Something witty here and maybe by tomorrow, it will appear!

I'm getting pudgy. I don't like it. I feel a great deal of this has something to do with my impressive sedimentary lifestyle. For three years I worked nearly 40 hours a week in a restaurant where the name of the game was sprinting from one place to another. For six years I walked all over this great state and back traveling from class to class. Now, for 8 months, I sit at a desk. It's a comfy chair and a nice desk, but that's all I do. Sit. It's catching up to my old frame. So please, in an effort to motivate, feel free to send me hate mail and rude posts, and just perhaps I will be motivated to eat less, work out more and lose a little bit off the tire.

- 4 minutes

I am baseball fan. A Cubs fan more specifically. I have been for over a decade now, ever since I got over my dislike of sports in general. I started early enough to catch the late, great Harry Caray and his many, many Caray-isms, such as the subject of this post. "Sandberg backwards is.... Grab-an-ass" followed by minutes of drunker laughter. He made baseball more than baseball, but entertainment on another level. The great baseball announcers have this ability to make it more entertaining than it really is.

I bring this up because I have announcers of the current day that I really enjoy, and announcers I really hate. I'm sure part of it is due to bias, but I fell a good deal of it is well founded. For those who don't watch baseball, I would urge you to give a shot with a few of the following, and avoid the other at all costs...

Bob Ucher can even make Brewers games enjoyable. Bob is the kind of announcer who can make even the most casual of fans stop for a listen. With a name and voice that still echoes in many homes thanks to Mr. Belvedere and Major League. His quick witted sense of Humor persists on as he interweaves true baseballs stories of yore with current days oddities and straight forward color commentary.

Len and Bob of the Cubs are alright, if you're a Cubs fan. To be honest, there is nothing I find overly entertaining beyond the game that they offer. I certainly don't dislike them by any means, they just don't quite stack up to the Caray(s) & Steve Stone days. True Story.

The Braves announcers are really quite good, sometimes better than others as they like to rotate their radio and tv crews, which is kind of refreshing truthfully. Part of my preference may have something to do with Chip Caray leaving the Cubs to work with his father, but who can fault a guy for that. The teams still manage to be amusing at times with off the wall topics for thought. More importantly, I respect their announcers. They are very honest about their team and everyone elses, while never talk down the opponent. Chip and company are more than willing to point out a great play or performance of the other team's pitcher and players and equally willing to say when their own have done something stupid or unfortunate. Some fans may not like their style, but as I said, I have great respect for them and will gladly watch them over....

The Cardinals broadcasters. As I mentioned, my opinion may be biased as my roots lie with the Cubs. More importantly, I strongly dislike their announcers because they themselves are unbelievably biased. They tend to talk up the positives to no end for their own team and project blame to others. They particularly like to pick on the Cubs, EVEN WHEN THEY'RE NOT PLAYING THEM. I don't understand why it brings such joy to them to put down the Cubs when the Cubs haven't appeared to pose any great threat for damn near 100 years.

I also dislike the White Sox announcers. Again, probably because I am myself biased, but also because I find them a bit boring and a good bit annoying with the "he gones"
Yes, I got it. He is gone my find sir, thank-you for yelling at me.

Lastly, if you want to learn a little something about baseball, watch anything on ESPN. Their announcers (Monday & Wednesday more so) do a great job of explaining the game, from rules to play. They often cut to visuals of how to throw different pitches and what the ball should in turn do. I personally appreciate all they do and the amount of knowledge they bring while doing nothing more than broadcasting a game they should have no biases towards. Plus the have Peter Gammons. I love that guy!

Thank-you for listening to my ramblings, I shall do my best to be more entertaining myself in the future.

-19 Minutes



And I would be sleeping on the couch if I didn't mention that you should probably take a minute yourself, and vote for Blake.

Labels: Baseball, Cubs, Ramblings

It's sometimes funny to watch our cat. He does funny / stupid things from time to time that manage to liven up the day. Currently he's cleaning himself. Down there. I wonder what he thinks about that, or if he thinks about that. Maybe it's just something he does. I've never thought about licking myself down there. For multiple reasons really. One of which, there is no way in hell that I could get down there. I wonder though, for those gymnasts, the flexible ones, do you suppose they sometimes find their tongues wandering to strange, new places?

-2 Minutes

Labels: Cat, Weird

It's an amusing thing to look back at my days in college and recount the number of times I said "I'm just a poor college student." It becomes a lil less amusing when I can now truthfully say that I'm a poor ex-college student with a degree. In fact, I would wager to bet that I actually have fewer resources for whimsical buying today than I did two years ago. I came to think of this today when I was listening to music and couldn't recall the last time I purchased a new CD. It's a sad, sobering experience for someone who loves new music and to find new artists as much as I. Who knew that the day the music died would have been on my graduation....

-4 Minutes

Labels: College, Music, Poor

I am lucky enough at my place of employment to have a 40" flat screen a mere 20' from the place where I make my existence. 90% of the time the TV scrolls through constantly developing stories on CNN Headline News. The other 10% of the time we divert the selection to some baseball action, mostly the Cubs. This was the case today. A day that was pretty good for the most part.

That was until the 9th Inning. It's not the first time this season the Cubs' bullpen has been able to shoot a Loss out of their asses with greater velocity than any fastball I've ever witnessed. As I watched hit after hit find it's way to the outfield and 1-2-3-4-5 runs cross the plate en route to a Cubs' loss that I felt my body tense up with that great disappointment that comes 'round once a season when it is realized that this year is no different than any else, and we have little chance of winning anything more than the broken hearts of much of America...

All I have to say is thank-god I have the control of a Cub's reliever so that the pen I "accidentally" launched in the general direction of the TV was "Just a bit outside."

-7 Minutes

Labels: Anguish, Cubs, Sports

So, here's the deal... I have quite a few thoughts, most of which occur on my drive to and from work and will most likely never make it to the light of pixels. Some of them will hopefully end up here again.

I somewhat miss blogging, but still, I am quite skeptical on how long it will last this go around. It seems that I find myself lacking time when it comes to posting and then as more and more time goes by, sooner or later I find myself thinking "what's the point?"

Let's find out-

-3 Minutes

Labels: Return