My Boy Jake

"And it feels like the first time
Like it never did before
Feels like the first time
Like we’ve opened up the door"
--Feels Like the First Time, Foreigner

I heart Jake Peavy. What a performance last night. Two-hitter, first career complete game and first career shutout (and dare I say, the first of many). I bought the MLB Gameday audio last week ($14.95 for the season, every game, home and away radio), which means I've been able to listen to all the games at work and at home, following our back-and-forth battle with the D-Backs for first place this week (back up half a game after last night's shellacking). There's something different about radio, something purer I think, because I fondly recall listening to Chick and Stu (I had to listen to the B-Shaw-inspired comeback in '00 against Portland due to a church trip), Nick Nixon and Brian Engblom--now Darrell Evans (waiting until after midnight to hear a Gary Shuchuck game-winner in '93 against Vancouver)--and Smacksaw ("Chargers knocking on the door, they give the ball to Butts and he kicks the door in! Touchdown, San Diego!"). It's a nice element to recapture.
Asia sure does seem like a normal place. They've even got a fight club of their own, except instead of Ed Norton and Brad Pitt, it's little junior high dudes pummeling each other. Saw parts of the real movie yesterday in an edit bay (on FX, another channel we get stuff from, non-stop), and I a) recalled fondly the music to which I woke up almost every Saturday morning for about a year and b) forgot about the tremendous narration from Norton when he's realizing the true identity of Tyler Durden (even though this movie has been around for a while, nice how I'm refraining from ruining it for anyone, huh?). "Please return your seatbacks to their full upright and locked position...We've just lost cabin pressure." Very funny stuff. I'm trying to think of a way Side could fall asleep to the sound of these Japanese teenagers duelling, but that might be too expensive. Just stick with the DVD, I suppose.
By the way, Kurt Warner in studio today. Good dude. Robert Horry on remote. Very funny (and I got to cut an open that included the shot against Sacramento, the viewing of which will never, ever stop making me happy). As I ran around today (and I'm only now winding down what has been a very long day), I tried to recall other moments that brought on the same sense of elation in my life. It's a shame that none of them have really been self-induced (if I had made the UCLA basketball team and knocked down a three-pointer in the NCAA tournament against Princeton, thereby changing history as we know it, I would probably have to rank that in the top five; as it stands, however, it's all dependent on others), but I'm okay with that. I have no doubt that I'll be unable to produce a comprehensive list, but a few recent ones do come to mind:
- Brees hitting Gates for the tying TD in the closing seconds of regulation after Eric Barton's idiotic roughing the passer penalty
- D-Fish last year against San Antonio
- Kobe's 3 in Game One against Detroit
It's definitely better in person, so ranking very high on this list has to be the U.S. scoring goals one, two and three in the World Cup against Portugal. As a matter of fact, that might just be the greatest sporting event I've ever had the pleasure of viewing in person. Hard to think of anything cooler, even if it was soccer. Is there anything that does what sports can do? Music is great--I've thoroughly enjoyed myself at many a concert--but I don't think it comes close. What else even merits consideration (that doesn't include a bent spoon and a syringe, Todd Marinovich)?
Heroin aside, I'm very much looking forward to this dark week: Collective Soul Sunday night, beach all day Sunday and Monday (and hopefully even more days than that), taking care of some necessary automotive business at the DMV and Hexagon Auto, seeing people that my normal days don't allow (that whole two hours I have of free time every day really isn't cutting it), watching Season Two (and more than likely, Season Three) of "24," working very little and definitely getting down to San Diego for a Padre game or two. I can now finish up my final reports for the week (had to wait for someone to turn something in), so I am off to experience the night (read: graham crackers, 24 and passing out at 10--I'm exhausted)...we'll see how the dark week treats my blogging habits, and in the meantime, God bless...

A quick postscript: Yesterday's blog was deemed by Side to be hilarious, which a) was quite nice to hear, and b) caught me a little off guard. I was rather rushed in its writing and actually felt a little disapointed by it upon completion, but I guess it goes to show how little I should scrutinize the finished product. It's supposed to be rough, off the cuff, and sometimes my readership will enjoy it, sometimes it'll cease to be entertaining, but it's pretty much just me, day to day. I can't--and won't--be changing that anytime soon, so thanks (all three of you) for reading every once in a while, and thanks for enjoying things from time to time.