The Daddy of 'em All

As promised, I finally have a much-belated post about going to Cheyenne Frontier Days as part of our summer trip to Denver.  "The Daddy of 'em All," as it's informally called, is the week-long rodeo/fair that serves as the central summer gathering for southeastern Wyoming.  I guess as far as rodeos go, it's one of the bigger ones.  We went on a whim after reading about it in the paper that morning, and Erin and Ari joined us.  After a scenic drive up through Ft. Collins and lots of dry plains country, we got to Cheyenne and eventually found our way over towards the fairgrounds.  The crowds were descending on the place from all directions but not only did we find a parking place close by, Kate snagged us 4 great tickets from the officially designated scalpers' area (saving us at least 30 minutes in the slowest moving line of all time).



The events were varied but generally were either the bucking style - where a cowboy is trying not to fall of some type of thrashing and leaping and gyrating beast, the roping style - where a cowboy on a horse will try to lasso and/or wrestle to the ground and tie up a calf, or the racing style - where a cowboy or girl will try to race his horse around a set of barrels or the like.  It was not only an interesting cultural experience, but an engaging event.  What struck me most - well, aside from the sheer insanity of it all and how there was only one injury that seemed serious as a result of it all - was how the announcer in the stadium really added to my enjoyment of the experience by offering a continuous narration of the events along with little nuggets of wisdom, insight, commentary, and humor.  Unlike most impartial and sterile-sounding announcers at typical events like baseball or football games, the guy here was a chatterbox who wasn't afraid to call out a rider for bailing off a bull early or inciting the crowd to boo the judges for a set of low scores awarded to a popular rider.  And as a novice observer I appreciated when he offered explanations of the intricacies of calf-roping scoring or rules.  For example - when you jump off your horse to "bust" a calf you have to 1) stop before wrestling it to the ground (can't just knock it over) and 2) you have to flip it to a particular side.  Kind of refreshing.

Here's some photos from our great vantage point in the crowd:







Oh yeah, I almost forgot!  The day's events ended with the "Wild Horse Race" which I found out later is somewhat controversial among the PETA types (as is the whole concept of rodeo events) due to the rough handling of the horses that I guess has led to many equine injuries each year these things are held.  Anyways, in the wild horse teams of 3 cowboys are given a never-before-ridden bronco on a 30 food lead, and the goal is to "reel" it in, get a saddle on it, and then ride a lap around the track on it first.  It is insane.  And they start if off by blasting a cannon, which does little to calm the already frenzied wild horses that are trying to figure out why they have a bridle on and why someone is tugging on them.  Mass chaos ensues for the next fifteen minutes or so.



Also, if you let go of your horse at any point your team is out of it, which led to the highlight of the day for us - watching this poor, stubborn guy get dragged a few hundred yards through the dirt as his team's horse decided he had had enough and was ready to split:



Kudos to the guy for holding on while the crowd cheered him on until just after he went out of sight.  Anyways, I think I'll stick to softball and road biking for my sports.

Tour of California, Stage 3

I won't blame you if you haven't heard of it, but the Tour of California is the biggest bike racing event in the USA, and yesterday it rolled through our backyard, basically!  This year the Stage 3 route took them through the hills just west of where I work, and Alex and I took a long lunch break to ride out and watch the race go by.  I had never seen a major bike race in person, and while it all blew by incredibly quickly, it was really pretty cool to experience all the excitement and activity - lots of hardcore biker fans braving the cold rain and mist lining the sides of the road in the forest, dozens of police and official vehicles clearing the route ahead of time, the cowbells cheering on the lead group of racers, the 100-strong peloton churning after them up a "King of the Mountain" stretch, and even the wet ride back to the valley with all the other people that had the same idea as us.  Most of the major names in cycling (that you'll also see in the Tour de France, for example) were here, and I'm sure I was about 3 feet from Lance Armstrong at some point, I just couldn't tell which extremely fit white guy with wraparound sunglasses, a helmet, and skin-tight RadioShack jersey he was out of 5 or so.  I even had some freebie bags of Jelly Bellys tossed to me from the team car as I cheered them on!  Alex took a couple pictures, and there's some other representative ones from our vantage point below.

