Zen Blade's query as to the location of the GLBers reminded me how many of us are actually on the East Coast.  More particularly, how many of us are in what could generously be considered the mid-atlantic region.  Made me wonder what everyone's plans were for July 6/7/8 when the Padres will be plating the Nats at Nationals Park (aka Petco East).

It would be a ton of fun to get together, watch some baseball, and pick on some weakling Nationals fans.  It would be a Gaslamp Ball meetup, East Coast style.  Thoughts?

So, this story is really cool.

A female knuckleball pitcher from Japan will be playing for a minor league team in the United States.

Eri Yoshida, an 18-year-old pitcher who played pro ball in Japan last year, signed with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League. The team said she will report to spring training next month.

I'll be honest.  I love, nay, adore, baseball.  But I'm a feminist, and, let's be honest: pro sports, and especially baseball, are still a boys club.  Maybe that's even part of why I love the game. (And, really, you don't have to be a dyed-in-the-wool feminist to think that there should be open doors, etc.) (And, don't worry, you don't have to explain to me that the exclusion of women from pro-ball is at least in part about physical ability than any deliberate sexism.)

But it's tough to explain to other feminists how I can be so nuts about a sport in which some dumbass will make incredibly stupid sexist comments if he *gasp* sees a woman in the dugout of a major league team.  Although, it helps to be able to point out that most of the guys around him will know that he's a dumbass and tell him so.

Anyway ... as always, I'm thrilled to see an opportunity for progress.  And you better believe that I will be pulling for Ms. Yoshida.  I hope to see her in the big show in a few years.  Whether I cheer for her if she finds herself pitching against my guys, though, is another question entirely.

I'm slightly tipsy on champagne at the moment, in my hotel in the Gaslamp celebrating the end of the three-day torture known as the California Bar Exam - the longest bar exam in the country (with, so I've been told, the highest fail rate in the country).  The good news . . . I've taken the darn thing.  The bad news . . . well, ask me at the end of November when they publish the pass list. 

In the mean time, I'm coming out of my cave, looking around, seeing my shadow, and seriously considering going back inside my cave until next year.  I managed to make it to the game on Tuesday, which, between Bar-induced hallucinations and that heart-stopping almost-homerun that looked like a gimme from where I was sitting, was another form of torture all together.  Now I'm thinking, after last night, that I should never set foot in SD again.  Baseball must be an addiction, because otherwise I can't imagine why I would still love something that hurts me so good.

The point of this . . . I warned you I've been drinking champagne, right? . . . the point is that I'm returning to baseball after a long, painful hiatus.  I've missed you guys.  And to be honest, every time I've been able to check in with the baseball world, I've needed you guys.  Will you take me back?

It's hard to make it through the unluckiest season in my *entire* life (for what it's worth) all alone. . . . 

Side note: Drama, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you . . . I'm strictly on my Blackberry at the moment, and it doesn't hold onto old emails very long. . . .

So yesterday I was feeling a little sensitive.  Call it hormones, call it a hangover, call it this miserable cold that won't let me breath, call it being too nice to evil fans of other teams and too hard on my GLB homeys, but it wasn't fun.  And what did I do with this sensitivity?  I kinda yelled at someone for kinda yelling at me (sensitive people don't read Lewis Black-esque sarcasm real well) and it was kinda lame.  Kinda.

But the best thing happened.  I went away for a little while and when I came back, this crowd had me laughing so hard there were tears rolling down my face.  I was laughing especially hard at myself and a certain typo in a certain lame rant.

The long and the short of it is that I wanted to say a big ole' thank you to all of ya'll for being so great and making this a great place to hang out.

I can't wait for the game day thread tonight.  It's going to be splendiferous!

First, this is my first diary.  I feel like I should preface if with "be nice," but I won't.  It would be useless anyway.

I was doing my normal morning Padres blog scroll and came across Anthony's analysis of the Gameday data for last night.  And he's got me worried.

The analysis points out two things: 1) Jake wasn't getting the corner calls, but we knew that; and 2) Jake's break on his pitches is way down.

Anthony thinks Jake's elbow is hurting and that's why he hasn't been locating his slider for the last two games.  He makes a pretty convincing case, just based off of his stats.  And it would explain (though I don't want it to)

Now, I'm not panicking, 'cause that wouldn't help (and really, my nerves can't take it).  BUT, I was wondering if anyone else had any thoughts.