Fisher Times-Post-Dispatch-Courier

For those who want ammo in their moaning about bad officiating, the ACC crew in the VA Tech-North Carolina game called a personal foul against Georgia Tech.

In other news, it’s a bad, bad, bad week to be in the Top 10: 3 Oklahoma lost, 4 Florida lost, 5 West Virginia lost,  7 Texas lost, 10 Rutgers lost.  The other top 25s did marginally better, with 21 Penn St. losing, 13 Clemson losing, 11 Oregon losing (to 6, though), 22 Alabama losing, and VA Tech and Wisconsin playing close games that shouldn’t have been.

Notre Dame got thumped, taking the Fighting Irish’s first ever 0-4 start to an astonishing 0-5.  Tyrone Willingham was a competent, clean image coach who didn’t win enough games for the Domers and got canned after just a few seasons.  Weis is in his 3rd season and accomplishing things even Willingham didn’t manage, and doing it with consecutive Top-10 rated recruiting classes.  If the White Whale Weis isn’t fired after this season,  the serious questions I had about the Notre Dame administration’s race bias that first arose after Willingham’s termination will come roaring back to the forefront.  When Willingham was fired, I argued adamantly that no coach should be fired absent serious misconduct prior to the end of his 4th season, when all but the redshirts are the products of his coaching and recruiting, and that Notre Dame was breaking with long-standing history by firing Ty after just three seasons.  In fact, Willingham, the only black coach Notre Dame has ever had, is the first coach NOT to coach the Irish for at least 4 seasons since Hunk Anderson resigned after two seasons in 1934 (not counting interim coaches in 1944, 1945, and 1963).  I truly hope those Irish are having buyer’s remorse hardcore right now over Weis’s contract extension given in the middle of his first season.  (Note that Ty started his first season 8-0 but didn’t get an extension offer).

I would advise against starting your day like this, as it really sets the wrong tone: almost getting run over by a car.

I would definitely advise against starting your day like this, as it will probably ruin your whole morning: almost getting run over while in a clearly marked crosswalk with the green light your way and no possible way the driver could have missed your presence.

A great way to completely ruin a whole day: almost get run over in the crosswalk by a St. Louis police officer turning left but not, apparently, paying attention to where his car was going.

I was crossing the road this morning at the corner of my building, but the light changed just before I could cross, so I waited through the entire cycle to cross.  Normally I would have waited for the road to clear and would have crossed against the red, but this morning a SLPD car was also waiting at the light for the entire cycle.  When the light finally changed, I set out across the road.  The SLPD slowly pulled out, turning left (towards me).  I’m not stupid, but he was going slow enough that I assumed he was waiting for me to cross (you know, yielding to a pedestrian in the crosswalk, as required by law).  Plus the road he was turning on is 4 lanes, so he only had to wait for me to cross the one lane and he could have turned behind me.  BUT NO.  When I get to the second lane, he accelerates, and I had to jump back to avoid being squashed, and as I yelled out HEY!, I could clearly see the officer with his head turned - not even bothering to look in the direction his car was turning.  I hope I eventually calm down enough to function today, but that was scary, and infuriating, and ridiculous. 

5 days, 3 baseball games, 1 late inning close loss, 1 spectacular but unsuccessful comeback, and 1 extra innings win.  Saturday and Monday were tickets I’ve had since before the season started, and were fun enough - especially Monday’s game.  I had 400-section nosebleeds, but after the Phillies took an 11-0 lead on Ryan Howard’s grand slam in the 6th, the stadium started to empty.  Never one to leave a game early, I caught sight of some field-box seats that weren’t being used and moved down, just beyond third base, 5 or 6 rows back.  And then the Cardinals offense came to life putting up 3 in the 6th, 6 in the 7th, and 2 in the 8th.  Meanwhile the bullpen gave up another homerun, leaving the score at 12-11.  Several drives (particularly one by Ryan Ludwick and one by Yadier Molina) looked like they were out of the park, but the dead wind in the stadium was no help as they were caught at the wall or on the warning track.  The game ended 13-11, but was wholly satisfying to those who bothered to stick around, which didn’t include the folks sitting in the front row, which is where I spent the last two innings of the game.

Then there was last night.  I finally got going early enough to bike down to the stadium at  7:30AM, and purchased a pair of "First Pitch" tickets for $5.50 each (there are 125 pairs sold day-of-game at 9:00AM before every game).  The catches are (1) you don’t enter the stadium until 10 minutes before game-time, (2) you probably won’t get any of the give-aways, and (3) you don’t know where your seats will be, or even if you will get a seat.  So just before game-time, I enter, get my tickets, and find that I’ve got 3rd base field-box seats.  Great seats, great view, great fun.  Cards took a 1-1 tie into extra innings, and on Yadier Molina bobble-head night (no I didn’t get one, drat!) who else but Yadier Molina drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 10th.  Fun stuff!

