FoolBlog

Linking Fool Friday

So, this was the week of teabagging. I wonder, to some extent, whether we aren't better off just ignoring the inhabitants of greater wingnuttia, particularly the likes of Glenn Beck. But the levels of hypocrisy and selective indignance is just so mind-boggling. Leave it to Jon Stewart to explain it to them.

Devoid from the teabaggers' arguments is any talk of what they'd cut to make the budget whole. After all, the government uses tax revenues to fund its programs. That's what taxes are for. When you get down to it, we're talking about defense, social security, and medical programs. You want to have a real discussion about cutting those, fine. But instead we get vapid rants about "taxes" as if feudal lord Scrooge McDuck is taking your money and then bathing in it.

Lastly, it may be shooting fish in a barrel, but these fast food pictures vs. reality photos still amuse me. I'll have a failure pile in a sadness bowl, please.

A win! A rare and precious win!

In the first two home games this season (both of which I've attended), the Nats have hit seven home runs. In the sixteen games I attended last year, they hit a total of thirteen. Hard to get too fired up about a 1-7 team, sure, but no doubt they're more exciting to watch this season.

Not that I can do better, but Nick Johnson had the saddest take-out slide at second base I think I've ever seen. He stopped a good five feet short of the bag. Of course, he may have just been trying to get out of the way of the throw rather than trying to break up the double play. Either that or trying to avoid injury--we are talking about Nick Johnson here.

Also, Hard Times chili nachos + garlic fries for dinner = bad idea.

Friends of the Fool who are theoretically interested in attending a game with me, but always manage to be busy when I have tickets, take note: Thursday, May 21 vs. the Padres, and Wednesday June 3 vs. the Giants. Drop me an e-mail if you're interested, then put it on your damn calendar and plan around it.

I'm in ur Opening Day, steelin ur victories

Aside from the rebirth at RFK in 2005, and the opening of the new ballpark last year, this was easily the most momentous Opening Day I've been to. (Of course, taking out 2005 and 2008 leaves me with a sample size of two.) Somehow, the club dragging its sorry butt home with an 0-6 record made this opener more gripping than if they'd been 3-3. Are we faced with another year of crap baseball? (Signs point to yes.) This team needed a win.

Then came the pre-game news that Harry Kalas had died in the broadcast booth a couple hours earlier. Harry the K has been doing Phillies broadcasts roughly as long as I've been alive. He and Richie Ashburn WERE the sound of baseball as I was growing up, and now that they're both gone, I feel that a piece of my childhood is gone too. Harry had been in ill health the past couple years, but that doesn't make it any easier. At least he got to call the World Series final out before he went. One side effect: the many Phillies fans in attendance seemed better behaved than usual.

So as always seems to be the case when I go to a Phillies-Nats game, my dual fanhood left me conflicted. Harry's death notwithstanding, however, I was prepared to root root root for the home team this early in the year. So of course I was left disappointed, despite three Nats home runs (including BIG DONKAAAYYY, who is now my favorite National). Three errors sure didn't help, but it was the top of the 7th that really did them in. Saul Rivera only needed three pitches to hit the first two batters he saw, bringing up Ryan Howard. Anyone who pays any degree of attention to the Phillies knows Howard hits right-handers much better than lefties, yet Rivera stayed in there, probably because it happened so quickly Manny didn't have time to get a lefty warmed up. "This does not bode well," I said, and sure enough, BANG titanic home run to left field. Just to make sure, Rivera gave up another homer to Raul Ibañez before closing out the inning. My Phillies half: elated. Nats half: not so much.

And now they are 0-7. They'll win a game eventually, right? RIGHT?!? I'll be back Thursday night, perhaps I can watch them go to 0-9.

Linking Fool Friday

Missed this last week, trying to wrap up things before heading out of town.

I also missed Jack Black's Yo Gabba Gabba episode, but you can see part of it here.

Hard to imagine how one would react to a traumatic event like a plane crash until it actually happens to you. This account of a survivor of the Hudson River landing is quite compelling.

Sports: The New York Mets hate Little Leaguers! Also, Mason's pep band sits in for Bemidji State at the Frozen Four.