Pocket Pair 7/18/12

Yesterday was my brush with fame.  Well relatively speaking.  In all my years going to baseball games I have never caught a foul ball much less a home run ball.  Last night I was a foot away from changing all of that.  Look I'm a simple man with simple pleasures in life and catching a home run ball would be quite exciting.  I took my mom to the Nationals/Mets game last night and we got front row seats above the scoreboard in right center.  Not only did I get to snuggle up to rookie Bryce Harper and Harpers' Homeboys that were one section over in full eye black, but I was in prime position for a ball.

Through 7 innings the Nationals were ahead 1-0 and the game was barely two hours young.  I had said to my mom in passing that a game like this usually sees the game get tied up in the 9th and ends up going 15 innings.  We had hopes of getting home by 10pm as Met after Met were being set down by Nationals starter Ross Detwiler.  When the Nationals tacked on an insurance run in the 8th inning and Tyler Clippard warming up, the game felt all but over.  It hadn't been an exciting game by any stretch of the imagination, the temperature was hovering in the low 90's, but a night at the ballpark is still better than a normal night.

Then along game the 9th inning.  Everything was about to change and I got this close to crossing off a bucket list item.  Let me set the stage.  Two on, one out and Jordany Valdespin stepping to the plate as a pinch hitter.  He hit one far, he hit one deep...he hit one...RIGHT AT ME!!

*Inner monologue time*  Okay Jason, don't screw this us...dammit I should have brought my glove.  Don't drop it, you're on television.

This was the scene:

But, alas, the ball drifted just to the right of me and bounced off the finger of some dude who was asking when did the Mets sign Miguel Tejada earlier in the game after seeing Ruben Tejada at the plate.  He was having fun.  I must say that my beard comes though well on television though.

The Mets now led 3-2 and it was up to the scrappy Nationals to even it up in the 9th.  With two outs in the ninth, Danny Espinosa laced a base hit to bring home Ian Desmond and to extra innings we went.  I had a shot at that 15 inning game!

The score did not remain deadlocked very long as Josh 'T-HOLE' (as Mets fans were chanting) split the outfield with a go ahead double.  Nats fans were bummed, Mets fans were...well you know.  In the bottom of the frame, Nationals backup catcher Jhonatan Solano started it off with a hit.  Steve Lombardozzi bunted him to second and that brought up Bryce Harper.

My mom had said that Harper hadn't done much tonight, but not after his next swing.  He absolutely blistered a ball over the right fielders' head and off the wall for a triple and the game was once again knotted up...this time at 4! THE HARPER!!!!

After two intentional walks and a force out at the plate, the Nationals had the bases loaded and two out when Mets reliever Pedro Beato uncorked a wild pitch allowing Ryan Zimmerman to scamper home with the winning run.  It was rather exciting for a July game, but its games like this that will make the games in September and potentially October enthralling.

It was very refreshing to see the team pick up Tyler Clippard who blew only his second save of the season and had been pretty much lights out for them all year.

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Tonight I have a baseball game.  30,000 fans will not be showing up.  We should have about 8 fans.  I play with the Falls Church News Hounds in the DC Wood 18+ Wooden Bat League.  We are the two time defending champs and tonight is our first playoff game in the best of three first round series.  We'll be playing the team that we beat in the Finals last year.

That series was close and very intense.  This year neither team was nearly as good as both teams lost some key players, but I am expecting some quality baseball this week.  Our starting pitcher, Dave Acosta, is a hard throwing (low to mid 80's with ease) lefty.  He should be playing in a better league, but I won't complain.

Hopefully this season ends with another one of these:

Pocket Pair 7/11/12

Running Diary of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game from my brain:

I skipped Fox's intro for the most part.  I caught Erin Andrews saying goodbye to Chipper Jones and hello to Mike Trout.  I've never been a fan of the Atlanta Braves, but I wear #10 and I'm getting close to calling it a career in baseball and seeing Chipper get all teary eyed got me all...moving on, nothing to see here.

Kansas City, home of the Monarchs from the Negro League.  I'm happy they paid homage...good job.

I can't believe Jonathan Papelbon is an All-Star from a last place team and A.J. Burnett who has carried the first place Pirates after a disastrous start is at home.  Outside of that 12 run game, Burnett has a 2.60 ERA over his other 14 starts and is 10-1 in those games.  Papelbon is a douche on a crappy team who has his second highest ERA in any season so far this year.

Hello Bryce, Stephan and Gio...I hope to see you every year for the next 10 years.

