In a few minutes, game six of the 2009 world series will start in the Bronx, with the New York Yankees up three games to two. They have a chance of winning their 27th title tonight.
Before the series started last week, the New York Times, on their website, asked readers who were diehard Yankees or Phillies fans to relate the time they decided that this was their team. By the time I saw this, and thought about what I would say, there were hundreds of responses up.
I decided to put it here instead. Here goes.
I'll start with a secret: In my 1995 elementary school yearbook, I said my favorite sports team was the Mets.
Yes. The Mets.
I didn't care about sports at all then. But I had a blank to fill in, and the last sports event I'd been to was a Mets game during summer camp.
The next year I went to my first Yankee game with my dad. (Actually, my dad was there for my first Yankee game that I ever went to, but he wasn't there with me. Long story.) We left in the seventh inning or so, with the Yankees leading, and came home to find out they'd lost. Made me realize that baseball was a game with interesting outcomes.
Later that year I happened to walk into my parents' room while the 9th inning of game six of the world series was on tv. Even I, who knew almost nothing about baseball, had predicted the Braves to win the series, and there I was watching Charlie Hayes catch that final out for a Yankee victory. I started jumping up and down and cheering. I found that yearbook, crossed out Mets and wrote in Yankees.
But this did not make me a diehard fan. I became one of those people who only started really caring when the team made the playoffs. And for this stretch, for a Yankee fan, that was really easy to do. The Yankees won the world series on my 14th birthday, and my cake that year looked like a baseball.
Then 2004 happened.
I watched the ALCS, game four, then five, then six, then seven, still believing that the Yankees were that team that could always come back and win. And they didn't. The Red Sox won the pennant just after midnight on my 20th birthday.
Somehow, this felt different than the end of the 2003 world series or the 2001 world series. It didn't make me sad, like Josh Beckett did in 2003, or numb with shock, as Luis Gonzales did in 2001. (Although the latter had some part to do with 9/11 I suspect. New York was supposed to win, dammit!) No, this made me angry.
I was going to stick with this team. They needed to beat other teams. And I needed to stick with them, even if sometimes they didn't accomplish said beating.
Starting with opening night 2005 (a win against the Red Sox, more incentive to watch), I've tried to watch every game since. And go to at least one game in person every year.
I have now a mental checklist of Yankee game events I'd like to see in person. One I accomplished this year was attending a playoff game. And I know that sometime in the future, I will check off attending a world series game on that list.
Speaking of, it's game time. Let's go Yankees!!!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
New Jersey Crazy Is a Special Kind of Crazy.
Tomorrow is Election Day, and
(Side note: My computer did not recognize the word “Obama” just now, and suggested that I replace it with “Osama.”)
Every candidate had to write a personal statement of 500 words that went out on the sample ballots we received last week. I read through them all, and let me say…there are some bat shit crazy people running for governor of
I’ll just give you the highlights, but I’d really like to see how many people actually cast their votes for these lunatics. You might not think people would support them, but as my stepdad said…”this is probably how Schwarzenegger ended up governor of
Gregory Pason, Socialist: Supports raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour. Rejects “No Child Left Behind” mandates, despite the fact that it’s federally mandated and has nothing to do with state law.
Kenneth Kaplan, Libertarian: Wants to legalize marijuana, but is in favor of school vouchers. Recommends a website for you to take a quiz on which political party you belong to…because “you may have been a Libertarian all along!”
Alvin Lindsay, Independent: Wants to freeze taxes for the next four years, and increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour.
Gary T. Steele, Independent: Counts his six years as an accountant and his time as head coach of an ice hockey team as valid experience.
Jason Cullen, “People not Politics:” Wants to eliminate sales tax.
Gary Stein, JUST IN TIME: Calls himself an “idiot,” says “up theirs” to the “elite media.” Wants to give illegal immigrants driver’s licenses, and boycott
Kostas Petris, Independent “For The People:” If you’re going to talk about not voting democrat or republican, don’t quote the part of the declaration of independence about abolishing government. Just saying.
David R. Meiswinkle, Middle Class Empowerment: Wants to conduct a “complete, thorough, and objective investigation of what happened” on 9/11.
Christopher J. Daggett, Independent: No wonder this guy came to the debates; he’s the only independent that doesn’t sound like he’ll put on a tinfoil hat any time soon.
