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See if you see something wrong with this All-Star picture:
The fact that half the AL All-Stars are coming from the East Division sure screams "East Coast Bias" to me. That the Yankees have almost as many selections as the ENTIRE AL West is just plain wrong.
Also, Boston is in 2nd place, they get 5 All-Stars... Chicago is in 2nd place, they get 2 All-Stars... Anaheim is in 2nd place and they get ONE FREAKIN' ALL-STAR!!!!
The West is also the only division in which a lower team has more selections than a higher team.
The Angels have a higher win percentage than Minnesota, Chicago, and Oakland, yet these three teams have multiple All-Stars and Anaheim only has one.
Garret Anderson goes for Angels, and he's absolutely deserving. But that Tim Salmon gets snubbed again... it's just a goddamn joke. And while it's nice that Darin Erstad is one of the five nominated to be the AL's 30th Man, he's clearly had a much inferior season to Salmon. I don't know how Torre and the MLB office can submit Erstad over Salmon.
Fellow Angels fans, feel free to vent your frustration below.
I've long lamented the lack of official Angels wallpapers, as most MLB teams have. Well, the first official wallpapers are up today on the Angels website...
...of the Rally Monkey.
Yep, it's Disney.
Tonight, the Angels beat the Dodgers soundly 7-0 behind Aaron Sele's complete game, 3 hit shutout - easily his best outing as an Angel by far. It was quite an awesome game to watch.
Tomorrow at 4 PST the All-Star selections will be announced. Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon both deserve to represent the Angels, and maybe Jarrod Washburn as well. If there were't 18,435,127 good shorstops in the AL, David Eckstein and Adam Kennedy might also deserve consideration.
I'll check back here tomorrow with my views on who got chosen and who got snubbed.
As most of you know, I'm a geek. One facet of this geekdom is that I really like Dungeons and Dragons.
Well, wierd shit is going down with it. To start, Wizards of the Coast has sold their official magazines Dungeon and Dragon. It would seem to me that selling your banner magazines is a Bad Sign.
Also, about a year ago, WOTC released a miniature wargame line called Chain Mail, meant to compete with Games Workshop's Warhammer game. They then over the last year proceeded to stop producing non-Chain Mail minatures and stop carrying Games Workshop miniatures in their retail stores. This second one means that one can only purchase Warhammer minis at GW retail locations at the Block of Orange and the Glendale Galleria (and those are the only two GW shops in SoCal), unless you want to go to someplace like The Simpson's Android's Dungeon, and that's even a bit too geeky for me.
Now, they've announced that they're cancelling Chain Mail.
What the hell is going on with my favorite role playing game company? DnD is the oldest name in RPG's - I hope it doesn't go to hell because WOTC doesn't know what the hell they're doing.
After ordering my Padres tickets late Monday night, I received them today in the mail. That's some quick service!!
Tonight, I bought tickets for myself, my girlfriend, and her brother (who goes to UC San Diego) tickets to the July 13th Padres-Cardinals game. Should be fun - and it's Mark Kotsay Mesh Batting Practice Jersey Night, free to all fans!!
This is all part of my quest to go to all the California major league stadiums this season. I've already gone to Edison International Field of Anaheim quite a few times, of course, and I've already made my visit to Dodger Stadium as well. This'll take care of Qualcomm Stadium, and once I move to Sacramento I'll pay visits to Pacific Bell Park and Network Associates Coliseum.
Plus, I've made a couple trips to Sacramento's Raley Field, home of the AAA affiliate of the Oakland A's, the Sacramento RiverCats.
I like baseball. I mean really.
Time for another Monday Night Softball update. This time, for the first time in this league, we didn't lose!! We tied, 15-15.
We played a church group, and they were the nicest bunch of guys (and a gal) you'd ever want to share a field with. They were very friendly and even brought cookies to share with us after the game. Wow!!
