charlieDEAN’S Blog

Major League Baseball opened its season this morning at 6:05am (ET). While most teams don’t have their first games until Monday, the Red Sox & A’s are playing three games in Tokyo.

I love opening day because it says “SPRING IS HERE!” So this morning, I ate my breakfast and watched the 8th inning.

Also, for the first time I’m playing fantasy baseball. We had our draft last night. Here’s my first 10 picks (of 22) in draft order:

1. Matt Holliday (COL)
2. Jimmy Rollins (PHI)
3. Ryan Braun (MIL)
4. Brandon Phillips (CIN)
5. Jered Weaver (ANA)
6. Brad Penny (LA)
7. John Maine (NYM)
8. Jeff Francis (COL)
9. J.J. Putz (SEA)
10. Adrian Gonzalaz (SD)

Yes, Luebcke, I drafted a Rockie 1st! I knew you’d be proud!

Okay…I’ll admit I was at Soldier Field on Sunday when the Broncos suffered a humiliating overtime loss to the hapless Chicago Bears.  While it was a great game, full of action, the outcome was less than I desired.

However, it was my first experience watching a game from a skybox, which is a pretty sweet deal for around $18,000 for a single game (22 tickets + 5 parking passes).  Anyway here’s a pic:

(it’s coffee)

frankly…I wish the Brewers would have just won a couple of games at the end of the season and saved us the embarassment of the sad excuse of baseball that we exhibited over the last three games!  Here will be my enduring picture of the ‘07 playoffs:

    1st inning…runners on…Ramirez has a 3-0 count…AND HE LOOKS AT THE NEXT THREE PITCHES!  Next at bat…HE SWINGS AT TWO JUNK PITCHES in the dirt…THEN GROUNDS INTO A DOUBLE PLAY!

Usually, I’m a big Ramirez fan…but tonight I’m furious. 

I know that there will be second-guessing about Pinella’s pitching decisions…but there is one reason we lost three games in a row and that’s poor hitting…especially with runners on.

 Forgive me for my rage, and all the capital letters…it was good that I watched this game alone tonight.

Well…in the AL, I’ve always pulled for the Red Sox…so I guess I’m pulling for them now, but the Rockies are fun to watch — I’d love to see them continue on their tear!

I’ve resisted.  I’ve wanted to write…to say something…to allow my hopes to rise, but I’ve forced it down, to protect myself from getting hurt…

But hope is rising!

Last night’s game was AWESOME!  (I was there.)  I’ve never heard Wrigley Field so loud and fired up and so intense about every pitch!

It’s opening night for the NFL!!

Predictions:

Broncos 10-6, Wildcard

(it’s gonna be an up & down year…Cutler has some learning to do!)

 Superbowl:

Chargers - Saints

(I think the Chargers are the team to beat — and they’re hungry for it!  The Saints? I think the Bush-McAllister tandem is going to be hard to stop…and Brees is enough of a threat that you can’t ignore the pass and focus too much on the run.  I don’t know much about their defense.)

MVP:

L.T. (it’s his to lose, barring injury, he’s the man!)

Yes, I’m a lifelong CUBS fan, but I love baseball and so I jump at any opportunity to go to a MLB game.  So anyway, a guy at church scored me some tickets to the White Sox - Red Sox game today…so we went.  Some thoughts about U.S. Cellular Field and the White Sox:

• Beautiful field…cool architecture…I love all the exposed steel…very cool.
• For a new stadium, very small seats…although they were good seats.
• Even better, we had passes to the Stadium Club, which is basically a restaurant/bar in the right field corner.  There are huge windows overlooking the field, so the second half of the game we sat overlooking the field from high up in the stadium club…very cool.
• The Red Sox POUNDED the White Sox 10-1.   While it wasn’t a record, we did see a historic feat as the Red Sox are only the 4th team since 1900 to score 10 runs or more in four consecutive games against the same team.
• I feel bad for White Sox fans…as much as they try to believe that they are “Chicago baseball,” it’s just not so.

Okay, the greatest days of my life, were my wedding, the birth of my kids, etc.

But yesterday was pretty freakin’ cool.

It started at 8am, meeting at Kevin’s house and then driving to Chicago with a few of my favorite people. We went to the Cubs-Reds game. The Cubs sucked it up (not a huge suprise), but we had GREAT seats, sitting in the 1st row of bleachers in left-center. It was a perfect day to be sitting in the ballpark and just chillin’ with some friends.

Then, after fighting the traffic all the way across town during rush hour, we arrived at the Tweeter Center to see George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic open for the Dave Matthews Band. Here’s a couple of concert thoughts.

• We had pretty decent seats. We were in the pavilion, so that’s pretty good.
• We had the funniest dancing, middle-aged guy two rows in front of us. (hopefully, I’ll be able to post video soon) Just sitting here thinking about him makes me laugh!
• George Clinton was dissappointing. I was looking forward to it, but it was just too muddy, seeing as how there were about 15 musicians on stage. Like Hite said, it was better than no one being on the stage! (Plus he was wearing a diaper — you just don’t see that every day!)
• DMB was pretty sweet. It was a pretty strong set (you can see it here — just select Sept. 15, 2006), and I got to see some songs performed that I hadn’t seen in previous concerts.
• DMB had some of the P-Funk horn section join them for some songs, and it was awesome. Jimmy Thing turned into an extended jam with horns that was pretty awesome!
• The set was amazing — I don’t even know how to describe it, except that it was quite the show!
• I’m getting too old for the whole “concert atmosphere thing”

  

So, today, I’m pretty tired. We got back to Slettens at about 2am, and then I went to Wal-Mart to get flowers for my wife and donuts for my boys. Then I had to take a shower before bed to get the smell of cigarettes & pot out of my hair, so I eventually tumbled into bed around 2:45, which is much later than this old man is used to!

It was a great day!

I’m not a huge “sit and watch sports” kind of guy. When it comes to sports, I’d almost always rather play something than watch something. But not when it comes to football. I love NFL football. And so tonight, I’m stoked as I’m sitting in my basement, watching the Dolphins & Steelers, not really caring who wins, but just happy that football is going again.

I’m also pretty stoked that we have the internet at home for this year’s football season, so I can keep up with the Broncos & my fantasy football team better!

On Sunday, the Broncos play in St. Louis!!