Oakland Athletics sighting!!! My guess is Ryan Cook doesn't play tonight.

I don't know who you are anthem singer...be gone with you.

Still hate Tim McCarver although he's resembling Harry Caray in his later years more and more.

Ice cream break!!!

I don't think I'll ever get over the loss of Carlos Gonzalez from having a career in the green and gold.  I will forever loathe Matt Holliday because of it.

That didn't take long as Ryan Braun smokes a ball to the fence.  Somebody test his urine.  Maybe Verlander should stick to the curve ball, because it is beyond filthy.

Yikes! Verlander imploding before my eyes.  This is...unexpected.  It has to be because of that inspiring, rah-rah speech by Chipper.  I was ready to run through a brick wall for him.

Something tells me if that Josh Hamilton hit had left the yard, we'd be in for a really good game.  Now I'm not so sure this isn't a big time blowout.

Joey Gloves!

Matt Cain is a very good pitcher, not flashy, just very consistent who will forever have his place in history with World Series championship, perfect game and All-Star game start.

Gio time!  Please take Brandon McCarthy Nationals.  I want the A's and Nats to be trading partners for life.  Just keep it fair guys.

 I repeat...if you think having a BBQ is going to Burger King...you are not my friend.

 WHERE WERE THOSE STATS WHEN YOU WERE IN OAKLAND MATT??? (Sorry for that kids)

Looks like the Cardinals are still haunting the Rangers...hahahahaha

3 triples by the NL and its only the 4th inning? Wow.

Oooooh Strasburg vs. Cano, Hamilton and Baustista...me likey!!

I think that curve fooled the umpire.  Shocker!

Washington Nationals overload...Bryce Harper time!!  Don't be scared Weaver...throw a strike you long haired surfer boy!

 Oh Bryce!  Booooooo. Bringing back the Natinals with that gaffe.

 Way to go Chipper!  Sail off into the sunset with that one.

Well Mike Trout just welcomed R.A. Dickey quite rudely.  Dickey would be out of baseball if it weren't for the National League...just saying.

Bryce Harper vs. Ryan Cook, my worlds are colliding.  It'll be fun to watch Cook pitch for the Yankees in a couple of years.

Well that's about it for my interest in the game.

Kellie Pickler? Really? She's still relevant? Oh how horrible.

The words 'Taco Bell' and 'gourmet' should not be used in the same sentence

Tony LaRussa is going to drag the rest of this game out with bullpen changes.  Of course going from Kimbrel to Chapman is not fair.

Last licks for the American League...8 run rally caps on everybody.

Final Score: National League 8 American League 0...See you in DC for Game 1 of the World Series.

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This morning the wife and I went to find out whether we are having a boy or girl....it's a BOY!!!  I really hadn't set my mind to wanting one or the other, just one that was healthy.  Either way my kid was going to be well versed in the rules of baseball longer before his peers.

This brings us to the debate about the names...Jessica has thrown out names that I have no interest in and she has already shot down Nicklas Alexander after my two favorite Washington Capitals.  I have come up with an idea that she has agreed to that we are going to do this like a jury selection.

We will both submit 10 names and each person will quickly eliminate five names from the others list without objection.  We will then take our new list of 10 names and put them through a strenuous question and answer session to make sure they are not hiding any secrets that will come back to bite us in the ass.   The main reason Jessica eliminated Nicklas is she didn't want her baby boy to be called 'Dickless Nicklas' at school.  How petty!

Feel free to submit any ideas of names you may have...I am an open book at this point.  I have always thought about naming him Jason Alan Wippich Jr. so that I could be Jason Alan Wippich Sr. or JAWS!!  That would be sweet.  I could hear my nephews/nieces say 'Hi Uncle Jaws!!'  That makes me smile because I'm silly like that.

Pocket Pair 7/9/12

Hello again folks!  I hope you didn't miss me too much while I was basking in the non-humid heat of the Texas sun.  If you follow me on Twitter then you are well aware of my stops down there.  If I wasn't being a tourist, I was eating and if it wasn't Mexican food, it was burgers.  The best thing I ate in Texas was at the #1 rated burger joint in Austin, Hopdoddy (@hopdoddy).  Their Terlingua burger consists of Angus Beef, Chili con Carne, Corn Fritos, Tillamook Cheddar and Sassy Sauce.  I can't say that I've ever had or ever heard of Tillamook cheddar cheese, nor will I be able to go into depths about the flavor profile because my palate isn't suited for that.  I couldn't decipher the ingredients of the Sassy sauce, nor did I ask someone about it.  I'm not a food blog, but I love eating.  I can tell you that the chili was awesome and the burger was cooked well which made for a very good overall taste.