Here's the peloton, led by Team RadioShack, heading through the hills

Here's me waiting in the drizzle on the La Honda uphill

Here comes the throng of racers blasting through...

... followed closely by the throng of support cars that were inches apart (from each other and from the riders they were busy handing Gu, Cliff Bars, and water bottles to) while winding up the narrow mountain roads.  Yikes.

And here's a video Alex took of the lead group going by.  These guys finished the day in Santa Cruz having averaged an insane 23 mph over 113 miles, including 4 major hills.  They'll keep riding for the next week (eight stages total), ending down in LA.  I'll definitely head back to see this again next year!

August Update

What have we been up to the past few weeks, you ask? Well, let's take a look!

We got to go to a preseason football game in San Francisco - Niners vs. Kate's Broncos - thanks to our friend Karen. It turned out to be quite an exciting game, with the Broncos scoring a touchdown down by 7 with a minute left, then failing on the 2-pt conversion to lose the game. It was entertaining to watch Kate go through the full spectrum of sports emotions within a 30 second timeframe.

Here's a shot of the action. I kinda like the blurry-ness, you can see how fast the wideouts are moving relative to the linemen.

And here we are (Cara, Dustin, Kate, with Karen hidden behind Kate) bundled up against the chilly SF August evening.

And as you know, Kate is now teaching kids that Physics is fun. Most recently/currently she's doing a project involving bottle-rockets:

3... 2... 1...

Just this weekend went to one of our favorite summer activities - Shady Shakespeare in Sanborn park near Saratoga. This year our friend Mikey was in it, playing Touchstone in "As You Like It." Here's a few shots from our picnic cookout beforehand and the performance.

Kate happily stocking up on the ever-important pickles.

The Adams manning the grill

Other friends - Dustin, Kate, Ashley, (another) Adam, Cara, Katie (hidden)

Blurry Mikey in one of several compromising positions his role required.

Touchstone and Celia peeking through the curtain.

Bravo!

And of course Banjo is being cute as always. Somehow he always manages to turn would-be distinguished poses into something silly just in time for the shutter, but the results are usually pretty amusing. Not quite the surprise squirrel picture, but still pretty good.

A's Game

On Saturday we (Kate) took a break from a busy weekend of schoolwork and headed across the bay to see our first Oakland A's game of the season! The A's took on the American League defending champion Tampa Bay Rays on a beautifully sunny spring afternoon, and it ended with the good guys winning 5-2! Here are some pictures:


Here we are sporting our Matt Holliday replica jerseys, the giveaway of the day


Matt vs. Matt: Holliday shatters his bat on a Garza fastball


A beautiful day at the Coliseum


Ziggy! Everyone's favorite blogger-turned-submariner-closer, sportin' the high socks


You show 'em, Kate.

Making Lemonade

Well, Duke may be out, and Carolina may be rolling, but yours truly is still the queen of HORSE in THIS household.

Heels 101 - Dookies 87

Although I was a little worried at the end of the first half, I'm happy to report that this last night in Durham:

Resulted in this last night in Chapel Hill:

Ty Lawson really took control of the game in the 2nd half - I don't get why he doesn't just drive and get either a layup or a foul every possession. Four in a row now at Cameron! I think Coach K summed it up best by saying "We're not as good as they are."

My insincere condolences to certain spouses, fathers, brothers in law, and brainwashed nephews who may have hoped for a different outcome. But don't worry, there's always the rematch at the Dean Dome on March 8th (4pm EST). I'll be cheering with my fellow (honorary) Tar Heel Sarah in Salt Lake City!

Ugghhhhhh-Rod

Remember this from 2007?



Well now there is this.



Sad day for baseball fans. What a mess.

Million Dollar (Indian) Arms

Many of you all may have already read about this (I'm sure Sky and Frank were on top of this ages ago) but it's a pretty cool story so I'll pass it along to our vast readership.

