A Day At The Ballpark

To quote rapper Ice Cube, "Today was a good day."

I spent my day at beautiful Wrigley Field watching the Cubs beat the Braves 10-1. Amazingly, I believe that it was the first time the Cubs scored in double digits all year. Good for them, it's about damn time. After Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett slugged it out in the dugout with fists (instead of on the field with their bats) and Lou Piniella's classic tirade (that MLB is suspending him indefinitely for) the Cubs offense did what it is being paid to do---out-slug the competition.

LF Alfonso Soriano, 1B Derrek Lee and 2B Mark DeRosa homered. DeRosa's home run was a fist inning Grand Slam to left center field, Soriano's was a line drive to the left field basket and Lee's was a wind-blown shot into the first row of the right field bleachers.

Sean Marshall pitched 6 2/3 innings of solid baseball matching a career high with eight strikeouts in his first win this season. Marshall has been a tough luck pitcher in his previous starts this year with the big club, a victim of little-to-no run support.

On a personal note, it was great to be back at Wrigley Field. I love that place: win, lose or draw. I love it even more when they win. I had awesome seats. Field box, a few rows from the right field wall (think Bartman seats down the right field line) at mostly sunny Wrigley Field.

I even ran into an old classmate from grammar school, Keegan Daley and his father. Keegan and I went to LaSalle Language Academy together from 5th to 8th grade. It's something like that is why I love Chicago. I come home and I run into someone I haven't seen in a few years and we catch up. It's always good to run into people from the past and catch up.\

That's about it. The Cubs have a big series against the first place Milwaukee Brewers. If the Cubs can win two of three games, I give them a fighting chance in the worst division in baseball. Also, I'll be watching for the ruling on Sweet Lou's suspension.

I think MLB is irresponsible and wrong for suspending Piniella, who has done this act before. I don't think it's right because suspending Sweet Uncle Lou will likely lessen the chances of he (and other managers) from arguing with umpires. If managers can't voice their disagreements with umpires, then what's the point knowing umpires will have all of the power.

That's all for now. Goodnight. Changes are in the works.


NOTES: The Cubs are now 2-0 in games I am attending. It's like they see me come through the door and they say to themselves, "Damn, not this guy again. We better win before we lose our last die-hard fan."

10 Things I Learned This Semester!

After first semester ended I came up with a list of the things I learned the previous semester while on my way back from SIU's basketball game at Indiana University. When I got home, I posted them here.

This time, I had a long trip from Carbondale but didn't think about the things I learned from this semester. But I've been thinking about the lessons I've learned this semester. Here are 10 of them:

1. It's not the size of the Dawg, it's the size of the heart in the Dawg. Under sized and under talented according to experts SIU shocked many by making it to the Sweet 16 this year, losing to NCAA powerhouse Kansas University by three friggin' points. If you listened to "experts" SIU might as well have not shown up for the game, but they did and they made Saluki Nation a group of happy individuals.
2. $300 million doesn't buy what it used to. Cubs fans, including myself, made a big deal about Tribune Company opening up the purse strings this off-season with a free-agent splurge. The most entertaining part of this season has been manager Lou Piniella, who has provided several intriguing sound bites.
3. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut. It's one of my favorite sayings and I'm applying it to the St. Louis Cardinals who miraculously won the '06 World Series. Since that fluke-ish run, the Cards are currently sitting at the bottom of the NL Central thanks to a struggling offense, a depleted starting rotation and lots of controversy such as drunk driving incidents by manager Tony LaRussa and a fatal one by reliever Josh Hancock.
   
4. If it weren't for poetry, I'd probably be insane. Last semester I said "when in doubt, write it out." It was true again this semester. Let's face it people, if it wasn't for poetry I'd probably be insane, lying in a puddle of alcohol, not attending SIU. Thank you poetry for saving me!
5. Nobody's perfect, except the 17 pitchers that have thrown perfect games. Again, one of my favorite quotes, this one I take full credit for. I've been "flirting with perfection" as they say, or what I thought was perfection and I've learned that what I once thought was perfect really isn't. Hence, learning that nobody is perfect and my idea of "perfection" doesn't necessarily exist.
6. Sex doesn't necessarily equal love. I guess that is why one night stands were invented. I always thought sex was a product of love, I was wrong. Mark this down, I admit that I was wrong. Once. Don't think it's gonna happen again!
   
