The Art Neuro Weblog

All Quiet on the Space Exploration Front
There's nothing exciting to be reported today. This may be a function of the fact that it's still Sunday over in the USA as I write this, but nary a peep about Space has made headlines since I've been waiting all morning, really, but nothing has popped up.

My Total Baseball Weekend
My weekend was pretty invested in baseball, so I'll just write down a few things that happened.
The Jack Kerouac Memorial League fantasy baseball league held it's 2nd annual draft at Alex Van Der Ploeg's house on friday night. It was a draft and draught sort of gonzo-male-bonding-in-the-baseball club night. Sorely missed was David Musgrave who cited his wife as an excuse. It should be noted that this blogger recommended to Guy Jeffrey that he should use his wife as an excuse for not taking on more responsibilities at the Stealers Baseball club, which I believe he promptly did. Guy, of course came 2nd last year and drafted a pretty solid team around Barry Bonds, relief aces John Smoltz, Rob Nenn, Billy Koch and also the inimitable Derick Lee.

This year, I'm building my strength around starting pitching with Roy Hallday, Mark prior, and Jason Schmidt; and a OBP-heavy lineup of guys in Derek Jeter, Hank Blalock, Hidkei Matsui and Vernon Wells. I also drafed Joe Mauer in the 9th round which raised eye-brows, but I really wanted a catcher with a high-ceiling if I couldn't get Jorge Posada, which of course I couldn't. I don't think I'll win this year, but I think I can make a run for the top 4 again.

The Stealers under-10 Panthers I coach played a 'Grand Final' (these things are dodgy, shady deals in the world of under-aged sport) on Saturday morning and lost 7-3. It was a well-contested game A good friend of mine remarked about the effort, "At Least there weren't any kids practicing dancing on the bench"; a reference to the last time she saw them earlier in the season and all the kids on the bench were stuffing around without paying attention to the game. The interesting thing I guess was the kids wanted it, but the parents probably wanted it just a little bit more.

On Sunday, I played in the President's Cup game on the side of the coaches against a team of Under-16s coming up in the club. This was also a well-contested game where we won 7-3. I made 5 assist and 2 put outs at third. The best part is I didn't screw up in front of the kids after a season of coaching them how to pick up ground balls and make the throw to firstbase. Phew! So an score level, I had a 10-10 kind of baseball weekend, but I think it was a pretty damn good weekend for me.

Making the news today is the NY Yankees tour of Japan. The Yankees will open the season there against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the day after tomorrow.
IN an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, Ex-pat NY Yankee Hideki Matsui slugged a homerun in his first at-bat; Cuban Ace Jose Contreras showed us why he was signed for money than Mastui by striking out 6; Derek Jeter (O Captain, My Captain... he certainly is in my Fantasy squad) and Jorge Posada also hammered out homeruns for a 6-2 win. Go Yankees.

- Art Neuro