"The Million Dollar Arm" is an Indian reality TV show where 30,000 contestants competed to throw strikes at 85+ mph. The prizes were a $100K prize with a trip to the US to train and try out in front of MLB scouts for a shot at a major league contract. The show/contest was sponsored by a SoCal sports management company to try and find untapped baseball talent in a hugely populous country. The two guys that ended up winning, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, both threw javelin in India and had never picked up a baseball prior to this contest.

Anyways, these guys were both just signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates to minor league deals! Whether it's more smart baseball management move or marketing ploy/ merchanidising opportunity I can't say, but good for them! And... they have a pretty hilarous blog that they've been maintaining during their trip to the US. Their humility, excitement, and unique cultural perspective makes for some real funny entries. Here are some of my favorite lines from their blog:

"Tonight we were celebrating the Halloween Holiday here in America. we are not sure what the holiday comes from, but kids dress up in all kinds of crazy outfits and then go to houses asking for sweets. if people in the house no give the sweets then the kids put toilet paper in their trees."

"The American Football players are so big and have such huge muscles you would not even believe it. Each time they hit each other we are told it is like being in a car accident. These men hit each other many times per match. praise Allah that we have won a baseball contest and a not a football one. i don’t think we could even take a hitting once."

"We went with JB sir to breakfast at a great American breakfast eatery called Dennys. Rinku ordered a breakfast aclled the Lumberjack. We now know that a Lumberjack is a person who works as a tree cutter in the forrest so they must eat a lot of food. this breakfast was quite huge. It had eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, potatos, breads, and pancakes. I had French Toast and both meals were very fulfilling."

"Monday our greatest dream is coming to us. We both get contract to play pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. We are so happy and excited it is unreal. We are thanking the Pirates and will work very hard to make them proud of our results. We right away went to the internet to locate Pittsburgh on map. It is in north east part of USA and looks like very good city."

There's a lot more, so go read it for yourselves. Congrats Rinku and Dinesh, hope to see you on the field for the Pirates some day!

MNF

This was the fourth season in a row that Maggie and I have gone to the Broncos / Raiders game at the Oakland Coliseum. Each year has been completely different - but this year promised to be even bigger and badder, as it was opening day for the Raiders, and a Monday Night game to boot. I had never been to a MNF game before and was a bit apprehensive. I knew the fans would be extremely jazzed up for the game. Before it started, Maggie and I walked around the tailgate parties a bit and we saw both sides of things - ranging from people wanting their pictures taken with us, to some folks throwing trash in our general direction. Nothing made us too uncomfortable - we tend to be pretty good sports about everything and keep the mood light hearted. We did notice that there were WAY fewer Broncos fans there this year than in years past. Not sure if this is because they were all in hiding or if the hype surrounding the game just meant that the tickets were all snapped up by the Raiders faithful before anyone else could get them. Below is a picture of the parking lot as we left - you can see the mounds of trash that are left by the fans who had been tailgating for 8+ hours before the game.
Once in the stadium, we found our seats (third level in the corner - still cost upwards of $60 a ticket!) and started to "get to know" our neighbors. This is always a precarious time in these games - good natured neighbors lead to an enjoyable, banter-filled game for all. We had some fun folks around us this time and they hadn't been drinking nearly as much as our neighbors from last season which was definitely a good thing.

The Broncos started off on a tear - the Raiders never really even had a chance in this game. We saw some great plays by Broncos rookie Eddie Royal and RB Andre Hall - both Maggie and I vowed to try to pick them up in our fantasy leagues. Final score was 41-14 but it was even more lopsided than that looks, because the Raiders got a touchdown in garbage time at the end of the game. It was a relief to come away with a big victory - both as a promising start to the season for the Broncos, and also because Raiders fans are a lot less fiesty and belligerent when they lose. Overall, it wasn't nearly as rowdy and "different" from prior seasons as I expected it to be. We had a wonderful time, as always - and are optimistic about this season for the (now) 4-1 Broncs!