7. It's time to let go of the past. This was a very tough lesson to learn, but it had to be learned eventually. Unfortunately you can't change the past and that sucks. And as much as you'd like to leave your past behind you, it always catches up to you, so don't ignore it. Embrace it (cautiously) and learn from your mistakes. It's easy to nit-pick things and say "woulda...coulda...shoulda..." and that things would be different. Eventually I figured out that everything happens for a reason. It might not be reasonable, it may not make sense now and it probably won't make ya feel better right away; but eventually everything will fall into place (hopefully.)
   
8. My "theories" are just that, theories. I once coined myself as "The Man Of Theories" because I have a lot of theories about a lot of things. Life, love, conspiracies, etc. Well, this semester I learned that not all of my theories are correct. Some of them, are---but not all of them. I guess that is what separates theories from fact....and that's why they make erasers, white out & the backspace button. Mistakes happen.
   
9. Life STILL imitates art. I compared a lot of certain life experiences to one of my new favorite shows What About Brian? and the hits kept coming in the second semester. For example, Brian (a.k.a. the character loosely based on me) can't say no to cute blondes and is always too little too late when the right girl for him comes along. Unfortunately the season finale was also the series finale and the show ended on a cliffhanger. A damn shame in my eyes.
10. I Make Too Many Mistakes For My Own Good. But somehow I survive these mistakes, not by much though. It's not like they are life altering mistakes, instead they are "minor" mistakes that just nag and aggravate me. My fear is that the small mistakes will build to something major that will be the end of me. My hope is that it doesn't happen.
    

THINGS YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED:

1. Sports Mean A Lot To Me. I don't know what I would do with myself if not for sports. Sports make for a great escape from real life. There's just something about an event that you can't directly control that puts things into perspective. A special thanks to my favorite sports teams for giving me a few smiles.
   
2. Happy poems aren't my expertise and are few and far between. I can't write happy poems. Well, I can, but they suck and come off as over-the-top attempts that are comparable to a fake smile. People have asked me to write happy poems. I've tried, and failed. People have asked how someone like myself writes the gut-wrenching poems I write. One word (or is it two?): heartbreak (heart break?)
   
3. A Lot Of My Poems Are Based On One Topic. Read a poem and think. That's all you have to do to figure out what I'm writing about. I didn't think that one topic can be portrayed in so many different ways.
   

Another Week Gone By...

...and another week full of unfulfilled promises.

I know in my last blog 8 days ago I promised new poetry, things I learned this semester, thoughts on the movie Serendipity and surprises along the way. None of those have happened. I've been busy with work and things like that.

The poetry hasn't come along for several reasons. Am I inspired? Not really, I'm finding it a little difficult to write without due dates and deadlines. However, my lack of poetry isn't because of a lack of topics. I have so much on my mind and a lot of topics to touch on. I have snippets here and there scribbled on notepads, in notebooks and on random pieces of paper. Right now I am working on a poem "Before You" which talks about my "dream girl." Then there's an untitled piece where I offer my apologies for friendships gone wrong. There are some other pieces in the works, but nothing finalized at this point. The one that is closest to being done is "Before You." And yes, I'm still working on "The Georgia Series" but right now that's at a bit of a standstill, writer's block has the best of me when it comes to that set of poems.

As for the things I've learned this semester, I've got a Top 10 list and a list of things that you (my friend/reader) should have learned this semester from this blog. The Top 10 will likely be done before any poem will.

