yeti speak...

march madness!

Against my better judgment I filled out a bracket for the NCAA tourney this year. 

And what do you know, I won!  (Here's how:)

Granted I was competing against only 3 other people (for "a plate of ribs" at our favorite pub in Edmonds), but still, it's an accomplishment.  I correctly picked Kansas to win it all over Memphis.  I utilized the ignorance-is-bliss strategy and basically just picked from instinct.  Actually, my bracket is pretty ugly with all the "misses", but hey points is points and they added up.  I didn't watch a game all season and couldn't watch any games during the tournament since it is not televised in China.  But it paid off.  It was completely stress-free.

I am looking forward to collecting my winnings sometime in June.  In the words of my daughter Sarah, "Yay-hoo!"

spheres in orbit in spring

"It was one day as I listened to baseball that it occurred to me how the moon actually moves, in a spiral, because while it orbits the earth it also follows the orbit of the earth around the sun.  This is obvious, but the realization pleased me.  There was a full moon outside my window, icy white in the blue sky, and the Cubs were playing Cincinnati."

-from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

don't jinx it

I haven't mentioned baseball too much this year AND maybe that has proved to be the winning formula for my Seattle Mariners.  They are rolling!  I am probably jinxing them with this post, but oh well, you have to brag while the bragging is good. 

The Mariners recently swept the Boston Red Sox in a 3-game series (and the Red Sox are currently tied with the LA Angels for the best record in Major League Baseball.)  They are 9 games above .500; it's  just too bad the Mariners are in the same division as the Angels.  Right now they are 5 games back in the Western division, but only 2 games back in the Wild Card hunt.  And there's still half a season of baseball yet to be played.

The most beautiful thing about this season though is how badly the talent-loaded New York Yankees are struggling! (Eleven games back in their division and 8 games back in the Wild Card chase.)  Ha-ha-ha.  On my watch (since I started avidly following baseball in 2001), the Yankees HAVE NOT won a World Series title.  And they have had some serious eat-your-heart out defeats at the hands of the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and (oh so beautiful) Red Sox. 

I think I am partially responsible for this fortuitous Evil Empire drought.  Let's hope this season they don't even make the playoffs!  Can't wait till I sign up for some MLB online...but then again, maybe I shouldn't watch the games.  I don't want to jinx it.

hang time continues...

As a middle-schooler, I used to have a poster like this one hanging on the wall of my bedroom.  This is Spud Webb.  He is a few inches over 5 1/2 feet tall.

That's just ridiculous.  It's sick what he could do.

He is holding the ball a good foot above the rim in this picture.  This should not be possible.  He is practically jumping his own height!

It still boggles my mind to this day. I'm just thankful that the Chinese and Tibetan guys I play hoops with have not yet learned the art of jumping four feet vertically into the air.  I would be in some trouble.

I got back in the proverbial saddle (on the basketball courts) with my friends Mr. Plum and Mr. John again.  We played outside this time since the gymnasium where we usually play was having a tournament.

It was a lot of fun and (look, Ma!) no injuries.  Before I left to play, Sarah told me not to get hurt again.  Good advice.  Thanks to a brace, my ankle felt all right.  Whichever guys I play with always want me to "throw down" like Spud Webb in this picture.  It's always a little disappointing for them when they discover how much I am inhibited by gravity.  I haven't worked out whether my translation for "white men can't jump" is correct.  I should try it out and see.  I feel a little guilty about my height though.  It's always an unfair advantage although one could argue their lungs are like inflatable bags made of steel.  I am winded after about ten minutes (because of the altitude, my age and conditioning) whereas they can go an hour, smoke a cigarette, and be ready for another aerobic hour.  The thing that makes me happiest is that I average about 5 blocks a game and that's always good for my ego.

The language practice has happened slowly for me.  My friends and I chat during the breaks and a lot of the time my friends are speaking the Qinghai dialect which is almost incomprehensible to me as I am learning the standard dialect, Mandarin.  The only way to give you an idea of what the dialect is like from an American English speaker's perspective: it's something like trying to make sense of Cajun Pig Latin.  Just a bunch of sounds and slurs!  So today I told them they had to teach me some so I could understand what they were saying about me.  (Ha.)

Much like coming back to playing basketball after injury, learning a language is a slow, often painful process.

Yi dian dian (一点点) = Little by little.

addendum to bizarre baseball

What do I know about baseball:

Then there is St. Louis.  I know they aren't in the World Series yet, but I think they have the advantage at this point (being up 2-1 to the Mets after Billy Wagner imploded the other night in the 9th inning and Trachsel imploded today in the first/second innings.  O. Perez is not a strong starter at all anymore.  I think the Cards will eat his lunch tomorrow...)

This was taken from yesterday's post. Looks like the Mets are going to win this one pretty handily...but the game is not over yet. won this one EASILY (12-5)!

baseball is bizarre...

I know I've been talking a lot about baseball lately, but it is October so I guess it's justfied.

This post-season gets stranger every day.

Consider the two contenders who have the advantage right now.  First Detroit. 

