Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Baseball Giants On A Roll

The San Francisco Giants are something like 13-1 since the All-Star break. They've beat the cellar dweller teams that they're supposed to beat and now find themselves a half game back of the NL West division leader.

There's plenty of baseball left to play, but if the season were to end today the Giants would be in the postseason.  And we all know their recent history in the postseason (see commemorative pin set above).

The season has seen the Giants battle back from injured players, suspect pitching and hitting slumps. Now they're looking like the Major League Baseball Champions that they are; winning in every way imaginable.  

You just have to feel for teams like the Royals and Cardinals with their 60 plus winning records.  Both teams lead their division by more than 6 games and are playing amazing baseball.  But when they look over at the N.L. West team that beat them in last year's postseason and see the Giants are alive and well with a record of 55-44, the nightmares resurface and those 60 wins begin to feel like a weight around their necks.  

The Royals and Cards, like the Nationals and Pirates of last season, are well aware that you can't count the Giants out as long as they have a chance at the postseason.  And once the postseason begins, pray you see any colors but Orange & Black in the opposing team dugout.  Because October means Halloween, and the SF Giants have treated themselves mightily in recent postseasons while tricking opponents into believing they're just a paper tiger.  Three times in the past five seasons, the Giants came home with the World Series candy and left the losers feeling like Charlie Brown finding rocks in his candy basket.  


Happy Halloween



Latest News: Crawford Home Run Helps Giants Top Brewers

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Flying Car - A Hybrid to Die For



They say they've worked out the parallel parking kinks. They say it'll revolutionize how we think of day to day travel and commuting.  They say it'll be available in 2021.  What worries me though is what they're not saying.

But don't let me rain on the parade of progressive future travel, the idea of commuting to work by air is a bay area commuters dream come true.  Commuter gridlock is getting worse by the day, and concerns about structural bridge safety just add to the stress. Well my brothers and sisters, dream no more, your nightmares are over.  

Only six years away with a projected price tag of around $400,000.00, you can say goodbye to fasttrak, commuter lanes and road raging fools. Because the "Terrafugia TF-X" can get you there fast, safe and stress free.  It's a new type of hybrid that puts prisms, teslas and self-driving vehicles to shame. 

For those old enough to remember the cartoon "The Jetsons," the waiting is over; George, wife Janie, daughter Judy and their boy Elroy have officially become the gold standard for modern day jet-setters.

Terrafugia currently has a flying car called "The Transition," but the TF-X model with it's vertical takeoff, 200mph air cruise speed and 500 mile range makes "The Transition" a relic.  

So get ready automobile owners, for soon you'll have to weigh whether an air vehicle is a viable option for your traveling needs.  I know Uber is licking its chops just thinking about it.

"Say Hello To Me Little Friend"

Monday, July 13, 2015

Raider Nation Bonfire 2015

Its going down in SoCal.  The 7th annual Raider Nation Bonfire event with special guest "Touchdown" Tim Brown stopping by.  Don't know if I'll make it, but I'm missing football so much that maybe, just maybe.  

As Raider fans we are summoned sometimes to step up and show our loyalty and commitment. What better way to spend an off season Saturday than with my Raiders family. It's a family thing ya'll! 


·         

July 18
at 6:00am - 10:00pm

·         
17851 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, California 92649

Flintstones Feminist Movement

This one's for Becca. She, like Wilma and Betty, was ahead of her time. The beauty in women fighting for their equal rights is in exposing just how foolish and insecure our male-dominated society can be. Civilization owes much to the genius and creativity of women, not to mention the reproductive phenomena of life itself. 

Becca will laugh when she sees this.  The memory of it brought tears to my eyes.  Only she and I know why.

The Flintstones   4x22   Ladies Night At The lodge
   

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Nine-N-Seven: Story of A Foreign Born Fan

I got a story to tell. It's about a man who came to this beautiful, sports filled country of ours from India about a decade ago.  He came here on one of those foreign visas to work in a much sought after, highly paid technology industry job, with hopes of someday owning a cutting edge computer software company himself. 

This modern day technological man from India considered himself a brain of higher intelligence with extraordinary calculating capabilities. He'd missed the "Dot.com Boom" that swept through the Bay Area like an autumn wind in the late 90's.  He vowed not to be left out of the millionaires club when the next technical gold rush struck in California.  

So in 2005 this busted and dusty entrepreneur with a taste for mathematics and computers came to the Bay Area and made good.  He didn't become a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs; not yet anyway, he's still young.  But what our modern man from India did become was something better. Something that outlasts both fame and fortune.

On one sunny autumn morning he found himself with a few silicon valley co-workers, setting up grills, folding tables and canopies at the Oakland Coliseum in preparation for his first ever NFL gameday experience. Mind you our mathematical brain hadn't the time, money or desire to attend such nonsensical sports activities back in India, much less here in America.  Here in America he had targeted for himself what he thought were much higher goals.  Why waste his time watching not real football (soccer), but American Football, a game played by barbarians with small brains and little intelligence.  He felt any man who'd risk the brain trauma caused by repetitive blows to the head is as intelligent as a donkey and need be pitied not praised and cheered.

But he'd finally consented to the invitation of one co-worker, an American, who'd organized a company outing to an American Football experience for those foreign visa workers curious about what all the hype and hoopla surrounding the game of football was all about.  That co-worker was Larry.  Raider Larry to be precise. And what the mild-mannered visa holders didn't know, couldn't have known, was that once outside the confines of the technological office environment, Larry the troubleshooting networks router whiz, transformed into something almost unrecognizable with a passion for any and all things silver and black.

