dangerous celebrations

I'm no fun - never have been. 

That being said, I'd like to express my dismay at how baseball teams celebrate game-winning hits. They're dangerous! Take the Oakland A's for example. They are leading the league right now in game-winning hits with 9 after last night's walk-off home run by Brandon Hicks in the bottom of the 9th.

How does the team celebrate? Besides the usual jumping up and down at the plate and the pounding administered by teammates, which is par for the course for most teams, the A's have made it mandatory to dump the contents of one, if not two, Gatorade containers on the hero while he is giving his post-game interview for television. Which is immediately followed by a 'pie-in-the-face.' At least I understand they are using whipping cream instead of shaving cream now. Understandably, shaving cream is painful and perhaps even a hazard when it gets in one's eyes and most certainly tastes gosh-awful if it gets in the mouth. 

But what I am most worried about is the overturning of the Gatorade container when it is being dumped. What I have been fearing all these years, whether it is that dumb tradition used at the end of big victories in football, or in baseball, happened: the container itself actually hit the athlete as he was being splashed. Of course, contact like that is inadvertent, but it's still a risk. Hicks in this case was unfazed, but one of these days, it's going to actually hurt someone. 

Speaking of stupidly dangerous celebrations, and switching once again to football, I remember a big college game that I was excited to watch. Ted Ginn, Jr. was the player I was looking forward to seeing and he made a fantastic touchdown scoring return early in the game, which all the fans were anticipating. And what do his teammates do to celebrate? They mob him in the endzone, jump up and down on top of him, and end up injuring him... badly enough that he has to leave the game. So much for watching Ted Ginn, Jr. that day.

Yup, stupid and dangerous. Reckless. Don't like it. 

same day, same year

One of my early entries to this blog mentions how I like to clue into birthdays. Well, actually I think I went into famous people who shared my birthday. Still, I am rather intrigued by birthdays in general. For example, I find it interesting that both football great Jim Brown and basketball legend Michael Jordan have the same birthday, February 17. They're each widely regarded as being the best ever to play in their respective sports.

Today is the birthday of both actor Harrison Ford and musician Roger McGuinn. What makes it even more interesting is they were born the same year. I enjoy looking back to that day and thinking how they both began their lives at the same time. I'd be curious to find out the parallels between them. I even wonder how they would get along with each other; have they ever met? 

Roger strikes me as being a little more cheerful and easy-going, whereas Harrison seems a little more complicated and maybe even a little more grumpy. Regardless, they both have reached stratospheric heights in their careers. And for those too young to immediately know who the heck Roger McGuinn is, he is most famous for once being in the seminal rock band The Byrds. He sang most of the lead vocals and played the Rickenbacker 12-string guitar and often wore those little rectangular shades. 

standing on the shoulders of Giants

Take that critics of all those Giants players starting the All-Star Game... and that, and that, and that, and that!

Talk about a good showing. I could hardly have imagined anything more lofty than what they did. The whiners and complainers sure must have felt small for what they said and wrote about Matt, Buster, Pablo, and MVP Melky before the game. 

I gotta say, I'm beginning to like Matt Kemp. That's Dodger Matt Kemp. He's showing that the Dodger-Giant rivalry is strictly between the lines when those two teams are playing each other. Otherwise, they're all playing the same game. I've even heard a story about how he grew up the biggest 49ers/Joe Montana fan. That's good too! 

Has there ever been an All-Star team with a Chipper, a Buster, and a Melky all on it? 

Did yesterday's game set a record for number of Cabreras? 

oh deer

I've been missing entries to this blog, I know. The last time I wrote one out, it was entitled 'Giant perfecto' in reflection of Giants pitcher Matt Cain's perfect game, but I had trouble getting it to 'take' in Blogger. In any case, (belated) Congratulations Matt! 

And then I was going to comment on the All-Star game selections of several Giants players; it's not like winning the popular vote is anything new. Get over it, people! I've been watching multiple players from other teams get voted in for years, so now it's the Giants' turn. Though I have been in favor of having people other than the fans decide on the starters for awhile now. Or limiting how many votes each fan gets. Or something. 

And then for today's blog entry subject, I'd just like to mention that tonight on the way back from a family visit (it was after 11 p.m.), my sister and I saw four deer walking around the neighborhood. I barely saw them ahead of me with my regular headlight beams, so I turned on my brights and was able to see what they were. They're such sweet, elegant, and beautiful animals. Even though they don't have to worry about being attacked by mountain lions in my neighborhood, I do worry about them getting hit by cars. And yes, I do realize that for many people, they are pest animals that ruin gardens ... but I don't feel that way. They're so lovely!