Gas, Meet the Teacher, Baseball, New Phone

I had meant to write about this last time, but I forgot. I guess it gave me more time to solidify my conclusion. The week of August 10, gas here was at $3.99 all week. Well, we were out and about all week and as it typically goes, the gas gauge eventually sat just above the “E”. We had Sarah’s wedding in South Holland on Saturday, so that morning, we went to fill up, only to find that gas was now $4.09! We just assumed that the oil price had risen again, and we were on the wrong end of the totem pole. Well, the weekend came and went, and when Monday morning showed up, the gas price stood at…$3.93. We just had to laugh at our unfortunate fill-up, but honestly I think its because all the people here leave on the weekend, and they fill up before they go, so gas prices go up. So…this week we filled up for the $3.93 price on Thursday night only to see it spike at $3.99 this weekend. So…for ALL of you people who are planning on visiting, don’t fill up here on the weekend, unless you want to get a taste of big-city $4.00+ gas.

This past Friday afternoon was a time for all the students and parents to come in and meet the teachers, find their lockers, and get their schedules if they wished. I think we may have had around half of the 8^th graders stop in, so around 45-50. I saw way too many new faces, new names, and I might have remembered a few of them. There were definitely some odd connections, which I should have seen coming, even though the Dutch/Reformed background now only accounts for about 40% of the school population. One woman came up and asked if I knew Van Schepen’s from Washington, which I don’t, but now know that there’s a pastor that preached there for awhile. I told her that my dad was from NW Iowa, and she responded by saying she was from Ireton and that she remembered my dad driving the bus to school “back in the day.” (direct quote dad, sorry) Another (and possibly the craziest connection I have ever made) knew the Van Schepen name and asked who my dad was, and my grandparents, grandma’s maiden name, and my great-grandparents names. Well, we sat down and pieced together what we both knew of the family tree and she discovered that my Grandma Alice and her mother Cora were cousins…I think that’s how it went. My great-grandma Maria and her grandpa ________ were brother and sister. Honestly, they probably went to church together in the early 1700’s back in the Netherlands…if they could’ve played cards back then, I’m sure they played Dutch bingo too.

Well, school starts Monday, whether I’m ready or not. The room is pretty much done, I think my planning is done, I just need to get my final class list (which still wasn’t finalized Friday afternoon with all the adds and drops) and I need to run off some sheets for my introduction to the class.

Five-Tool Performer is competing for the last day today barring a 150-point outing. With Rollins struggling for the past few weeks, and Kinsler on the DL, I just ran out of bench players to adequately fill in. The $10k will have to wait for next year…

Twins started out 2-0 on the road trip only to drop a should/could win against the Angels on Saturday. I saw Buscher had two huge errors that cost them, and Gomez misplayed one in center that Gardy based on lack of experience. It does seem like we’ve avoided that lately…misplays due to inexperience. But 74 wins is about what I had hoped for this year based on the offseason moves, so to be there with 5 weeks left and to have a ½ game lead in the division is amazing. Just so more of those “inexperience” plays don’t start showing up.

Last note…I just got a new cell phone/number with Verizon, so all of you Alltel people can’t talk to me free whenever anymore, which might mean I have to go back to the nights & weekends calling schedule. New number is 630-470-3293…but I’ll send out an email or Facebook message soon.

Until next time…

Farmer waves, Driver's License, and the Kane County Cougars

After living in a metropolitan area for a solid week, I decided that as nice as the people here are (it still is the Midwest), they aren’t near friendly enough. So I decided that whenever I find myself driving down a residential street, I’m going to give oncoming cars a little wave. I have a feeling that so far when I’ve done it, people are a little freaked out, and some just stare at me, wondering if they should know me. I guess they see my Minnesota license plate and wonder a little.