Outside of stuffing my gullet, I did what other tourists do...looked at famous and not so famous sites.  My wife and I started in Dallas and went to the spot where JFK was assassinated.  We went to San Antonio to check out the Alamo and the River Walk.  We stayed in Austin and went to the University of Texas where my wife was enamored with the turtle pond.

We also saw some weird things along the way including a swarm of 1.5 million bats that live under a bridge in Austin and come out to feed at nighttime.  We went to the underwhelming Museum of the Weird (save your money tourists), saw a 23 foot high spider and a now closed arcade that was built in the shape of a Star Trek ship.

On our way home, back in Dallas (well Arlington, Texas to be exact), I saw another space ship that I am told holds an overrated NFL team.

I was half expecting that behemoth of a monstrosity to start hovering and eventually take off back to the planet from where it came.

BREAKING NEWS: IT HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN SAN FRANCISCO!!! Adios Cowboys!!!

Thank you Flight of the Navigator for helping me out with my humor.

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I missed a lot of sports last week because my wife and her sister were too caught up watching HGTV and Investigation Discovery.  I tried streaming baseball games on my iPad, but the AT&T U-Verse sucked down there and couldn't hold a signal at times.

I can tell you that it is the All-Star break in baseball and my two teams are doing better than expected.  The Oakland Athletics sit at .500 with a 43-43 record thanks to their league leading 8th walk off win of the season.  They can't hit (save for home runs), but they can pitch.  It doesn't seem to matter who they run out to the mound, but they usually turn in a quality effort keeping the offense in the game.  I can easily see both Bartolo Colon and Brandon McCarthy being shipped away at the deadline to more serious contenders.  The Athletics have both Brett Anderson and Dallas Braden coming back from injury in or around August and if Oakland has any shot at adding another young hitter they need to jump at it.  Even though the Athletics sit only 2.5 games out of a playoff spot they are still one or two (or three) good hitters away from a serious playoff push.  Josh Reddick has played out of his mind, but I can't expect another 20 home runs in the second half.

Even with dropping two of three to the lowly Colorado Rockies this weekend, my local favorite team, the Washington Nationals still hold the best record in the National League.  They could be in line to take either of the Athletics starters named above because of the supposed innings limit restriction on All-Star Stephen Strasburg.  Outside of that storm that is forming in the Caribbean the Nationals don't have too many holes to fill.  Even though SS Ian Desmond has played far better than anyone projected, I don't think anybody else on the offense will regress.  Both Michael Morse and Ryan Zimmerman have been either injured or inconsistent all 1st half so a full second half of both of them will be more than enough to offset any drop off by Desmond. The pitching has been excellent and with the addition of Drew Storen to the back end and probably a veteran arm to take the spot of Strasburg it should continue to be the strength of a well balanced team.  The wild card will be rookie Bryce Harper.  Will he continue to get better or hit the rookie wall that most rookies run into in late August.  He's never played this many meaningful games in a single season and being only 19, the toll that it will take is immeasurable.  He sparked the team with his gung-ho attitude, but has quietly taken a back seat with the return of Zimmerman and Morse.  As long as those two produce along with crafty veteran Adam LaRoche, even an extended cold streak by Harper can be negated.

Pocket Pair 6/29/12

With temperatures in the low 100's this week in the D.C. area, it looks like the perfect weekend to stay home and watch sports.  Unfortunately it is a slow weekend in sports, but fear not, sports fans, use my guide and you'll find enough to avoid outdoor chores.

10: NHL Free Agency Begins


This counts as sports right?  Sure it does.  By all accounts it is a shallow pool for free agents this season, but that makes the intrigue all the more.  Who will overpay for the likes of Zach Parise and Justin Schultz?  I understand this isn't sexy, but teams have holes to fill including my Washington Capitals.  Per my insiders (Japers Rink @japersrink and Neil Greenberg @ngreenberg) the two players to hope for in Washington are Shane Doan and Mikael Samuelsson who are both right wingers which is the biggest deficiency of talent on the roster.  For more visit Japers Rink and their thoughts on what the Capitals should do here.

9: NBA Free Agency Begins


For fans of a more popular sport, (unfortunate as that is to say) the NBA follows up its draft with Free Agency.  Deron Williams is the prized jewel of the free agent class along with aging superstars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. The New Orleans Hornets revamped their roster through the draft last night, but the key to improving next season is hanging on to their lone star Eric Gordon.

