Baseball Season Endeth

I also watched the second episode of Now and Again, in which our hero escapes the government dudes watching him and visits his best friend and his wife from his former life. It's really, really weak stuff; I can't believe the government dudes wouldn't just spirit him far away from his former life - like, to a remote cabin in Colorado - to avoid all this.

I worked out today. Went jogging. When I got back, I found a quarter of the floor of the fitness center covered in water. Turns out a pipe burst while I was out, and they hadn't yet figured out how to turn off the water. (I snuck in a shower before they did so.) I helped them move some equipment around (bonus exercise!) and helped lay down towels to help contain the water. Hopefully, they managed to stop the flow before too long, but I don't have high hopes for working out tomorrow morning, given this.

Then I headed off to my comic store to take advantage of their 20% off sale this weekend. Picked up a few things, but not a whole lot. I think I'm actually running out of stuff to buy.

I'd like to go to the San Diego Comic Con next year. It's been many years (since college) since I've been to a comic book convention, and this is one of the big ones (the other big one is in Chicago). Wonder if I know anyone who would be interested in going and splitting a hotel room or something?

In a most unusual baseball game on this final day of baseball season, the Red Sox again defeated the Orioles, this time 1-0 in 10 innings. Orioles pitchers no-hit the Sox for 7 innings. Sox manager Jimy Williams used an amazing eight pitchers, none of them going for more than 2 innings or more than 30 pitches. He also rotated out every position player, although John Valentin and Lou Merloni only came out in the 10th inning.

Did Williams not really care if the Sox won? My guess is that he wanted to make as sure as possible that no key players got hurt, while giving some relievers a little extra work to stay sharp for Wednesday's playoff opener, and he wanted to get a look at some young position players in a game that didn't matter. Not a bad thing, and the end result was fine. I bet it was a helluva game to be at!

Other baseball news:

1. Mark McGwire hit his 65th home run and Sammy Sosa hit his 63rd, further solidifying their places in history.

2. The Houston Astros won to become NL Central division champs - by only one game.

3. The Astros' competition, the Cincinnati Reds, defeated the Milwaukee Brewers, but their other competition, the New York Mets, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, to force a tie for the NL Wild Card. The Mets will travel to Cincinnati to play the Reds in a winner-take-all game tomorrow. Since I hate New York teams on principle, I'm rooting for the Reds.

4. While no teams in the American League finished with 100 wins, the Braves (103) and the Diamondbacks (100 exactly) did so in the NL.

5. Boston plays Cleveland in the first round on Wednesday. Bring 'em on!

The weather has finally cooled off to nice low-to-mid 70s highs. It should keep cooling off for the next few months, I guess, and then the rainy season (a.k.a. "winter") starts.

I did get a pleasant surprise this past week when I noticed that several trees at Apple are changing color. Nice to know I'll get to see some pretty fall colors around here!