Last Friday, Linds and I decided to get our driver’s license switched to Illinois’ licenses. We looked online and needed 4 forms of ID to apparently prove it was us. We needed our old license, SS card, Birth Certificate, and proof of address. We showed up and went from checking in to sitting in chairs waiting to giving our information and taking the vision test. Now, I should stop at this point and say that when we checked in, the lady didn’t ask Linds if she needed a book to study for the written test, but for some reason she did ask me if I would like to look one over. I asked her if she thought I needed one (in my most confident voice), and she just smiled and laughed and said “probably not”. Yeah, probably but not definitely. At this point in my life, after 17 years of schooling and now a certified teacher, I believe I know the difference between a good multiple-choice question and a bad one. So when I left 3 of the first 5 questions on the test blank after reading them, I should have thrown my red challenge flag because it had to be illegal what they were doing to me. They were questions such as, “When can a driver under the age of 17 drive at night?” and “You can lose your license for which of the following?” And here I thought this was a written test about driving, and here they were going to end up nailing me for the little nitty gritty details. Well, there were two pages of multiple choice, about 20 questions I suppose, and then a page of 15 street signs that you had to identify. I figured it was at least 15 free points until I got to the front and the young girl who was correcting my test must have had something else on her mind, because all of a sudden she went pen crazy and started making all these marks on my test. Turns out, Matt doesn’t know when 17 year-olds can drive at night, or when someone can lose their license. Furthermore, apparently Matt doesn’t know the difference between a merging lanes sign and a lane reduction sign. I didn’t ask how many questions you could get wrong and still pass, but lets just say I wouldn’t have made the honor roll with my test score.

But, as any baseball guru would say… “It’s a line drive in the book…”, because not 15 min later Linds and I both walked out of the office with new cards in hand…and mine didn’t say “This guy only got an 85% on his written test…”

After two weeks of living in the Windy City metro area, and it still being summer, one would think that our (my) attendance at baseball games would have at least begun, especially with limited teaching prep to do right away. Well, we didn’t make the connection that maybe there are teams around that don’t have little bears or clean socks as their mascots. Monday night we drove about 25 miles to the northwest to Geneva to watch the Kane County Cougars take on the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in a Midwest League matchup. The Cougars are a Class A affiliate of the Oakland A’s, and the Timber Rattlers (which I assume is either Paul Bunyan running from Duluth to Brainerd or some kind of snake) is a Class A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. We were surprised as to how many people attended the game, somewhere in the 8,000 range, which probably puts them right up with the Florida Marlins in average game attendance. We paid $10 a seat and sat 10 rows up from the home bullpen down the 1st baseline. The game went 13 innings, with Wisconsin winning 8-7. I only recognized one name between the two teams, pitcher Scott Hodson of the Cougars played for Azuza Pacific in the 2007 NAIA World Series, and if I remember right, he was NAIA pitcher of the year that year. We did get to see him pitch 5 innings of relief, and he did really well.

Like I normally do, I’m typing this at home because I almost feel bad typing on my blog at school. Like I’m not doing what I’m supposed to be doing, or something like that. But we don’t have our gracious neighbor’s wireless internet right now, so I’m typing this on a word document. Not that any of this means much to anybody, but it does mean that there’s no official update on Five-Tool Performer’s quest for $10k. Things are bleak right now, after averaging over 40 points/day for 6 of the 7 days last week, it was the 7th day that really did me in. A TEN point day…I don’t remember having a TEN point day all year. I finished the week at 255 points when I was looking for 280. I figured that if I could get two 280-point weeks, I might not be going on, but at least I would have felt good about it. This week could be tough as well, because most teams are taking a day off at some point this week, with a few (Cardinals) taking two off, which really hurts the stats of Ludwick and Molina. I subbed Hernandez of the Orioles for Molina, but couldn’t get it in my heart to bench Ludwick for Alexi Ramirez. But, looking at last night’s drubbing of Seattle and Ramirez’ bomb, I may have been wrong.

Here are a few pictures of the Kane County game we went to…

Until next time…

August 11

Linds and I spent the day at school. She helped out at v-ball camp while I was getting more stuff ready in my room. In the afternoon, she helped me put stuff up on the walls and even made me a poster. I'll have to take some pictures and put them up as soon as I get the rest of the posters laminated and on the wall.

Some thoughts from the past few days...

• I really hope anyone who is reading this is finding time to watch the Olympics live rather than just seeing highlights here and there. Watching that 4X100 freestyle swim and come from behind to win was absolutely incredible. Even right now as I type I'm watching the men's team gymnastics finals. It really gives you a sense of national pride...

• Glad to see the Twins come back after dropping the final game of the Royals series to take Game 1 from the Yanks. I see Perkins had a little extra motivation after the birth of his baby girl this past weekend. Even Adam Everett, after a huge throwing error on Sunday, comes back with a 2-run bomb to start the scoring on Monday.

• The good news about Livan Hernandez' return to the NL with his start for the Rockies against San Diego on Sunday? His manager still believes in him...somehow. A quote by Rockies manager Clint Hurdle..."His command wasn't sharp...he wasn't able to throw quality strikes on either edge, and the balls were hit hard." He went on to say that his ineffectiveness was a result of not pitching for 12 days. Just profound, an absolutely out of this world description about the game's best batting practice hurler.