Raider Larry loves everything Raiders.  His father is an Ol'skool Raiders fan from Oakland. He was born and bred on the silver and black mystique.  Raider Larry is too young to remember the Glory Days of Stabler and Biletnikoff, but he knew every highlight reel and playoff victory the two had ever helped produce on the field, and more.  

Raider Larry is what you call a 24/7 sports fan. He lives and breathes it, and since fantasy football was born, he bets it, with much success.  He's starting up a Fantasy Football website for this coming season. Get at it!

The Oakland Raiders to fans like Raider Larry are more than just another American sports team; they're the team God created to bring all mankind together to celebrate the brotherhood and excellence of life while vanquishing all would be pretenders. In a world of pretenders and make-believers, it takes being a Raiders fan to understand all that lies beneath the mask.

To hear Raider Larry explain it, we all have that beastly primal man hidden deep down inside the depths of our being. Sunday football allows that beast to come out of the dark and feed and frolic in the sun. Feed the beast, let him dance and sing praises of his favorite team and you'll find at the end of the day a tamed man, ready to face the challenges that life brings.

With all the football wisdom that Raider Larry bestowed on our man from India that day, along with the food, drink and beautiful women tailgating in silver and black, nothing would impress our man more than watching the harmonic convergence of players and fans as the players ran out of the tunnel onto the field. 

This introduction of Silver and Black players, starters for that day's game, was like nothing he'd seen or experienced in his short time on earth.  The adulation the fans showered on their team, a losing team to this point of the season, was incredible. And the players returned the fan love with passionate demonstrations of strutting, fist pumping and chest thrusting. Our man from India thought at that moment that if these players were the numbnut Philistines he'd envisioned, then their opponent for that day better bring more than just a slingshot, much more.

Through four hard fought quarters of football our man of India barely sat in his seat.  He cheered, he laughed and he growled along with Raider Nation as the Raiders toughed out a marginal victory on the field. Our man considers that day his second birth. Something inside him snapped on that day, throwing all his complicated calculations about life and happiness into a spin. For after that day our man understood that its the fight inside the man that makes him great, what he gathers materially is just conquered booty.  

Our man had been initiated into a culture that protected and looked after its own.  A culture that is like no other simply because it includes all; rich, poor, christian, muslim, black, white, american, foreigner. The Raider Nation is a culture that welcomes anybody who's ever felt like there's more to life than just the ins and outs of everyday life. The mere struggle for survival is the manna that brings out our passion for life.  And we live for our brothers as much as for ourselves.

Its a brotherhood, a fellowship to be exact.  And when out with your brothers, frolicking in the sun, its okay to be you.

So this story is in honor of you Nine-N-Seven.  You came to America, you saw the many cultures and interests and you chose.  You chose the Oakland Raiders as your team. You became a brother to my brother. In predicting each season, since your inauguration season, that the raiders would go 9-7, you've earned that nickname, Nine-N-Seven.  And as Raider Larry told you, you can't predict a record greater than 9-7 until the Raiders go at least 9-7. Got me Nine-N-Seven?

I, the teller of this tale, should've been nicknamed "it's our year" for the many seasons I've stated such.  You know, this is Our Year!  It was as good telling your story as it was hearing it from Raider Larry, Nine-N-Seven.  Look forward to seeing you at a tailgate party and calculating the odds of the Raiders making the playoffs this coming season.  

Strength in Numbers, Nine-N-Seven, Strength in Numbers.


Win Lose or Tie



Next week I'll share with you the tailgating interview of a former Somali Pirate who's made it to these shores of the free and brave and now swears allegiance to the Oakland Raiders.  I kid you not.

Thursday, July 09, 2015

S-T-A-B-L-E-R


The Name        The Lifestyle         The Legend 

Oakland Raiders Wall of Famer Kenny "The Snake" Stabler has passed away at the age of 69. 

For OL'skool Raider Nation he was the best quarterback ever. For those who didn't get to see him play, #12 Stabler jerseys flash throughout the Oakland Coliseum on game days, leaving you wondering just how great a quarterback he was. If there were no Ken Stabler, there'd never have truly been what's called that Raiders mystique. 

He led a bunch of renegades by example; partying, playing and producing wins that have become legendary. Parents nicknamed their kids "snake' in hopes that one day they'd be as tough and tenacious a leader as only Stabler was on Sundays. 

His passes were immaculate, with a natural spiral that would make Joe frickin Montana whistle in awe. He could hit a receiver in stride with pinpoint accuracy and make it look unrehearsed.  In an era when quarterback completion percentages topped out in the 50% category, his was in the 60% range.  

Lineman loved him, receivers adored him and defenses respected him.  He was Our knight in shining armor, saving the day time after time. He could possibly lay claim to being the most loved Raider ever. Mostly because he got the job done. Secondly, because the name just sounds so damn football cool.

Stabler: the name rolls off your tongue as slick as the man himself slipped away from pass rushers. Stabler: an Alabama kid following in the footsteps of another Crimson Tide great, Willie Joe Namath. Quarterbacks of that era were born to be quarterbacks and leaders. They exuded confidence on the field and off. They stood just a tad above the rest, and everyone knew when in their presence they'd seen greatness. 
Stabler:
We the Raider Nation salute! 
Rest Well Snake

Roll Tide!

Thursday, July 02, 2015

SUCCESS!







He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much; who has gained the respect of intelligent men, the trust of pure women, and the love of children; who has left the world a better place than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it, who has looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration, whose memory a benediction.


Let others have fame and fortune and jewels and places, if I may but have the kindly spirit. Give greatness and power to those that want them but give me Brotherly Kindness. Amen.

A Definition of Success 
by Bessie A. Stanley


Ours is the Faith
Walter Dudley Calvert
Pg. 216