As for the movie Serendipity, my mother loves it. She thinks that I should love it too. "It's about destiny and fate and what's meant to be..." that's where I'd cut my mother off. Is it a good movie? Intriguing is the better word. It's a total chick flick that is supposed to fool you into believing that true love is attainable. Not only that, but I think that it's messed up that they put each other through some bogus tasks to figure out if they were meant for each other. If it wasn't a movie, they could have drastically f*cked up each others lives by fooling around with the love gods. They're lucky it's a movie.

Another movie review: The Sandlot 2 was absolutely terrible. Worst movie ever, it's worse than Alpha Dog, worse than Titanic, worse than Starship Troopers....it is the worse..movie..ever! Period, paragraph, end of story. They went away from waht made the original Sandlot the greatest movie of all time. It was about tying life lessons together with America's Past Time. In Sandlot 2, the plot was terrible. The punch lines were terrible. Everything was predictably bad and it's a shame that someone thought it was a good idea to make a sequel to a movie that didn't need a sequel. Shame on them.

Music review: R. Kelly's Double Up is my second favorite album of 2007. Timbaland's Shock Value is still number one as of now, but Double Up has some serious fire and makes a great argument to be my favorite album of this year. He's got awesome guest spots from Snoop Dogg (Double Up), Nelly (Tryin' To Get A Number), Chamillionaire (Get Dirty) among other guest spots. The lead single I'm A Flirt (Remix) featuring T.I. & T-Pain is another highlight of the album. But the best track is the duet between 'Kells' and Usher 'Same Girl.' That track will probably end up being one of the 10 best songs of 2007. R. Kelly's raunchy lyrics, along with the guest appearances make this a very worthwhile album.

Alright, that's it for now. Again coming soon:

• Poetry (maybe)
• Top 10 Things I Learned This Semester (definitely)
• Surprises along the way.
  

I Didn't Forget About You Mr. Blog!

I've been home a little more than a week, this is what I got:

• It feels good to be home. Starting with the "Ribfest," I've felt good about being home. The grades were really good too. 1 A, 3 Bs & 1 C. Not bad. I think what feels the best about the grades is that I truly feel as if I earned those grades. I worked hard and focused. And yes, a lot went wrong this semester. A lot went wrong this school year. Hell, a lot has gone wrong for the last 2+ years. But the idea that I can get on facet of my life on track makes me feel a little bit good about myself.
• Oh, and I'll be employed too. That's another thing that has me feeling good. I haven't worked a steady job since summer 2005 and I'm looking forward to making some ca$h money! Again, I'm happy because I feel like I am prioritizing correctly and that's something to feel good about.
• The Cubs can make me feel good, sometimes. When they play like they did on Friday and Saturday, I feel good. When they play like they did Sunday and for 3 out of the 4 games of the Mets series, then they make me want to curl up in a corner and cry. But I guess taking 2 of 3 in the Crosstown Classic will do for now. The schedule doesn't get any easier. 3 against San Diego with the first game pitting Cubs lefty Rich Hill against San Diego ace Jake Peavy.
• Another thing I like about the summer is the new music and movies that come out. I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to see movies like Shrek The Third, Ocean's Thirteen & The Simpsons Movie. That's just a small sample size. Music wise, there's always gonna be a few good albums coming out. I'm looking forward to albums from Fabolous, Chamillionaire, Linkin Park, etc. I know I'll be keeping my eye out for new tracks such as Kanye West's Can't Tell Me Nothing or First Time by Fabolous & Rihanna.
• And finally, the best thing that I have going for me is a new mindset. Last summer I wasn't focused, not by a long shot. My priorities were not in the right place, and at the end of the summer it hurt me mentally. I was all about "summer love" and blah...blah...blah. I say "who needs it?" I'll admit that the idea of "summer love" is a splendid thought. But so is world peace, ending hunger and the Cubs having a shortstop that has a career on-base percentage over .290. As long as I stay focused, I'll be happy (relatively speaking).

Coming Soon:

• New poetry (yay!)
• Things I learned this semester
• Thoughts about the movie Serendipity
• And surprises along the way!