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The last time I made baseball predictions I was 100% correct. Here’s what I think it going to happen this season.
National League
East: Mets
Central: Cubs
West: Diamondbacks
Wild Card: Braves
American League
East: Red Sox
Central: Tigers
West: Mariners
Wild Card: Indians
World Series
Tigers over Mets
Please, tell me why I’m wrong.
Shaquille O’Neal is no longer a member of the Miami Heat. He’s been traded to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. I haven’t been following this NBA season too closely, in part because the Heat have been terrible and in part because my schedule hasn’t allowed to me watch a single game this season. But I’m a Heat fan and have been one since I was in elementary school. I know Shaq’s one of the greatest to ever play the game, but I’m certainly not sad to see him go. He’s lost a step or two, he’s out of shape, and he has a monster contact that was going to prevent the team from signing any sort of free agent for the next two seasons. I know he helped make the Heat relevant again, and I know he played a part in the 2006 title, but you can’t make today’s decisions based on yesterday’s winning formula.
Alright, before the postseason starts this afternoon I need to weigh in on what I think is going to happen. Here goes.
National League:
Rockies over Phillies (four games)
D’Backs over Cubs (four games)
Rockies over D’Backs (six games)
American League:
Red Sox over Angels (three games)
Indians over Yankees (five games)
Red Sox over Indians (six games)
Leading Off - Today’s post will be devoted entirely to sports. So I suppose if you don’t like sports you can check back later or read what I wrote yesterday about my birthday. But it won’t just be about statistics as I will go into what it feels like to be the rival school of Titletown U.S.A.
Sadly, It’s Great To Be A Florida Gator - (Though make no mistake, it’s still great not being one too.) It’s difficult for me to describe what it’s like to watch the Gators win another basketball championship. Ignore the fact that they won their first one on my 22nd birthday and their second one about an hour before my 23rd birthday. What really kills me is this team just started making the NCAA tournament a few years ago. Does anyone else remember that? These Gators used to be pretty bad. I remember in high school when it was a big deal that they beat Kentucky. It only took the Gators five or six years to put together what will be remembered as the best post-season starting five ever assembled. All I can come up with is that FSU must be terrible at recruiting. Neither of us were that good back around the turn of the century. Lord knows neither town is much more appealing than the other, at least as college towns go. They must have better facilities or something. Whatever it is, it occurred to me that it really wouldn’t have taken that much for our situations to be reversed. In basketball, anyway. Football is a whole other story that I’d rather not get into.
Leading Off - It’s been a very busy two and a half weeks, filled with travel, family, a wedding, getting sick, a broken air conditioning unit, Rez Week and one wicked party. Where to begin?
Presenting Mr. & Mrs. Jeremy Howard - The Thursday before St Patrick’s Day I traveled from Florida to Nashville for my cousin Beka’s wedding. I had been eagerly looking forward to this trip for weeks. My wanderlust peaked when all the students left to go on spring break. I really needed a vacation.
Incidentally I was traveling on my sister’s birthday. It was the first time I got to see Alison on her birthday since she turned fourteen back in 2002. It’s weird to think about things like that, measuring time based on milestones missed. Since I arrived at around 9 PM central time I didn’t spend too much time with her on her actual birthday, but I did get to give her a gift in person. Strangely, she also gave me a gift. You’d think after nineteen birthdays she would have figured out how the process works.
Leading Off - I’m in charge! You do what I say! Okay, so that’s not exactly the way things are. In all honesty, I have no authority whatsoever. But my boss and a lot of my coworkers are in Orlando for the next few days and, in terms of housekeeping, I’m in charge. So it’s not much more than taking calls for people and making sure the folks still in the office are all here. But I’ve got to take encouragement where I can get it at work sometimes and the fact that my boss trusts me enough to do this is pretty encouraging.