Kerri Walsh wins gold, fails math

I will admit that I have enjoyed watching Olympic Beach Volleyball over the past week, which here in the US means watching Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor most of the time. And I will admit that they both seem pretty likable. But I guess neither Walsh or the ad people behind this 24 Hour Fitness ad spent much time reviewing the script before putting it on the air.

You can watch the video of the commercial at the link, but the gist of it is a bunch of guys are shown embarrassing themselves on the court and then after a particularly harsh spike the ball rolls up to Kerri's feet and she says "Best seven out of twelve?"

I mean, doesn't she spend nearly every waking hour playing a sport that's fundamentally designed around the principle of winning "best X out of Y"? You may have seen this reported over at FJM already but I thought it was worth copying due to the surprising dumbness of it. But anyways, they sure are good at beach volleyball, eh?

NL All-Star Ballot, 2008

Here's the second installment of my annual MLB All-Star ballot posts, this time on the NL. I've added pictures here (and for the AL post, see below) for your viewing pleasure.

First Base:
Lance Berkman, and it's not even close. Which is pretty amazing, considering how good guys like Adrian Gonzalez and Pujols are doing. But Berkman's line of .354/.432/1.121 is sort of ridiculous, even considering that he plays in a little league-sized park. But it's fun to see Gonzalez really develop into a top-tier 1B in the NL lately. I bet the Rangers are wishing they had either him or Teixeira these days.

Second Base:
A couple weeks ago people were writing that this was an easy pick of Chase Utley. But now not only is it not an obvious choice, Utley and Florida's Dan Uggla have basically identical stat lines. And Uggla's home park is not as hitter-friendly as Philly.
Utley: .291/.379/.599 - 22 HR, 57 R, 63 RBIs, 173 TB, 6/0 SBs/CS
Uggla: .294/.379/.643 - 23 HR, 57 R, 57 RBIs, 175 TB, 4/1 SBs/CS
Pretty amazingly similar, considering all the love Utley is (deservedly) getting these days. I think Utley is a better fielder, but I'm not going to look that up now. And I also give a little value to track record, and Utley has the edge in that category too. So I'll vote for Chase Utley, but only after acknowledging that this season Dan Uggla has basically matched him, and should definitely be named to the team as well. And yeah, Jayson Nix? The same Jayson Nix that has a grand total of 5 hits in 45 ABs, last playing in the majors in late April? Don't vote for that guy, even if you're a die-hard Rockies fan.

Shortstop:
Some good candidates here. Furcal is getting close to Chipper Jones territory, batting .366 along with a .448 OBP, but his power is down with only 5 HRs and 19 XBHs. Reyes is having an all-around good season in NY and leads the SS class with 26 SBs, but Hanley Ramirez is better in most categories - .295/.386/.521, 16 HR, 19/5 SB/CS. And there's Tejada, who has bounced back from the Mitchell Report and steroid accusations to help power the Astros with 10 HR, and a .294/.332/.468 line to date. I think there are several good shortstops in the NL so far, and I would guess we'll see Reyes on the roster, but Hanley Ramirez should win the fan vote, even if you factor in his crappy defense. By the way, where is last year's "MVP" Jimmy Rollins?

Third Base:
So, in case you hadn't heard, Chipper Jones is giving Ted Williams a run for his money this year. He's at .393(!)/.485/.631 and he has my vote easily. Honorable Mentions go to David Wright, Aramis Ramirez, and sure, what the heck, Jorge Cantu.

Catcher:
The three to consider here are Brian McCann, Russell Martin, and the Cubs' rookie Geovany Soto. Martin has slightly better on-base numbers (.315/.412/.451, 7 HR), but McCann edges him out in the power catergories (.306/.379/.562, 14 HR). Soto is a fun rookie to root for, but I think he needs to put up numbers like this for a few seasons before he gets the benefit of the doubt to make up for his statistical deficits. Martin is a solid choice, but I think McCann has the edge this year and also calls a great game for that Atlanta pitching staff.

