Video game coders have to focus on a lot of details, but it’s the small, random ones that can make players laugh. Or maybe we give them credit anyway when a coincidence happens.
Video game coders have to focus on a lot of details, but it’s the small, random ones that can make players laugh. Or maybe we give them credit anyway when a coincidence happens.
It doesn’t happen all that often, but occasionally the Washington sports calendar features a Nationals game during the day and a Capitals game at night. My family has talked many times about doing the doubleheader, but never made it happen.
With a 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild Friday night, the Washington Capitals tied one of the most prestigious records in all of sports. That, of course, would be matching my longest ever streak of attending games with my chosen team winning.
[There is a new post here updating the race following the announcement of ARod’s retirement]
In 2013, I began tracking the dwindling group of players still active in Major Baseball who had appeared in the Nintendo 64 game Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr.
Taylor Swift has moved on from our former feud and set her target on all of baseball. It’s a big target, yes, but systematically as her star has risen to playing tons of outdoor stadium concerts she has taken it upon herself to cast a curse on her hosts.
Consider the evidence. The Washington Nationals were 48-39 and led their division by two games on July 13 when Taylor came to town to play two nights of shows. Baseball fans were happy. Swifities were happy.
But things fell apart as soon as Taylor left town. During the first game after the concerts, the lights went out multiple times, ultimately leading to the game being suspended. The Nats short-circuited too, collapsing in spectacular fashion with a 32-39 record since she walked off stage.
Taylor went on to do string of shows at football stadiums, an NBA arena and one home to an NHL team. On August 29 she returned to the Major Leagues at the home of the San Diego Padres. How did that turn out? Let’s consult the table showing Record After Taylor (RAT):
That’s right, Taylor showed us incredible things and all the Padres have to show for it is bad blood and an 11-18 record since.
The story of the Houston Astros is more tragic. Emerging from years of futility to compete for a playoff spot unexpectedly early in their rebuild cycle, they led their division by two games after crushing Oakland at the same time Taylor was on stage at their home.
Their next eight games looked like this: L, L, W, L, L, L, L, L. Just like that they trailed the division by two and a half games. That’s where they sit now heading into the final weekend of the season with their 8-11 RAT.
One of the great stories in the league this year has been the Toronto Blue Jays, who were under .500 midway through the year and now have the best record in the American League. But they shouldn’t jump ahead to making World Series plans or even any arrangements for the second round of the playoffs.
Taylor Swift is playing shows at their stadium on Friday and Saturday. The last time that happened, in 2013, a much worse version of the Blue Jays saw their record decline in line with the curse.
Maybe one day Taylor will shake off her hatred for great things like baseball and let them fill the blank space in her heart. I knew she was trouble.
The Washington Nationals are going in the wrong direction.
For three years, the team went exactly .500 in games I attended, only to fall just short of that last season with a 12-13 record. Going into Friday night against the lowly Phillies, the Nats stood at 10-10 with the chance of closing out an even five years.
But it was not meant to be. After an 8-2 thrashing that was emblematic of the disappointing nature of this entire season, their record in my games was stuck at 10-11.
What went wrong? Well, according to the data in my sports spreadsheet, I spent too many games wearing this (0-2):
And not enough wearing this (1-0)
To finish out the set, my Ryan Zimmerman jersey was 2-1, Bryce Harper was 3-3, Anthony Rendon 2-4, and a blue Nike Nats shirt was 2-1.
We had the pleasure of seeing Jordan Zimmermann start seven games this year in what was probably his last with the Nats. He has been my favorite Washington pitcher to watch in person, including his performance closing 2014 with a no-hitter. Friday night featured a bobblehead commemorating that milestone:
Zimmerann was 4-3 in those starts this year. We were quite bad luck to Max Scherzer and Doug Fister who were each 0-2, while our presence boosted rookie Joe Ross to a 2-0 record.
We also got to witness the incredible MVP-worthy season by Bryce Harper. Five of his home runs came while we were at Nats Park, including the two he hit May 9 in a drubbing of the Braves.
August 5 brought not only a Jayson Werth Chia, but also a major item on my yet to be constructed sports bucket list with 1B/OF Tyler Moore taking the mound.
Let’s hope for more conventional things to celebrate in 2016.
When the Nationals announced a promotion featuring a Chia Jayson Werth, I figured it was one of those that would be so insanely popular there would be no chance of getting one without camping overnight.
I made no plans whatsoever to try to attend that game, but at the last second an opportunity presented itself, and not only did I go, but I was easily early enough to snag one of these:
It was my first Chia experience, so I did my best to follow the extensive instructions carefully. But things did not start out on a strong note:
Werth’s disappointment in my effort is quite clear. They tell you to soak the seeds in water, and apparently the prescribed amount of liquid was too much for the resulting concoction to adequately stick to the beard portion. Next time I’ll know to use way less for epic beardness.
But even with the early trials, I was surprised at how quickly progress came from there.
It’s been about two weeks now, and despite some odd-looking placement (see step 1), we have full-grown Chia Werthness:
Now I just need the Caps to come out with a Chia Ovi.
