Ivan Nova, that is. The young man had quite a good start a few days ago–so good, in fact, that team management decided to give him a second start this Sunday against the White Sox. Though the Yanks lost to Toronto, 3-2, Nova pitched well through 5 innings, giving up 6 hits and a couple of runs. He was also involved in a bench-clearing incident when he threw wildly over the head of Toronto’s heavy hitter, Jose Bautista, who’s leading the Majors in home runs with 41. Bautista had hit a 2-run blast against Nova his previous time at bat, but the pitch didn’t appear intentional. Bautista took a few steps toward the mound, yelling something to Ivan, but, after the benches cleared, cool heads prevailed and the game continued. With the Yankees’ starting pitching currently in tatters, here’s hoping that the young Dominican can turn in another good performance on Sunday.
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Wow, I was watching the Yankee game this morning (Sunday, in the States) when the broadcasters announced the starting pitchers for the August 23rd game, Yanks at Toronto. One of my students at the Dominican Republic Yankee baseball academy is going for New York. Ivan Nova is a charismatic, 6-foot 4-inch, 23-year old from the D.R., and I’m really going to enjoy watching him pitch his first major league start, though he pitched a few games in relief earlier this year. It’s quite a huge deal for him. Here are his stats on Baseball Refrence. I joked with Ivan about what his nickname might be in the Majors; I said it could be “Ivan the Terrible,” but he told me that “Super Nova” was going to be his moniker. I think I have his email address, so I’m going to send him congratulations after he wins tomorrow. Good luck, Ivan! Here’s a photo of him that I posted back on Nov. 16, 2007, when part of the team visited an orphanage in Santo Domingo. The kids loved him, (like I said–charismatic), and he was swamped by young autograph seekers. I woke up real early this morning, like, at 3:30, and looked out my window to see a beautiful, clear sky, the first time I’ve been able to see the morning stars in what seems like weeks. Some of the recent evenings have been mostly clear, but we’ve had mainly overcast morning skies for quite a while. This morning, there was a beautiful, waning crescent moon rising in the east, preceded by Capella, Aldebaran and the Pleiades. Now, I’m going to watch the opening game of a 4-game set between the Yanks and the Red Sox. Yeah, I re-subscribed to MLB-TV in order to watch the teams struggle through the dog days of August and head down the stretch in September. The Red Sox have been devastated by injuries all season and are 6 1/2 games behind the Yanks. Hopefully, the New York squad can win 3 of 4 or even sweep the series; that would pretty much leave the Sox dead in the water as far as getting a spot in the playoffs. Excuse me now while I go chug another liter of water. More later. If you’re a baseball fan, then you must know by now that George Steinbrenner, The Boss, principal owner of the Yankees, died Tuesday of a heart attack. His presence will be sorely missed by all of us Yankee fans. I think that many fans of other teams openly hated him, but admired and respected him in secret because of his single-minded determination to win, and these fans of other teams wished their owners had that same drive. There are probably quite a few other owners who are only in the game for the money, but the fans of these teams suffer more often than not. I’m sure that Steinbrenner cared about increasing the value of his investment in the team, but his main focus was on winning and putting money back into the organization, rather than pocketing any profit. When I worked with the Yanks in the Dominican Republic, I always hoped that George would make a surprise visit to the academy, but, of course, he never did. I once tried to call him or, at least, get a message to him. This was way back in ’77, I believe, and it was during the game in which manager Billy Martin and outfielder Reggie Jackson almost came to fisticuffs in the dugout. I found the number for the Yankee office and gave them a call, but the line was busy. I tried for about half an hour, but I never could get through. I just wanted to let The Boss or someone in the Front Office know that I supported Martin and that Reggie should be disciplined or traded. As it turned out, poor Billy was hired and fired about 5 different times, and Reggie is now a special consultant for the Yanks. George loved both of ‘em. RIP, Mr. Steinbrenner. Well, nothing earth-shattering, really. But, I finally achieved my long-time goal of jogging for an hour-and-a-half, non-stop–91 minutes, to be exact. That works out to about 8 3/4 miles, 35 