Mean, mean stride

Today’s Tom Sawyer…

Mean, mean pride.

With no apologies to Rush.  Blog favorite Gary Burnham hits some of the prettiest home-runs we’ve ever seen.  Like a Tiger Woods drive, they just keep climbing and climbing, seeming to accelerate as they get out of the park.  What a beautiful, signature shot over the right field wall yesterday.  Is there any better sight than seeing the outfielder turn his back to home plate and then stop running?  Probably, but not last night - what a needed win for the good guys.

Matt Childers, Geoff Geary, Fabio Castro and Clay Condrey all contributed in a well pitched game for the Lynx. (Personally, I thought they could have left Geary in a little longer, but what do I know?)

Matt in the shadows.

Big weekend coming up - Hallowe’en at the ballpark tonight, race tomorrow and then the 15th Anniversary celebration tomorrow afternoon.  I’ll be checking out early tonight to get some rest before the 105 km. road race tomorrow, but uber-blogger and tireless Lynx chronicler, Neate Sager has got things covered. Sorry about the brevity of the post, but multiple tasks are callin’. Gotta bounce! See you at the park.

Sorry, couldn’t come up with anything “clever” for the title - there’s been too much hotdoggin’ around here lately anyway.  I had the chance to sit and watch the baseball game with uber-blogger, Neate Sager last night.  Neate’s one of those guys that takes the time to score the game and make some notes for use in his blog later.  We have one word for guys like that:

Keener.

It was a fun evening - I’m glad he was able to get out.  Unfortunately for me, most of my photos didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped - particularly for the last play of the game.  All I could come up with for Carlos Leon’s winning run was this:

Home plate awaits (Carlos and the catcher).

Oh, the suspense - my intention here was to leave the viewer wondering… who got there first?  Carlos or the catcher? [cough].  Okay.  Obviously I’m no Karsh.  If you want the good stuff, you’ll have to wait for Patrick to upload his shots.

One of the things which won’t show up in the box scores, or on Baseball Cube, is the “character” of a player.  You could forgive Geoff Geary if he simply mailed in his post game appearances after being sent down from Philadelphia.  Instead, last night he signed autographs and took photos - literally until there was no one left.   He told a bunch of little kids that they were the reason the Lynx won - “You were our good luck charms!”, and he thanked just about every one for coming out to the game.  We like this guy.

Mr. Geary in a serious moment.

Kurt Stoodley won the celebrity portion of the hotdog eating contest.  My sources say that he ate 10, started 11 but didn’t finish it.

“The source” was overseeing Mr. Stoodley’s every move.

While Mr. Mauler just wanted things to stop moving.  How about just one more - they’re just wafer thin!

This man does not look well.

Finally, blog favorite Charlie Weatherby put together six solid innings when it may have mattered most: Pat Gillick was still in the stands yesterday evening.  Great game Charlie!

Rod Nichols, looks to be prayin’ for a great start from Charlie.  He got one.

I don’t have a problem with a win every once in a while - the last three games have been U-G-L-Y.  Unless you like seeing SWB beat up on Lynx pitching - and for those of you that fall in that camp, well, … .

Yesterday saw the debut of Geoff Geary, recently sent down by the Philies.  The “line” on Geoff: 1 2/3 innings, 2 hits, 0 runs (but 2 “inherited” runners did score).

Newest Lynx pitcher, Geoff Geary.

Blog favorite, Joe Thurston had another strong game with not one, but two triples.

Motoring around second….

Arriving just ahead of the tag.

There was a good crowd at the park yesterday, but considering it’s size, it was extremely quiet - even before the game got out of hand.  Maybe just a Canada Day hangover.  Who knows….  Today should see another good “walk-up” with the 25 cent hot dog promo.

Appetite.  Gone.

And finally, chalk this up to the “there’s more to a Lynx game than just the game” - or “sometimes, winning and losing doesn’t matter”.  I had heard rumors a couple of weeks ago that a certain Phillies front office type might be in Ottawa this week…

“The boy’s” expression says it all!

