It’s too pretty outside to watch the A’s on television, but I am too tired after a long week, so here I am.
It’s raining in Baltimore, but not enough to prevent the game from starting. Wei-Yin Chen (from Taiwan) against Tyson Ross.
The theory of batting Weeks and Crisp at the top of the lineup played out well in the top of the first, as both players got on base and then Melvin called a successful double steal. Â But Chen got out of a bases-loaded jam.
Anybody have any camping suggestions/ tips for anything coastal w/in 100 or so miles of Oakland?
Planning some trips for the year, so far have a reservation at Salt Point SP and am going to the Fitzgerald Marine reserve tomorrow!
Think I’d prefer Kila in the 6th spot.
Andrew Molera SP is incredible, but walk-in only. Also no reservations, 1st come 1st served.
If you go and can’t get a spot, Pfeiffer Big Sur is OK, especially if you can get a riverside site.
I haven’t camped at Big Basin, but people say it’s really good.
Heading north, I like Gualala.
Love Molera- stunning, I think Pfieffer has some of the most aggressive jays I’ve met!
Haven’t heard of Gualala, have to check that out, Thanks!
gualalá sasoon.
Closer in, Samuel P. Taylor in Marin is lovely, and a good jump off spot for Point Reyes-area day trips.
And really close-in, many people don’t realize you can camp on Angel Island. And after the last ferry leaves, the couple dozen (at most) campers have the entire island to themselves. Bring bikes. Totally awesome Bay Area experience .
Is that the one in Point Reyes Station?
Angel Island is great, but damn that was some windy camping!
We were facing South and in the course of an hour we had a good 1/4 inch of fine soil in parts of the tent.
I had to use fallen logs to weigh down the rain fly for the night, finding logs in the dark is no fun with that many raccoons around.
Most amazing view in the morning though and the nights trials were quickly forgotten.
SP Taylor is about 5 miles before PT Reyes Station, I think. Was originally on the list of state parks being shut down this year, but got saved.
I like the east-facing campsites on Angel Island. Haven’t had wind or raccoon issues there, though I’ve definitely heard lots of aggressive raccoon stories on the island in general.
I used to go to Salt Point a bunch when I was a little kid. Out at Point Reyes, I like hiking in from Palomarin and then spending a couple nights at some combination of Wildcat, Coast, and Sky camps.
Cool, I was looking at that, which do you recommend of the three, also it only says 2 when it gives the hike-in distance, that is miles right?
Kind of a bummer that the inner bay is reserved for groups only.
When I lived down there I used to love that hike on the Coastal Trail from Palomarin to Wildcat Camp. About 5 miles one way, very easy, wide open so great views and passing some ponds. Once you set up at Wildcat Camp, a walk back south along the beach for about 1 mile to the foot of the waterfall is fun too.
Yeah, I would also recommend Wildcat for the combination of beach access, short hike, and waterfall. Coast camp is good too, but a longer hike (if you are going straight to Coast Camp, you might want to check if the Bear Valley visitor center is closer than Palomarin). Sky camp is less cool than the other two, because it’s not right next to the beach.
Good stuff thanks guys!
If nobody has said Sugarloaf Ridge is nice.
Chen’s slow pace is excruciating to watch, and I would imagine to hit against also. This A’s team can’t miss many chances to score against a struggling pitcher like they did in the 1st.
Balmer’s orange uni tops make them easier to dislike.
Chen seems pretty terrible. Can’t throw strikes and when he does they’re up in the zone. And yeah, it would be nice if the A’s could actually take advantage of that.
http://twitter.com/#!/CespedesAtBat/status/196378298090143747
http://twitter.com/#!/CespedesAtBat/status/196379066562134016
http://twitter.com/#!/CespedesAtBat/status/196379833637416960
Awful.
This second inning has been pretty awful. Suzuki has a good idea, trying to pick off a runner drifting too far second base, but he bounces the throw and it goes into center field.
Cespedes, who still hasn’t established that he’s a decent center fielder, thinks about throwing to third only to realize that getting the runner at second is much easier. But he’s too slow with the throw, and everyone is safe. Both runners score on a subsequent single. It’s 3-0 Orioles and the outdoors are looking more appealing.
Oh for fks sake.
I’m embarrassed for them…
Cespedes is a really awful center fielder.
He’s fun to watch hit, even when he strikes out, but he seems to lack instincts and good judgment.
This sort of thing must drive Coco nuts.
Demi-God
Yeah he is.
