Once again upon the boards!

The Blogger has just competed a very successful run in the role of Drosselmeyer in the Pontecorvo Ballet Studios' 20th Anniversary Production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's most enduring work, The Nutcracker. Two performances in the fine auditorium of Northridge High School on Timber Lane, were enjoyed by packed houses of parents, grandparents and sugar-addled siblings of the talented dancers of the Pontecorvo school.

[Photo would be here if I had any, yet. Grr.]

In the words of one critic, "Lindsay's re-imagined Steampunk watchmaker, Herr Drosselmeyer, romped hair-raisingly across the stage. It was nothing short of bizarre!" It was in a word, exquisite; but not too much, so as not to distract from the real purpose of the evening: a showcase of the dancing!

I am the betting favorite to win a Tony at the Wiffies.

An open letter to the Blog

Two weeks have gone by since the famous "suck" rant appeared on these pages. In that time, two games have been played, one theory session has been conducted and, oh, yeah....a President was re-elected.  Where has the blog been?  Take a look around this site for a minute.  When was the last time stats were updated?  When was the last time an article soared to the heights of rhetorc and stirred the loins of men?  This place is looking more and more like Cabrini-Green.  Romney grafitti, busted links, bitter comments sprinkled about like so many crack vials!  On October 28 the blog said it was "Nice to be back bloggin' after all that acting stuff."  Really?  Because a T.W.I.W. fan can hardly tell.  I think we've all paid a lot for this site, in blood, treasure and dignity.  Start writing, Lindsay.....or else!!

Fall Classic

Romney Wins!!  

This game...

..sucked. Stats sucked. Then he sucked again. And then he completed the hat trick of suck.

Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Suck. Sucking suck. The whole sucking day sucked!!!!

Kevin C. pitched well.

Suck, Kurt - 2 runs, 17 hits
Pete, Kevin C., Glen - 3 runs, 13 hits

W: Berwald
L: SUCK!!! (Lindsay)
HR - none

Next week can we just go to breakfast?

All Bluster

Cold temps, stiff winds, and lascivious jokes in unaccented English filled morning at Nance Bradds today. The score of 12 - 1 says all you need to know about the game. Glen's uncharacteristically flat pitches generously provided the needed baserunners, and subsequent RBI, for the rout.

Da Commish surrendered the single tally by Kurt and Glen. But they had him on the ropes; could have been much worse, but Pete worked out of it. Home pitching shut them down the rest of the way.

But the talk was P.E.G.'s - performance enhancing gloves. Stats wore a pair of Carhart work gloves while in the field and in the dugout. He did not pitch or bat with them. Still, this was regarded as a questionable choice in light of tradition, manliness and the "rules." Had he dropped any of those fly balls he caught in centerfield, this is a whole different conversation, by the way.

Nice to be back bloggin' after all that acting stuff.

Eric, Peter, Matt - 12
Kurt, Glen - 1

WP - Zamonski
LP - Cebulash
HR - none.

Real Men Pull; Thespians Go the Other Way

Ok, ok! I've done the stats.  I've been busy, what with memorizing my lines, building sets, rehearsing and so forth.

There's been a couple of games.  Some people drove in runs and won games. Others allowed runs to score and lost. These things happen all the time. Timeless ebb and flow of the game, yadda yadda.

Curious question arose during the game on September 29th.  After the fifth inning of play, it seemed that the game was over as Matt had to leave in 15 minutes, and there wasn't time for another inning. Hands were shook.

But Matt offered to pitch a few and invited all who to take a crack in the box. And as it turned out he pitched a fairly brisk, scoreless inning.  So Glen hustled back to the dugout and he and Matt proceeded to put up 7 runs on Hansoo to cap off the greatest comeback in wiffle history. Except that no one was writing these down on the scoresheet. So none of it counted.

So the question is, "When does a wiffle game end?"

When you stop keeping score.

"Counterfactual!" says he.

One of the following two statements is a "counter-factual". The other is not.  See if you, while reading this blog on your electronic device, can pick out which is the "counter-factual."

Statement A: "If Mosser had struck out Berwald instead of giving up a dinger, today, he would have allowed only one run."

Statement 2: "If you disregard the players with fewer than 7 innings pitched, Lindsay is in the top three in pitching in the OW&AC this season."

Can you see the subtle difference in the two statements? One (A) asks you to imagine a scenario which did not occur. The other (2) filters outlier data so that the broader truth is revealed.

To wit:

Clearly, this nameless batter-runner is OUT. He is out because the Umpire said he's out. One might construe this picture in a way to argue that the umpire could also have made another call. But he did not. IF he made a different call, that would be a counter-factual. Besides that batter-runner is a low down weasel and he deserves to be out every time.

[Does that hurt this traitor's feelings? Aww. Rub some hundred dollar bills on it, you'll feel better.]

I digress. There was wiffle today. A tidy little 3 on 2 affair in which Stats and da Commish built a nice lead, and then held on for a close victory in a nail-biting final inning.

Peter brought his camera, so we have an illustrated account. Here goes....

Rookie of the year candidate, Doug Klein gave up two runs in the first. (And another in the fourth, including a rare home run off overhand pitching for Stats.)

Then Kurt allowed two more in the second, including a dinger by Peter. There was a predictable result...

 The indignity of Orioles fandom. 

Pete, not pictured since it was his camera, and Matt held Kurt, Doug and Eric Kvalheim scoreless until the bottom of the last inning when they got two runs in, and then loaded the bases with none out.  At this point Peter bore down, working two K's and a ground out to end the game.

Had Kvalheim allowed a run in the top of the sixth - that would be counter-factual. In the end, only Matt and Eric were unscoredupon.

Peter, Matt - 5 runs, 14 hits

Doug, Eric, Kurt - 2 runs, 12 hits

W: Lindsay

L: Klein

HR: Berwald (4), Lindsay (3)