December 20, 2007

     The Mariners just signed ex-Minnesota Twin starter Carlos Silva to a four-year, $48-million contract. Sure, the M's definitely needed to upgrade their rotation after what happened last season, but Silva hasn't shown any signs of being worth that kind of money. Yes, he can eat up a lot of innings, but he was a barely .500 pitcher on a contender. I guess as long as he can make local fans forget about Horacio Ramirez, Carlos should make for a decent early-Christmas present.

December 3, 2007

     Well, my workday commute just got a whole lot worse. Towards its goal of trying to improve the performance of King County Elections, the County Council voted unanimously to move the department from downtown Seattle to Renton. Sure, it's an improvement for those folks who work south of downtown, but it's going to make things a lot more difficult for us northend folks -- and there really should be some kind of satellite elections office open to help all of those people who live and work downtown. Maybe they will someday, but in the meantime, I have to wonder how much longer I'll be able to work there without physically and mentally breaking down completely.

October 25, 2007

    As you can see, there hasn't been much to pass along during the past few months. Mike Hargrove's retirement (though possibly temporary) was a shocker and I'm entirely sure the team fully recovered. I wish him well, however. I'm also shocked (as are most baseball fans from what I can tell) that the World Series matchup is Colorado and Boston. If Colorado can finish the Cinderella story (sorry, Boston fans, but you won't get to try on that slipper again until sometime around the year 2060), it would continue our (my wife and I) streak of seeing teams in other parks that went on to win the World Series that same season. Even if Boston wins again (which, for me, is still a happier ending than if the Yankees or Angels had won it all), our streak of seeing teams out of town who reach the Series is still intact. We were at Yankee Stadium in 1996 and again in 2000. We were in Anaheim in 2002. We were in Boston in 2004. And our only out-of-town trip this year was Colorado.
    If only that magic extended to the hometown team.
    The Mariners may have to say goodbye to Jose Guillen and/or Jose Vidro (thanks for the effort this season, though, fellas) in order to afford the starting pitching that they need more. It seemed like the M's 2007 rotation was Felix, Miguel Batista and three #5 starters. Can't make the playoffs throwing that combination out there on a regular basis.
    As of right now, we're planning trips to Hawaii (Huskies football scheduled for December 1st) and Iowa (relatives). Next year, a new baseball park opens in the DC area for the Nationals. We may have to wait awhile to go back there because we still haven't seen the new parks in Cincinnati and St. Louis. Maybe by 2009 or 2010 we'll head back east to see the new DC park and the new parks in NYC.
    We also moved three blocks away from where we used to live in Bothell. Just hanging out over here on the east side of the street gives everything an "edgy" feel.
    Or maybe not.
    In the future, I hope to update this more often. I have a lot of catching up to do.

July 5, 2007

    We just got back from Denver, Colorado, and our 39th major-league baseball park. It was as visually interesting as I'd heard. The area itself, however, is an entirely different story. Too far west to be "Midwest", too far north to be "South", too far east to be a real "Western" state, it tries -- and succeeds -- to be a little bit of everything. We toured the Coors Brewery and saw two Rockies games. Not sure when the pictures from those games will be up on this site. I'm still about 19 parks behind. The Montreal page is done and Toronto is next.
    The Mariners have had an interesting season so far. Jose Guillen and Jose Vidro have worked out very well, but Horacio Ramirez hasn't. I don't believe we're missing Meche or Pineiro and it looks like a good thing that the M's didn't pick up Zito, Schmidt or Matsuzaka. It sure would be nice to work some playoff games this year.

January 1, 2007

    Now it's time for the annual listing of people (those I've heard of who are connected to movies and/or television) that passed away during 2006. They will all be missed, but will live as long as there are movies and/or television.
     Lou Rawls, Shelley Winters, Tony Franciosa, Wilson Pickett, Christopher Penn, Coretta Scott King, Al Lewis, Andreas Katsulas, Octavia Butler, Don Knotts, Dennis Weaver, Darren McGavin, Jack Wild, Kirby Puckett, Dana Reeve, Gordon Parks, Maureen Stapleton, Richard Fleischer, Buck Owens, Stanislaw Lem, Paul Gleason, Shohei Imamura, Billy Preston, June Allyson, Barnard Hughes, Red Buttons, Jack Warden, Bruno Kirby, Glenn Ford, Steve Irwin, Sven Nykvist, Buck O'Neil, Jane Wyatt, Joe Niekro, Adrienne Shelly, Basil Poledouris, Jack Palance, Peter Boyle, James Brown, and Gerald Ford.
    Thanks for the entertainment, folks.