Nice of the A’s and O’s to relieve me of any perceived obligation to pay attention to the rest of today’s game.
This worked in my favor as far as not being distracted during a date night.
Blevins up in the second inning. It would be nice if Ross could eat a few more innings, just so the bullpen isn’t trashed for tomorrow.
Chen looks quite hittable, but a 5-0 deficit isn’t easy to make up.
This game blows.
And Chen gets hit…right in the giblets.
I’m excited for baseball to have a new bad guy. Bryce Harper debuts tonight and I hope he kicks ass on the field and embarrasses himself in the postgame interview afterwards.
I may watch that game instead, Stras’ and Harper seem like a good remedy from this poop-fest I’m currently watching.
grounded out to the pitcher Billingsley on a 2-1 count.
wow this is bad. i’m going outside. sorry i can’t help carry the burden.
though the live look in just popped up and i’m slightly intrigued by the color-top battle between the catholics and protestants. but no, the sun’s a callin’ me back.
I was just outside all day. Now I am in.
We need to tell Vince to stop with the “BoMel” nick name
Who’s that?
Oh, Bob Melvin
He should stop will all the nicknames.
BOOBIES
Also, orange is always a TERRIBLE color for baseball.
Bloom would not be pleased to see that Sarasota ad behind home plate.
Bryce Harper just had his first AB. comebacker.
But he wore high socked stirrups.
I am now his biggest fan.
So, this game sucks.
But you know what doesn’t? Live stand-up comedy. I’m working with Jesa and Bryan for a combo A’s/Red Sox viewing and watching me do some stand-up comedy at an open mic in San Leandro on Monday night. Game starts at 4 p.m., show at 8, Shooter’s in San Leandro.
Here’s a link to the Facebook invite.
I’ll try to be funny.
So I guess this means Tyson ‘Bilge pump’ Ross will be headed back to AAA.
4IP, 11H, 9ER, 1B, 1K, 73/48 contributing to a gawd-awful 6.48 ERA, eeesh not even a mother could love that…
wow.
Thanks, and go As.
GAME OVER!
Click!!
THIS TEAM IS A WASTE
Harper was booed as he was introduced.
He should get used to that.
I am sure he already is
Mark Kotsay sighting
Thanks, and go As.
Henry Rodriguez sighting
Also welcome to the bigs, Harper.
Thanks, and go As.
What an ass
Seriously, doing the wave while
his team is pitchingat a baseball game?Unicorn base hit off Rodriguez.
Thanks, and go As.
Rodriguez just threw a 91mph changeup :lol:
Thanks, and go As.
Matt. FKing. Kemp.
Thanks, and go As.
I saw the way Bryce Harper intentionally flipped off his helmet on the way to second so he could show off his awful hairdo. What a douchey move.
Almost makes me glad Kemp beat them.
he’s 19.
Thanks, and go As.
Age has no limit on douchebaggery.
10 years from now, it’s highly likely that he will look at that highlight and say “wow, I was a douche.”
Thanks, and go As.
One can hope.
I’m ten years older than harper, and I look back at myself at 19 and think, “Wow, i should have been more of a douche when I had the chance.”
Me too.
Except I’m not as old as you are. I blew it in terms of being a douche when I was younger. I never took the opportunity ‘cos it’s always explained away as “Aw, but he’s young”.
Bastards.
Why is that any more likely than his continuing to be a dick at 29?
I kind of doubt that. It’s absolutely possible, but I still doubt it. Given where he is and how more or less easy his life has been, I doubt he’ll get the life lessons that tend to lead someone to realize how much of an ass they were in their past. But really, only time will tell. But right now, he’s… a pretty big douche.
Obviously you’ve never competed at a high level in sport.
As a teenager, travelling around the country to compete in tournaments (as Harper did, as I have done) is far from easy.
He’s got an ego because he was SO much better than the kids around him. His personality has developed the way it has because you know those kids he played against (and a lot of times they were older age kids) ripped him to shreds verbally every chance he got because they were jealous.
It’s tough to stay a grounded, humble, sweet kid when every weekend you’re going against people that hate you simply because you’re more gifted than they are. Instead you give in and hate them right back as a defence mechanism.
I like him, but then that’s a given.
well said
All I’m hearing are reasons and excuses for acting like an asshole. None of those are justifications. We all have our crosses to bear in life and our difficulties, but we all must grow up at someone point too. So great, based on whatever experience you had, it was tough. Okay. But an ass is still an ass, how one becomes one isn’t really at issue here. Are we going to be making these same excuses for him when he’s 30? 40? Or do we always justify being a jerk, at any age, simply because of the life they lived?
