Keeping A Toon

So, you all--by whom I mean one or two people--followed my personal dilemma as to which football--read 'soccer'--team to follow this year. I stayed true to Newcastle United. How are they doing in the Championship?

Let's look, starting at the cast of characters: Damien Duff, gone. Mark Viduka, gone. Michael Owen, gone. Obafemi Martins, gone (that is a lot of striking potential gone, let's face it). Shay Given, gone.

But Steven Taylor, the young star defender, the local boy, is still there, as is Shola Ameobi, also local. Alan Smith and Nicky Butt are still there. Steve Harper is still there.

And despite the ownership question still not being resolved--how hard is it to sell a team when the fans hate you?--and despite Chris Hughton still being just an interim manager with the specter of Alan Shearer hovering over him, Newcastle sits third in the Championship with five wins, one draw, and one loss, and they won their first match in the Carling Cup.

Oh, and they have a young striker named Nile Ranger. That's just a really cool name, in my opinion, so they must be doing something right.

Baseball '09, Volume XIV: Viewing For The Cycle

TUESDAY, September 8th:

One more pair of free tickets, garnered from work. We lost, a disappointment, losing 4-3 to the weak San Diego Padres to fall further behind in a wild card race, but the tickets are a metaphor for the season: free tickets, a free playoff race. No one expected the Giants to do this well this year, to still be contending, so we should be thrilled that we were even to the point of being disappointed at the loss.

I was going to write a bitter diatribe about the end of the cycle of live games coinciding with the end of the Giants' hopes, but since then, all of a sudden, we flip from weak bats and failed pitching to suddenly drawing within 2 1/2 games of the Rockies' going into tonight's game (which is not going so well, but that is besides the point).

Hope looked dead; now hope is flourishing again, although I still think we lack the bats and the middle bullpen to stay in the race.

But this is baseball, or maybe sports in general, as a metaphor for life. It is such a long season that it weeds out both unreasonable optimism and premature despair. Although with the Dodgers securely in first place, there are certainly grounds for all people of good moral conscience to despair.

So yeah, that Tuesday night, the Giants lost. But I'm going to write about what I liked from the night. That's what matters with sports: there is always another day, so focus on the positive.

Elements of the game that I liked:

1) I did it! I have seen at least one live baseball game every month of the season between April and September. October doesn't count, as the season only stretches a few days into that month, unless the post-season is appended, and I can't count on that, nor could I afford playoff tickets.

In April, A's-Red Sox and Giants-Diamondbacks. 1 win for the good guys, one loss. One ticket paid for, one ticket free from work. In May, Giants-Braves, free from work, victory for the good guys. June, Giants-Rangers, ticket paid for, Giants win, 1 Father's Day tie acquired for free; also, A's-Twins, ticket courtesy of Vaughn, but the wrong team won. July, Giants-Pirates, ticket paid for, I think, and the good guys won. August, Giants-Diamondbacks, free ticket, bad guys won. September, Giants-Padres, free ticket, bad guys won. I think that collection of results is a good snapshot of life's twists. Or at least I hope it is, because otherwise, this blog is far less profound than I hope it is.

2) Aaron Rowand. Hit a home run to dead center to restore a 2-1 lead and later scored from second on a hard infield single from Velez.

3) The defense of Freddy Sanchez. He turned a couple of double plays and made a spectacular leaping snag of a line drive late in the game that was fun to see.

4) The roasted chicken sandwich. It went really well with the (overpriced) Anchor Steam.

5) Clutch hits from Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina. It's what we want to see.

All in all, it was a good night for baseball, a fun way to spend an evening with Marina, and--did I mention this yet?--the tickets were free.