Dark Day Musings

"Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don't tell me I've nothing to do.
--Counting Flowers on the Wall, Eric Heatherley

As I sit at my desk having done almost all I can do to get ready for tomorrow's show (a road show from a Walmart parking lot in Baltimore--I wish I could make this stuff up), I'm finally presented with the ultimate condemnation of this year's NBA Finals: I would much rather watch Dontrelle Willis pitch (in a mid-June regular-season game against the Atlanta Braves) than watch game seven of the NBA Finals. I glance to the shelf of tapes above me and long for the NBA of Michael, Magic, Hakeem and Larry. I can't get into a Finals that features the weirdest dude on the planet ('Sheed--I mean, the guy wears a wrestling belt around) and the most boring dude on the planet (TD--I'm contemplating the creation of a tape of all of Duncan's playoff press conferences, one that I can bring home and use to put me to sleep). Meanwhile, Dontrelle's thrown six innings of two-hit ball as of press time (and just beat out a bunt for a single), and is as fun to watch as any pitcher in the game. 11-2, 1.92 ERA, and he's on pace to improve both of those with tonight's shutout. Not too shabby...

Got to leave "campus" for lunch today, so I headed up to WeHo to dine with Phil, his buddy Mike (a new Dailey employee and our houseguest for the last week or so) and Garett Awad at a little pizza place just up the street from Dailey. I'm reminded again of how much fun it would be to work for Brian Morris; I just need to find a way to get him into television first. I left a note for him in the office (for the uninformed, he's a good friend and the CEO of Dailey), and placed mine right on top of a phone message, reading: "FROM: James Worthy. RE: Wanted to follow up on conversation at dinner last night." Dude, I'm the one working in sports, and he's having dinner with James Worthy? Must be nice...

I've expressed before the lament of the "when it rains, it pours" problem, and it again seems that a plurality of phone numbers have now worked their way into my rotation in a rather short amount of time, thus rapidly making up for a long period of inactivity in that area. I'm mildly encouraged by one and quite excited by another, so we'll see what happens. I know I tend to become rather wordy and unnecessarily vague when it comes to matters of the heart; perhaps that is one of the reasons why said periods of inactivity tend to vastly outnumber the current, active ilk...

Halfway through the first quarter of game seven (I just checked ESPN's scoreboard), one more hitless inning from Dontrelle, and I still care way more about the baseball game...

Speaking of baseball games, a second straight tough loss for the Pads today, this time in extra innings to the Dodgers, who are finally showing some signs of life. We're still up four in the division (pending the D-Backs' result tonight), so I'm not too worried, but we need to right the ship a little bit against the Mariners this weekend (including Saturday's Fox game). Having Adam Eaton on the DL doesn't help, but having Jake Peavy still on the staff does...

One more shutout inning from Dontrelle, and I think the Pistons and Spurs are on pace for a 12-10 first quarter. I'm making the right decision...

One thing I do want to mention about the NBA game is the big deal being made about game sevens in general. Like because Robert Horry has played in a game seven before, he needs to impart some wisdom to the rest of the squad and tell them how to do it. Or because Greg Anthony played in two game sevens (and LOST both, by the way--with the Knicks to the Rockets in the '94 Finals, and with the Blazers to the Lakers in those glorious '00 Conference Finals), they need to pick his brain about the mentality. The Pistons have faced elimination so many times, whether it's a game five, six or seven, the mentality is all the same. If you know that a loss sends you home, you're going to be playing your arse off, no matter the number. Yes, it's kinda cool to have some finality (or some last-ditch marketing ploy to actually get America to watch for a second), but I think it's a vastly overrated thing. They actually found it necessary to have John Smoltz on "Outside the Lines" last night to talk about it--he plays baseball, for crying out loud. What on earth would he have to offer us about Manu Ginobili's turnover-prone fourth quarters or the bench scoring from Antonio McDyess--you know, things that might actually influence the outcome of this game seven? These guys are professionals, and as unattractive as the basketball may be, I think they all have a pretty good sense of the whole lose-and-you're-done thing...

As the first quarter ends, putting us on pace for a 72-64 final score (Whooo! Can't believe I'm missing this!!), we're also going to the bottom of the ninth in the Marlins game. I have one more thing to finish writing for tomorrow's show, so it looks like Dontrelle's final out will be marking my departure. A brief running diary of the bottom of the ninth...
6:47 p.m. - Miguel Cabrera is highlighted, following his six-RBI performance tonight. Not bad for a 22-year-old kid.
6:48 p.m. - Our FSN Florida announcers are talking about Dontrelle's control. 23 first-pitch strikes out of the 27 batters he's faced tonight. That'll get it done.
6:49 p.m. - Rafael Furcal singles to right, improving the batting average of my fantasy team from .2234 to .2235. My team sucks.
6:50 p.m. - Kelly Johnson singles up the middle, Furcal to second. This is getting interesting.
6:51 p.m. - 1-2 count to Marcus Giles, the smaller, feistier, bigger-dip-packing version of his older brother Brian.
6:52 p.m. - Marcus flies out to Juan Encarnacion in right. I've always wondered why it's okay in baseball (encouraged, even) to say that a guy flied out, but you can't say that a guy flied to Miami
6:53 p.m. - Andruw Jones grounds into a 6-4-3 double play and Dontrelle's shutout is complete. His third shutout, his fourth complete game, and he's 12-2 with a stinkin' 1.76 ERA. Wow. I'm glad the game ended right there, because Chipper's not playing, so after Furcal, Giles and Andruw, I would have been done with Braves I've heard of (unless John Smoltz was to pinch-hit or something). How do they keep winning division titles? Their third baseman is Andy Marte. He's hitting .200. And Kelly Johnson is...? Bobby Cox definitely does not get enough credit.
6:55 p.m. - Post-game interview with Dontrelle, who is dripping with sweat and covered in dirt from when he dove headfirst into first base (on the aforementioned bunt), extending his hitting streak to six games. He's a pitcher with a six-game hitting streak...

Dontrelle is done, blogging is done, show stuff is done, and it's time to head home. I think it's Pistons 9, Spurs 7, late second quarter or something close to that. I couldn't care less...