• Well, the Five-Tool Performer gave Wrigley17 a run for the money but came up just 1 point short of the league title. An RBI single by D-Lee in the Cubs/Cards game Sunday night put him over the top. I now move on to the underdog bracket, where ending up with one of the top two teams is practically impossible. A formidible start thus far on Monday, scoring 30 points with Rollins getting 2 more AB's before his game is over. I'll have to average around 40 points a day to even have a chance. I had two players (Kinsler & A. Ramirez) with the day off, which is why I'm not reaching my 40-point goal. (Or so I tell myself)

Well, its back to school tomorrow, putting lessons together, figuring out the workings of the 8th grade retreat, and making my room somewhat inviting...

Updates

Just wanted to give a few updates...

• We've moved into out new place, Linds has a link to pictures of our place on her blog, which I have a link to on the right-hand side of the page. It's a pretty nice place, although we haven't been out alot to really enjoy living in a city. We know its a city because there's a lock to get into the building, and two more to get into our condo. We see planes flying overhead, which isn't weird I guess, except now you can see which airline it is and even this picture I took the other day...

• My fantasy baseball team, Five Tool Performer, continues its bid for the $10k prize, although I don't have quite the confidence as I did last week. After winning my semifinal match 288-216 last week and moving on to take on the #1 seed in the league, I find myself trailing by 32 points with two days left to play. Last week I outscored my opponent by an average of 10 points a day, so I really need to pick it up or be forced to enter the loser's bracket. As I write this, Jimmy Rollins is 4-4 with two triples, so he's pulling his weight. I'll definitely be watching for the Rays to mop up on the Mariners tonight too...I would love to see a shutout by former Twin Matt Garza...

• If you didn't get to watch the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics on Friday night, you missed one amazing show. I can honestly say it was nothing like I've ever seen before. I wanted to try and describe it, but I seriously can't find the words...

• For anyone looking to add to their daily blogroll, I would recommend checking out Brian Duensing's blog. He's a AAA pitcher in the Twins organization who is playing for the U.S.A Olympic baseball team. I'm hoping that he continually updates, his first two entries have been pretty good.

• For any of you who know me fairly well, you know that my favorite ball player is Doug Mientkiewicz. There's a number of reasons why, but if you watch him play, its pretty much because he plays the game right in my eyes. Anyway, after seeing limited playing time since leaving the Twins in 2004, he's finally found a place in the lineup in Pittsburgh. And I put lineup because its been a somewhat role reversal for Doug this year. With Minnesota, he was a Gold-Glove firstbaseman, who was average at the plate. This year, while putting up typical Doug-like numbers offensively, hasn't been able to find a regular spot in the field. Here are his games by position and fielding % for each:

3B- 30 G, 5 errors in 77 chances (.935 %)
1B- 26 G, 0 errors in 215 chances (1.000 %)
RF- 9 G, 0 errors in 17 chances (1.000 %)

• I guess when you play for the Pirates and your batting average is 2nd on the team at .286 behind Ryan Doumit's .336, the manager finds a position for you.

Well...that's all for now...

July 30

I listened to the last inning and a half of the Twins game last night on the way home from our fastpitch game in Steen. I expected to hear news about what the Twins did with Adam Everett, but heard nothing. I read today that they first designated him for assignment, then changed their minds when Casilla went on the DL with a torn tendon in his finger. I've read that its the same injury that Matt Tolbert suffered in May, and he's still not back. Hopefully its not as bad.

On many of the blogs I read, they have campaigns to "free" a player, or in other words, let them play in an everyday role. For example, Aaron Gleeman had a "Free Jason Kubel" campaign earlier this season (April 1). I've seen a couple others, but like an amateur writer/blogger, its not my job to remember everything, is it? Anyways, I am going to propose my own "Free" campaign..."Free Alejandro Machado!"

Machado was picked by the Twins in the 2006 Rule 5 draft, but tore his labrum during Spring Training in 2007, and was out for the entire season after surgery. Since coming back from the DL this season, he has hit .333 in 23 games with an OPS of .829. Although he hasn't showed it this season, he has averaged 22 SB's a season in his 9 minor league seasons.

I realize that the case study isn't that great, but using the Minor League Equivalency Factor, that gives him a line of .293/.301/.419. Now I'm no rocket scientist, but I know that those stats are far superior to Adam Everett's. I don't want to undermine the thinking of the one and only Bill Smith on this one...wait, yes I do...but Everett better be either picking up right where Casilla left off, hitting over .300 or be laying out for balls heading to Canada or he'll be calling Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens for job-searching info.