They started the season VERY strong, but petered out in the last month of regular season and blew an 11-game lead to LOSE their division title to the Twins.  Luckily (for them) they won the AL wild card and now are going to the World Series for the first time since 1984.

Then there is St. Louis.  I know they aren't in the World Series yet, but I think they have the advantage at this point (being up 2-1 to the Mets after Billy Wagner imploded the other night in the 9th inning and Trachsel imploded today in the first/second innings.  O. Perez is not a strong starter at all anymore.  I think the Cards will eat his lunch tomorrow...)  Anything could happen, the table could turn, but I'd be really surprised if the Mets win this series.  The momentum seems like it's all Cardinals to me.

And you might remember that St. Louis also got out to a very strong start, but nearly blew their division lead to Houston in an almost historic end-of-the-season collapse.  They slid in there and have made things happen at the right time...without "dominate" pitching.

So we have two teams that started the season out as world-beaters who faltered after the half-way mark and barely scraped their way into the post-season.  And it's possible (I would say highly likely) that these two (manic-depressive?) teams will end up facing each other in the World Series.

Now that's exciting baseball. 

Being an American League kinda-guy (who also loves Yankee-killers!) I think I'm pulling for Detroit (sorry, Jason) although I would like to see Pujols get his due.  That guy is amazing.

P.S. Another former-Mariner has been shining this post-season and I thought I should point it out.  Who?  Scott Spezio?!?  Yeah, that guy was a real train wreck when he played in Seattle.  He couldn't hit ANYTHING.  He was slumping so bad I think he had to try-out to make the Cardinals roster in Spring Training this last year.  And now suddenly he's an RBI machine in the post-season.  He's hitting important hits, too--at crunch time.  It's just sickening how seemingly middle-of-the-road-players can suddenly be AWESOME when they aren't in a Mariner uniform.  (I think Spezio already has a World Series ring, too, from when Anaheim won the World Series a few years back.)  Makes me wonder if the Mariners just need to hire a good hitting coach?  Hmmmm....

a drought that gets better and better

Every year that I get to see pictures like this...

...of Pay-Rod, Giambi, Jeter, and the $200 million payroll crew, with tears in their eyes and dumb-founded looks on their faces, the more I enjoy the sport of baseball.  It's just priceless.

I started following baseball in 2001 and in those 5 beautfiul years the Yankees have NOT won a World Series.  Maybe I am the key to their demise.  I am the last great Yankee hater (of the Rebellion) who is keeping the curse intact.  Every year I get a little more nervous (this year I was quite fearful in fact) that the Yankees will bounce back and win one again.  And every year they fail to get it done--going down in flames miserably in the post-season.  I am not knocking their opponents at all by saying this.  I am merely pointing out my satisfaction in seeing the "heralded All-Stars" lose.  Every year you can feel the pressure and the tension mounting as the losses rack up.  It's a self-propagating phenomenon.

It's gotten so bad for the big apple boys that I almost felt a little sorry for Randy Johnson the other night when they pulled him off the mound.  And then I remembered that he was on the Yankees roster by choice and dismissed my sympathy in order to gloat his team's collapse.

When the Mariner's are as terrible as they are year in and year out, I primarily have on thing that I am hoping for each October: that the Yankees won't win it all.  So far, so good.  Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of the season of baseball care-free...

detroit rock city!

This is the man who made my Saturday morning bright--the 41 year-old, anger management poster boy, the Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers. 

How did he bring a smile to my face?

By blanking the ever-hated New York Yankees in game 3 of the ALDS.  With today's 6-0 stellar performance, Rogers lead the Detroit Tigers to a 2-1 series lead.

I know it's not over yet.  I have my doubts that anyone can topple the nefarious plots of the Evil Empire, but this sure looks a lot more promising...

What's really great is that I could actually WATCH the game courtesy of TVU and the Internet!  So wonderful.

(Semi-related note: the more I watch x-Seattle Mariners play, the more convinced I am that the Mariners are owned and managed by total imbeciles.  Case in point: Carlos Guillen.  The guy got tuberculosis and had a bad year and the Mariner's traded [or probably just didn't attempt to sign] him to Detroit.  He's been golden ever since joining the Tiger's roster.  Who did the Mariner's get in return?  Exactly; no one even remembers.  Then there's folks like Randy Johnson, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Lowe, Brian Fuentes, Freddy Garcia, etc.  Half of whom are now wearing World Series rings.  I know trades have to happen, but it always seems like Seattle gets NOTHING in return for what they're giving.  It makes me want to hurl.)

The end of an era in Seattle

It was bound to happen, but still it's hard to believe...

The Seattle Mariners traded Jamie Moyer today.

I think he was the second to last remaining player (Ichiro being the last) from the spectacular 2001 Mariner team that won 116 games.  I have to say I'm a little sad to see him go even though the Mariners have been pretty pathetic the past few years.

Farewell, Mr. Master-of-Deception Moyer.  We will miss you!

Wade in the water, children!

I didn't really believe they even could win it in six...but I must say it was a GREAT way to start my morning...

Then I was forced to go to Chinese Grammar Class.  No more skipping for me...due to sporting events anyway.  I'll have to come up with some new excuses.

(Go Heat!)