Dead on Arrival

Now I know why the main characters on Grey's Anatomy were interns for three seasons. Holy crap did that season premiere suck on so many levels. Please make them interns again.

Maybe I've been spending too much time with medical students during the past year, but is it really a big deal for an intern to catch a baby? Seriously, didn't you do that a few dozen times in medical school? Holy unnecessary drama, Batman.

(Don't worry, DrT, I don't really think I have been spending too much time around medical students) :)

And don't even get me started on the whole deer subplot. I mean, seriously? A doctor tending to roadkill? You really expect me to buy that? Or what happened at end of the episode (don't worry, I won't even bother spoiling it). I think the writers crammed way too much drama and crap into that episode, and I want that hour of my life back. What happened to letting plot lines develop over a few weeks instead? Grey's just went O.C. on us tonight.

Wow. I am crotchety.

A Sure Thing. Right?

I am crashing yet another crazychica reunion this weekend. I swear I am { } close to graduating from honorary crazychica to actual crazychica. :)

Even better, the reunion this weekend is in Chicago, which also happens to be where the Michigan football team will be this weekend!!! Ok, so maybe planning the event around the football game was slightly intentional.

Given how up and down this football season has been, I am really hoping that a team that lost to OSU 52-7 and Duke doesn't present a meaningful challenge for the football team this weekend. I'd rather worry more about how I am going to see all my friends in the Chicago area this weekend instead of worrying about our football team laying another egg. I want to see a 58-0 Michigan victory this weekend. Nothing should be left to doubt!

Oh yeah, I forgot to post this earlier.

WE OWN...

Champagne and What Not

So I've been MIA for a week. Whatever. I've been a little busy.

Here are some pictures from the Pitchers & Catchers glorious championship victory last week. I didn't take them, which is why they look so awesome.

FlyingV proved his status as P&C's #1 fan with his game day work attire. Those specs of light around him? Just some of the thousands of insects that were flying around during the game. I've never seen so many bugs on those fields before.

Even Tricki's energetic dog Buster came out to cheer us on for the big game.

That blur in this photo is me flying around the bases for yet another of my triples. I think I led the team in triples this season...

Look closely and you'll see that we were up 13-1 at one point. And yes, FlyingV accentuated his stellar shirt with a matching tie for the big game.

"It's all ov-er". PhillyPhanatic celebrates after making the championship out.

The only way to celebrate a championship.

When else would someone enjoy having a bottle of alcohol dumped on them?

Good to the last drop.

Back-to-Back!

Name that Common Link

What do the following teams have in common?

1988-89 and 1989-90 Detroit Pistons
1996-97 and 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings
2006 and 2007 Pitchers & Catchers

That's right. BACK TO BACK CHAMPIONSHIPS! WOOOOOOOO!

We beat the injury plagued Swarm 14-8 tonight in the decisive game 3 of the company co-ed softball league championships. It's a shame the other team was not at full strength for games 2 and 3 due to injuries, but our bats and gloves were on fire today. We were winning 13-2 going into the bottom of the sixth when I screwed up and accidentally walked a guy on four straight pitches with two outs and sparked a 5 run rally by The Swarm (the guy gets second and the next girl gets first base when you walk a guy on four pitches with two outs). We recovered and held on in the seventh to capture another title. Then I gave PhillyPhanatic a champagne shower as his going away present (Nells and PhillyPhanatic are taking a work relocation to Phoenix in a little over one week). I'm sure it's the best going away gift he could ask for.

This championship definitely felt sweet. We were the overwhelming favorite last year and so focused on winning after two years of heartbreaking disappointments. I think that once we lost Hawkeye this year, our expectations plummeted. We took more time to enjoy the ride to this title since we didn't feel the same internal pressure to win. We may not have been as good as last year, the best team during this season (The Swarm owned us during the regular season), or the best team in the playoffs (we absolutely stole that semi-final against SOP). However, we stayed strong and kept fighting when it looked like we were finished.

Excuse me if I can't stop smiling tonight.

One of the actuaries at work brought his super awesome camera and took pictures throughout the game. I'll post some soon.

So 'Sad'

I was driving home this evening and noticed something familiar about the car in front of me as I turned on to I-291. The car didn't look familiar, but the license plate did. I was driving behind RoopDogg's older brother. Or rather, his car's older brother. License plate 182 SAD. Maybe you don't find it humorous, but I definitely laughed.

What Stage Are You In?

Funny post on a different blog.

I don't think I went through these stages in order. I think I started in anger, moved to depression, and then to denial before last Saturday. However, I have graduated to stage five after the game this past Saturday.

What stage are you in?

Don't Pop the Cristal Just Yet!

