It's been a while since I posted here, so I will say something about this year's baseball season.

I have been a Cubs fan since High School, which for me goes back to 1982.  I watched a ton of games on WGN when we lived in Carpentersville, Illinois; a far, far out suburb of Chicago.  I absolutely loved Steve Stone and Harry Carey calling the games.  In all that time that I've been wearing my Cubs hat and catching games off and on when I can find them on TV, the Cubies have always pretty much sucked.

The pattern is predictable and comforting.  Every year they start out by saying this will be the year.  And every year they do pretty good up until the All Star Break.  Then the wheels fall off the wagon and they slowly fade out to the point where everyone starts muttering "Next year". 

But lately, the Cubs have been in the running up until the play offs.  They actually got within a game or two of winning the National League Title.  In 2003, they won their Division.  So there is the beginning of a trend for winning.  Something that often times indicates a team is ready to go all the way.  For the Cubs, as everyone seems to know, that has not happened in a hundred years.

This year the Cubs have been winning, and winning and staying atop their division and even atop both leagues.  My mind just can't handle all this consistant winning.  Cubs lose, it's the way of the universe.  Charlie Brown ALWAYS misses the football and the Cubs ALWAYS lose.  To mess with this is defying the mystical gods of the game itself.  All is not lost however, we still have a LOT of baseball left to play.  The wheels could once again fall off the winning machine and they could still yet lose a shot at the playoffs.  But really, can they beat the ods?  I don't know, but I will be there to witness it if they do, because after Boston won, anything is possible.

My only saving grace this year is that I'm also a Mariner's fan.  When it comes to losing, the M's have been studying under the tutalige of the Chicago Cubs of old.  Go Mariners!

My oldest is shown here ready to give that ball a ride.  He really has good form.  Stands at the plate like a pro ball player.  When his head is in the game, he does real good.  When he gets bored, he turns seven again.  Sigh.  We are hoping another year will bring more maturity to his game.  The eight-year-olds on the team seem years older in maturity.

Opening Day was a huge hit with my kids.  Each boy got multiple on-base hits and the oldest even batted in an RBI.  I was bench Coach for the T-ball Texas Longhorns and I have to say, our team was really well behaved for a bunch of five and six year olds.  Everyone seemed to hit well and as is the norm, everyone got to base.  On defense, we had a few forced outs by the more experienced players but so far no body has yet thrown an out.

On the Rookie team, the Oregon State Beavers, I only got to see the last inning and they played for three innings or maybe four.  There sure is a big jump in abilities from T-ball to Rookie league.  The Beavers were able to hit from the pitching machine and make plays at first and second base.

The Beaver's coach has a standing offer to treat the team to pizza if they can manage to get a triple play.  That's a safe bet.

"Beat the drums, hold the phone, there's new grass on the field."  Centerfield by John Fogerty

It's Spring and baseballs are a flying around the old ball park.  Opening Day today for my sons' Cal Ripken League teams. They sure do look cute in their uniforms.  Jack is on the Oregon State Beavers and he's got a black shirt and hat with white pants and orange socks and belt.  Spencer is on the Texas Longhorns and he's wearing an orange shirt, white pants and orange socks.  They look very major league. 

Shoot, in my day we had shirts and jeans and a hat.  Our hats just had the old iron on felt letters on them not team logos.  So the kids these days have it made in terms of looking and feeling the part.  Well, I'm being hounded to take pictures in the backyard before we head out for team pics and the first game. 

I may post here occasionally about baseball.  I seem to be using the Blogger blog for food cravings, so I guess this will be my sports blog'.

I'm not sure why I need a LiveJournal blog and a personal blog, but who knows? I may use this to post about some things not related to My View, but I don't know what yet. I could get all political, or not. I'll have to think about it. This Drivel client sure geeks me out. It's very smooth for a Linux program.

That user pic of me was taken on an ancient webcam attached to my Ubuntu box in the Ham shack.

So this is posted from Ubuntu using Drivel.

The party is over at http://myview.w0pht.org