I’m sure as hell not perfect, I know that much.
Whether or not Harper grows up, right now he’s a douche as far as I’m concerned. I’ll reevaluate that if and when I see it change.
In other news, life will go on.
is flipping your hat off being a jerk? sure, but its not beating other people so until he starts doing that, he is fince with me.
Grandstanding is. And he has a history of doing that so while this *may* have been a misconstrued singular incidence of him not doing that had he not had that history, you can hardly fault the rest of his for seeing a duck for a duck.
ed already agreed with you when he said “sure.” then he put it in perspective.
I don’t think that fully excuses his douchiness.
I think all teenagers who play in MLB should have to have their dad on the team, a la Ken Griffey, Jr. Keeps them in line.
From what I’ve observed, from his SI cover story through now, makes me think it’s more likely Bryce Harper grows up to still be an asshole, like Roger Clemens, than matures into a reasonable guy.
He was fussing with that helmet all game. I think he didn’t like it. Ithink he flipped it off becaue he was going to go for three and wanted to see.
And anyone who wears stirrups like that can’t be all bad.
And furthermore he is 19 and the crowd is booing him. do you blame him for being kinda socially awkward? he can do what he wants as far as I am concerned. he can wear ed hardy over ed hardy.
My 50-year old coworker wears Ed Hardy unironically, and he rocks it.
Sure didn’t look like it was anywhere close to his eyes as he came around first base. I’ma go with Occam’s Razor on this one.
He’s not being ‘socially awkward’ (/showing off his hair) because the crowd is booing him. The crowd’s booing him because he’s got a well-documented history of being an ass.
breaking news, teenager has an ego
Thanks, and go As.
You’re really overstating the immaturity of most guys his age.
my brother is 20.
I’m really not.
Thanks, and go As.
I’d wager that most people in their late teens/early 20s aren’t egotistical assholes. They range in that category about as much as older adults do. It’s just a matter of whether they stayed that way or became that way with age/experience.
yeah but most people in their late teens/early 20s aren’t one of the top few hundred in the world at their given profession, either.
I mean the dude has basically never failed at anything baseball related in his life. He hasnt learned humility yet.
Thanks, and go As.
I find it pretty fitting that on the pitch he connected on for his first MLB hit, there were other asses in view behind him.
that was funny
Thanks, and go As.
That and his upbringing (his father basically encouraged it) suggest it’s not something he’s likely to grow out of. Certainly not easily. People absolutely change and hopefully he does, but neither the potential to change nor his age excuse his current doucheyness. There are certainty extenuating circumstances that if folks (or you) want to hope for the best and are willing to look past it, that’s cool.
His social non-awkward ceiling might be A-Rod.
That’s kinda sad.
Mike, most of the superstars of MLB (or any sport) have usually been way above their competition at every level. Not all of them are assholes.
Not at this level with the level of media attention generated by the MLB’s investment in the draft and the proliferation of the internet. Fuck Arod is basically the best comp for the dude and we didn’t even have 28.8 modems at that point it was 199fking4. You were using AOL
Hm. In 1994, I *was* using AOL.
I know you were because we didn’t get earthlink until 1995
1. How does one follow from the other?
2. What were you, like 5 then?
3. Come to think of it, we didn’t get internet until ’95, and after an unsuccessful trial of The Pipeline, we switched to AOL.
I didn’t even have internet of my own until late 1995 when I started college, and that was just in computer labs. One of my friends in high school who lived up the hill had Prodigy and we’d go online there for a few things.
When I came back to California in 1997 I started off with AOL before eventually using SBC/PacBell/AT&T for a while, then I switched to Speakeasy for a few more years. Now I’m “stuck” with Comcast but I haven’t had any issues with it.
aside from them being one of the worst companies ever
Thanks, and go As.
@MikeV:
Yeah, but when I moved here it was the only real high-speed option I had.
Yeah. I’m stuck with AT&T Uverse until Sonic.net rolls out Fusion to my area.
Soon, I hope.
Thanks, and go As.
I think Frontier was the only other option locally and they didn’t cover my specific area.
in 94 my roommate had a modem and we’d get onto UCSC’s system (because he went there) via lynx mostly to find out what colleges certain girls lived in. i believe getting personal info like this was called “fingering.” then i remember a lot of all-nighters at the NYU computer lab. fetch was especially tiresome–was FTP’ing really the only way to send large files (large, like what’d fit on a coupla 1.44meg disks…)? i didn’t have internet at home after that until about 97, AOL dialup i think.
