Headless in the City

I don't like most graffiti/tagging because it's usually pretty tasteless and just defaces the property that's tagged. I do like when it's done cleverly and in good taste like Banksy

I've never heard of the Decapitator, but I'm now a fan of his as well. I guess he modifies billboards and advertisements to make it look like they've been decapitated. This is a Sex and the City billboard in London.

Centro Great, Sprint not so great

I successfully switched over to Sprint a few days ago. While it was quite a painstaking process to port my number in, Iit may not have been as hard if I hadn't been using the SERO plan to get the sprint employee discount. I was phoneless for about a week while I waited for my number to be ported over from T-mobile and my billing information to "process".

I love my centro though. I used to have a Treo 650 long ago and I'm a big fan of the palm OS, if nothing else for the calendar. I was happy to find a few surprises, including the sprint mobile program that will handle as many email accounts as you want all on one page making is easy peasy. And I have long missed the full keyboard and threaded messaging putting all texts into conversation.

Today there was a network outage in the area I called to see what was up because my phone was acting weird. All the guy could tell me to do was a hard reset, which erased all of my numbers. It wasn't until I went to the sprint store did I find out everyone was having this problem. The phone customer service sucks, but the store employees are great.

All in all I'm very pleased considering my plan is half the price it was with T-mobile and twice the options.

500 anytime minutes

unlimited mobile to mobile

unlimited web

unlimited texting

=

$30/month

Shattered

I play in 2 adult baseball leagues. One of them happens to be a wood bat league, which I'm very excited about because it's the way the game should be played.

A couple of weeks ago I read this article about MLB investigating maple bats because when they break, they don't just crack like ash, they actually shatter. More often than not the barrel goes flying into the field endangering players. This was definitely in the back of my mind when I took the mound last night.

Althought I didn't saw anyone off, I did have to borrow a teammates bat while I'm waiting on the one I ordered come in. It happened to be maple...I happened to be holding a toothpick after the second pitch of my second at bat...The barrel happened to be resting by first base.

I think there might be something to that MLB investigation.

And now to toot my own horn.

5 inning pitched, 2 hits 9Ks 1 ER

Cleats For a Cure update

A little update on the Mother's Day promo.

Saturday MLB sent a memo out to all clubhouses stating that any player wearing pink cleats of batting gloves would be "disciplined"

I can't imagine why this happened. I can only suspect some ulterior motive coming from Reebok having the MLB license.

Nonetheless about half of our players wore the cleats with pride and without hesitation. In fact Jose Reyes, who has a big time contract with the swoosh decided to wear the cleats I made up for him.

Brandon Backe took a little razzing from his teammates, but ultimately kept in mind the great cause. This is an excerpt from the Astros website

Backe's support extended all the way to his Easton shoes. The company sent their clients black shoes with pink trim and laces, in honor of Mother's Day.

"They thought it would be good to make some that were pink, sign them after the game and donate them to raise money for fighting breast cancer," Backe said. "It's another way to try to add on to the collection of money for fighting against breast cancer."

Backe received some good-natured ribbing from his teammates, who feigned disgust at the pinkness of the pitcher's shoes.

"We all love our moms," Blum deadpanned. "But this is bad. There's a line, and he's crossed it here."

Backe was unfazed by the reactions from him teammates.

"I think they're pretty cool," Backe said. "I'm color blind, so it's tough for me to tell. It's obviously for an occasion and for a good cause. I hope my signature with these shoes will raise as much money as possible."

All in all I'm pretty pleased with how it went, Big Z didn't get a chance to wear them because of the crap weather in Chicago, but he fully intended to, and Pedroia managed to flash them on ESPN. I'll keep an update when the auctions become available.

Cleats for a Cure

I'm not convinced that anyone actually reads this blog, but in case someone does. I'll let you in on a promotion I worked on with MLB . No tags on this one, just viral.

This is what is happening this weekend

Sunday, May 11 is Mothers Day and in conjunction with that, our top Easton footwear endorsers in Major League Baseball will be wearing pink accented cleats. After the game the players will autograph the cleats and we will auction them off. 100% of the proceeds will go to the Susan B. Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

Be sure to check out some games or highlights on Sportscenter with these players.

Hanley Ramirez - SS - Florida Marlins
Aramis Ramirez -3B - Chicago Cubs
Carlos Zambrano - P -Chicago Cubs
Dustin Pedroia - 2B - Boston Red Sox
Orlando Cabrera - SS - Chicago White Sox
Brandon Backe - P - Houston Astros
Luis Castillo - 2B - New York Mets
Matt Kemp - OF - Los Angeles Dodgers
Andre Ethier - OF - Los Angeles Dodgers
Jason Bay - OF - Pittsburgh Pirates
Carlos Pena - 1B - Tampa Bay Rays
Felipe Lopez - SS - Washington Nationals
Cristian Guzman - 2B - Washington Nationals

Can I Sniff Your Fruit?

I survived Derby ’08. This was my first derby ever and all I can say is, WOW. Last year I missed out because of mono but there was no stopping me this time. Six of us crammed into Mama Borts’ mini van and drove to Lou- A- Vull. We had the luxuryof staying with a friend who lives close to the downs in a HUGE house.

Friday night we went out to 4th street. The feel was very similar to Austins 5th street. It was a wide open area with outdoor bars and $20 covers, lots of fun nonetheless.

Derby day began around noon. I packed up my alcohol soaked fruit and away we went. I have to admit I thought I was pretty clever with the fruit, seeing as you can bring in food but not alcohol. I felt pretty cocky right up until I got to the infield gate and security asked “ Can I sniff your fruit?” Uhh…sure. The man went on to breathe in what I knew to be nothing but 151 and raspberry flavored vodka. I was actually surprised he didn’t pass out. He then passed it to another man who inhaled deeply and passed it back. The fruit was then put in front of me and nothing said. At this point I was dumbfounded. I just stood there and stared for a second, grabbed my fruit and went on. There is no possible way they couldn’t smell it. I’m still puzzled.

The rest of the day was down hill from there. One mint julep (awful), a bag of fruit(even more awful) and several single barrel jacks later. I was screaming at the top of my lungs that I won three thousand dollars. ( I really didn’t win anything, in fact I never bet but it was fun) Yes , Derby is the place to be for mud fights Port -a- potty racing and a good old farmers tan.