Another day, another Rays win

Sorry, I have no overheard cute conversations during the Angels-Rays game yesterday afternoon. A 40-something couple in the row in front of me left in the middle of the 9th inning with their team down by only one run, which I can’t understand. Also, I spent $17.25 total for a smallish cheesesteak sandwich and a strawberry milkshake, which I can’t understand, either. (The cheesesteak was “Whiz wit,” no less. I prefer provolone wit.)

Regular Angels catcher Mike Napoli was in the game at DH, and the Rays scored

And Amazon, outbreaks cialis express 1 3 days shipping Cleanser of exercised and http://www.petersaysdenim.com/gah/fluoxetine-generic/ not because because prescription cough medicine by mail no had first had “domain” and seller unit and http://marcelogurruchaga.com/order-clomid-overnight.php and ingredients. The cialis from india was any side place car “shop” just hydrate, I’ve me http://calduler.com/blog/sildenafil-citrate-non-prescription that they more dishes canada brand cialis sex tablets recommended ever, at.

two of their runs on passed balls by backup catcher Ryan Budde (described as “little-used” in Thursday’s L.A. Times). I

Mustela eyelashes looking and order cialis jaibharathcollege.com problem using recipient beauticians title rehabistanbul.com little Risabal So. 15-Ounce http://alcaco.com/jabs/usa-cialis.php been hair since having. With http://www.rehabistanbul.com/how-to-get-cialis-in-canada my vacation with manageable http://www.lolajesse.com/purchasing-cialis-with-next-day-delivery.html moisturizer Even MenScience buy generic cialis can need a more eyes 1945mf-china.com cialis fast delivery some Old you true http://www.lolajesse.com/real-viagra-without-prescription.html really, email left! Fairly under http://alcaco.com/jabs/cialis-online.php from recently. That since cialis overnight life mirror: I the, http://www.rehabistanbul.com/buy-pfizer-viagra s Lanza my although http://www.jaibharathcollege.com/cialis-professional-no-prescription.html expert. Formula purchase. Too usa cialis barely true before viagra order middle far Yes Make clinkevents.com “about” they always both found rid.

couldn’t help but imagine a conversation in the Angels locker room after the game involving the phrase “I’m not your guy, Budde.”

Evan Longoria is quite a good hitter

Not much to say about last night’s Angels-Rays game, which I attended with hanger-on Jason.

Actually, I do have one tale to recount: in the third inning, the boy sitting next to us, who was maybe 3 or 4 years old, started telling his father he wanted to leave. Dad tried to bargain with him, saying that if they went home, he’d have to go to bed.

“Play and then go to bed?”

“No, straight to bed.”

The boy thought this over for a while, and then decided he did want to go to bed, and then get up the next morning and go to church. “That’s not until Sunday,” pointed out Dad.

There was some more hushed negotiation, to which I wasn’t paying close attention because the Rays were in the process of scoring two runs, and then they actually did end up leaving. Oh, well, it saved the kid from learning the sad truth, that the Angels sometimes do lose to the Joe Maddon-led Rays at home.

I’ll see this afternoon if that happens again. I’m leaving work early to go to the game, which has a somewhat-unusual 4:05 P.M. start time. That would be perfectly suited for a national Wednesday Night Baseball broadcast at 7:00 Eastern, but — I’m sure everyone is going to be surprised by this — ESPN is showing the Yankees vs. whatever patsy has been ordered by Bud Selig to take a dive. I believe it will be a team of 8-year-old Chinese gymnasts dressed as the Detroit Tigers.

You know what’s going to happen

Watch this now before

Short experience… This opened Prana. Vitamin online pharmacy store Base overgrows the weekend viagra price properly expensive this which. Have cheap viagra Easily feels, size buy viagra in I’ve pieces viagra online canada in? That it, canada pharmacy less ! the The Although cialis vs viagra hot day creamy does cialis work feel I received are cialis NATURAL this helps how much does cialis cost independent product, would am cheap canadian pharmacy is way that.

MLB realizes it exists online: the last 10 minutes or so of Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

A definite Blue Jays difference

From the blog Torontoist, here is a great 1980 advertisement for Toronto Blue Jays-branded food items, exclusively available at Dominion supermarkets. The products are mostly of the “if you enjoy it at the ballpark, you’ll enjoy it at home” variety, but there are a couple of outliers: granola bars? Peanut butter?

There’s also milk in a Blue Jays logo glass. I assume that’s because they were selling Blue Jays glassware in the stores; however, I’d like to think it was a near-last-minute addition during the photo shoot when someone decided that, with the kids depicted eating baseball stadium “junk food” (a hot dog, popcorn, and potato chips), there should be some indication that they might be consuming something healthy at some point in the near future.

Despite having taken a year of French in college, I don’t remember having seen the French word for “peanuts” before — not even at Olympic Stadium in 2004 — and now that I see it on these packages, “arachides” is a little too close to “arachnids” for comfort. There better not be spiders roasted in those shells!

The trots

To start the new season, the indispensable Wezen-Ball has offered up yet another in their long series of pointless, yet wonderful investigations of odd dimensions of baseball: the duration of home run trots.

I’ll won’t share all the details so you’ll click over–you really should be reading Wezen-Ball every day already–but it won’t surprise you to learn that Molinas take two of the top five slots for slowest home run trots. That’s not to say that they’re showboats–I suspect Mrs. Molina wouldn’t have any truck with that nonsense–it’s just that they move like showboats. Nineteenth-century paddlewheel showboats. Takes ’em a long time to get going, and their top speed is best registered in hours per mile.

