19 April 1998: A Long Ballgame

Sunday, 19 April 1998:

A Long Ballgame

Most of today was taken up with going to see the Brewers. It was a long game, lasting 12 innings, and finally ending with a Brewers win, 3-2, and with the Brewers sweeping the 3-game series with the San Francisco Giants. The Brewers actually have one of the best records in the National League right now, and I believe are leading their division. For a team that was picked to finish last or next-to-last (some pundits claimed that the Cubs should be thankful to have the Brewers to finish behind them), this is rather remarkable. More remarkable is that much of their success has been due to solid pitching.

That said, it was not an especially good game. The high points were players being thrown out at home plate - one from each team - by fine throws from the respective left fielders. Unfortunately, Barry Bonds - who was basically the guy who drew me to the park today - did not have a good day, and I believe ended the series 1-for-10 (and was one of the guys thrown out at home). He was roundly booed whenever he stepped to the plate, and I'm sure he is - as my friend David put it - glad to see Milwaukee in his rear-view mirror.

I just can't get excited about National League teams. I'm a Red Sox fan, and these other teams don't have any meaningful bearing on the teams I really follow. Who cares? It's kind of nice to go to the ballpark, but it's a crushing blow to my interest in the Brewers not to be able to see the Red Sox come to County Stadium twice a year.

I didn't do a whole lot tonight. Went out for a short bicycle ride, and edited the commercials out of two of the five Babylon 5 episodes I have left to record before I'm all done. I did some more reading of Children of God. I kvetched a bit about work to the guy I went to the game with on the trip back from the game (He also works at Epic, albeit on a different team). He says that much of what bothers me used to bother him, but he's just started ignoring it since he can't really do anything about it. That's probably the best thing for me to do, but it's hard not to care when I see things done which I just feel aren't right. Maybe I just need to try harder (or maybe not try harder - maybe it's a zen thing).

Sigh.

I don't really feel like going to work tomorrow, but, well, them's the breaks. I just need to get through this customer training thing on Friday and hopefully things will be smoother sailing for the few weeks after that.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)