Idiomatic Expression

The LA Times has a great five-part article on young Seniesa Estrada’s fledgling boxing career. This is the best thing I have read in a newspaper in years, and more engaging than several of the books I have read recently. Registration is required, but BugMeNot can help with that. Would you let your daughter box if she displayed the same interest level? What about your son?

Bravo kicked off the new season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy last night with a make over of some of the stars of last year’s World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox. For once the guests on the show were able to upstage the hosts. The five victims fashion problems are described on the Bravo episode guide.

PROBLEM AREAS
…Johnny Damon’s hair is so long that, according to wife Michelle, it hides his dimples and makes him look older.
…although Tim Wakefield’s fingernails are well manicured, his facial hair is a bit too much for wife Stacy to handle.
…Doug Mirabelli’s loud Hawaiian print shirts provide a constant source of laughter and mockery from teammates.
…Kevin Millar’s “fungus issue” is made certain to be pointed out by Kyan.
…Jason Varitek’s wife Karen is quick to point out his body hair would be a starting point to his “make-better.”
…”communal soap” in the showers leave doubts on the minds of Thom and Kyan as to how clean the players really get after practice and games.

It was all in good fun, and they raised money to repair a Florida little league field destroyed by Hurricane Charley. If you missed this, catch the rerun it is interesting to fans of the Fab Five and fans of the Red Sox; if you are neither, I am sure you will enjoy watching the CSI Pungo reruns.

I finally made it to a Nationals game on Saturday. I was expecting RFK to be a poor place to watch a baseball game, which is one of the reasons that I have waited so long to take in a game. The seats we had in the 200 section were great. They were about 100 feet back from third base. Close enough to Byrd accidentally knock over an Umpire and Ohka turn his back on Frank Robinson. Close enough to read the names of the base-runners jerseys’. Not close enough to get a foul ball, although they hit ten rows up and ten rows down from us.

It looks like all of the seats in the 100, 200, and 300 sections will give you a good view of the game. The 400 and 500 sections are on a second tier and a bit further away, but the fans up there sounded to be having an even better time than I was.

Of course, it helped that the Nats won the game to pull with in a half game of the lead in the NL East. Sunday they completed a 3-game sweep of the Marlins to gain sole possession of first place!

After seventeen years of following the Red Sox they finally won the World Series. With my normal paranoia and superstition I carefully kept my hopes hidden from the world and expected a monumental collapse at any moment. With a 3 run lead in Game 4 I was sure that all of the wasted base runners were going to come back to haunt us in the eight or ninth inning. I of course was also positive that the 3-0 start of the series was just going to get myhopes up for on more crushing defeat.

However, the Red Sox won. They won. THEY WON!. Well I guess the 100th World Series is as good a time as any to change your luck.

I really don’t know what to do with myself, in fact i am having trouble putting a name to what I am feeling. It might be elation, but I am not sure not having felt it in relation to a sports team before!

Of course i shouldn’t get to used to this, with the Expos coming to DC I will finally have a National League team to cheer for (as long as they are not playing the Red Sox), and I am positive that they have along road of losing ahead of them!

The Red Sox pulled off an amazing come from behind series to beat the Yankees for the American League Championship. Yankee fans are still sports most spoiled fans.

A bit late on this one, but Katherine and I went to the Nextel Cup NASCAR race in Richmond last month. It is actually a lot more fun in person than you would think given that people are only making left turns. Or in Richmond they only make one continuos turn for a couple of hours.

Having a hospitality tent before the race with free beer also helps the enjoyment of the event.

Pictures are here.

NASCAR races are louder than anything I have ever experienced including tractor pulls, demolition derbys, and Helmet concerts. I recorded a a bit of the race on my Vonage voicemail for your enjoyment.
NASCAR.wav

When life give you lemons, make lemonade.

When life give you roaches, don’t make roach-aid…. hold roach races!

The Brown Daily Herald is carrying an open letter from Chris Song to baseball commissioner Bud Selig requesting a loser’s series between the Cubs and the Red Sox. I just want to know where I sign up to back this request.