A Day Without Baseball Is Like A Day Without Sunshine

By Ken Dynamo
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008

We can all give a big sigh of relief now that we've made it through the Wednesday after the All Star Game, also known as the most boring sports day of the year. Sure, the month of February after the Super Bowl is also pretty rough. March Madness is a ways away and the only other sports morsels to chew on are the woeful early season NHL and NBA games. But February is also hot stove season, so that doesn't really count.

No, only during the day after MLB's showcase exhibition game battle for world series home field advantage do the gears of baseball really grind to a halt.

There are, of course, the ubiquitous All Star Game recaps to read. I actually stayed up to watch the entire 15 inning snooze-fest. It was not worth it. Every time Tim McCarver made a comment about Historic Yankee Stadium (now its official full name), a little bit of me died on the inside. Joe Buck was merely is usual unbearable self.

But we've all heard the recap of the game by now, and we've all grown utterly exhausted from listening to the tremendous tale of Josh Hamilton at the Home Run Derby and his magical thunder bat, forged from steel, guts and Outside the Lines montages. There were some nice moments but I think most people are like me and are just glad it's over and ready for the real games to start again.

However I do think it's also worth pointing out that during the game, before David Wright's 3rd and final at bat (as a DH), the Met organization's entire contribution to the National League's losing side can be summarized by this: Wright, 2AB, 2K, 6 pitches; Billy Wagner, 0.1 innings pitched, 2H, 1ER (game tying run). Pathetic, no?

So with no major sports to follow (no I'm not counting the WNBA, get out of here with that nonsense) what did I do with my day? Well, glad you asked. Lets see, today I...

...penned the 43rd chapter in my Robocop fan-fiction magnus opus: Robocop: Episode IV: No More Mr. Nice Cyborg.

...practiced my favorite karaoke song (Medium Pace, by Adam Sandler).

...got mentally prepared to see the world's greatest progressive rock band Rush live in concert this weekend. I think it's sad that many of my friends are under the entirely false assumption that seeing Rush live in concert would be anything less than the greatest experience of their lives and would rather do something else this Saturday then go with me to the Nissan Pavilion and have literally the best night of their lives. It's a pitiful state of affairs with my friends, really. For those of you unfamiliar with Rush, think of the most perfect music you have ever heard and then multiply it by a thousand. You see, a lot of Rush detractors will say things like, "Rush is a washed up, tired prog rock band from the 70's with over wrought musical arrangements and tortuously hackneyed, middlebrow lyrics." And all I have to say to those people is, "hey listen, shut up dude."

...got a hair cut. Actually I got just about all of them cut! Ha ha ha, Oh lordy that never gets old.

...tried to figure out why British soccer (also not a major sport, by the way) announcers say "the team have taken the field" rather than the "team has taken the field". I mean, you wouldn't say, "the platoon have taken the hill", or, "the class have not learnt their proper grammar lessons", would you? Silly Brits.

...learned how to use this hackneyed and overused nifty little font formating tool.

..wasted most of the day checking sports blogs as I normally would only this time found the experience even more useless and unproductive than all the other days spent idling on the cyberweb.

Thankfully a four game series with the Reds starts today, followed by what we all hope will be a battle for first with the Phillies following that. And not a moment too soon. Seriously, I think I'm starting to lose it here.

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Ken Dynamo writes about the Mets swears a lot on his tastefully named blog, GO METS DIE BRAVES, and hopes you all had far more fascinating and meaningful Wednesdays than he did.