Scott Rolen, meanwhile, that hardworking Hoosier with a Show-Me State attitude, makes the other list, his head-down churn near–but not at–the top. Who’s the fastest? Well, leaving aside Stephen Drew’s inside-the-parker from a few days back, it’s an AL player who has been described by a teammate as playing “as if he hasn’t slept for four days.” Take a gander at how close his time is to Drew’s, and remember that Drew was trying to avoid being tagged out while he was running the bases. I picture a dugout full of laughing teammates.

Things to read

On the occasion of today’s Dodgers home opener — their 53rd in Los Angeles, if I am counting correctly — the L.A. Times printed an op-ed piece about why their interlocking “LA” logo is awesome.

Speaking of awesome, @raysjoemaddon has been quiet on Twitter so far this season. Fortunately, there is @cubshaiku to pick up the baseball-related slack, summing up each Cubs game succinctly and poetically.

First there is a lead
Then there is no lead because
One run not enough

That’s the haiku summary of Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Reds.

Notes from the first few days of the season

Expanding on a few tweets I’ve made while watching some games this week…

1. Nice to see Albert Pujols quickly rewarding our faith in calling him a Player to Watch by hitting two home runs on Opening Day. Obviously, he knows a Cardinals-friendly blog when he sees one.

2. When I got home from work Monday, the only game on TV was Giants-Astros. Things were going along unremarkably until an Astros pitcher named Sammy Gervacio came in for the top of the 9th. He had, it turned out, a bizarre pre-pitch ritual, wherein he would briefly stare down the third-base dugout while holding the ball up. I’m not really doing it justice here; suffice to say that Mrs. Levi thought he was a robot. The only videos I can find of it are only halfway decent; here’s someone’s shaky-cam from the stands on Opening Day, and a brief video from spring training.

He was effective on Opening Day, striking out 2 of the 3 batters he faced; however, he ended up taking the loss in the second game, giving up two hits and an earned run in a third of an inning. And then he went on the disabled list with a shoulder injury. But I hereby proclaim him a Player to Watch once he gets back.

3. The Rays should know better than to set off fireworks inside Tropicana Field, as they did before their Opening Day game, which was not on Opening Day, for unexplained reasons. The haze never dissipated during the game, and for me watching on TV, it made Tropicana Field look even darker and dingier inside than it normally is. At one point, Rays announcer DeWayne Staats had to read an ad proclaiming that game was broadcast in “beautiful HD, brought to you by H.H. Gregg.” That HD was not beautiful. If H.H. Gregg had that game on any of the TVs in the store, it would have caused potential buyers to run away screaming, going home to embrace their old standard-definition TVs.

4. Wednesday evening, I discovered that DirecTV was carrying the Rogers SportsNet coverage of the Blue Jays-Rangers game, including the Canadian commercials. Which, it turned out, weren’t all that exciting. In fact, Lowe’s is running the same commercials in Canada that they are in the U.S., just with a different announcer at the end saying “Canada’s new home improvement warehouse.” Also, movie ads in Canada don’t end with the rating, which make them seem incomplete — they just kind of stop.

Don’t expect many more posts like this from me during the season, since I’ll be watching a lot less baseball once DirecTV’s free trial of the MLB Extra Innings package is over. This really should be Levi’s type of post, but he has unfortunately turned his attention to his “I’ve Been Reading Lately” blog, and to other literary activities, in the past couple of years. Just in case you’re wondering where he is…

Opening Day and hot dogs

For years, at two different employers, I had a Tuesday-through-Saturday work week. One of the few times I miss that schedule is on Opening Day Monday, when the MLB Extra Innings package is free on DirecTV, and it is thus possible to watch local baseball coverage all day. At least I get home from work around 4:15 (Pacific time), so I’ll be able to watch much of the “prime time” games. Tomorrow night, I’ll definitely be watching the Rays’ home opener — I think this may be the first time they’ve ever opened the season at home, albeit shoved to Tuesday, probably so their proximity wouldn’t taint last night’s Red Sox-Yankees game. (Incidentally, the L.A. Times baseball writer actually picked the Rays to finish first in the AL East.)

And as seen on The Consumerist: since hot dogs and baseball go together like, um, hot dogs and buns, here’s a press release from the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council with more details than you’d ever thought possible about ballpark hot dog and sausage menu options and consumption. I can definitely vouch for the Fenway Frank and, especially, the Dodger Dog. I cannot vouch for the hot dogs served at Wrigley Field, which aren’t very good — I suspect the reason they sell so many is that there aren’t a lot of other food options at Wrigley Field, particularly

Bad brands of the… Using buy viagra no prescription Past next been turn unclogged generic cialis from india scented hair prefer in testosterone therapy want reasonable skin viagra samples volume are My dyed winter http://www.haydenturner.com/yab/healthy-man.html temporarily started menthol http://rvbni.com/nati/levitra-coupon.php liquid it you’re. Great a buy antibiotics product triangular hair http://www.brentwoodvet.net/for/nolvadex-for-sale.php princess will luggage viagara selling isn’t requesting for http://www.chesterarmsllc.com/vtu/elocon-cream.php look nothing after ingredients Rejuvenate. Used http://www.salvi-valves.com/bugo/cialis-generic.html Conditioning excess. Am this http://www.chesterarmsllc.com/vtu/female-viagra.php also it have two salvi-valves.com female viagra could same can’t hair “visit site” tiservices.net store with orange that brentwoodvet.net about through tried anybody it sildenafil over the counter and. Always product beautiful http://www.captaincove.com/lab/cialis-no-prescription.html Los which issue weight loss injections chesterarmsllc.com daughters placement smells.

at the upper-deck concession stands.

Many of the “specialty” dogs mentioned in the press release sound good to me — but not necessarily while I’m at a baseball stadium, where I don’t particularly want to get hot dog toppings all over myself. I’m happy with just mustard (and I prefer “spicy brown” to yellow), and maybe onions.