Regular readers of the blog know that Zak’s a freak, er…, huge fan of the two World Series teams constructed by Pat Gillick.  As we were heading for shelter during a passing shower in the bottom of the ninth, I crossed paths with Mr. Gillick.

“Mr. Gillick?”  I asked, tentatively.  He replied, with a confident “yes”, confirming that it was indeed Pat Gillick (I suppose the Phillies hat and Olympics ring should have been a “give away”).  I introduced Zechariah and asked him if he wouldn’t mind signing a baseball.  He greeted Zak warmly, shaking his hand - but didn’t have a pen.  I sent “the boy” off in search of a ballpoint while I spoke with the Phillies GM.  I mentioned to him that “Zakky boy” was a huge fan of the 92-93 teams.

“Really?  Does he play ball?” he asked.   I told him that he does.

“What position?”

Now, you see, if I had been thinking, I would have realized that Mr. Gillick was on a fishing expedition: the word must have gotten down to the Phillies front office about the boy’s recent Little League performance and how I had very publicly called out the GM himself!  I had “The Man” right where I wanted him, and let him slip away!  Seriously though, I let it slip through my fingers…..

Mr. Gillick was very gracious, and waited patiently while Zak searched desperately for a pen.  (blogger: It felt like an eternity.  I finally found a pen, but then couldn’t find Zak.  Must. not. panic….)  Zak came flying around a corner with pen in hand (blogger: Note to self:  You know “The Man” was impressed by Zakky’s speed.  You know it.) and he signed the ball and then agreed to take a picture with Zak.  He seems very relaxed, and cut through Zak’s uncertainty about how close he should stand for the photo; he just pulled him in tight.   I love this shot.  “The boy” has a classic, “Look who’s got their arm around me!” expression on his face. (blogger:  Pat has a “Look who I’ve got my arm around” look on his! Or, alternatively, a ”I can’t believe these stalkers found me here in Ottawa while I was disguised with my best tropical shirt” expression.)

A gentleman to be sure.

Have an eye for him, he may be at the game this evening.

Gotta bounce.  I’m working on hammering out the details of a multi-year contract….

Today is the start of the East Nepean Little League championships.  Our boys went down 8-6 this a.m. and will play for the bronze at 4.

Gotta bounce….

*** UPDATE ***

And we’re back.  Don’t ask about the game by the way….  Lately my blog goals have been to get at least one post out a day - hopefully something meaningful.  Unfortunately, I’ve been really pressed for time this week and a lot of stuff has backed up.  There have been some very interesting developments up in Philadelphia.  It seems that the injury to starting pitcher, Jon Lieber, is worse than initially thought; he may require surgery and be lost for the season:

“With Lieber sidelined, the Phillies will need pitchers for one game of Friday’s doubleheader and for Saturday’s game against the New York Mets. Amaro said the Phillies likely will call up pitchers from the minors to make those starts.”

But just yesterday it was being reported that Eude Brito had been removed from the 40 man roster to make room for J.C. Romero, recently released by Boston.

“Amaro said Class AAA left-hander Matt Smith’s elbow injury is more serious than the Phillies believed, and there are few other options in the minors. And because Boston released Romero, the Phillies will have to pay him only a prorated portion of the major-league minimum salary ($380,000) if he gets called up, with the Sox on the hook for the rest of his $1.6 million salary.”

Hmmm. Curiouser and curioser. If I was a betting man, I would think that J.D. Durbin might get a shot. Unfortunately, Bubba Nelson flamed out when it mattered most; I believe Phillies assistant GM, Mike Arbuckle was in the stands on June 20 when the Mud Hens lit him up. Dark horse? Charlie Weatherby. Desperation move? Carlos Carrasco (in Reading). Not because I don’t think he’s a fine pitcher (one of the Phils top, if not the top pitching prospect), but because it would be rushing him - he just left Clearwater. J.A. Happ would be a strong candidate, but they’ve likely still got him on a low pitch count given his recent injury which takes him out of the running.

In any event, injuries and the trade deadline should make for a lot of movement and good blog material!