Let’s review:

Balloon Glow on Friday evening.  Cardinals game early Saturday afternoon, balloon race late Saturday afternoon.

Now it is Sunday, and going online I remember that there have been signs everywhere warning of delays due to the Tour of Missouri coming through St. Louis.  I check out the route, and it turns out that it runs right down Lindell (my street).  So I clean up, dress up, pack up, and head out the door.  No sooner than I arrive on the street the lead cars and motorcycles go racing past.  Followed by the professional cyclists - including the bikers of the Discovery Channel Team, on their last US race before disbanding.  ZOOM! they go.  And 20 seconds after they arrived, it was over.

EXCEPT: the St. Louis stage is a circuit race, and the riders do 7 laps of a 10 mile circuit.  And the front side of the race runs down Forest Park Parkway, 3 blocks away.  So I pick up, pack up, and take off.  I arrive just in time for the leaders to go through, a 4-man break that was soon followed by the peloton, or the main body of racers.  ZOOM! they go.  And 20 seconds later, it was over.  So I pick up, pack up, and take off.  ZOOM!  Pick up, pack up, and take off.  There goes the Tour de France winner, ZOOM!  Pick up, pack up, and take off.  Levi Leipheimer, 3rd at the Tour de France, ZOOM!  And so on, and so on.  No fences, no gates, no security cops.  Just me standing on the curb with the other race observers, while these world-class athletes ZOOM! 5 feet, 3 feet, inches away.

I’m no fan of professional cycling in general, but a circuit race like this one was very much worth the effort to see.  Instead of one fleeting glimpse, there are many.  Oh, and in what other sport can a participant be involved in a serious crash with an armadillo?

I had a fun day today.  I am doubly glad that it occurred on a Saturday, which gives hope that I can look forward to days like this even when I am working…if I can get away on Saturdays.

Last night, of course, was the Balloon Glow.  Conditions were generally lousy for photography because of large, dense crowds, bad traffic control of said crowds, and lots of wind.  I still managed a few good shots, but the evening was not nearly as fun as it had been the past few years.  The crowd conditions were caused by the location of the Glow, which had to be moved because of the renovations on the World’s Fair Pavilion grounds (very close to being done, by the way).  This year’s Glow was held on a golf course.  Certainly was the super’s worst nightmare: tens of thousands of people with food stands and hot air balloons and trucks and trailers and vans and lawn chairs in your tee boxes, your fairways, your bunkers (kids love sand), etc.

So today, I went to the Cardinals-Cubs game at noon, a makeup game from April, I think.  We lost, I had fun.  I rushed home, had a quick lunch of leftover hamburger and home-made onion rings and biked out to Forest Park for the Balloon Race.

The softball fields were packed.  There could have been a hundred thousand people there, easily.  Still, I managed a not bad spot to shoot from on the perimeter of the field.  After a few balloons were up, I couldn’t help but notice that the balloons didn’t seem to be going anywhere.  The race is a hare-and-hounds format (one balloon goes somewhere, lands, and the others try to put a marker close to their landing point), but the hare was going northwest - very, very slowly - while the hounds were drifting northeast.  Suddenly, before I knew what I had said, I commented out loud that the hare balloon was travelling so slow I could outrun it on my bike.

On my bike.  What an idea.  I packed my stuff and did just that - chased the hare balloon (the Energizer Hot Hare Balloon, to be exact).  When I caught up with the chase team, I decided to stick with them.  Eventually the balloons did catch some wind and they all started travelling west, and the hare balloon started coming down in a neighborhood north of the Delmar Loop.  It landed in a parking lot of a community center in the middle of this neighborhood, and the other balloons landed in other open spaces (I hope) in the area.  It turned into a real neighborhood event as all the people came out to see the giant pink bunny hovering over their homes, and eventually landing in their ‘hood.

Apparently I had caught the notice of the chase team, because when I started taking photos, a couple saw me and commented "oh, you made it!"  That was neat.  And they enlisted the help of the entire neighborhood to bring down and deflate and roll up the balloon.  That was also very neat.  Except that at one point the team coordinator started shushing the crowd.  She actually managed to get everyone to shut up, though we were all a bit confused - especially when she put her ear to the fabric - until she asked the boy next to her what the ring tone sounded like.  Apparently this neighborhood helper had been rolling around on the balloon (as instructed to get the air out of the balloon) and had dropped his cell phone.  Then the 166-foot tall bunny made of 5,000 linear yards of fabric was tightly rolled up, cell phone and all.  Eventually the bunny had to be unrolled, but the phone was found. 

Cost effectiveness and NASA.  Contradictions in terms?  3 1/2 years ago, the US marvelled at the images coming from the twin rovers sent by NASA on a (for them) shoestring budget.  The rovers were expected to last 3 months on Mars.

