A sublime ending to the 2011 Season for the Oakland A's.

Mixing the awful (dental appointment) with the great, (A's game), on my day off resulted in some serious reflection between innings of the A's vs. Texas game. This season I went to more games than I have since my college days when tickets were cheap and I had more free time than I needed. To my delight, my wife the lovely one became an A's fan and we spent some great time together at the games. She teases me that I am like Jimmy Fallon's character in "Fever Pitch."  I might be, but, I haven't been able to find an Oakland A's shower curtain, but, I'm still looking.

It may be a long cold winter until spring training. But I've already put down my deposit for season tickets for next year. Also, Hollywood, or more specifically, Brad Pitt have produced a movie about Billy Beane and the 2002 Athletics. I hope the movie creates more fans because we sure do need more bodies out at the ballpark! 

I haven't set the date yet for my annual Baseball Movie Film Festival, but announcements should be made shortly. In the meantime, I will gaze fondly at the above photo and I hope you do too until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

My Escape from Reality

Most of my summer was spent working on my backyard. We decided to make some major changes and I am so glad we did. Now when I come home from work, I go outside and sit on the swing and read or watch netflix movies on my ipad, enjoying the cool breeze and the quiet. Here's a sampleer.

What used to be grass, weeds and bare dirt is now this:

And this:

and this:

It's Been a Long Time!

Back again to post an update. Since my last post, I've run in a view trail races, ran the Oakland Half Marathon in 1:31 finishing 2nd in my age group, ran the 100th running of the Bay to Breakers in 50:14 and most recently, 30K trail race in Oakland where I finished 1st in my age group only because I was running against myself. My next race is the Portland Marathon in October, the first travel race I've done with my wife which is why I am starting up with this blog again, so I can chronicle our trip.

I've also been coaching a few runners for their own races which gives me a chance to write or say the word "I" less often. It was very satisfying seeing them reach their goals. It is true that men tend to do a poor job at running easy on "easy" days and that some women aren't so good at pushing themselves when running becomes painful. That said, it was a great experience and I am hoping to do more coaching in the future.