8. New York Mets at Los Angeles Dodgers


This ship is sinking fast for the Dodgers.  Injuries have taken their toll as now Andre Either has been added to the list of casualties.  The Mets are trending upwards and even though R.A. Dickey has seen his streak of scoreless pitching come to an end, they are playing really well of late.  They also get the nod for the Sunday night national televised game and Dillon Gee will be matched up with Clayton Kershaw.  If I were Kershaw I'd be worried about pulling a muscle or straining a hamstring.


7. AT&T National 

If you are brave enough to sit through the scorching weather here in the area, head on over to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD this weekend.  Tiger Woods and a slew of relative unknowns are playing on a course that was recently seen hosting last years U.S. Open.  According to the people at Congressional, the course will play much harder during this tournament than when Rory McIlroy carved it up last year.

6. Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals


Don't look now, but both of these teams are inching towards the Cincinnati Reds for 1st place in the N.L. Central.  The defending champion Cardinals are still hitting minus the services of Albert Pujols who left them for Anaheim and Lance Berkman who is injured.   The Pirates are being buoyed by A.J. Burnett who has won 8 consecutive starts for the first time in franchise history since Dock Ellis in 1974.  It looks as though the move from New York was indeed the perfect thing to reinvigorate his fledgling career.

5. Wimbledon

Usually the first week of a Grand Slam Tournament is rather mundane with the top seeds rolling through qualifiers and youngsters, but this year has already been a shocker.  Yesterday 5 time Wimbledon finalist Rafael Nadal was ousted in jaw dropping, dramatic fashion by 100th ranked unknown Lukas Rosol.  Less stunning, but still surprising was on the Ladies side of the draw where former #1 and current 7th ranked Caroline Wozniaki was dropped in the first round.  Add to the fact that Venus Williams again disappointed losing in the first round and you've got yourself an intriguing tournament for a change during week one.

4. Chicago White Sox at New York Yankees


Two first place teams that I equally don't like, but who are both playing really good baseball right now.  The Yankees have lost 2/5 of its starting rotation this week, but they are the Yankees and we all know they will find a way to survive.  More than likely they will just hit more home runs to make up for the lack of quality outings by their staff.  The White Sox also made noise by acquiring Kevin Youkilis from the Boston Red Sox.  Game one of this 4 game set went to the White Sox on a 9th inning 3 run blast by Dayan Viciedo.

3. Washington Nationals at Atlanta Braves


The first place Nationals look to stay that way as the All-Star Break approaches.  They will throw out both of their aces (Strasburg and Gonzalez) this series in hopes to add a cushion to their 3.5 game lead in the division.  The Braves who have lost Brandon Beachy and his 2.00 ERA for this season and probably next year as well with the dreaded, yet all too common Tommy John surgery.  The Braves are good, but I have a feeling this could be a possible last stand of sort if they are to contend this season.

2. Cincinnati Reds at San Francisco Giants


Guess which pitching staff is the hottest in the Majors right now?  They are located in the Bay area and their colors are green and gold...yes the Oakland Athletics.  Over their last 14 game the A's have given up more than 3 runs only three times.  That's nice and all, but its their cross bay rivals the Giants that have thrown 4 consecutive shutouts and vaulted the injured Dodgers into 1st place in the N.L. West.  The Reds are scuffling as of late, but still hold a slim lead in the N.L. Central.  Matt Cain looks to extend the scoreless streak for the Giants tonight.

1. Euro Cup 2012 Final


Spain vs. Italy.  Hopefully we get a game like yesterday when Italy scored early at shook Germany to the core.  All it takes is an early goal to have the coaches throw out the game plan and get their team scrambling.  Mario Balotelli showed all the good that he can bring to a team while leaving all the bad out  Spain hasn't given up a goal in a knockout game since 2006 so we know they will have a great defensive structure and it will be interesting to see how the Italians try and break through.  If Spain falls behind it should be fun, if they score first it could be a mind numbing 1-0 final score.

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I am headed to Texas to get away from the D.C. heat this upcoming week.  The wife and I are headed to visit her sister, but I am looking forward to eating some Texas brisket, some local Mexican food, eating some burgers and gaining 15 pounds.  I better walk around and see the sights or else I may not make it back in one piece.

I will probably not be updating the page too much unless I need a reason to stay out of the heat.  I will be posting pictures of my gluttonous conquests on my Twitter page so enjoy those.

Enjoy the week ahead including the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the 4th of July.  I do love me some food.