Happy Bat Day
by kenarneson on Dec 23, 2009 10:25 PM PST
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PrintWe have guests arriving at our house tomorrow for Christmas, plus we're going to start a big remodeling project right after New Year's Day. So I've been clearing out a lot closets lately. Here's something I dug out this afternoon:
The bats were from various Bat Days at the Oakland Coliseum over the years. The top one is from 1999 or 2000 and "autographed" by John Jaha. The middle one is from 1976 and has Don Baylor's signature. Not sure when I got the third one without a signature, but it was either late 70s or early 80s.
Missing is my childhood favorite bat, which was from 1975 and autographed by Bert Campaneris. I played with that bat out on the asphalt of the cul-de-sac I grew up on every day, to the point where nearly all the green paint had been chipped off. Somehow that bat got lost in dozen or so times I've moved since then. I don't have much sentimental attachment to these three bats, but I miss my Campy bat.
I remember when I got the bat. Back in those days, the A's didn't just hand the same bat to everybody. There were bats from nearly every starting player in the lineup, and every kid was randomly handed one when you went through the turnstiles. I went with two of my best friends.
"I got Reggie Jackson!" said my first friend.
"Oh, you lucky dog! I got Campy Campaneris. That's cool." I said. Then I turned to my other friend. "Who'd you get, Wayne?"
Wayne frowned. He looked at his bat again, to make sure he hadn't seen incorrectly. Quietly, he read the words to us. "I got...Ray Fosse."
"Oh." Pause. "Sorry, man."
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This is a thing of beauty
Happy Holidays to you too, Ken. This is gold right here.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 24, 2009 12:43 AM PST reply actions
HAPPY NONDENOMINATIONAL PC WINTERTIME HOLIDAY TYLER BLESZINSKI
They call their best player "Kung Fu Panda" and they complain that people aren’t taking them or the game seriously enough? -Nick
I'm DEEPLY offended because my people don't refer to "Winter"
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo!!!!!! {runs off edge of planet sobbing}
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE ANYMORE
They call their best player "Kung Fu Panda" and they complain that people aren’t taking them or the game seriously enough? -Nick
What does that even mean ?!?!
They call their best player "Kung Fu Panda" and they complain that people aren’t taking them or the game seriously enough? -Nick
Happy Merlinpeen!
rebuildingseason.blogspot.com
by Rebuilding Season on Dec 24, 2009 1:38 PM PST up reply actions
Good merlinpeen rather.
rebuildingseason.blogspot.com
by Rebuilding Season on Dec 24, 2009 1:39 PM PST up reply actions
My Bruce Bochte is right next to my bed where it's always been
always prepared to destroy intruders or whisper sweet caresses in my ear when my sweetie only wants to fall asleep.
"Sniff some krazy glue, and start a religion!"- The Reverend Billy Lard
Oh, the modern version of the Red Rider BB Gun
“You’ll put your eye out swinging that thing!”
Where these just not the perfect addition to anyone’s wiffleball bat collection? I mean, seriously. I must have hit like 700 HR’s in my Grandparent’s backyard with various green bats.
For sooth I am verklempt
hilarious
"Not in your wildest alcoholic nightmare would you ever imagine such events unfolding!" Bill King
I remember those bats!
My brother and I used to play in the basement using those bats and a tennis ball. I was almost as good as Bobby Crosby!
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
So while BC couldn't hit the slider away
you also couldn’t hit the fast ball down the middle?
CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."
I got a lot of problems with you people!
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
Festivus isn't over until
I pin Nico, so let’s get it started. Nico, let’s dance, baby!
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 24, 2009 9:37 AM PST up reply actions
You sound JUST like my acupuncturist.
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Wish me luck, fellow gamblers and gambolers.
I’m off to River Rock Casino, where I plan to get $100.00 in chips, and play blackjack until I have over $150.00 or I have $0.00. It’s like signing Jason Giambi only with better odds of success! I’ll report back over the weekend on whether or not the cards cheated.
And this year I’m willing to forego the pony I’ve asked for every XMas … if I can have a Justin Duchscherer. I promise I’ll take care of him this time! Please Santa, Satan, Nasta, Astan (Kutcher?), or whomever is minding the store this year. Duuuuuuuuuuuke!!!!!!!
Happy Late December, everyone!
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Where is River Rock Casino?
Best of luck.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 24, 2009 9:38 AM PST up reply actions
It's right near Geyserville,
which I prefer, in honor of Jason Giambi and Nomar, to pronounce “Geezerville.”
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Or you could pronounce it "Kaiserville"
Make sure to bet on 9.17 when you play roulette!
"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s
"Red...black...no, red...or, black....AND........
green."
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
jackpot!!
“…and, we have a winner!”
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."-Plutarch
by One won lost won on Dec 25, 2009 8:00 AM PST up reply actions
Since you won't likely play the $25 minimum table
River Rock will give you two other choices: tables with a standard 6 deck shoe, or tables using a 5 deck continuous shuffling machine. The latter should be avoided at all costs, as they depress the chance of winning by skilled players, and (since they deal more hands per hour) siphon money from regular players more quickly.
Seriously, don’t play CSM tables, and bad mouth them widely. Most blackjack players realize that sometimes a deck/shoe becomes more favorable for a player, “rich” with aces and 10s. In those circumstances blackjack gives you a slight edge over the house, but CSMs ensure that never, ever happens.
Everybody's got a little light under the sun.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Dec 24, 2009 11:04 AM PST up reply actions
I actually wound up at a $10 table with a single deck
I’ll write about it Saturday!