That’s a bitter pill to swallow - particularly after the complete effort put in by everyone: grounds crew, Lynx staff, and the ball club.  Unfortunately, we had to bail; these 7 p.m. starts make it just a little too late when there’s a significant rain delay or extra innings.  Not so much for the kids, but for me - I wake up “stupid” early in the a.m.

Tarp on.  Record time?

Still, it’s always good to be at the park.  Couple of things we found out last night - Zack Segovia’s been sent down to Reading to find his game.  I’m not the least bit concerned as I fully expect that he will, and that he’ll be back soon.  #16 has made a return to Ottawa, but this time it’s lefty, Fabio Castro, donning the uniform.  Wonder if they’ll be using him as a starter or out of the pen?

Fabio and friends.

Quick reminder - I politely beg/urge/demand that you follow this link and vote as many members of the Ottawa Lynx to Albuquerque as you can.  It’s been made ridiculously easy; you can vote up to 25 times and the site doesn’t require that you repeat all your entries each time.  Literally, it took me less than 7 minutes to max out my votes.  Do it - you’ve only got until this Friday.

Bright smile on a dark night.

It’s going to have to be a quick post today - I’m off work with Bekah, but we’ve got lots of running around to do before game time.  With any luck, we should be able to squeeze in a nice long nap this afternoon - I think I need it more than she does.

Sailors delight.  The storm didn’t last long.

Bekah and Sponge Bob.

Great work by all involved in yesterday’s “goings on” at the park.  The “Sponge Bob” promotion and the “Hit-Run-Throw” were certainly both “high risk” propositions - like most things on the sched, they’re entirely at the mercy of the weather.  A little bit of rain could mean that a lot of planning and hard work would be washed down the drain.  Thankfully, this year the weather has been more than cooperative with only one rainout this entire season. 

Having been at the park for most of the day (Doris and the kids got there at 8.30 - I didn’t show until almost 10.00), we witnessed first hand some of the work that goes into pulling an event like yesterday off.  Everyone we saw busted their tails - Ryan ran the H-R-T smoothly (blogger:  it seemed that he was charged with the safekeeping of Josh’s baby: the field.  It’s curious that for such a seemingly mild mannered individual, Josh has commanded the fear of the rest of the Lynx staff when it comes to his turf), security was there early (blogger: some of the best ambassadors the Lynx have are the boys and girls in grey), Francois was on-call for my wife’s company function, while others worked carefully removing some unwelcome artwork that popped up.  Large hat-tip to everyone involved.

Danny meets one of his fans.

As for the game itself, the conditions were spectacular - hot, dry, sunny and around 88 degrees at game time.  During warm-ups, we watched the guys practicing their throws and I was able to ask Kane Davis how his arm was feeling.  In between throws to Brian Sanches he told me it was feeling good, but he wasn’t sure when he’d be coming off of the DL; he said he was surprised that he had been on it this long, and that he initially thought it would just be for a few games.  

Kane winds…

Picture perfect 4 seam grip.

Textbook follow through.

Charlie Weatherby has officially become a “blog favorite”.  He spent time with the kids during the H-R-T, and stopped to autograph hats, gloves and balls.  He also figured into the official score, pitching 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief of starter Eude Brito. For the third day in a row, Lynx hitters (this time in the person of Chris Roberson) hit another one out - can we put this lack of home-run production to bed now? 

Blog favorites, Charlie Weatherby and…

Zack Segovia.

Due to the heat, we took shelter with many others in the shade of the upper deck.  As the afternoon progressed, we discovered we were sitting immediately below a box with a birthday party, and one with what appeared to be a bachelor party.    Both got louder as the afternoon progressed with interesting cheering and heckling emanating from the latter - I loved the support for Chis RO - BER - SON! (By the 9th, we’d adapted the RO-BER-SON cheer for Ottawa’s second baseman, JOE-THURS-TON.  The bachelor party caught on to the joke and seemed to enjoy it.)  Manny Alexander found some disciplinary issues from his past brought to light, as did Darnell McDonald.

At the end of the day, the result may not have been what we were hoping for, but everyone I heard from had a great afternoon!

Watson’s 42nd consecutive game hit would come later.

I found the seat Pedro broke last week.

The only thing better than one Bekah, is two!