Why Rain Sucks

Went down to Tacoma today to watch the Rainiers game with Jeff and Oren. We did manage to catch up with the Lookout Landing guys for a bit, although since I'm super-shy around strangers it was sort of hard for me to talk to them, kinda like at the USSM Pizza Feed last year.

I also had a goal of getting Ryan Rupe to sign my Nippon Ham Fighters yearbook from 2004. I even went up to the dugout and asked if he was around, but the players there were like "Uh, no... he pitched yesterday so he probly won't be out for a while, he'd be over in the bullpen anyway". So I figured maybe I'd try to find him when the pitchers came out -- I mean, honestly, how many people will come up to an AAA player and be like "I saw you in Japan last year, and you pitched a good game for my favorite team! Will you sign my book?"

Of course, that never happened, since it started raining. So I never really got to try to corner any players to talk or sign things. Sigh. They delayed the game to 7:20... then indefinitely... eventually at 8:30pm my friends and I got bored and left, hoping it was a rainout so we could exchange tickets for later.

Sadly, it wasn't. As we found out later, they apparently started the game around 9pm, and the Rainiers won, and Snelling even hit a 2-run homer. I'm really sad about that; I wanted to see him play. I wanted to see Norihiro Nakamura play also, since I never got to see him in Japan before he came here. I guess I could go to the game tomorrow or Sunday, but it's such bad timing, and driving down to Tacoma twice in one weekend would suck.

I guess it was good to stop by and say hi to the LL guys though. I've always liked their site, even when it was Leone For Third, and I'd easily say they and USSM are my favorite baseball blogs in Seattle. And Jon Wells from the Grand Salami magazine was there with his wife and he gave me a free copy of the June issue! So that was cool. Lessee, I guess Jeff and Devin were there, and PLU Tim and PositivePaul, and some Mark guy. I don't remember anyone else, since I ended up not sitting with their group after the stands got all crowded due to rain.

As far as the Mariners go, they seem to have spectacularly managed to lose tonight's game to the Nationals, 9-3. Hasegawa gave up 6 runs in one inning, which must be a record for him. Ichiro went 1-for-5 and Winn went 2-for-4, which means that Randy Winn's .304 batting average is actually higher than Ichiro's .302. The sad thing is how optimistic I was, since in the car, we heard Sexson hit a home run that made the game 3-1 Mariners. Ah well.

The interesting game of the evening, IMO, was the Red Sox vs. the Cubs, meeting to play for the first time since the 1918 World Series (and we all know how THAT ended). However, today they put Maddux on the mound against the Red Sox, and he not only pitched a fine game, he also hit a home run, the 5th of his career. That's really cool.

In other news, the reason why Tomokazu Ohka didn't pitch against the Mariners in DC is that he was traded to the Brewers as the Nats picked up Ryan Drese and Jacobo Sequea off waivers. That's funny, I really was wondering what'd happen to Drese.

Olerud! Olerud is playing again. Olerud is batting .333/.375/.429. Olerud is good. Olerud is on the Red Sox. We won't get to see him this year. Sigh.

The Red Sox were on Queer Eye the other night, and I watched it at a friend's house. It was quite amusing. I actually may very well order the DVD, I'm not sure. It really was pretty good though. I mean, I've never seen the show before but it was just super-funny, especially the part where all the guys got their backs waxed. And Kevin Millar was like, sitting in a spa chair, soaking his feet in flower-petal water, going "What, who ever said being gay is uncool? This is awesome. I am totally gay now!" You'd, uh, just have to see it. Apparently he reported afterwards that he got a lot of phone calls from his friends making fun of him for how silly he was in it. The part where they had the Fab 5 and the Little Leaguers and the Red Sox guys all playing baseball together was pretty comical too. All in all, a good watch.

But, yeah. Rain sucks.