I think in 1994, I still lived in Montana. The internet hadn’t made it out that far yet.
Heh, sure. I guess that makes you the authority.
I’m not trying to bury this guy on the first day of his big league career. I hope you’re right, and that we come to see him in a different light. But it’s just disingenuous to act like things like, oh, BP insinuating that everyone who meets him hates the guy are par for the course for people his age. Shit like throwing his helmet off halfway to second base on his first MLB hit fits right into that pattern. It’s pretty clear that he’s got issues that go beyond the typical 19 year old, so I’m not sure why you’re going to the mat on this one.
yup, its all because he is a dick
https://twitter.com/#!/AdamKilgoreWP/status/196450851445936128
I don’t really see the relevance.
he is a cocky teenager, always has been. Like MikeV said, he is one of the best people in the world at playing baseball.
He has been a target of media, fan, and fellow player ridicule since before he could drive a car. here is an illustration of what he has to deal with.
Without knowing what happened tonight, I’m not going to make assumptions. I don’t think he should feel put upon by the fans, nor should he feel unsafe on the field. Certainly, many players have dealt with much worse than he has. I would also say there’s a good case to be made that he’s has sought out the increased media attention and all that comes with it.
I still think you’re confusing the causality here. Maybe there’s some element of his playing with a chip on his shoulder as the result of receiving so much criticism. But the media didn’t randomly choose to jump all over him–he earned that coverage by being genuinely unlikable, even by the standards of generational talents. Where was all the “bad dude” coverage for Justin Upton? Felix? Griffey? Even A-Rod didn’t have anything close to the reputation that Harper has.
I’m sure there are elements of simple immaturity and perceived persecution to Harper’s story. But those aren’t mutually exclusive from his being an unusual jerk even by the standards of his age. I’m still not sure why throwing his helmet away on a stand-up double, something I’ve never seen before, so clearly falls in the first category for you.
Griffey had a dad in the MLB and media has changed a lot in the last 25 years since Griffey. One, no one cared about minor league ball beyond the fans just going to the game. There weren’t the prospect junkies like there are now.
Felix was an unknown Venezuelan
Arod again was 20 years ago in a sleepy Seattle media environment.
Basically the proliferation of the internet allowing baseball nerds across the country to interact with eachother and the MLB’s efforts to promote the draft have changed the way the media interacted with Harper. Strausberg is the only one thats dealt with anything close to it and basically he was a chubby fat kid that no one thought was any good until he was older than Harper is now. Hell the draft wasn’t even televised three years ago!
What about Justin Upton? He would seem more comparable.
how about Bryce Harper.
There really is no comparison.
Maybe other sports, like leborn James or something, but even then, other sports have high profile amateurs already.
The kid is, by all appearances, a putz, but that’s a good thing. The game needs putzes.
He is, and it does. Until he shows me he is bad at being a human being, I will not, not root for him
Pullovers make sense but they look like sh!t.
I’m down for neck-button semi-pullovers like the Mets used to wear in the late 70’s.
Do you think that the criticism has been misguided, and/or that people have piled on? I believe the anonymous quotes from the SI piece came from BP–hardly a bunch of muckrakers.
I am 100% sure if I met him I would think he is an asshole. I cut him a break because of the increased scrutiny and pressure he has been subject to forever.
I don’t think the hat flip was a terribel move, I can see a reason for it. He did take it on an d of and adjust it the entire time he was wearing it. He looked uncomfortable with it.
That said he may have thought it was cool, but I am not sure how people leap to “he wanted to show of his hair” from what happened. I can’t imagine he planned that, nor he would be thinking about that as he rounded first.
I get where you’re coming from. I guess I’m just less inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance.
Yeah a dude that was on the SI cover when he was 16 and has been a baseball god his entire life, thats going to lead to an ego.
And Kemp intentionally flipped off his helmet on the way to home.
And gave his mama a high-five on the way back to the dugout!
Yep, after a game-winning homer in a ritual that’s become commonplace before being mobbed at the plate.
I’m okay with that.
a commonplace ritual just like giving that ball you got to a little kid by you :D
Thanks, and go As.
Ha.
And had he chosen to keep his helmet on, no one would have booed him either…
I was being flippant.
So were they!
What a douche.
2 episodes in to Mad Men season 2
I’m bored with it
Thanks, and go As.
High five!
morning baseball!!!
afterwards, mourning baseball iii
and beer,
a lot of beer, I will admit.