Joshua Leinsdorf, Fair Election Party: Lieutenant Governor running mate owner of “Ultimate Car Care in
Happy voting, everybody!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Yankees/Twins. 10/9/09. ALDS Game 2. I was there.
Two StubHub tickets to the upper deck: $100 each, plus 10% commission and a $5 "delivery fee" for an email.
Bus and subway fares from North Jersey to the Bronx: $19.
Seeing A-Rod hit a 2-run home run in the bottom of the 9th to the the game, having no runs score in the top of the 11th with the bases loaded and no one out, Mark Teixiera hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th, and cheering with thousands of Yankees fans all the way down the ramp to the street? PRICELESS.
(Yes, I shot those videos.)
(Oh, and hearing a boy no older than seven pass me on my way out saying "Boston sucks ass"? AWESOME.)
Bus and subway fares from North Jersey to the Bronx: $19.
Seeing A-Rod hit a 2-run home run in the bottom of the 9th to the the game, having no runs score in the top of the 11th with the bases loaded and no one out, Mark Teixiera hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th, and cheering with thousands of Yankees fans all the way down the ramp to the street? PRICELESS.
(Yes, I shot those videos.)
(Oh, and hearing a boy no older than seven pass me on my way out saying "Boston sucks ass"? AWESOME.)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
School Days, School Daze
I've been pretty busy lately, mainly because it's the start of a new school year. Here's the best classroom story I have so far.
An early lesson I had planned was for groups of students to draw three cards out of a bag. Each card would have the name of a common household item written on it (rubber bands, plastic bottle, etc.). Their task was to see what kind of instrument one could create with said items.
One group of eighth graders ended up with a plastic soda bottle, a paper bag, and a pencil. Here's what they came up with:
"The musical sounds would be from stabbing the plastic bottle with the pencil. You wear the paper bag on your head to hide the shame."
Sigh.
And since I teach a class where kids are frequently pulled out for one reason or another, leaving the majority of students not feeling accountable for their actions, I wanted to stand up and applaud when I saw this YouTube video. Too bad it's not real (it was recorded for a different school than the one mentioned in the video, but never used in the official school system), but I'm sure many teachers relate to this one.
An early lesson I had planned was for groups of students to draw three cards out of a bag. Each card would have the name of a common household item written on it (rubber bands, plastic bottle, etc.). Their task was to see what kind of instrument one could create with said items.
One group of eighth graders ended up with a plastic soda bottle, a paper bag, and a pencil. Here's what they came up with:
"The musical sounds would be from stabbing the plastic bottle with the pencil. You wear the paper bag on your head to hide the shame."
Sigh.
And since I teach a class where kids are frequently pulled out for one reason or another, leaving the majority of students not feeling accountable for their actions, I wanted to stand up and applaud when I saw this YouTube video. Too bad it's not real (it was recorded for a different school than the one mentioned in the video, but never used in the official school system), but I'm sure many teachers relate to this one.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
End of Summer Wrapup
Tomorrow morning I have to report to school. I actually don't have to be at school again until the kids arrive next Tuesday, but this is pretty much my last day of summer, even though I've been slowly lesson planning for the last month or so.
What did I do this summer? Mainly things baseball related or genealogy related. (Unless Jarret wants to point out something else.)
Baseball stuff:
I went to three Yankees games during the summer. Their record while I was there was 2-2, and unfortunately, the 22-4 pwning they got from the Indians in April is the most interesting Yankees game I've been to all year.
The last Yankees game was on my dad's birthday, and it my family was going to surprise him with the tickets and have his name put on the screen saying happy birthday. Unfortunately, he figured it all out beforehand. If he hadn't figured it out before then, three cameras suddenly focusing on the scoreboard in the middle of the sixth inning would have.
In July the AA All-Star game was being held in Trenton, so Jarret got us tickets. We were seven seats away from winning a pair of old Yankee Stadium seats. Nuts.
Took my first trip to Citi Field with my dad to see the Mets play the Dodgers, days after Manny's suspension was lifted. We waited an hour for Shake Shack, missing the entire first inning, and yes, it was worth it.
Jarret and I spent a weekend in Baltimore to finally have Jarret see his Orioles at Camden Yards. They were playing the Red Sox, so we could both root against the other team. And this was days after David Ortiz's name got dropped in with the steroid issue, so there was some interesting heckling. This also meant that downtown Baltimore was crawling with New Englanders carting cases of Yuengling into their cars and yelling to each other "Are you going to the innah hahbah?" Since John Smoltz started the game, Baltimore actually almost won the game...but didn't.
