Sports

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Padres Win!

/ fearsomebeard / 5 Comments

Last night our much loved San Diego Padres won the National League  Western Division Championship vs the heavily favored Los Angeles Dodgers. This week they now move on to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship series. The National League Champions will then move on to the World Series starting October 28.

This is particularly bittersweet for me a long time Padres fan. The reason I say this is because one of our most beloved bloggers and a much loved friend of mine, Anne Marie in Philly, and I both shared our love of baseball. We would support each other when one of our teams was facing a particular rival and we would poke sarcastic fun at each other when our teams faced each other. Never once in our friendship did our teams end up playing each other for a championship spot.

I dreamed of one day flying into Philly and surprising her with tickets to a Padres vs Phillies game and had hoped to actually plan a trip to do so when Covid happened. Unfortunately we lost our beloved Anne Marie in Philly the next spring after that Covid summer and I never got to make the trip.

I dedicate this post to her. This is a moment in time that we both only dreamed of, I sure wish we could share it together. I will attend every game that I can of the series here in San Diego in her honor. I will be rooting for my team, not hers, but I know she will be looking down on us and rooting for her team from the other side.

To her I say “ Congrats Anne Marie, our teams made it! May the best team win!”

… oh and Anne Marie, I sure do miss you.

Beard of the day

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No Hitter Beard

Joe Musgrove, second from left and a San Diego native, threw the first no hitter in the San Diego Padres 53 year history as an MLB team in more than 8,000 Padre games on 4/09/2020. His catcher, Victor Caratini all the way to the right, caught for the last pitcher who threw a no hitter in the MLB last September 13, 2020 as a Chicago Cub making him the first catcher ever to catch two consecutive MLB no hitters for two different ball clubs.

Opening Day 2021!

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It’s finally here after a partial season lost to empty stadiums, opening day 2021 at Petco Park in fabulous sunny San Diego California.

Fearsome and I are elated even though we will not be in attendance. We have opening day tickets, as we are season ticket holders and California is allowing 20% attendance at this stage of the pandemic, but due to my surgery the better half and our seat mate Greg will be attending. Fearsome and I will watch from home. Soon enough we will get to go.

Until then, Go Padres!

John Fogerty – Centerfield – 1985

The best day of every year

/ fearsomebeard / 4 Comments

Major League Baseball Opening Day.

This is what a national holiday should be.

Every year, like every at bat, is a clean slate with no idea what’s going to happen.

I fell in love with baseball accidentally when my dear friend, and man crush at the time, Clayton took me to my first San Diego Padres game back in 1997. It was a day game and he bought me a field level ticket right behind first base. Our first baseman at the time was his man crush,  Ryan Klesko.

At first sight it was the handsome Ryan Klesko’s muscular ass that had my attention. By the end of the game I was in awe that I had lived into my early 30s having never discovered the timing, the preciseness, the skill, the sportsmanship, the timing, the patience, the fun and the sheer luck that is baseball.

I was sold.

Best. Game. Ever.

Today marks my San Diego Padres 50th year as a major league team.

1969-2019

Go Padres!

Race

/ fearsomebeard / 7 Comments

If you don’t think this is about Race,

Then you ain’t never been on the receiving end of discrimination.

And if you don’t believe this is about race,

Then you need to look up and read the definition of Racial Genocide.

Puerto Rico is the United States. Puerto Rican’s are Americans just like Texans and Floridians. Apparently the current leader of our federal government doesn’t recognize this. Could it be perhaps they aren’t, as a majority, white Anglo saxon of Western European decent?

Yes I went there. I went there because at this point it is becoming blatantly obvious.

The elusive cycle

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One of the rarest occurances in baseball hitting for the cycle. Hitting for the cycle is simply one player hitting a single, a double, a triple and a home run all in one game. Hitting for the cycle has only occurred 307 times in the history of Major Legue baseball since the first recorded in 1882. A feat more rare than a cycle is a no hitter. A no hitter is a pitcher completing a full 9 innings without the opposing team achieving a single hit which has only occurred  289 times in MLB history. The perfect game (no hitter ever even reaches a base)  has only been achieved 23 times in MLB history with the rarest occurance being hitting for the cycle in perfect order only happening 14 times.

This happened Tuesday:

Wil Myers landed The Padres their second cycle in Padres history. He hit a single, a double, a home run and finally, at his 8th inning fourth at bat, a triple. The triple is that hardest one out of the four to get.

I love baseball. I love the ability for a player to have a fresh start each and every time a bat is picked up.

The cycle is quite the achievement. Think about it. In most games a player only gets 4 at bats or 5 tops. Many games a player will have not even achieve one hit in a game much less four. Consider that in 140 years of Major Legue baseball more than 210,000 games have been played with  at least 9 hitters (more than 1,890,00 total) getting an average of 4 at bats…that’s more than 7,560,000 at bats.

Congratulations Wil Myers on cycle #308.

Baseball truly is a field of dreams. One must dream the dream first and then it will come. It will.

An opening day win and one amazing remake

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Wow! What a game. Back and forth scores, multiple home runs and even an opposing team (SF Giants) grand slam and our Beloved Padres eeked out a 7-6 win over San Fransisco’s Giants. It was a down to the wire fun to watch nail biter! In other words a well matched good game. Baseball, at its best!

Opening day National Anthem

Fearsome and his opening day posse at Petco Park

After our return home we settle into bed to find out that Pentanonix just posted one fucking incredible remake of one of Rock Music’s best classics.

Wow, just wow! …oh yeah if you even slightly enjoyed Queen, this will be so worth your time.

Opening Day

/ fearsomebeard / 4 Comments

Baseball.

Today marks our beloved San Diego Padres home opener.

Opening day is a day of dreams, hopes, beginnings, the smell of a freshly cut grass and irresistable scents of barbecue, hotdogs, popcorn and those damn garlic fries.

Our Padres aren’t expected to do much this year. The team is very young, inexperienced and some say “experimental”. In baseball this doesn’t really matter. Each game and each at bat is a new beginning.

As is Fearsome’s want, we continue our tradition of posting John Fogerty’s Centerfield to mark the monumentous occiasion and local holiday of Opening Day!

Yes …we will be there. We wouldn’t miss such an occiasion. We love baseball.