Cardinals Blame the Phone?

This year has been an interesting year to be a Cardinal fan.  It started in February when Pujols announced he would not negotiate a contract extension once Spring Training started.  Then Adam Wainwright got hurt leaving the Cards without their best pitcher.  After a season of struggling and losing the Central Division to Milwaukee, they got hot in September.  Using some help from the Phillies, they eeked into the Wild Card and the playoffs.  A Game 5 1-0 win in Philadelphia and a meltdown by Milwaukee put St. Louis in the World Series.  Then, we have Pujols hitting 3 homeruns in Game 3 only to be followed by a loss in Game 5 because the phone doesn't work? What could possibly be next?

Updates

Okay, I know I need to blog here more, but just haven't been motivated.  I guess I've been playing too much with Google+.  In any case, I'll try to post more here, but with it just being a portal, don't expect too much.

As for news, well, I updated to iOS 5 on my iPad and iPod Touch.  That was more of a pain than it needed to be.  My music, books and podcasts wouldn't show up no matter what I did.  When I tried closing the active apps, music closed, synced and updated.  Oh well.

Jordan Pacheco BROKEN BAT two run home run! 7-8-2011

I've seen a lot of things in my time at the ballpark, but this one ranks right up there as one of the strangest:

Back To Firefox

A couple of weeks ago, I started having Flash issues with Google Chrome.  Google couldn't seem to figure them out and since I have to work with Flash based websites, off to Firefox I went.  I thought the stay would be short until Chrome got things sorted out.  Well, Firefox has improved greatly since I left a year or so ago.  The extensions are more what I like and the speed is now better than Chrome, at least on the pages I need.  So, until Firefox fails (again) it looks like I'm back.

Dubious Quality: Babies

This is one of my favorite blogs and well, he just explained coaches perfectly to his son:

Dubious Quality: Babies:

"'Remember how you asked me what it was like to care for a baby, and I told you it was really tough, because all babies could do when they needed to communicate something was cry? So a baby might need food, or its diaper changed, or need to be held, but all it can do is cry, and you have to figure out what the crying means?'

'I remember that,' he said.

'Well, lots of coaches are just like that,' I said, 'because when they need to communicate something--'

'They yell!' Eli said."

Chip

Tuesday night, I got one of those emails you don't want to get.  It was news that Chip, whom I had officiated football together had died.

There isn't a lot I want to say here.  He was a good official, but more importantly he was a GREAT guy.  I will miss him, especially when the striped shirts come out of the closet this fall.

National Anthems

Trust me when I say, I've heard my share of national anthems.  I go to many sporting events, in many roles, and hear many renditions of both the U.S. and Canadian anthems.  Most are forgettable moments on the way to the game and that's okay.  I've heard many a kids' group sing off key the "Star Spangled Banner" only to receive a solid ovation at the end.  After all, the crowd could sing along and it's not about the quality of the singer, is it?

While watching last night's Stanley Cup Game 1 in Vancouver, this anthem tradition became on of my new favorites:

Why is it one my favorites?  One reason.  It's all about the song.  The crowd is not only able to sing along, they are required to in the middle to make it work.  Okay, "required" might not be the right word, but it's that middle part where the singer hands the song over to the crowd which makes it powerful.

Compare the Vancouver "O' Canada" to the Los Angeles version of "Star Spangled Banner" from 1983:

The L.A. version might make a better single or concert, but for my money, the Vancouver one makes the better anthem before a sporting event.