times around the soccer field not far from my dorm apartment. If you compute my average speed, you’ll find I’m not that fast, and the time is nothing compared to marathoners or those guys and gals who run those long endurance competitions of 50 or 100 miles. Still, not bad for an old guy. As so often happens when I start my jog, I think about how far or how many minutes I want to go that day and then end up doing more that I had anticipated. This morning, I thought I’d go about 20 laps or perhaps a few more to get in an hour. I got to 20 and felt like doing 5 more. I didn’t feel bad after 25, and that’s when I began to think I could do the 90 minutes. It kinda just happened–nothing previously planned. I felt I could’ve gone another 5 minutes or so, but I gotta have something to shoot for next time. My next long-range goal is to go for 2 hours. Hopefully, I can do that sooner, rather than later. As I mentioned previously, I canceled my MLB.TV subscription, and I was sent an email that stated that, indeed, my subscription had been canceled. I was still able to access games through a few days ago, so I thought that the end of my month must be around May 4th or 5th, since I subscribed on April 5th. Now, I hadn’t reckoned on the high-flying Yanks meeting the suddenly-hot Red Sox in a 3 game series starting today, so I thought, what the heck–maybe I’ll sign up for another month. But first, I thought I’d try to log on to the game, and, lo and behold, I’m still able to watch it. Right now, it’s the top of the 3rd in a scoreless battle. More later. Once again, I find myself apologizing for the length of time between posts. I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting bored with keeping up with this blog, or perhaps I’m too lazy, or maybe there’s just nothing to post about right now. However, I’ve pinned down one good reason–I’m spending too much time watching the Yankee games on MLB TV. I find myself using my spare time to watch the games to the exclusion of other personal responsibilities, like posting to the blog, cleaning my apartment, eating, sleeping . . . Ok, it’s not that bad, but I do find myself using valuable time off to watch the games. My weekday schedule gives me several free hours in the middle of the day. My easiest days are Tuesday and Thursday, when I’m free from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Monday, Wednesday and Friday slack time is from 2 to 6. Also, I have two early morning classes, from 8 to 10, every day but Friday. Evening classes are from 6 to 8 every day, and I go to bed about 10 every night, since I get up at 4:30 every morning (yeah, I’m quite the early bird) and go into the office around 6:30 or 7 to prepare my lessons for the day. I also spend a bit of time on Saturday mornings preparing for the upcoming week. So, a lot of my valuable free time is spent watching the Yanks roll over the rest of the league. They’re off to a great start this season and it’s a thrill to watch them. But, since it’s the early part of the season and because I’m using too much time engrossed in the games AND because I can’t really afford the $24.95 a month for accessing the games on MLB TV (yes, I have money issues–but don’t we all?), I’ve canceled my subscription. When the dog days of summer start in August, I’ll probably renew it to catch the pennant race at the end of the season and to watch the team defend their World Series Championship. Until then, I’ll have to be content with posting here about how great this current Yankee dynasty is. Therefore, I hope to be posting more content here in the days, weeks and months ahead. More later. My former colleague, Stewart, who sold me my “new” used (fantastic, wonderful, superb) bike told me about a good bike shop, MTB Plaza, here in Yeosu, and where to find it. A few weekends ago, I took the bus to buy groceries at Lotte Mart and decided to get off the bus short of the store to go look for the bike shop. I found it; all the lights were on and there was an “Open” sign (in English) in the window. However, the door was locked. Hmmm, maybe everyone’s out for lunch (it was about that time). The next weekend, while riding the bike around, I stopped by the shop again. Same results–lights on, “Open” sign, door locked. Different day (Sunday) and different time. What the heck? Did the guy die in there and nobody’s checked on him in a while? I tried again today, around 11:30 a.m. I got there, walking, because I was going grocery shopping again, and, sure enough, all the lights were on. This time, though, there was a “Closed” sign in the window. I pushed on the door anyway, just to be sure, and . . . voila . . . it was open! Guess I’ll have to rethink what open and closed means. Unfortunately, the place didn’t have what