Ski Trip - It turns out there was enough snow in North Carolina to make the Nav ski trip a real ski trip. (Now, I wasn’t going to ski either way so it really didn’t matter to me.) I’m pretty sure my favorite part was the car ride there and back. Ten hours each way in the man van. Anytime you put Joe and Rob in an enclosed area that they can’t leave incredible things will be said and done (and by incredible I mean a plethora of things, not all of which should be put in print). I ended up not doing much of anything on Saturday, mostly because I woke up as everyone was leaving to go do their thing. So I sat around the church and read for a few hours. That was fine by me. In fact, my one real worry about going on this trip was that I wouldn’t have some down time that I felt I desperately needed. Sunday was spent hiking, hanging out on a giant rock with a great view, going to a Chinese buffet for dinner, and praying for ASU on their football field. Lots of fun, all around. I even have a few photos up on Facebook.
Leading Off - This has been a surprisingly slow week for me considering it’s the first week of classes and all of the students have just returned. I haven’t yet been on campus with the exception of last night’s Nav Night. That’s probably not a good thing.
So, Who’s At Fault? - To give a brief update on the whole car situation, I received good news from my insurance company. The adjuster agreed with me that the accident was the woman’s fault. I mean, after all, she hit me. This is a particularly interesting development since I was the one who received the citation. I bet the woman is pretty confused, probably angry too. I was very thankful. The bill to get my car fixed and to pay the deductible to get her car fixed would have been a very large bill for me. As it is I’m just stuck with a citation that’ll cost around $120. That’s not fun, but it could have been much worse.
Leading Off - Today starts one of the best weeks of the year. Think about it. You’re only at work for three days. If you’re still in school you may only have two days of school. Then you sit around and eat all weekend, watch football or your favorite movies, and catch up with family. Not too shabby. Sadly, I’m still on the front side of those three days of work.
Introducing McKenzie Grace Pohl - This past Saturday (I think it was Saturday) my old friend Alisse Pohl gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Congratulations Alisse!
Dream Sequence - Sometimes I think it’s funny how God works. On Friday night after alumni team I was sitting around in Camp Special listen to people describe strange dreams they’ve had. They debated over what they could mean, if anything, and the whole concept of dreams in general. Unfortunately, not only do I not sleep all that well but I also don’t hardly ever remember my dreams.
Leading Off - I’m exhausted today. It’s strange to be so tired that I can’t even work up the energy to do my data entry, a task that takes little energy to begin with. Why so exhausted? Well, first because of Tuesday night when I stayed in Andy’s room until pretty late. Then Wednesday morning I got up early to be apart of the first ever “Man Morning” at Villa Special. But the real reason I’m tired is because of my second business trip that occurred yesterday.
Quote of the Day - “I feel like I was just made into the butt of someone’s joke.” — Lindy Davis, after we were photographed receiving our Emmys in Jacksonville
Elder Affairs - On Monday I was asked if I’d be willing to head over to Jacksonville on Wednesday to participate in a phone bank to help seniors on the first day of Part D enrollment. Sure, I thought. Anything to get me out of my cube. But as yesterday rolled around I was beginning to wonder if I’d made a mistake. You see, we didn’t leave Tallahassee until about 1 PM, so I was in for a late night return. I didn’t receive the training I needed to assist people over the phone until Wednesday morning, literally right before we left. So I really wasn’t all that confident in my ability to say or do anything of value for anyone.
Leading Off - I’d wish you a happy Halloween, but I’ve decided that I don’t really like this holiday anymore. Too much sketchy stuff happens on this night, witchcraft and the like, that’s diametrically opposed to my beliefs for me to really be on board with Halloween. That, and I won’t even be around Tallahassee to “celebrate” this year.
Elder Affairs - This afternoon I’ll be leaving on my first business trip, with this job or with any other job, to go to Tampa for a SHINE leadership meeting. Tomorrow I actually get to say a few things in front of everyone. Granted I’ll be up front for all of about twenty minutes, but it makes me feel like I’m going for a reason rather than just because I can. I’m trying to decide whether I’m excited about this trip or if I’m dreading it. It certainly will be a nice change of pace from data entry, but I do enjoy coming home to my own house and sleeping in my own bed. I guess it’ll be nice to have the company pay for everything for a couple of days. Money has been a little tighter than usual lately so this trip is a blessing in that regard.