I liked Clayton Kershaw before I read Molly Knight’s “The Best Team Money Can Buy.” You liked him too, even if you’ve never heard of him or seen him pitch his Cy Young way for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
But Knight’s book about the team following its bankruptcy and purchase by new owners willing to spend tons of money gives and gives and gives when it comes to endearing Kershaw anecdotes. Like the fact that despite having a ridiculous amount of guaranteed money he lives in a normal two-story colonial house near the school where he and his wife, Ellen, met as kids.
Knight writes that the day she went to the house to interview Kershaw, he told her that he made a deal with Ellen, who was allowed to get whatever furniture she wanted as long as he got a ping pong table.
“He showed me what Ellen had given him for Christmas: a tiny contraption that launched Ping-Pong balls toward him like a pitching machine so he didn’t need a second person to play.”
That’s my kind of guy right there. I had no idea that kind of machine existed, but I can’t think of anything more amazing.
Any baseball fan, even those who might have something against the Dodgers, will love this book. Knight follows the team throughout the 2013 season with incredible detail showing the personalities and inside challenges that you don’t get by just watching a game at the park or on TV.
For example, Kershaw likes to eat a turkey sandwich with cheese, pickles and mustard on days he pitches, which happened to be (minus the pickles) exactly what I had for lunch the day I read that section. He’s also always early for things.
“He cites his sixteenth birthday as one of the best days of his life, because he got his license,” Knight writes. “He could finally drive himself somewhere two hours early if he wanted.”
Even more of a man after my own heart. The best detail to me among a million others from Knight is that Kershaw had a goal of going the entire 2013 season without ever wearing long pants other than obviously on the field and when required by the team while traveling.
Knight has terrific quotes and some astonishing stories that even lifelong baseball fans like me probably don’t know.
Don Mattingly, the Dodgers manager, played his career at first base for the Yankees. But Knight says that the team considered moving him to second base, at which point the extremely gifted Mattingly would have switched from fielding left handed to being a righty. That literally made my jaw drop when I read it.
I can do a lot of basic sports stuff right handed thanks to messing around in the backyard with my brothers, but the thought of being able to do even the best of them at a Major League level is insane.
The other star of this book (and life) is Zack Greinke. He comes off as the most earnest person you could ever meet. Knight describes the time he was pitching to Ian Kinsler, and after a pitch Kinsler tried to look at the scoreboard for help identifying what Greinke threw. Except that info wasn’t working that day.
“So when Greinke noticed Kinsler looking around the stadium for help, he began waving his arms at him. ‘Hey!’ he shouted. ‘It was a changeup!'”
If that doesn’t make you like a professional athlete, nothing will. And if you like baseball even 5 percent, go read the other hundred amazing things in this book.
What started as a one day, maybe purchase turned into a serious mission when rain put a Nats game into a delay and I went to the team’s website to look up something.
The main picture featured pitcher Max Scherzer and his beautiful glove (this is not that exact photo, but I assume the same glove):
With a vague idea that I wanted to look into getting a new glove, I next visited the Rawlings site. The first thing I saw there was the ability to create a custom glove, so naturally I had to see what that was like:
You get to pick the color of every piece of leather, a dozen different webbing designs, optional finger holes and hoods, custom text or even country and state flags. This is not even close to the ugliest glove you can make with all those choices.
The real one I built was far simpler, with a two-tone color pattern. Like the bat I got in January, I went with my “brand” but skipped the flag this time. Three weeks later, this beauty showed up at my door:
This is by far the most comfortable glove I’ve ever owned and I’m pretty sure it is impossible to make any errors with it. The smell should also be a cologne. There’s also the bonus that after playing catch for a while, the baseball starts to get a nice red hue. So many things for the Rawlings marketing department to work with.
My younger brother hates Papa Johns, but is fortunate to live in the Washington area. We have the highest threshold to clear for baseball-related Papa Johns discounts, making it less likely he’ll encounter his nemesis.
Eighteen of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams have promotions with Papa Johns according to my count compiled during tonight’s Nats rain delay. Except in one case, these deals involve getting half off for either simply winning a game, scoring a certain number of runs, or a combination of both.
Combos:
Nationals – win & score 7
Orioles – win & score 5
Royals – win & score 5
#Winning:
Twins
Phillies
Brewers
Cardinals
Pirates
Diamondbacks
Rockies
Scoreboard:
Rangers – score 7
Yankees – score 6
Rays – score 6
Braves – score 6
White Sox – score 5
Indians – score 5
Marlins – score 5
The Reds have a promo that isn’t tied to their games at all, but rather just gives people in Cincinnati 50 percent off on Mondays and Thursdays.
So how has all of that played out in the first month and a half of the season? Well, my brother may want to consider Atlanta as a second home, which is convenient given that he is a Braves fan. That team has failed the most at triggering Papa Johns deals.
Combos:
Nationals – 10
Orioles -11
Royals – 16
#Winning:
Twins – 19
Phillies – 13
Brewers – 12
Cardinals – 24
Pirates – 17
Diamondbacks – 15
Rockies – 11
Scoreboard:
Rangers – 8
Yankees – 10
Rays – 8
Braves – 6
White Sox -10
Indians – 12
Marlins – 16
And as always, the Cardinals are ruining life for everyone, including the hard-working people at Papa Johns locations in the St. Louis area.