Another update on the Five-Tool Performer's bid for $10k... After two days of play in the league playoffs, FTP holds an astonishing 52 point advantage over WWC. Biggest reason: the pitching staffs. My Rays hold a 31-4 point advantage over his White Sox.

If you made it through all those numbers and all those terms...don't you just feel the least bit more intelligent, a smidge smarter, even a little enlightened??

Maybe you just can't believe that this guy's going to be teaching a fantasy sports class to 8th graders this fall...

If I were GM...

I see a note on ESPN that Buster Olney thinks that Adam Everett would be a good fit for the Dodgers at SS, now that Nomar is out for a bit. LA has a great bullpen...maybe we could get one of their five relievers with a sub 3.00 ERA? I'm thinking maybe Cory Wade is a possibility?

Another note worth watching...LaTroy Hawkins was released by the Yankees. The Twins need bullpen help...would he be a help?

Notes: July 28

-The Iowa High School Baseball Tourney wrapped up last weekend. The only reason I bring this up is to mention the play of B.J. Hermsen, the 6th round pick of the Twins in this year's draft. Here's his line for West Delaware's 3A 13-0 win over Cedar Rapids Xavier:

CG 5 IP 3 H 0 ER 0 BB 12 K

also...

3-4 R 5 RBI including a 3-run HR

He came in relief against Centerville in the semifinal round, throwing 1 1/3 IP, striking out 3, but West Delaware's season ended in a 2-0 loss.

-Shooter Hunt was promoted to Class A Beloit and started on the 26th against Wisconsin:
5 IP 3 H 1 ER 2 BB 9 K
He ended up on the short end of a 1-0 game, however, picking up his first minor league decision.

-I may need to apologize to Denard Span for reaching my earlier conclusion that he was the odd man out in the OF battle. He has now emerged to be more of an asset than Gomez, given Carlos' recent slump. Since June 30 when Span was called up, Gomez has hit .184 with a .282 on-base %. The speedy CF has also shown no signs of the early speed, having only gone 1-2 in SB attempts in that same time frame.

-Many people (hopefully more than just me) have had questions about why can't the Twins send down Boof to AAA and bring up Liriano, or why is Liriano's agent having a fit because Francisco is still in the minors. Well, I found this website that explains things pretty good, and its to the point as well. If anything doesn't make sense, feel free to ask me, not that I know the answers, but I'll definitely enjoy figuring it out.

-I found a page on the Rule 5 draft that takes place during the winter meetings. I thought it was interesting to see how some rules are put in place to maintain balance in the league. Basically the Rule 5 draft is in place to keep teams from hoarding minor league talent. In many cases, one team may have a stockpile of players that aren't quite as good as the guys ahead of them in the organization, but are good enough to play for another team. Take Johan Santana for example...he was a member of the Astros organization and was left off the 40-man roster at the end of the 1999 season, which opened the door for the Marlins to pick him in the '99 Rule 5 draft. They then traded him to the Twins, who, by law had to keep him on the 25-man roster (big-league team) all of 2000 in order to keep him. Although his stats that season were less than impressive (2-3, 6.49 ERA, 64/54 K/BB), by having him up all year gave the Twins complete rights to him, so they sent him to the minors for more seasoning. He was a huge contributer to the Twins 2003 success, going 12-3 with a 3.07 ERA and 169 K's in 158 1/3 IP.

-Today, the Twins need to decide what to do with Adam Everett, who's rehab assignment is done. They either need to re-evaluate him back to the DL, bring him up (releasing someone), or release him. Personally, I choose the latter of the three.

-Finally, a update on the Fantasy Season for Five-Tool Performer, my 2008 MLB.com Open team. A heartbreaking loss last week...didn't see it coming. I had a 20-point lead going into the last day. I check it this morning and I lost by 10. Somehow I was outscored by 30 points on the last day. As humiliating as it was, it didn't hurt my playoff chances. I made the postseason tournament as the wild-card team. If I put up the same stats as I did last week in my loss, I should be alright though. He's got Jose Reyes and Justin Morneau as his studs that I need to look out for, along with the ChiSox pitching staff. I'm countering with Ian Kinsler, Grady Sizemore and the Rays pitching staff. I like my chances. (Plus he won't get any points for having Matsui still on his lineup, as he's on the DL...shhhh!)

BRING ON YOUR BEST "WEWE'S CABBAGE"!!!

So long for now...