At The 'Ole Ballgame

At the start of every baseball season, I'm convinced there's a story out there.

A story of newness and rebirth. Of hope springing eternal. 

And it's usually about, concerning or with - at the very least - a passing acknowledgement to baseball.

I don't always catch the stories when they hit. They're not consistently within my purview or readily at my disposal. Sometimes, it takes the better part of the season before I'm fortunate enough to come across them. 

This time, however? An internet friend passed one along that epitomizes what's to come ... and just at the right time. 

The story has inspired me to write about my personal, physical reintroduction into the game. I'll post it shortly.

In the meantime, here is the story in question. Please enjoy.

"That’s one of the great gifts of this, the greatest of all games, baseball: it allows you, still, to lose yourself in a dream, to feel and remember a season of life when summer never seemed to die and the assault of cynicism hadn’t begun to batter optimism."

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )
Thanks, Donna LoveBees Sweikow

Makin' Friends

I was stopped at a traffic signal.

And I wasn't.

See, I was positioned just before making my way into the left turn lanes of a particular signal, still in the single lane prior to being able to make my way in either of two turn lanes. But with heavy traffic backed up so I couldn't quite make it into the lanes, there was nothing I could do but hold tight and wait to move forward. Even then I figured I wouldn't make the next green signal - there was that much congestion.
 
Finally, the light turned green. Still, nothing I could do until the vehicles ahead of me got their acts together and crept forward. And then, all of a sudden, I was able to move.

Prior to accelerating, I engaged my left hand turn signal and slowly proceeded forward. Suddenly, the vehicle behind me honked furiously at me. Seems I wasn't moving fast enough for the driver, but there was nothing much I could do about.

Physics, you know. "Two objects can't occupy the same space at the same time." Basic schooling.

But it wasn't quite that. It appeared, in retrospect, I not only wasn't moving fast enough for the car at my rear, but I had unintentionally pissed her/him off even more as the one turn lane s/he wanted to turn in I was turning in ... slowly. Too slowly, as was the fact of the matter.

The car - with a woman driver I noticed - honked once more as she zipped past my right side, all the while glaring at me. No matter.

As it turned out, I did make that green light ... and, coincidentally, pulled up behind her at the next light. I saw her continuing to glare at me in her rear view mirror.

As it turned out, she was headed in the exact same direction as I was. I tailed her for about another mile before turning in the same driveway as her. I saw her park and shoot lasers at me as I passed. I contemplated waving, but decided I'd "made her day" enough already.

Caught in the traffic of trying to get a parking space, I witnessed her at my rear right side through my mirror; she had not only parked, but made her way toward me by foot in order to snap a picture of my car such that she was able to get my license plate.

Good for her. What she intended on doing with it I had no clue. Kind of a "he said, she said" thing.

But if it pissed her off such that she was not only in a more of a hurry than she already appeared to be (Had I made her late for an appointment?) yet still had enough time stop and snap my picture? Then my job (unintentional though it might have been) was done. It wasn't like I was consciously trying to get in her way or impede her in any manner. Traffic and all that, y'unnerstan' ...

Then again ... some people are just naturally born bonehead drivers and it's all about them when they drive.

In the meantime: This guy? He's making friends (and enemies) wherever he goes. 

.......... Ruprecht ( just can't  STOP makin' friends)

You know? I wonder if that woman could have possibly been Donna Chambers. ... naaaaaah ...

Hey ... Donna?

Don't let the heels fool you ...

(Click images to read)


Sincerely .......... Ruprecht ( really needs to STOP posing as a woman ... )

MLB Pranksters

Hokay: Who's the comedian?

Is somebody playing an April Fool's prank on baseball fans? Or is it simply that whoever is working the Major League Baseball schedule is daft?

It's not that I don't appreciate the shellacking the Dodgers gave the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia a couple weekends ago. (The Dodgers took the two-game series Down Under. And, while I appreciate the international promotion MLB put on, did we really have to fly all the way down to Australia to play those games? I don't want to guess what that little 2-day round-trip jaunt totalled.) 

I'm not even perturbed at the loss to the Padres Sunday.

Here's what I can't fathom however:

No game Monday? What the what ... ?!?? I can understand if the game was rained out - it's a mite bit difficult to play a ballgame in the rain. But there wasn't any rain in
San Diego Monday evening.

One game played for the Dodgers in the regular season. And then?

They get a day of rest.

What? The? Hell?

It gets more ridiculous. The Dodgers have the next two Thursdays off. Oh ... and the next two Mondays as well. Plus! The last Monday of the month. 

It must be the travel schedule; that's what's throwing a wrench in the machine ... right? Jet lag. That's it? Correct?

No. No, it isn't. They play the San Francisco Giants, the Detroit Tigers and the Diamond backs once again. 

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm ... hold on ... I know why: They have to travel to Detroit. Right? 

No. All the those series are on the Dodgers' home field.

Wait ... waitaminnit ... the Detroit Tigers?

Interleague this early in the season!?? Shouldn't the first month of the 2014 season be dedicated primarily to opponents in the division?!? Yes, it should. 

Should we have interleague games in freakin' April? No, we should not. 


*sigh*

Thanks for the April Fools, MLB  ...

......... Ruprecht ( STOP )

Talk, Talk 2

You have to wonder how, sometimes, words twist to the point they're interpreted in a completely different manner than originally intended.

While it can be the power and the passion with which they're delivered, just the same tossing them to the wind with a lackadaisicalness can promote unintentional and detrimental feedback. 

It happens all the time. Reviews and critiques from the media. An interpretation of some television or radio ad. The way something comes across in a print article.

Good intentions skewed awry.

I found myself on the giving (and receiving end) of such "a twist" much to my chagrin. And, while it caused consternation, discussion and a couple apologies, it rounded out with something I say continuously:

You don't learn from your successes,
you learn from your mistakes.

Interestingly enough, I had dreams last night of being unable to reproduce lyrics to various Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Loggins & Messina songs I was recording in a studio somewhere. (Hey ... I can dream, can't I?) So ... the lyrics below - courtesy of Stan Ridgway - work perfectly :

"Now when the world is over, clocks run outta wind

Somebody will scrape through the ruins and find

A little picture of you and in a file they found

Sayin' 'Just a little too smart for a big dumb town' ..."

- "Big Dumb Town"

"Trees are tall and grass is green

One's alone and two's a team

Play guitar and make a scene

Read about it in a magazine.

"Tired of playin' what to be?

Friend is now an enemy

Slam a door and break a glass

From there to here has gone too fast."

- "Gone The Distance"

"He took a drive down the coast highway

Blowin' where the air was fresh and clean

He had a plan that said 'I'll do it my way'

but he could not plan for what he couldn't see ..."

- "Down The Coast Highway"

.......... Ruprecht ( won't ever STOP putting his foot in his mouth* )

* And this is okay. Because, if that ever happened, it would be a really boring life.

Talk Talk

"Our conversations have not been such 

that I am anxious to continue them."  

- Peter Lorre, The Maltese Falcon

.......... Ruprecht ( should have STOPped when I knew better ... )

It's Not What You Think ...

.......... Ruprecht ( STOP )