I went 0 for 1 with 3 walks and a run scored, and played pretty well in left field. My first at bat, I swung at a bad first pitch and popped to 2nd to lead off an inning. I was so disgusted with that, I didn't even swing the rest of the night. :-P It worked, though. Getting on base 3 out of 4 times is pretty good.
Those of you who frequent my site are for the most part baseball fans. So, I'm sure you've heard about the shocking death of Darryl Kile, pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. His last start was a victory over the Anaheim Angels on Tuesday, June 18th, that put St. Louis in first place in the NL Central.
I watched that game. When I think of that, it's very eerie.
After somberly cancelling yesterday's game, the Cardinals went ahead and played tonight's game in honor of Kile - a game Kile was scheduled to start. The Cubs and Cards - traditionally bitter rivals - played a somber game that the Cubs won 8-3.
The Cards, however, showed the utmost class and dignity just by taking the field tonight. As with baseball fans across the country, my thoughts are with Kile's family and the Cardinals organization.
Another Monday, another softball game. We played a team that had been put in the wrong league - they dominated us, but as it was Irvine's administrative error that was responsible, I don't mind too much.
Personally, I had the best week I've had in a long, long while. I went 1 for 1, double, RBI, 2 walks, and 3 runs scored. I just have to translate that into continued success. Well, that and remember to use Joe's lighter bat again next week. :-P
Lately, I've found a fun way to waste my time: Hero Machine.
With Hero Machine, you can use a simple Flash-powered "paper doll" type system to create all sorts of characters, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Superhero, whatever you can imagine.
Below are a couple of examples of my creations. If you go check it out, I recommend you download the program, rather than run it on the site. It runs a hair slow, even on a cable modem, on the site, and it's a quick download that will save load times later.
Head on over there and have some fun with the Hero Machine!!
Damn. I'd been hoping to go to a RiverCats game against the Salt Lake Stingers, the Angels AAA team, after I move up to Sac. Unfortunately, the 'Cats and Stingers only play each other twice this year - in Sac way back in April, and in Salt Lake in August.
Damn.
Math: Made in China?
Well, last night the Lakers won the NBA Finals, and tonight the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup. What's the most important aspect of this to me?
It means SportsCenter can now focus on baseball.
I'm a huge baseball fan, and since the NBA Finals means my Angels can't get a minute of press in SoCal even when they're the 4th best team in the AL and only 1 game behind Seattle in the AL West...
Logo courtesy of Mike.
Well, another Monday, another game of softball. And, unfortunetly, another loss, 17-10. I went 1-3, with an RBI, so at least that's an improvement.
Exciting stuff, if you're me: The offical Transformers website has been updated to focus on the upcoming (August is the rumor) line, Transformers: Armada. Lots of cool pics, wallpapers, and such.
Last night was another game of softball. We lost by one run, which sucks, and I went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored, which also sucks. Oh well.
I just finished watching the first three episode origin story arc on my recently purchased Transformers Season One Collector's Edition DVD (purchased in an order from Amazon last week along with - shocking! - a Transformers toy and some Dungeons and Dragons books).
Let me just say, I'm glad I was born in 1978, because if I wasn't, I wouldn't enjoy those episodes at all.
I hadn't seen them in ages, and boy, are they poor. I mean, they make Transformers: The Movie look like Citizen Kane. If it wasn't for the power of nostalgia... Fortunately, I unconditionally love just about all things Transformers.
(There are a rare few toys that are total clunkers that, while I do own them, it's for the sake of having the complete set more than any virtue of their own.)
The Beast Wars cartoon is much, much better than the Generation One (i.e., 1980's) cartoon. CGI graphics, more intelligent writing, better characterization... I could go on. Yes, I realize that it's still a half hour toy commercial, just as the original series was, but it's a good half hour toy commercial.
This is annoying... according to their official site, the Anaheim Angels are theoretically on KCAL 9 right now... but they're not. What the hell's up with that? If the team's official site doesn't know when the team's on TV...
Oh well, it's the radiocast for me today.