Carpe Datum

Wow, the boys picked a hell of a game to go to. Toronto pecked away at Kenny Rogers for five runs, and a solo homer was the only crack in Toronto's armor. But in the bottom of the 8th, down 5-1, the Toronto manager left his starter in about three batters too long.

When the starter was finally pulled, Texas had men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and it was 5-3. Unfortunately, the next two Texas batters got harmless outs, then the reliever walked Brad Fullmer (who is an out machine, but he got a four pitch walk incredibly). Up steps Mark Teixeira: BOOM. Grand Slam.

Ranger closer comes in, 1-2-3 top of the ninth, and just like that, an awesome 7-5 win with the boys right down in the middle of everything in their new blue "T" hats (didn't spot 'em on TV, but I didn't know about their new hats until they called all excited after the game). I'll have to explain to Cody and Justin when they get home that not all baseball games are like that!

Watching tonight's game reminded me a little of Seattle's run at Anaheim at the end of that magic season in 94 (?). Get out the rye bread and the mustard, Grandma. It's a grand salami!

While in grad school I went to a few games in Arlington, since it was Flatly Impossible to see Mariners games on TV in Texas back in the late 70's - early '80s, generally speaking. I recall one trip we made in my rolling Dutch oven (a 1970 Maverick with black vinyl interior, no air conditioner) in June, I think of 1981, the terrible drought-heat-wave summer only Hurricane Allen (I think) finally dented. That travel experience changes your perception of the stadium.

We rolled up from Austin and it was hot. We got dinner somewhere in town, got to the park, got the 2-quart size soft drinks, sat down. It was pleasantly cool, nice breeze drifing in from right. Then we glanced around the stadium. Temperature at first pitch was 103 F.

That magic season for the Ms was 95.

I loved the first trilogy of Thomas Covenant, but holy cripes thinking back on it creeps me out.

The second trilogy was nothing short of torturous, both in the wait for them and reading them. Ugh. Weird weird freakin' books.

I own all six, but I don't know what it would take to get me interested in reading them again.

Of course, I am enough of a geek to have considered (and discarded) getting a white gold wedding ring.

I still have the video they sold "My Oh My!" with the highlights of that season. I should probably let Justin have a look at it. I'll never forget that time. I even was at the Kingdome for game 5 against the Yanks, and that was as good as it gets. I have that game on VHS somewhere, too.

I was in Tucson at a meeting at the time of that game, at the opening reception, in fact. I picked up the tail end of the celebration on the TV in the hotel bar ... it was the national broadcast feed, not the M's feed. I had to wait until I got home to get the full poop, including that "LINED down the left field line for a base hit!..." . And I too have a VHS copy of My-Oh-My; since our videotape player is flaking out an damages things every now and then, I haven't watched it in a while.

Oh yeah, I just remembered this. My birthstone is emerald, so for my high school class ring, I got white gold with an emerald stone in the middle. Kind of what you would expect for a guy who got his letter jacket courtesy of the Math Team. I have no idea where that ring is these days.

I'm currently on book 3 of the first trilogy, btw. I'm enjoying reading it again, but I have a little bit of a tendency to skim whereas with Tolkien I devoured every page the last time I reread it. I'll have more to say when I review the whole set of six books once I'm done with it.