Baseball, MLB, Sports

No Winning Streak Yet

It’s been like this most of the month. The Detroit Tigers win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose two games, win a game. They just ended a three-game losing streak when they beat the Astros Wednesday night.

Oh, we thought this win-lose crap was over. Now it’s the Tigers turn to have a winning streak. Nope. The next night they lose.

Well, now they’re in Chicago. I guess there’s supposed to be makeup game on right now, for a postponed game in the first week of the season, but looks like the makeup game is postponed. They’re supposed to come on for the regular-scheduled game at 8:30. Heaven forbid that gets postponed too.

Anyway, if the Tigers could stop losing, that’d be great. I’d rather not have them walked on by the Sox and I don’t want them swimming in Kansas City’s sewers. They must rise out of 3rd place, kick Cleveland down and conquer the twin cities.

Baseball, MLB, Sports

Another Loss

The Tigers lost again. I keep reminding myself that it’s still May and they have time to turn things around. But right now, they’re losing as many games as they’re winning and it’s not looking good.

I guess it could be worse. The Tigers are in third place, the White Sox are in fourth and the Royals are in fifth. But if things keep on like this, the Tigers will find themselves below Kansas City.

Baseball, MLB, Music, On Writing, Sports, Writing

Rage Against the Machine is Going to Make Me Completely Deaf

This was a very productive day. Not only did I write 2,283 new words into the novel, I did some more edits on that finished short story and I submitted one of my previous novels to an agency. I also got all of my must-do chores done.

I blast music while writing because it boosts my ability to create. It also wards off distractions. But sometimes when I finish a writing session and turn the music off, my ears are ringing.

The Tigers are playing the Diamondbacks right now. It’s the top of the 5th. Miggy just got a good hit and tied the game, 3-3. Man on second and third, One out. Castellanos is batting.

Baseball, Hunting, Misc, MLB, On Writing, Sports, Writing

The Last of the Venison

Just ate the last of the deer I shot in October. Steak. It was good. Hope I get more meat this coming fall.

Not sure if I’m done for the day, but I might be. In my earlier post, I told you I was using the stopwatch on my phone to time how long it takes me to get each page down and that I was trying to beat the previous times. In that post I told you that the latest time was 00:19:30:02 and that was for one whole page. Since then I got down three more pages. Here’s the times.

1st page – 00:19:30.02
2nd page – 00:17:01.76
3rd page – 00:16:20.42
4th page – 00:13:37.41

I successfully beat the previous time every time. Each of these were full pages. I would say the writing quality is fair, but probably will be cutting out a bit when I go over the finished rough draft and there are many typos. But the story is getting down and that’s the important thing at this point.

I would like to get it down to ten minutes per page, so I’m still striving for more speed. But that 13 minutes and 37 seconds time is a new record for me.

Also, I need to take shorter breaks after completing a page.

In any case, today’s work was fun. Think I’ll be doing it like this for a while. It’s real sporty.

Tigers at 10.

Baseball, On Writing, Sports, WBC, Writing

Writing and Baseball

Got three pages into the novel and one into the story.  So, novel, page 96 and 20,409 words. Story, page 4 and 584 words.

Just finished watching the USA-Venezuela game. It’s hard to root for USA when two of my favorite MLB players are playing for Venezuela. Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez. But at least we have Jim Leyland and Ian Kinsler on team USA.

USA got in some runs in the bottom of the 8th. The game ended with Venezuela 2 and USA 4.

 

 

Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, MLB, NBA, NHL, Sports

Sports in the D

The Pistons started first, against the Dallas Mavericks. I think the Piston-Maverick game was in the second quarter when the Red Wings started their game against the St. Louis Blues.

I spent much of the evening flipping back and forth between the two games, but the Pistons had most of my attention. They played very well tonight. They were ahead of the Mavericks the entire game, leading by more than twenty points at times.

The Mavericks were closing the gap as the final minutes ticked off, but when the time ran out, the final score was Mavericks 91 and Pistons 98.

Reggie Jackson was very impressive tonight.

The Red Wings and the Blues were starting their third period when the basketball game ended. The score was still Blues 1 – Red Wings 0, which it had been since the first period. The score only changed within the last minute when the Blues shot the puck all the way across the ring and right into the goal. So, bummer there.

Major League Baseball is finally starting up. Though it’s not on TV, the Tigers’ pitchers and catchers have reported in and had their first workout yesterday. The first Spring Training game is next week, against the Moccasins, but I don’t think it will be on TV.

It doesn’t look like the Tigers will have a Spring Training game on TV until they play the Yankees on March 11. The Tigers will start their Regular Season on April 3rd, against the White Sox.

Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey, Hunting, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL, On Writing, Sports

My Minute Bio

The magazine I just submitted to required a publication-ready bio be included in the submission, so I threw this together. Hope it does the trick.

BIO:
Rob Darnell lives in a nice neighborhood. His office window looks out on a lake. He has a cat named Buddy and a dog named Luci. He loves the Detroit Tigers, Lions, Red Wings, Pistons and the Michigan Wolverines. An avid deer hunter, he spends time in a tiny shack from the beginning of October until the end of December. His website is robdarnell.com.

Baseball, MLB, Sports

The Cubs Went All The Way

Man, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baseball game played so hard. That was Game 7, the final game of the World Series, the game that decides who the champions are.

The Chicago Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908 and they had not made it to the World Series since 1945. Long time Cub fans are probably bawlin’ their eyes out right now, so relieved that they got their “just one before I die” victory.

The Cleveland Indians did not make it easy for the Cubs, and why should they? The Indians worked every bit as hard to get to the World Series. They weren’t just going to let the Cubs have the glory. Both teams played hard. The players seemed desperate, even stressed out.

There were many wild leaps and dives, and the sprints seemed speedier than usual. It was like the guys found some godly power deep in the pits of their stomachs and used it to kick their gears into overdrive.

By the middle of the 5th inning, the score was Cubs 5 – Indians 1. But the Indians began turning things around in the bottom of the 5th, bringing in two runs and the score to 5-3.

The Cubs scored again in the top of the 6th, but the Indians got in three more in the bottom of the 8th, and the score was 6-6. Chapman looked real nervous after that, but luckily they caught a base runner attempting to steal and wrapped up the inning before the Indians could score again.

But then it was the 9th inning and the score was tied. Looked like everyone had the shakes. The Cubs didn’t score in the 9th, but neither did the Indians. A 10th inning was added, and then it rained. They rolled out the tarp and we waited to see if it was over for the night. Thankfully the rain delay didn’t last long and the game resumed.

I call this a pitching mistake. When a pitcher intentionally walks a batter, I reckon it’s because the pitcher assumes the next batter can’t hit. I didn’t memorize the name of the pitcher on the mound at that point, but he did this twice. Walked a batter on purpose, and then the next batter got a good hit. Twice this happened in the top of the 10th and the Cubs got in two runs. The score was now 8-6.

Bottom of the 10th, the Indians got in one more run. The score was 8-7.

It slipped my mind. Did the Indians have a man on first and second? Or just first? I don’t remember and I don’t feel like checking right now. But there were two outs and the Indians still had a chance to win. The batter hit, the ball bounced, was caught and thrown to first base before the batter made it there.

All I could think after that play was “CUBS WIN!!! CUBS WIN!!! CUBS WIN!!!”

This game was wild. Billy Goat’s curse is broken. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.