Outfield:
Another interesting position. There are the "nobodies" (Ryan Ludwick, Nate McClouth), the "out from the shadows" (Pat Burrell), and the "small-market stars" (Jason Bay, Ryan Braun, Matt Holliday). What there is NOT is the sentimental-favorite rapidly declining old guy (Ken Griffey Jr., currently 3rd in OF voting), the Japanese guy who plays for the Cubs (Fukudome, 2nd in voting), and the guy famous from his Yankees stint who signed a huge contract so he must be worthy (Soriano, 1st in voting). Anyways, voter ignorance rant aside, I hadn't realized how McClouth (a career .261 hitter in 4 seasons) and Ludwick (a former Indian who's bounced between AAA and the show since 2002 hitting a career .263) and are tearing it up this year:
McClouth: .292/.375/.546, 15 HR
Ludwick: .297/.370/.606, 16 HR
Burrell has been similarly terrorizing NL pitchers: .271/.411/.571, 18 HR, and leads NL OFs in win probability added (by over a full win). Bay's line is similar too, at .283/.393/.524, 15 HR. And then there's Holliday, who has been injured a little but still has put up good numbers: .329/.410/.538, 9 HR. Ryan Braun, the new star in Milwaukee, leads the pack in HRs with 20, but has a sort of dismal OBP of .324 and his defense, while mitigated in the OF, is notoriously poor. I think all of these guys should make the team, but on my ballot I think I'll punch the holes next to Burrell, Ludwick, and Holliday, and really cross my fingers for McClouth.

It'll be interesting to see how the voting plays out, and how much clout the lemming fans in Boston, NY, and Chicago have over the baseball fans who haven't yet been brainwashed by ESPN. And leave a comment if you'd like to point out how stupid I am for picking Hanley over Tejeda, leaving off McClouth, or for pulling Dioner Navarro out of the sky and giving him my vote, please do!

AL All-Star ballot, 2008

Last year I went through the AL and NL All-Star ballots and made my picks, so why not give it another go this year? We'll start with the AL, because I like and know it better. If you're not a baseball type reader, feel free to tune out until we return to posting cute pictures of Banjo.

First Base:
I'm as big of an A's fan as anybody, but I have to say I'm shocked to see Daric Barton as the first player listed on the AL ballot. Aside from his great defense, he's be somewhat of a disappointment out here in Oakland. But even more suprising is Ben Broussard's name on the ballot - he was released by the Rangers (the team for which he's on the ballot), then picked up by the Yankees, released, and now picked up by the Cubs (NL) and given a minor-league contract. And you could vote for him as an All-Star. Wha? But this is supposed to be about the players who are most deserving. A cursory glance leaves the clear candidates as Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Giambi, and Carlos Guillen. All four have comparably impressive offensive stats, and all but Giambi play excellent defense. No strong feeling here, but Youkilis gets my vote here because while Giambi has the HR edge, Youk beats him in all the other significant categories, in particular posting 76 hits to Giambi's 49, not to mention the defense factor. But I could just as easily go Morneau here.

Second Base:
1B might have been a tough choice, but this one is easy: Ian Kinsler. He's having yet another great season for a great offensive Rangers team, batting around .300, OPSing .840, slugging around .400 with 10 HRs, not to mention going 17/18 in SB attempts so far. Not even close, although I should mention that Brian Roberts is having another good year, which is nice to see following the Mitchell Report and all that mess. Now I realize each team needs a representative, but yet again there are some head-scratchers on the ballot for this position as well: Asdrubal Cabrera, who batted .182 with only 1 HR before getting demoted to AAA. I mean, he's maybe like the 3rd best second baseman on the Indians, and that's being generous! Why not put Jamie Carroll on the ballot?

Shortstop:
As much as I would like to vote for Bobby Crosby (and I probably will) for just staying healthy and productive this year, the Texas middle infield really deserve to start for the AL this year. Michael Young is the clear choice here, posting all-around offensive numbers at the top end of each category and playing good defense. Unfortunately for Young, I think there's about as much chance of Young beating out Derek Jeter for the starting spot as there is that Ben Broussard will be starting at first.