I was looking for. Ok, I haven’t written much about the new baseball season, but it’s upon us. Seems like yesterday that the Yanks won the World Series, and I’m looking forward to another championship season. I was debating whether or not to subscribe to MLB TV again this year ($24.95 a month), but I guess there’s actually no debate, since the Pinstripers open the season in Boston against the rival Red Sox. Despite my awesomefully (new word) time-eating work schedule, I’m sure I’ll be able to work the Yankee games in somewhere. More later. I’m still going through all of the older posts from the original MontanaRon blog software (Greymatter, check it out here), updating links and photos to make them compatible with Word Press. I was updating a link to last year’s Yankee outfielder Melky Cabrera from when he visited the Domincan Republic Yankee baseball academy back in 2006. To be sure that I have the links entered correctly, I visit the relevant websites. Jeez, I clicked on that particular link and, sure enough, there’s Melky, but he’s wearing an Atlanta Braves cap. Yikes, I’d just about forgotten that he’s no longer a member of the Yanks. Johnny Damon and others are gone, too, but the team has added a few guys that should ensure that the World Series Trophy remains at Yankee Stadium at the end of the 2010 season. Spring training begins soon, and loyal reader OGM, Red Sox fan extraordinaire, should be able to inform us how many days until then. Also, I’m curious if the Infamous Red Sox Equipment Truck was able to depart Boston for sunnier climes or did the recent heavy snowfall interfere with this auspicious (for Red Sox fans) occasion? Inquiring minds want to know. In my previous post, I mentioned our 3-day Lunar New Year holiday, but I just noticed that the U.S. also has a long weekend due to the observance of Presidents’ Day on Monday. Missoula and Great Falls, Montana residents look like they’ll have the same type of weather that we expect here in Yeosu, but Glendive, Montana, my home for 20 years, is supposed to experience low temperatures below zero Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy. As far as updating the old blog posts, I’m better than halfway, so I guess progress is being made. Maybe I’ll really push to get it done during my 10 days off later this month. Mr. Excitement, that’s me. As I wrote in the previous post, I’ll be heading up to Incheon Airport tonight, on my way to Laos. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to post in the next three weeks, but if past actions are any indication, it won’t be often. I always have good intentions to keep the blog updated when I’m out and about, but it’s not always that easy to do. Still, I’m going to bring along my memory card reader so that I can upload photos here and try to keep everyone up to date. Hopefully, I can make at least a few posts. Vientiane and Vang Vieng have many internet cafes, but if I end up out in the sticks, my chances of finding a good connection might be somewhat less. Here’s an article from Voice of America about the SEA Games going on in Vientiane. Like I stated in the previous post, I hope to see some of the action. I’d like to take in a soccer game featuring the Laos team, but tickets might be hard to come by. Before a packed house last night, they and Singapore played to a 0-0 draw, which means that both teams advanced to the semi-final round. In baseball news, the Yanks got Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers in a trade a few days ago. It was an excellent deal for the Yankees, and, with the re-signing of Andy Pettitte, it should only strengthen their chances of repeating as World Champs in 2010. It certainly puts the pressure on Boston. Hmmmm, maybe Major League Baseball should just hand over the 2010 Trophy to New York already. Yes, babies are gurgling, children are playing and smiling, formerly sullen folk are whistling happily on their way to work or play, and a general feeling of harmony is floating in azure skies. The Yanks claimed their 27th Major League Baseball World Series title, toppling the Phillies 4 games to 2, winning the final game by a score of 7-3. Ah, sweet joy!
Now, all the Yankee haters are going to say “Of course they won–look at all the money they spent.” These are the same people who previously said “Hah. They’ve spent hundreds of millions and they still can’t win.” Sorry, folks, you can’t have it both ways. Get over it. Me? I’m gonna savor the victory all the way through to spring training, one of the first steps toward winning #28 next season. More later. |
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Copyright © 2012 MontanaRon - All Rights Reserved
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More later.
More later.