I saw a Sportscenter #1 top play in person twice this summer. Neither were at Yankee Stadium.
Genealogy stuff:
Last summer, I managed to track down living descendants of my paternal grandmother's maternal uncle in Ireland. Though I obviously didn't expect to hit that big of a jackpot this year, I hoped I could uncover some interesting things.
I obtained a copy of my grandmother's other maternal uncle's (Patrick's) death certificate. It contained the information that we were looking for: where he's buried. Still haven't made the trip yet, even though it's less than an hour from my house. Not much reason to go other than to take a photo of the gravestone and send it to the cousins in the old country.
I didn't have as much luck obtaining my grandmother's father's birth certificate. He's the only one of my great-grandparents born in the US, and the city of New York can't find it. It's likely it was never registered; according to their website, birth certificates weren't required until 1910, and about 25% of births before then weren't recorded.
We wanted the birth certificate to see if it had any information about his parents, and to pin a date down on his birth year; I'd seen everything from 1865 to 1872. More searching within the census tried to find out if his parents were married in this country or in Ireland. It's likely that they came over because of the potato famine and married here, but their names are too common to do an accurate search. This is the same reason I can't find any of my great-grandmother's family on an Ellis Island record; everyone has the same name and lied about their ages.
The only way that I could track my great-grandfather down now would be to look for a baptismal certificate. And you'd think the New York diocese would have some sort of central database, but no. I'd have to ask every catholic church in town. So that side of the family has been put on hold for a while, and we turned to my dad's father's side.
I tracked down my grandfather's family in the 1930 and 1920 census, but not 1910. I knew they were in the country by this point, due to an older brother being born in 1907, but I couldn't find them in ancestry.com's search.
Dad and I decided to travel to the town where my grandfather was born: Lansford, Pennsylvania, about a two hour drive. There was a large mine there, which is now a museum. We decided to go on the tour and see if they had any information about the people who worked in the mine. They didn't have any, and were rather surprised that we'd asked. An hour in a 50-degree mine for nothing.
Dad and I drove around the town. The mine had brought in a lot of immigrants, so there seemed to be a church for every ethnicity. We eventually discovered that yes, there was a Slovak church, and it was old enough to have been there when my family was.
When we got home, I found that the church had a record of names that had recorded a birth, marriage, or death there. And there were my great-grandparents, with "birth" listed next to their names - my grandfather's. Next to that were the towns in Slovakia they came from! Score!
Later that night, I found them in the 1910 census, with the last name horribly misspelled. The father was listed as a coal breaker - he didn't work inside the mine, he just waited outside for the miners to bring it out! We definitely had toured the inside for nothing!
Last week, I started to enter information into the family tree program at ancestry.com. With the information you put in, they run searches for you. While some of what they turn up isn't your relative, we believe they found a big one: the manifest of the ship my great-grandmother came on. It was listed as Hungarian instead of Slovakian (which happened a lot in that time), but the age is about right, and it said she was going to meet her sister in Hoboken, and we knew she had a sister in Hudson county...it's very likely her. So that's cool.
I also did some research for my stepmom, and was able to track members of her family quite a ways, but I've already typed enough. And if you're wondering why I'm not researching my mom's side of the family...I am. I just can't find anything.
Well, now I've typed way more than I thought I would, and I must go to sleep now. I've got school in the morning!
What did I do this summer? Mainly things baseball related or genealogy related. (Unless Jarret wants to point out something else.)
Baseball stuff:
I went to three Yankees games during the summer. Their record while I was there was 2-2, and unfortunately, the 22-4 pwning they got from the Indians in April is the most interesting Yankees game I've been to all year.
The last Yankees game was on my dad's birthday, and it my family was going to surprise him with the tickets and have his name put on the screen saying happy birthday. Unfortunately, he figured it all out beforehand. If he hadn't figured it out before then, three cameras suddenly focusing on the scoreboard in the middle of the sixth inning would have.
In July the AA All-Star game was being held in Trenton, so Jarret got us tickets. We were seven seats away from winning a pair of old Yankee Stadium seats. Nuts.
Took my first trip to Citi Field with my dad to see the Mets play the Dodgers, days after Manny's suspension was lifted. We waited an hour for Shake Shack, missing the entire first inning, and yes, it was worth it.
