Sunday Reflections

Its time for those Reflections:

Music: Cicatria by The Mars Volta



Listen to the second part of this video as well. Maybe the best drumming from Jon Theodore

-Had an OK weekend. I was on the road in Jacksonville, Fla. with Belmont baseball. The trip was good, even the bus ride down there was fine. When we traveled to Spartanburg, S.C. a few weeks ago, I really struggled on that trip and felt uncomfortable the whole time. This trip, which was hours longer each way, was calmer for me. I got a lot of reading done on my third book of the Sports Book Club, speaking of which…

-I hope some of you are at least halfway through Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman. The review is coming up in about two weeks with hopefully an interview or some correspondence with Pearlman. I’m already on book number three of the Club, so I’ve become a reading machine lately.

-This week was also the first baseball meeting between Belmont and Vandy. This is always a strange game to work for several reasons. First, Vandy is my alma mater so I obviously have positive feelings towards them, especially the baseball team. If I had to place a hierarchy on my favorite Vandy sports, it would probably be men’s basketball, baseball, football, women’s basketball, women’s soccer and then tennis.

I always have a spot for the baseball team because when I was attending the school, the program was just starting to improve and I wanted to be a part of seeing it grow. Its like taking in a stray dog who is weak and then feeding him and taking care of him and in about two years, he’s running in races and competing in shows.

Anyway, this conflicts with my current position at Belmont as an SID. I work for the school but I’m also a student and will be an alum in about a month, which means that I care about Belmont athletics as well.

To make matters even weirder, I do work with Vandy athletics so I know many people in that department. Their SID is a good buddy of mine, I know the marketing staff, shoot, Meggie, who is probably the most loyal reader of this blog, works in the operations staff for Vandy baseball. She was the first person I saw when I arrived at the stadium. Strange stuff.

Furthermore, all of the Belmont baseball players know that I’m an alum of the school so they give me crap the whole week of the game. They ask me if I’m cheering for Vandy to win or make sure that I’m not wearing Vandy colors, etc.

I tell them that when the two teams face off in any sport, I want Belmont to win. This is actually true. I will always have love for Vandy, but I’m more connected with Belmont at this point of my life, especially with the athletes and coaches.

I don’t know one Vandy baseball player personally. I know their names and faces because I’m a fan but that is it. I’m close with the Belmont baseball team because I travel with them and I consider some of them friends. Its one thing when you’re watching a game and you don’t know the players and coaches. You just watch the game and want to see some good action. Its another thing when you’ve shared stories with a pitcher or met the parents or girlfriend of the outfielder. Its that way for all of the sports at Belmont for me. So while I’m not allowed to cheer for a team because of my job, I do have some rooting interest in a player or two.

So when Vandy won on Wednesday by beating Belmont, I was neither happy or sad because my job has trained me to feel neither and for the sake of all things considered, I was happy with that emotion.

-I’m excited that ‘Pancakes,” the weekly event that inspired this whole Blog in the first place, will be returning for the next two weeks. I’ve been so busy this semester between baseball and traveling on Thursdays, I haven’t been able to have ‘Pancakes’ at my place. However, I’m free the next two weeks and looking forward to it.

-I’m actually glad that I’m not allowed to fill out a NCAA Tournament bracket for basketball because after seeing some of the results from this weekend, I would be in trouble. Here are some Observations within my Reflections in relation to the Tournament so far.

-I’m done with you Wake Forest. If I was filling out a bracket, I would have probably picked Wake to make it to the Final Four and they end up losing in the first round.

-I was wrong about Syracuse and Duke. I still think that both of them will lose their next games but I also thought that both of them would lose in the second round. Duke kinda should have because that officiating against Texas was shady. Speaking of which…

-Maybe I’m mad because I’ve been telling everyone and their mother that Western Kentucky was going to the Sweet 16, but how can the referees miss the WKU player AND head coach calling timeout with one second to go. That was terrible.

-CBS should invest in doing a split screen when all of the games are going on at the same time. The games are staggered for the rest of the way so they aren’t necessarily going on at the same time now but for next year, they may want to look into that.

-I just had my first of two fantasy baseball drafts and problems are already arising. I had some major technical issues and missed the first five or six rounds and that was bad. I have players that I don’t want and my team is weak. Not happy at all but its salvageable. I’ll just have to work harder in that league, however, 75% of fantasy sports is the draft and I’m lacking in this league. Hopefully I can do better in my other one.

-Still trying to catch up on my shows. I’m caught up on One Tree Hill and currently watching Chuck so I’ll be good for tomorrow. I still am behind on House, General Hospital, Life on Mars, The Office, Gossip Girl, Scrubs, The Game, Fantasy Factory, I Love Money 2, Rock of Love Bus, For the Love of Ray J and probably two or three others. If you’re a fan of any of these shows, don’t mention what happened in them to me, please.

That’s all I have for you for tonight. I’m in town the whole week so there will be more Blog opportunities for me.

I have a slight case of writer’s block right now so I’m open to suggestions for topics I should address here.

Until then, good fight and good night everyone.