• We just need to be within a Holliday of home plate; the Phillies need to actually touch it.
• Colorado has mountains.  All Philadelphia has are some crusty old documents.
• Ha ha!  Your bell is cracked.
• Santa Claus doesn’t hate us.
• Words that strike fear in the hearts of Philly Nation: now coming in from the bullpen, Brad Lidge.
• Cheese steak?  That’s not a steak.  Give me a big ole ribeye.
• 4 words.  Jorge De La Rosa.
• Your balls cannot elude the snare of the Fowler.
• New Jersey.  Nuff said.
• We have a dinosaur.  Checkmate!

Regnat Purpulous!

I’m not sure if folks will like this, or if it will go over like a lead balloon.  If people like it, I’ll continue to write this from time to time.  At least until the Rockies legal department sends a cease-and-desist letter.

I woke up at o dark thirty this morning to use the hotel pool.  Over the years, I’ve come to realize that not everyone enjoys a rousing session of Dinger cannonballs, so I have my fun in the early morning hours.

After a couple dozen cannonballs, I swam a lap and called it quits.  I dried off and caught a bit of Jurassic Park before heading down to join the team at breakfast.  I love documentaries.  I quickly got into the middle of a bacon eating contest with Tulo and Barmes.  I think Tulo won, but it was close.  Those guys should really get their cholesterol checked.

The Rockies were playing a double header that started at noon local time, so after breakfast it was time to head to the park.

I needed a bit of exercise, so I decided to walk to the stadium.  I asked Tulo and Barmes to join me.  Tulo agreed, but Barmes said he was going to ride the bus.

“You know what they say about me,” quipped Clint.  “I hate to walk.”

Tulo and I chatted about the excitement among the players on the team as they fought the Giants for the wild card.  We agreed that the Giants had made themselves better by nabbing Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates.

“We’ve improved out team, too,” observed Tulo.  “The pen should be stronger with Chacin and Betancourt contributing.”

We also talked about Tulo’s year.  Tulo wanted to finish the month strong in order to push his opus over a thousand.  His opus had also been over a thousand in June, after a low opus in April and May.  I’m not really sure what an opus is, but I guess it’s something good.

New York is a great city.  People talked to me in at least ten different languages while we walked to the park.  I’d tell you what they said, but I have been told to keep this story at a PG rating.  The lack of Dino Crossing signs was a bit of a disappointment, though.

This was my first trip to the Mets stadium, so I spent some time looking around.  I’m not really sure why they call it Citi Field when they’re using the Dominos logo all over the place.  Anyway, I bumped into this guy Russ when I was waiting in line for some nachos.  He’s pretty cool for a New York guy – and he’s a Rockies fan.  He kept talking about his bog.  I wouldn’t want to live in a bog – bog are too wet and mushy.  I like living in a city.  I guess Russ likes living in a bog, though.

Russ and I headed down and watched the guys take batting practice.  Omar Quintanilla must have eaten his Froot Loops this morning, because he was hitting some absolute moon shots into the upper deck.  If Q-Bert ever shows his true power during a game, pitchers will want to be traded out of the NL just to avoid pitching to him.  Q-Bert has considerably more power than guys like Tulo and Hawpe.

The double header was great.  Tulo hit a monstrous grand slam to win the first game.  The Rockies also won the second game – on a steal of home by Dexter Fowler.  The Rockies train is charging back into first place in the wild card race.  Choo choo!

The post game meal was great – pizza!  I’ve been on diet, so I didn’t eat as much as normally do – I just had three pizzas.  I invited Russ down to join the team for the meal, but he didn’t eat much – I had to finish his pizza for him.  Most of the time he was just looking at the players with his mouth wide open.  Maybe living in a bog takes away your appetite.

Until next time – Dinger OUT!

I write fiction short stories every Friday for my web magazine, The Casual Observer (click on “Fiction Friday” in the category section on the left side of the screen).  Some of these are baseball, but most are not.

I ranked my favorite baseball teams (1-30) in yesterday's edition of my web magazine The Casual Observer.

The link is here -> http://www.observingcasually.com/baseball-preference-rankings/

Feel free to respond (either to this fanpost, or in the comments of the full article) with your own listing (it does not have to be complete).

Some snippets from the list (the full article is much more verbose)

1.  Rockies - I have been a fan since December of 1992

2.  Cardinals - Gained some helium with the acquisition of Happy Holliday

16.  Tigers - Tigers are my favorite wild animals, and I always liked Magnum PI.

19.  Dodgers - They'd be much lower if not for Vin Sculley

26.  Yankees - Jeter + Steinbrenner.  Ick.

30.  Pittsburgh Pirates - C'mon, a team with this rich of a tradition, just going through the motions?  They're an AAA team for the rest of the league - keeping payroll low and sucking up the luxury tax revenue.

 http://www.observingcasually.com/baseball-preference-rankings/

There seems to be a lot of speculation that today is the day that Clint Hurdle will be fired.

Tim Kurkjian mentioned the possibility (along with the possibily that Astros manager Cecil Cooper may be next in line) and the Denver Post has this article.

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