Jarret and I spent a weekend in Baltimore to finally have Jarret see his Orioles at Camden Yards. They were playing the Red Sox, so we could both root against the other team. And this was days after David Ortiz's name got dropped in with the steroid issue, so there was some interesting heckling. This also meant that downtown Baltimore was crawling with New Englanders carting cases of Yuengling into their cars and yelling to each other "Are you going to the innah hahbah?" Since John Smoltz started the game, Baltimore actually almost won the game...but didn't.
I saw a Sportscenter #1 top play in person twice this summer. Neither were at Yankee Stadium.
Genealogy stuff:
Last summer, I managed to track down living descendants of my paternal grandmother's maternal uncle in Ireland. Though I obviously didn't expect to hit that big of a jackpot this year, I hoped I could uncover some interesting things.
I obtained a copy of my grandmother's other maternal uncle's (Patrick's) death certificate. It contained the information that we were looking for: where he's buried. Still haven't made the trip yet, even though it's less than an hour from my house. Not much reason to go other than to take a photo of the gravestone and send it to the cousins in the old country.
I didn't have as much luck obtaining my grandmother's father's birth certificate. He's the only one of my great-grandparents born in the US, and the city of New York can't find it. It's likely it was never registered; according to their website, birth certificates weren't required until 1910, and about 25% of births before then weren't recorded.
We wanted the birth certificate to see if it had any information about his parents, and to pin a date down on his birth year; I'd seen everything from 1865 to 1872. More searching within the census tried to find out if his parents were married in this country or in Ireland. It's likely that they came over because of the potato famine and married here, but their names are too common to do an accurate search. This is the same reason I can't find any of my great-grandmother's family on an Ellis Island record; everyone has the same name and lied about their ages.
The only way that I could track my great-grandfather down now would be to look for a baptismal certificate. And you'd think the New York diocese would have some sort of central database, but no. I'd have to ask every catholic church in town. So that side of the family has been put on hold for a while, and we turned to my dad's father's side.
I tracked down my grandfather's family in the 1930 and 1920 census, but not 1910. I knew they were in the country by this point, due to an older brother being born in 1907, but I couldn't find them in ancestry.com's search.
Dad and I decided to travel to the town where my grandfather was born: Lansford, Pennsylvania, about a two hour drive. There was a large mine there, which is now a museum. We decided to go on the tour and see if they had any information about the people who worked in the mine. They didn't have any, and were rather surprised that we'd asked. An hour in a 50-degree mine for nothing.
Dad and I drove around the town. The mine had brought in a lot of immigrants, so there seemed to be a church for every ethnicity. We eventually discovered that yes, there was a Slovak church, and it was old enough to have been there when my family was.
When we got home, I found that the church had a record of names that had recorded a birth, marriage, or death there. And there were my great-grandparents, with "birth" listed next to their names - my grandfather's. Next to that were the towns in Slovakia they came from! Score!
Later that night, I found them in the 1910 census, with the last name horribly misspelled. The father was listed as a coal breaker - he didn't work inside the mine, he just waited outside for the miners to bring it out! We definitely had toured the inside for nothing!
Last week, I started to enter information into the family tree program at ancestry.com. With the information you put in, they run searches for you. While some of what they turn up isn't your relative, we believe they found a big one: the manifest of the ship my great-grandmother came on. It was listed as Hungarian instead of Slovakian (which happened a lot in that time), but the age is about right, and it said she was going to meet her sister in Hoboken, and we knew she had a sister in Hudson county...it's very likely her. So that's cool.
I also did some research for my stepmom, and was able to track members of her family quite a ways, but I've already typed enough. And if you're wondering why I'm not researching my mom's side of the family...I am. I just can't find anything.
Well, now I've typed way more than I thought I would, and I must go to sleep now. I've got school in the morning!
Monday, August 17, 2009
D'oh, a deer
While Jarret and I were driving to a movie on Saturday, I saw some deer grazing on the side of the road.
"Aw, look, baby deer! And they're with their mommy deer!" I gushed. Jarret nodded, keeping his eyes on the road.
A few seconds later I saw a large flock of birds congregated on the same side of the road. These were huge birds, birds-of prey size. As I wondered about why so many of these birds would be together on the ground, still babbling to Jarret how cute the doe and her fauns were, I realized what the birds were doing.
Eating a baby deer.
