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ESPN Baseball Tonight analyst John Kruk tried to contact Jim Mecir on Monday to apologize for comments he made about the Marlins reliever on Sunday’s show.

Kruk, apparently unaware that Mecir was born with club feet and walks with a slight limp, questioned the Marlins for bringing in what appeared to him to be an injured pitcher.

Mecir, who gave up five runs in Sunday’s loss to the Padres, is not injured.

Keywords: cold, windy, and awesome. This is for general consumption, so apologies for stating things that you undoubtedly know.

As the result sheet shows, our team’s start time was 10:30am on Saturday, but the teams of 12 runners are divided into two vans, and we were in the second van, so our charge was to be in Napa at 2:30pm to have our first runner (#7) meet their last one (#6) at the handoff. I was runner #11, so I would not be running until later that night.

In packing for the weekend, I knew it’d be somewhat chilly, but I didn’t realize it’d be below 40 with winds up to 40mph! So even just standing around at that first point in Napa, a few of us realized we were in trouble, clothing-wise. I was already wearing everything I’d brought, and the sun was still up.

Anyway, so that handoff was pretty funny because runner #7 takes off to a whole lot of fanfare, only to have to wait at a stoplight about 100 feet away. Very anticlimactic. As the runners ran, we’d take the van and meet them halfway to hand them a water bottle or take extra clothes they didn’t want or whatever. Then we’d go to the next exchange and the next runner would prep for the handoff. I took the baton (actually, a little wrist bracelet) at about 7:25pm in Petaluma; the last few runners were going on about how windy it was (and it was), but it had just started to die down a little for my leg. I ran through Petaluma and up a long, steady hill, 7.1 miles—it was absolutely beautiful, as the sun was just setting. Actually just after I left, the van came by and asked if I wanted a reflective vest. I was in my zone so I went to the default answer of “no.” As they drove off, I thought…wait a minute! Come back!! Luckily they were waiting for me a couple of miles down the road, before I went off into the windy, unlit mountain road.

After our last runner ran her leg, we handed off to the other van (this was harder than it sounds; there were dozens of vans and hundreds of people in the complete darkness—we actually had a delay of a few minutes because we couldn’t find our peeps) and went off to a hotel for a quick shower and about an hour of sleep. We got up at 1:30 and out at 2:00, and met up with the other van on the San Francisco side of the Golden Gate Bridge at about 2:30am. We were really cold, and really tired; they were selling coffee for $1, but it was terrible. In came our runner at about 2:50, and we took the time log from the other van, wished them well and went to meet our runner at the bottom of the Great Highway, which was closed so he was on his own. Our next runner took us into Daly City, where I experienced the full thrill of (TMI alert) needing to go #2 but the only facility being a completely dark port-a-potty. Luckily I had my cell phone to light the way and realize there was no toilet paper before continuing the plan. I held it.

One more exchange in Millbrae somewhere, and dawn broke. This leg was a short 4.2 miles, so we went straight to the next checkpoint, where I’d take over for a quick 3.7 miler. This was right by the golf course above Burlingame along Skyline or whatever it’s called. I had just enough time to use the (now lit) port-a-potty (with our own supply of TP) and our runner showed up. I cruised through my run at a 7:34 clip, better than the 8:00 I’d predicted—again it was beautiful as the sun rose during my leg, which was right next to the amazing San Antonio Reservoir. Still really cold, but getting better and less windy.

The last runner ran a 6 mile leg to Redwood City, Canada Road at Farm Hill, and after eating some cookies, we retired to a friend’s house in Palo Alto, who’d volunteered to host the vans and give us a place to crash. It was about 7:30am. He’d made an amazing breakfast (I had two small pancakes) so we ate, showered and slept for about 45 minutes. Then we got up and drove down to the Santa Cruz mountains.

We got down there at about 12:15pm, and sat in the sunshine (WARMTH!!) before taking the baton at about 12:45. Our runner handled the next leg really quickly, 6.2 miles at a 7:25 (all downhill, but still, the guy’s in his late 50s). I have little memory of the next few handoffs; I did run into a few people I know, but it’s all kind of a blur. There was a big hamburger lunch at one of the handoff points, which didn’t suit me for multiple reasons (I’m fish-a-tarian and I still had to run my last leg). Finally we handed off to runner #10, preceding me, whose run ended with a tough climb into a giant quarry by Santa Cruz (Felton Quarry?). He smoked it!! I was standing around, and suddenly, there he was, coming up the hill! So at 4:07pm I took the handoff and started my last leg, 6.5 miles, beginning with a steep climb up out of the quarry, and interspersing some steep downhills as I ran by the UCSC campus. I got offered many joints (it was 4/20); I found out later that the reason so many happy looking people were wandering aimlessly by was that they’d closed the campus because of 4/20. Funny…I didn’t smoke anything, but I did get smoked by a really nice looking woman, and in trying to keep up with her (and failing), I managed to complete that last leg at an 8:18 clip, including the uphill 2 miles, much better than the 9:15 I’d predicted.

The race finished on the beach in Santa Cruz—we were about an hour behind our predicted time, so the beach wasn’t as lively as it had been earlier in the day, but it was still awesome.

That’s pretty much the full story!

maybe they just (correctly) think jocketty is a better GM than krivsky, so why wait to make the move?

but hate each other’s guts!

That this is one of those times when it is ok to panic…

... and then send him through JediLeroy’s time machine to age him 10 years before trying to get Sabean interested.

Anyway, sal, I expect to be pissed at you for a while - your seal comments sent me to GIS for a photo of an angry seal - instead I got all those gawdawful images of the baby seal slaughter. Thanks, pal.