3 1/2 years later, surviving Martian winters, a gigantic Martian dust storm, and crawling up and down Martian hills, BOTH rovers are still exploring their little plot of Martian paradise, sending back data and images just as stunning as the first, though we’ve become jaded to them.

A NASA success story, that. 

Upon further review, it was determined that this blog was not something completely different.  In addition, it was revealed that most people use this blog to get updates and news on its author.  Therefore, a motion was made, seconded, and passed, to the effect that the title and format of this blog should be changed to reflect these findings.

In other news, it is unknown who did all of this, as the preceding paragraph was written entirely in the passive voice. 

In other other news, it is wished that congratulations be lauded to the 88.6% of Missouri bar applicants who passed the exam, and the 671 who have completed all requirements to become new lawyers on the 20th of September, especially those known to the author of this blog: Cristina, Alina, Kyle, Anne, Kenttra, Melanie, Tim, Tim, Amanda, Sarah, Andy, Gary, Kate, Chris, Nicole, Erin, etc., etc., etc. 

We can now observe that everything I said last week re: college football has been proven true.

Virginia Tech?  Little to no improvement = spanking by LSU.

But more significantly:  the sports writers gave Appalachian State 19 points worth of votes, more than, ahem, Florida State.  Good job guys!

This week, I neither watched nor paid any attention to football, so nothing more to add. 

Unfortunately, I’m not a professional sports writer.  Thus, I didn’t watch many football games over the weekend, nor have I disected the box scores of those that I did not see, nor have I really taken the time to construct a table of who I think is better than whom.  That said, I do have some opinions, and intend to share them.

Teams I don’t think should be included in the top 25: Michigan, Florida State

Florida State was towards the bottom of the rankings and got spanked by an unranked team.  Join Miami in the netherworld of the unranked, ‘Noles.

Michigan deserves to be shunned for bringing shame and disgrace upon the Division Formerly Known as I-A for being the first ranked team to lose to a team from the Division Formerly Known as I-AA.  Ultimately, yeah, they’re a Top-25 team, but their national title hopes are completely shot, so where they’re ranked makes no difference, especially this early in the season.  Discard them for a week, at least, voters.

Team that should drop from the top 10 but won’t: Virginia Tech.   Already said my piece.

Moving up: Louisville, Rutgers, Hawaii, Boise State.  While other teams made the week one tuneups look just like tuneups (messy), these schools hung big numbers where big numbers should be hung.  All four should be top 15, but won’t be.  Look for Louisville at roughly number 9, Rutgers at 13 or 14, Hawaii and Boise State battling for 20.

Also, I wish just one voter in either poll would have the guts to turn in a ballot with Appy State ranked.  Just for the sheer joy of seeing them with "also receiving votes." 

 Update: polls have been released.  Warm fuzzy received.  Kinda cool being right every now and then.  Now, if we just could have gotten a vote for Appy State…

Bike path update: took a few days off from biking, only to return to this: a walker in the left-hand lane as I was getting ready to pass.  No problem, just slow down, follow the other biker past the clueless walker.  Except that as I was getting ready to go by, walker decides he should be in the right lane.  LOOK OUT!  Why did the walker move over into the right lane?  Several guys were pushing rolling office chairs down the bike path.  Now, when I say that wheeled, non-motorized transportation devices are OK on the bike path, I didn’t mean office chairs!

Stupid headlines update: ACTUAL St. Louis Post-Dispatch headline: "St. Louis Fire Department test throwned out"  Nice copy editing, guys.  Note: this story is about the SLFD refusing to hire applicants because too many applicants failed a national, standardized test.  They didn’t refuse to hire those that failed, of course not.  They refused to hire ANY applicant, even those that passed, because the test, apparently, is too hard.

Virginia Tech football: the team looked bad.  Certainly not top-10.  The defense was getting destroyed on misdirection plays, which caused them to play from their heels.  The offensive line missed assignments - at one point getting QB Sean Glennon sacked from the blind side by a LINEMAN untouched (it’s one thing for a linebacker to get through unblocked, but unacceptable for a lineman on the blind side to be ignored).  Glennon audibled several times for run plays that went nowhere, was inaccurate and inconsistent, and just looked like he was in a hurry to do everything.  Fortunately, the secondary played fairly well and ECU self-destructed on several drives.  VT will need to play 10 times better if they don’t want to be blown out against LSU next week.

Appalachian State vs. Michigan.  WOW.  Appy State’s first touchdown was amazing, as a short dump pass went some 60 yards because the receiver ran away from the entire Michigan defense.  Appy State is fortunate, though, for all it’s hard-nose, quality football, that its coach managed not to blow the game by kicking on first down at the end.  They should have run a running play to get to the middle of the field and run the clock down.  Instead, they kicked, took the lead, and left nearly 30 seconds for Michigan to run 2 plays: a 40 yard pass to get within field goal range and a game-winning field goal.  Special teams saved the day by blocking that field goal and preserving the win for ASU.  Whew, coach.  Whew.