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal
Looks like Duke coming back...
@jcrasnick Justin Duchscherer has agreed in principle on one-year deal with A’s. Could be worth $5.5 million if he reaches his
"Carter's 25-game hitting streak isn't any normal streak. He's 46 for 97 (.474 average) during the run, adding 16 walks and compiling 81 total bases in the process. I'm out of superlatives for what he's doing." - Kevin Goldstein
by Syphon on Dec 24, 2009 10:22 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
Awesome.
I have a Dick Green lying around somewhere.
And no that is NOT some kind of penile disorder.
I'm here to talk about the past.
Wow... you really ARE an A's fan.
You tatted your Dick Green?
CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."
Better than inking your Bobby Crosby!
"Sniff some krazy glue, and start a religion!"- The Reverend Billy Lard
by Gaijin_Suketto on Dec 24, 2009 10:14 PM PST up reply actions
I had a green Reggie bat from that era
And I too used it in street games to the point where the green paint got chipped and faded. Sure wish I still had it. Wonderful post.
Everybody's got a little light under the sun.
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Dec 24, 2009 11:06 AM PST reply actions
Awesome as always Ken!
It's not the results, it's how you look going about those results -- Tim McCarver
OK, it's past midnight now, so to
all my Jewish, pagan, atheist, and Satan-worshipping friends, I just want to say Merry Christmas.
That’s right, my fellow hell-bound. No chickenshit “Happy Holidays” here. Merry CHRIST-mas.
Merry Jesus-mas. Merry Jesus-Christ-our-Lord-and-Savior-mas.
Merry whosoever-shall-believe-in-Him-shall-not-perish-but-have-everlasting-life-mas.
See you in Hell.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Hail Saturn!!
The Saturnalia was a December Roman holiday, where everyone exchanged gifts. It was so popular, that even when Rome became officially Christian, no one wanted to give up Saturnalia. So conveniently, they moved JC’s birthday to December, from July or August (there are no sheep in the fields in December…that is the clue to when the birth was originally set).
Saturn! He’s the reason for the season!
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."-Plutarch
by One won lost won on Dec 25, 2009 8:04 AM PST up reply actions
Even before Saturnalia was the festival of Mithra
less presents… more kinky sex and sacrifices….
My kinda holiday!
"Sniff some krazy glue, and start a religion!"- The Reverend Billy Lard
by Gaijin_Suketto on Dec 25, 2009 9:26 AM PST up reply actions
To Christians, celebrating anyone's birth, including Jesus, was WRONG!!
Celebrating births was a pagan tradition. So you’re going to Pagan Heaven with your “Merry Christmas” exultations….
No “Christians” ever celebrated the birth of Christ for several hundred years! Infact:
The early Catholic Church did not celebrate Christmas. Furthermore, Tertullian (one of its leading 2nd/3rd century writers) warned that to participate in the winter celebrations made one beholding to pagan gods.
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."-Plutarch
by One won lost won on Dec 25, 2009 8:25 AM PST up reply actions
That's the one thing the JW's have right
Christianity+celebrating birthdays= a little hypocritical
I tell them that when they come to my door and I open it wearing nothing but a codpiece with a squirrel’s head sewn on the front.
"Sniff some krazy glue, and start a religion!"- The Reverend Billy Lard
by Gaijin_Suketto on Dec 25, 2009 9:29 AM PST up reply actions
I suppose the roots of most traditions
are lost to the antiquities of time. None the less, Tertullian was addressing the faithful of his generation. He would have probably annoyed me.
Here’s the thing that annoys me so much about the modern clerics. I wish they understood their faith. As my grandfather use to say, three kinds of people want to control what other people do with their time and money. Kings, because they think they’re important, Priests because they want you to think they’re important, and whores…..because time is money. He warned me well of politicians, priests, and prostitutes.
The older I get, the more sense it makes.
"You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat."--The Boys of Summer
Tertullian was not just addressing the faithful,
he was exhorting them to be what they were not. Treating the early Christian writers as representative of Christians in general is a very real problem of historiography.
I’m away from my library this Christmas, but by chance I have Wickham’s new book with me, and he has a chapter on the subject:
When looking at the question of what sort of Christianity we are dealing with, whether in this period or later, we immediately run into the question of source material. The huge quantity of Christian writing after 350 or so substantially outweighs in quantity the work of late Roman secular élites (even though this survives quite generously from the fourth to the sixth centuries), but was almost entirely the work of men who were much more rigorist than their neighbours. The degree of rigour varied, from the relative pragmatism of an Augustine, through the more uncompromising denunciations of a Jerome or a Salvian, to the extreme purism, separated from the possibility of normal emulation, implied in the hagiographical accounts of ascetic saints, such as Antony or Simon the Stylite. All of these, nonetheless, were highly critical of the more easygoing but still Christian world around them; and the aim of all such writers was reform by criticism, rather than to describe accurately.
He then goes on to discuss Christian absorption of pagan festivals as an example.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
If you want to pick those fights
Easier ones are that Christ was not born in December and Did not die on the day we call Easter.
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want" -Bill Watterson
Jesus dies?
Dude- I didn’t finish watching yet!
by brian.only on Dec 25, 2009 11:48 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
AHHH BATSSSS...
The first game I attended was a Bat Day. I got a Danny Cater, short little bat. I used to hit rocks in the street with it. I was only 8. Later I got a green Felipe Alou bat, big barrel, thin handle, sort of a fungo. Ahh memories…
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