My subsequent freakout after that was considered hilarious by Jarret, since he didn't see anything.
"Aw, look, baby deer! And they're with their mommy deer!" I gushed. Jarret nodded, keeping his eyes on the road.
A few seconds later I saw a large flock of birds congregated on the same side of the road. These were huge birds, birds-of prey size. As I wondered about why so many of these birds would be together on the ground, still babbling to Jarret how cute the doe and her fauns were, I realized what the birds were doing.
Eating a baby deer.
My subsequent freakout after that was considered hilarious by Jarret, since he didn't see anything.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Beatles Rock Band set list? For real this time?
Lots of Beatles Rock Band news this week. First, a general description of the game here. It talks about how it doesn't do the parts of the regular Rock Band game that piss me off, which is good. It also talks about how you're going to hear studio chatter that's never been released, and you can unlock such rare things as the Beatles' 1963 Christmas record. (Which I found funny to read, as that's only rare to own, not to hear.)
Bu the big news was that Game Informer magazine supposedly has the game's final track listing. And yes, it's different than the one leaked two months ago. Mainly because they're still keeping one track a secret.
Once again, here's the list, and I'll compare it to the one I made. Even though I had the handicaps of not knowing about the three vocal lines (and that the Love album was fair game), I do realize that I made some mistakes in compiling my list. (How could I miss "While My Guitar Gently Weeps?" It's got the word guitar in the title!) But there are some things that are taken into consideration in this list, such as making sure tracks with George and Ringo on lead vocal are well represented. Little bit of revisionist history, there.
This is what Game Informer lists. Tracks that I predicted will be in bold. Tracks that made my short list but were cut at the last minute will be in italics.
26 out of 44, 31 if you count the italicized ones. Out of the ones I did not pick at all, four have Ringo on lead vocal, and three have George.
However, some of the ones I picked and are not on this list include "All My Loving," "Things We Said Today," "I'll Follow the Sun," "I've Just Seen A Face," "Michelle," "Girl," and "In My Life." Some big names there. I know we'll be able to download Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul right away, and probably the rest soon after, but come on, there's already much coin being dropped here.
Bu the big news was that Game Informer magazine supposedly has the game's final track listing. And yes, it's different than the one leaked two months ago. Mainly because they're still keeping one track a secret.
Once again, here's the list, and I'll compare it to the one I made. Even though I had the handicaps of not knowing about the three vocal lines (and that the Love album was fair game), I do realize that I made some mistakes in compiling my list. (How could I miss "While My Guitar Gently Weeps?" It's got the word guitar in the title!) But there are some things that are taken into consideration in this list, such as making sure tracks with George and Ringo on lead vocal are well represented. Little bit of revisionist history, there.
This is what Game Informer lists. Tracks that I predicted will be in bold. Tracks that made my short list but were cut at the last minute will be in italics.
Singles
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Feel Fine
Day Tripper
Paperback Writer
Revolution
Don't Let Me Down
Please Please Me (1963)
I Saw Her Standing There
Boys
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Twist and Shout
With the Beatles (1963)
I Wanna Be Your Man
A Hard Day's Night (1964)
A Hard Day's Night
Can't Buy Me Love
Beatles For Sale (1964)
Eight Days a Week
Help! (1965)
Ticket To Ride
Rubber Soul (1965)
Drive My Car
I'm Looking Through You
If I Needed Someone
Revolver (1966)
Taxman
Yellow Submarine
And Your Bird Can Sing
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Getting Better
Good Morning Good Morning
Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye
The Beatles (White Album) (1968)
Back In the U.S.S.R.
Dear Prudence
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Birthday
Helter Skelter
Yellow Submarine (1969)
Hey Bulldog
Abbey Road (1969)
Come Together
Something
Octopus's Garden
I Want You (She's So Heavy)
Here Comes the Sun
Let It Be (1970)
Dig a Pony
I Me Mine
I Got a Feeling
Get Back
Love (2006)
Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows
26 out of 44, 31 if you count the italicized ones. Out of the ones I did not pick at all, four have Ringo on lead vocal, and three have George.
However, some of the ones I picked and are not on this list include "All My Loving," "Things We Said Today," "I'll Follow the Sun," "I've Just Seen A Face," "Michelle," "Girl," and "In My Life." Some big names there. I know we'll be able to download Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul right away, and probably the rest soon after, but come on, there's already much coin being dropped here.
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