We may have lost the first game of the softball championship series last Thursday 13-12, but we were not going to lay down today in game two. Thanks to a gutty performance and a crucial five-run sixth inning, we took a back-and-forth game two from the top-seeded Swarm 15-12. The Swarm will have to wait to open the champagne and celebrate for one more day!!

Game three is scheduled for tomorrow, but it is highly likely that the game will rain out given the current weather forecast. Hopefully we are able to get the game in and not have to wait until later this week or early next week to crown the 2007 champion.

Sadly, The Swarm suffered a tough loss during the first inning of today's game. Their best girl aggravated an existing leg injury in the first inning. The injury must be pretty severe since she heard a "pop" and went to the hospital before our game ended. Assuming she does not return for game three, that is a huge loss for their team, especially on defense.

Um...Yeah

Yeah. Michigan sure did suck yesterday. We just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but we were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked!

Looking back at my Michigan Football Preview post, I should have seen the warning signs that I pointed out for 2007 as an even bigger problem. A team cannot go 10-3 with a bad defense, no matter how good the offense is. That said, I really hope the team can turn things around and salvage a winning season. No more spread offenses on the slate for a while.

This article hurts, but it's true.

Anyone have suggestions for fun ways to spend fall Saturdays? Watching this team play every week will be very depressing.

I picked a bad week to bring DrT to her first 'Michigan actuaries' gathering at FlyingV 's house yesterday. It's not really fun to watch Michigan's worst loss since 1968's debacle against OSU with a bunch of rabid Michigan alums (the infamous "because I couldn't go for three" game).

Magical

After the worst sports weekend for my favorite teams in the history of my life, I needed something to go my way. With the semi-finals of the company co-ed softball league today against mighty Son of a Pitch, today was an opportunity to right the ship or rub salt in the would that is my life right now.

This was not going to be an easy game. We've played SOP in the championships in each of the last two seasons. Both of our games against each other this season were hard fought victories. We expected to have our work cut out for us today.

The game started as horribly as I could have imagined. SOP's bats were on fire. Base hit after base hit to gaps in the outfield. We didn't really make many errors early on, but we were not getting anyone out. Before I knew it, we were down 5-0, and there were still no outs in the top of the first. When the top of the first was over, we had given up seven runs. I was fearing the worst.

By the end of the second inning, we were down 10-3. I was hopeful that we could grind our way back into the game if we settled down on defense, but I was definitely concerned since SOP was hitting so well.

The defenses started to take over through the next two and a half innings for both teams. We came up to bat in the bottom of the fifth inning down 11-5. Then, the bats came ALIVE. After a string of several great hits and some aggressive base running, we were winning 13-11. We were winning going into the sixth inning!

Conscious of my inability to pitch a strike after we made a great comeback in the fifth inning against The Swarm a few weeks back, I knew I needed to come back and pitch strong in the sixth inning. Although I continued to pitch strikes, SOP started hitting the ball again. However, we had two great defensive plays that got us out of that 1/2 inning in much better shape than we probably should have been in. With two on and none out, one of their guys hit a laser to right. Our right fielder almost reached it, but it bounced off her foot and rolled far away. A quick recovery and relay from RF to PhillyPhanatic to me at home plate got the runner out who was trying to score from first, limiting the damage to one run on the play. A couple of batters later, I caught a rocket hit right back to me at pitcher and picked off the runner on first who was just a little slow getting back to the bag. The inning-ending double play kept the score tied at 13.

We scored one run in the bottom of the sixth, but gave it right back in the top of the seventh. Only needing one run to win in the bottom of the seventh, we put up a goose-egg, sending the game to extra innings tied at 14.

We played some timely and solid defense in the 8th inning and held SOP scoreless, despite their attempt to play small ball with a lead off single and two sacrifice flies to advance the runner to third. In the bottom of the eigth inning, PhillyPhanatic (also known as PigPen given how dirty he was from sliding into 3B earlier in the game) hit a lead off single. Unfortunately the next two batters, including yours truly, flew out. The game changing moment happened next when one of our girls walked on four straight pitches, putting PhillyPhanatic into scoring position and bringing one of our most consistent guys to the plate with a chance to be the hero. We got the single we needed and PhillyPhanatic scored the winning run easily when the outfielder misplayed the ball while trying to hurry a throw to the plate. It was definitely the most dramatic win we have had in P&C's 5 year history.

More impressive than anything else was the mental toughness demonstrated when our backs were against the wall early in that game. We haven't been in a position like that in a few seasons, but it was great to see everyone stay calm and grind our way back to victory. Even the captain of the other team complimented us on how we were "unflappable" and stepped up our game when we fell so far behind in the early innings.