This position's entry for the "Was that a typo?" contest is KC's Tony Pena Jr. This offensive powerhouse has managed to NOT get out only 28 times in his 162 at-bats so far. For those of you without calculators, that's really bad. Fortunately, the KC management seems to know not to vote for him either, as they've already replaced him with rookie Mike Aviles.

Third Base:
There's a good argument here for Joe Crede, who is having a great year after many thought he would lose the 3B job in Chicago to Josh Fields (see earlier post). But even though he has more HRs and RBIs, you'd be a fool not to recognize that ARod is the All-Star here. He's heating up, too, and now is at .326/.411/.600. None of the candidates are too egregious here, but I will poke fun at Willy Aybar for being in contention, as he's only been good enough to deserve 65 at-bats so far (full time players have ~200), and even then he's playing first base.

Catcher:
This is an interesting one, as the guys I would have guessed would be fighting for the top spot in voting aren't quite deserving. Victor Martinez is now out with an injury, and has still amazingly not hit a single home run yet. Jorge Posada has also been injured and thus not much of a factor this year. As for the contenders... Joe Mauer is not a power hitter, but he is suffering a similar drought with only 2 HR, but he's still near the top of most of the other batting categories, with a .324 avg and a .839 OPS, the best among catchers. There's also the Rays' Dioner Navarro, who missed a little time to injury earlier but is surprisingly still right up there with Mauer in terms of offense. Navarro gets a great deal of credit for handling the resurgent Rays' pitching staff, one of the major turn-around stories of the season. In another month I'm pretty sure we could clearly give this to Mauer, but right now I'll vote for the hot hand who has been powering a surprise contender in the AL East in Dioner Navarro. Too bad Posada and Varitek will end up as the top-vote getters, thanks to the NY and BOS fans. There aren't really any completely ridiculous options on the ballot at catcher, but if I see anyone voting for Gregg Zaun I will just assume they are somehow related to him.

Outfield:
Well, Josh Hamilton for one. That was easy. I'm sure you've heard about his recovery from serious drug addiction to make his way back to the majors and become one of, if not the, most feared hitter in the AL this year, so I won't repeat it here. I think you can't overlook his Ranger teammate Milton Bradley, despite the fact that he spends a lot of time DHing. GameBoy is leading the AL with a .329 avg, a 1.081 OPS, and is right up there with 15 HR. The last OF spot is a tough choice, as Grady Sizemore has played up to his usual standards and Carlos Quentin's newfound power has carried the White Sox (until his recent slump). But I think Boston's high-priced right-fielder J.D. Drew has been deserving this year. His line of .322/.429/.588 is pretty awesome. With 12 HRs has already surpassed his total from last year. And he's been a key cog in the high-powered Red Sox offensive machine, scoring 51 runs. Don't worry, Manny, Ichiro, and Vlad will all still be there. I wouldn't mind also seeing Nick Markakis, Luke Scott, Magglio Ordonez, or even David Murphy make the team, too. I would, however, be a little suspicious if I saw Jerry Owens (Josh Fields' teammate at AAA Charlotte), Jacque Jones (released by first the Tigers, then the Marlins in the span of a month, now has no job), or Chris Denorfia (about 19th on the A's OF depth chart at this point) put on an American League jersey in Yankee Stadium next month.

Designated Hitter:
Not a lot to pick from here. Jose Vidro? Is that just because MLB thinks people will recognize his name from back in 2000 when he was good? (I'll answer - yes, unless it's some kind of crack at the Mariners organization by pointing out that they're still paying him $8.5 million this year to float just barely above the Mendoza line as a DH). Anyway, I'm clearly going to vote for Jack Cust, and it might even be justifiable, given his 11 HRs and .420 OBP. But I guess I can see how, among the guys actually on the ballot as DHs, one might vote for Hideki Matsui this year. But still, Matsui gets negative points for being an OF that plays DH, while Cust is really a DH who (tries) to play OF (when the A's make him).

Stay tuned for my less-educated NL picks, and in the meantime go vote yourself!