isn’t normally a holiday in March unless Easter falls really early so I think its important to add this one.  I realize many like to drink the entire St. Patrick’s day but I still think its better to work, maybe get off early, and catch up in the evening knowing you have the next day off.
4. Good Friday–We need an April holiday so we’ll leave this one alone.  Provides a perfect 3 day weekend about the time the weather is starting to turn.
5. Memorial Day–Will also leave this one alone as it gaps nicely and provides a nice kick-off to summer with a 3 day weekend.
6. Day-After Independence Day–If you are like me you want to stay up late blowing stuff up on the 4th and you can’t really do much till its dark so having the actual day off does nothing.
7. NFL Kickoff Day/Labor Day–I propose just renaming Labor Day NFL Kickoff Day and have it coincide with the start of the NFL season.  This should be on the Monday of the first NFL weekend which would provide the same 3 day weekend Labor Day did in early Sept but at least we’d know what it was for.
8. Day-After Halloween–Halloween is probably the 3rd or 4th most celebrated holiday anyway so it should already be one and of course its a night event so having the next day off is more important.
9. Thanksgiving–No reason to change anything, most thanksgiving meals are during the day so we need this one.
10. Day-After Thanksgiving–The railroad is pretty progressive already giving us this day.  With thanksgiving being on a Thursday nobody wants to come back and work one day before the weekend plus the whole black Friday thing so I think this is an obvious move.  Plus serves as a recovery day if you do happen to go out Thanksgiving night.
11. Christmas–Probably the most obvious holiday to leave alone.

So there you go, what should be our federal holidays going forward.  Write you congressman.

2015 Golfing Diary – The offseason

Currently playing: Resident Evil-Revelations

Blog…its been a while.  As I grow more weary of facebook I think i’ll turn to you more…my old blog of nearly 10 years.  So i’ll start this year off by posting about the one hobby I care most about and that is golf.  I know, boring for anyone to read about.  but this is my boring blog and like the blog says…whoreadsthis? anyway.

So in my last post about golf I talked about everything I was doing last season to improve my game and I did manage to get my handicap down to 21.9 which makes me a consistent mid-low 90s golfer on most courses.  I’m pretty happy with my progress; I had 2 rounds in the 80s last year, an 85 and an 86, both by far my best scores.  I reduced mis-hits greatly, esp off the tee.  I eliminated disaster holes and I made more “great” shots than ever before.  I’ve become much more savvy about equipment, balls, courses, ect.  I can quickly figure out where I’m going wrong even in the middle of rounds and shot to shot.  It was overall a great golf season.

So on to this year.  I identified some weaknesses in my game one of which was long fairway shots.  The longest club I could hit from the fairway was my 4 hybrid which is nice it goes about 170 yards with some accuracy but it really isn’t enough considering how beneficial its supposed to be to be in the fairway.  So I sought out a fairway club that I could hit from short grass and I found the Adamsgolf Tightlies fairway wood.  Its a smaller head wood good for sweeping the ball off the grass and getting it airborn.  I managed to test it a few times this year and so far so good; was hitting it 190+ with some accuracy.  I just need to remind myself its really only good from the fairway, not from everywhere, least not with my swing.

Another weakness I remedied late in the golf season was with my putter.  I was having trouble lining up putts with any accuracy with the putter I had, I needed one more fit for my straight back straight forward putting style plus I wanted one that I could line up better by just looking at it and not resorting to gimmicks like using lines on the ball.  I traded my odyssey dart putter for an odyssey center shaft 2-ball putter.    So far so good there too, I’m averaging about 2 putts less a round since I started using it.  Really cutting down on my 3 putts with it too.

The 3rd area I need to improve in is my iron play both with accuracy and distance.  I’ve decided my clubs aren’t up to snuff.  No I’m not removing all blame from myself, but proper equipment is huge in golf and irons are no exception.  2 years ago I bought some cheaper Wilson irons just to finally replace the Dunlops I had since jr high.  They were an upgrade for sure but they weren’t anything special.  so the past few weeks I’ve been researching irons and I landed on Tour Edge Exotics XCG-5 irons.  Because name brand irons made within the last year or so can cost $500+ I went with a set released in 2012 (still new clubs though). Tour Edge doesn’t have the marketing machine of Taylormade or Callaway but these clubs are just as good.  They routinely show up on Golf Digest’s Hot lists.  Anyway I am hoping the technological advances in these irons can add more distance and forgiveness to my shots making me a lot more accurate hitting into greens from 150-75 yards.  I bought a 4-gap wedge set, though I won’t use the 4-5 irons, i’ll still use my hybrids there.  These clubs should arrive later this week, I’m excited.

So where does this leave me heading into the 2015 golf season?  My main goal is to be a bogey golfer which means getting my handicap in the 18-20 range.  I think this is completely doable this summer and I plan on doing it by focusing almost entirely on practicing chipping and putting.  I also plan to stick to playing courses I know and enjoy playing.  Hopefully the weather is as nice as last year so I can play a lot!

Current bag: Ping Rapture 14deg 3 wood, Adams Tightlies 16 deg fairway wood, Cobra Baffler Rail-Hybrids 3-4-5, Tour Edge Exotics XCG5 6-7-8-9-PW-GW, Nextt SW-LW, Odyssey White-Ice 2-ball CS putter.

What would you rather see in sports than the Royals in the playoffs?

Currently watching: Rectify-Season 1Currently listening to: Modest Mouse-Moon & Antarctica  

This was a topic several weeks ago on the radio and it elicited several interesting responses.  Most people said Chiefs Superbowl, and there were a lot of “my local school wins a national title”.  Again, this is vs the Royals simply making the playoffs.  My favorite response though was from an MU fan who said, “I’d rather see kansas miss the ncaa tournament than the Royals make the playoffs.”  The radio host called that “epic sports hate.”  Frankly though, I’m completely inclined to agree with that MU fan.  Results in college sports have always meant more to me than professional, especially emotionally.  So as a K-State alum, as the saying goes, my two favorite teams are the Wildcats and whoever plays the jayhawks.  I root for their failure 2nd only to my alma mater’s success.  Yes, I’m a true hater.

So here’s my list:

1. K-State national title in Football
2. K-State national title in Basketball
3. K-State final 4 in football
4. K-State final 4 in basketball
5. Chiefs winning the Superbowl
6. kansas missing the ncaa tournament
7. Chiefs getting to the Superbowl
8. Royals making the playoffs

It should be noted I’m not really a Chiefs fan anymore, I’ve no real emotional tie to them for nearly 15 years now as I’m more of a fan of the whole league/fantasy football.  Though the thought of the Chiefs and all the hoopla and hype of them in the Superbowl would be fun to experience, moreso than just making the playoffs for the Royals.   Royals in the World Series would be more enjoyable to me than anything the Chiefs could do I’d say, perhaps short of winning the Superbowl.  Royals win World Series would be tops easily over anything other than K-State winning a national title in football or basketball.