To no surprise, our opponent in the best-of-three championship series will be The Swarm. They've had our number this year and will be very tough, but they can be beaten. Game one is Thursday, which gives me one more day to savor this great victory. After the misery of this past weekend thanks to Michigan's loss on Saturday, this win was the cure I needed.

Worst Day Ever

This is, without a doubt, the worst day in the history of Michigan football. Truly embarrassing. I can't believe that just happened.

I'm going to go cry now.

Seriously, when am I going to wake up and realize that today was just one horrible nightmare?


UPDATE - Now that I have graduated from sadness to rage, I am going to fire away. Michigan should have never scheduled this game for the following reasons:

1) Playing a 1-AA opponent is a no-win situation. When you win, you still lose in the eyes of your fans and the greater college football "community". Bill Martin may do a good job when it comes to dollars and cents, but he failed the Michigan football program by scheduling this game as a 8th home game instead of taking the team on the road for a season opener as part of a 3-for-1 deal with a middle-of-the-pack D1A team. Maybe the team would have not fucked around for 45 minutes if the name on the front of the opponent's jersey was more prestigious.

2) Appalachian State is better than at least 15-20 Div 1A teams. The fact that this game is a no-win situation is even worse when it is against a team that would not finish last in the Big Ten conference. However, in the eyes of everyone who watched this game, ASU is still a D-1AA team, regardless of how talented they are, and Michigan is going to get a lot of much deserved flak for what happened today.

3) Playing an opponent significantly better than, say, Eastern Michigan is not good to open the season if the players do not take the opponent seriously. Michigan was caught napping this week, in addition to the fact that they are clearly worse than advertised this year. Move over, 2005 Wolverines.

Other thoughts:
4) Lloyd Carr is done as Michigan coach after this season. His departure at the end of the season will be spun as Carr deciding to step aside after a wonderful 13 years as head coach, but it will become clear to everyone that Bill Martin strongly encouraged Carr to resign after the season when his successor is named. The next Michigan coach will not be part of the Bo-Carr "family tree". Lloyd was just outcoached by a 1-AA coach with 1-AA talent because of his archaic game plan on offense and defense. That is flat out inexcusable and is the final nail in Lloyd's coffin.

5) Too bad the Jim Harbaugh burned his bridges with his Fredo Corleone move a few weeks back. I don't think there is a single coaching candidate out there with ties to Michigan if Martin goes outside the Bo-Carr family tree. Given Jon Gruden's recent troubles at Tampa Bay and his rumored interest in one day coaching at Michigan, I think Bill Martin will make a run for Gruden after the season.

6) One of the surprising losers in today's monumental upset will be Appalachian State. They make close to $500k for playing a game like this every year. Who in their right mind will schedule them in future years? You think the athletic director at Penn State or Alabama wants to risk something like this happening to their school? Now you are going to see Div 1-A powers reaching out to shitty 1-AA teams like Bucknell as opposed to the 1-AA powerhouses for early season tune-ups if they can't schedule a 1-A patsy like Eastern Michigan or Florida International. Appalachian State might have lost out on a major revenue stream for their football program in the future for their win today. If I were an ASU fan, I would think that the potential loss was definitely worth the thrill of their win today, but still...

7) Can I revise my prediction for Michigan football this season?

My Neighbors Think I am Evil

There was a loud knock on my door around 9:30 last night. Startled, I slowly made my way to the door to see who was there. Then, I heard an even louder pounding on the door. I looked through to see who was there, but no one was standing directly in front of the door. I asked who was there and thought I heard the word "police". Still seeing no one outside my door, I asked again to confirm. I heard "Police. Open up now."

What would you do? Think about it...


I was incredibly suspicious. Why would the police be knocking on my door at this hour? Why wouldn't an officer stand where I could confirm their identity before opening my door? For all I know, I could be setting myself up for a bad situation. Against my better judgment, I opened the door anyway. It's not like I live in a dangerous area. Thankfully, it really was a police officer. Surprisingly, a neighbor had called in a domestic dispute complaint specifically against my apartment. Apparently, a neighbor thought they heard a loud fight and some "crashing" coming from my apartment.

What? I had just gotten back within the past hour from an evening of golfing and dinner with FlyingV. All I had done since I got home was watch a movie on TV.

The cop didn't believe me. She checked back to confirm that the complaint was specifically
called in against my apartment. She asked to search my apartment. Despite the invasion of privacy, I clearly had nothing to hide and no one else was in my apartment. To no surprise, she found nothing.

Then she interrogated me for some basic personal information, probably so that she could look me up to see if I had a prior criminal record. Then she left.

I can't really blame the cop for doing what she did. She couldn't tell if I was hiding something from her. However, I hope that whoever called in the complaint didn't actually hear something from a neighboring unit.