a photoblog of the rube's wedding

Yesterday saw a very, very rainy day, but we still insisted on getting a pre-wedding game of ball, particularly since even the frisbee players were out there in the rain. I shall leave the recap to DT, since I can't remember the score, but basically it was a great game in the rain, even though we were interrupted by a rampaging campus security guard who was just being a pain in the ass. Never mind that. Anyway I shall just post some of the pictures taken during Rube's wedding here.

Jones' maids of honour

Signing the guest book

A Rubesque pose

Little Jeffrey

Something is not right with the world, when Coach is wearing a suit, and all of us are wearing jerseys.

Before the solemniser arrived, the Rube was made to go through a series of trials by the maids of honour. That included...

...running away with the best man,

,attempting to run the best man into the wall,

, and waxing away.

"You've got a Singapore flag on your ass!" Ookay.

Indiana stepping up to help the Rube out, and getting a free waxing session to boot.

Some last minute preparations

Getting reading for the solemnisation to begin

The very happy groom

The wedding guests

Exchanging rings

Jones going through her vows

The solemniser, the married couple and their witnesses.

The happy couple going through their vows, in a ceremony led by Coach.

At one point in the Rube's vows, he actually promised to give up the Cardinals for Jones, a pronouncement that caused many gasps in the audience.

Coach holding aloft the vaunted yard

In between the two pictures above, a lot of time passed. This was possibly the slowest yard I've ever seen, but it's almost done.

The guests who are clearly enjoying their drinks and the Rube's yard-drinking endeavors.

I can't remember what was uttered when I took this picture, but from how they look, I don't think it was something particularly palatable...

... Or perhaps it was that they had to watch Coach and Rube do the cancan.

And the can can line grows in strength.

The Mick getting ready to catch the garter, with a little help from his glove. But as noted by many other people, he'll probably still miss it.

Ready for garter football

And after that, the rest of the night was spent in typical SAS fashion, drinking a lot more and talking away. I decided to stow away my camera, so that's it for the pictures, and with that, we have the wedding. All in all, a great night.

A new start together.

2007 predicted to be world's warmest year

From Reuters link

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) - This year is set to be the hottest on record worldwide due to global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, Britain's Meteorological Office said on Thursday.

The Met Office said the combination of factors would likely push average temperatures this year above the record set in 1998. 2006 is set to be the sixth warmest on record globally.

"This new information represents another warning that climate change is happening around the world," said Met Office scientist Katie Hopkins.

The world's 10 warmest years have all occurred since 1994 in a temperature record dating back a century and a half, according to the United Nations' weather agency.

Britain's Met Office makes a global forecast every January with the University of East Anglia, and said it expected the world's average temperature to be 0.54 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 long-term average of 14.0 degrees.

There is a 60 percent probability that 2007 will be as warm or warmer than the current warmest year, 1998, which itself was 0.52 degrees above the long-term average it said in a statement.

Most scientists agree that temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees Celsius this century due mainly to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for power and transport.

They say this will cause melting at the polar ice caps, sea levels to rise and weather patterns to change bringing floods, famines and violent storms, putting millions of lives at risk.

Former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern said in October that urgent action on global warming was vital and that delay would multiply the cost by up to 20 times.

The Kyoto Protocol is the only global action plan to curb carbon emissions, but it expires in 2012, is rejected by the world's biggest polluter -- the United States -- and does not bind booming economies like China and India.

The Met Office said the established moderate El Nino, a phenomenon in the tropical Pacific blamed for disrupting weather patterns, would continue for the first few months of 2007.

It noted that as there was a time lag between El Nino and its full effect on surface temperatures, its influence would therefore be felt well into the year.

It will coincide with what environmentalists say will be a very busy year for climate diplomacy.

Germany, which has an active climate change agenda, has taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union and the year-long presidency of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.

Backed by Britain, which has pushed climate change high up the world agenda, pressure is building for the G8 summit in Germany in early June to set out a framework for discussions to take global action beyond Kyoto.

And my reply? Where the fuck is the sun? We've missed TWO weeks of games due to rain. How the hell can this be a warm year if it's fucking raining all the time and I can't play softball.

Rube's Wedding

Hi All

Rube is finally getting hitched. The wedding will take place this Saturday, Jan 27 2007, at Joes, after Ball. The service will be conducted by Coach, and the sermon will consist of Rube's dirtiest darkest secrets as told by YOU. Don't worry, it would be too late for Jones to cancel the wedding as the solemnization would already have taken place.

Only two rules, No Suits and No Ang Pows (if you want to give money, put it in an envelope).

Meanwhile, we've decided to wear our jerseys and jeans/long pants. So if you have the SAS jersey, wear it to the wedding. If you don't, any baseball jersey will do.

So...

Rube's Wedding.
Date: Jan 27, 2007
Time: 6.30pm
Location: Prince Edward's Tavern at the NUS Faculty Club (Also known as Joes)
Dress Code: Baseball Jersey.


PS. It's not too late to submit your Rube stories. Anything will do, if you don't have one, just send me a line or two of how you remember the Rube, and Coach will read it out. email 'saturdaysoftball AT gmail DOT com'

DT

off to jakarta

A few of us (Rube, Generalissimo and wife, H) met up yesterday evening at Joe's just before Cool Papa had to fly off to Jakarta, so here are just some random pictures I took.

The man who's already in Jakarta now even as I type.

Ooh... It's scented.

Striking a pose.

Don't ask me. I don't know what the two of them are doing.

The few good men (who turned up at Joe's).

20 Jan 2006 - The rain is laughing at us

No game. Rained out.

Appearances at Joes: Rube, DT, H, New John, Cool Papa, The Mick

13 Jan 2006 - No Game

Nasty Weather, Nastier Field Conditions and the Nastiest Numbers.

On to Next Week.

The Story of Rube

Hey All,

I am compiling the stories of The Rube as part of his wedding ceremony.
Please shoot me a mail with your favourite (or two or three or four) stories of The Rube.

6 January 2007 - First Game of the New Year

ONES: 1st: Generalissimo(All time)/Rube, SS: New John, LF: Rube/Generalissimo, CF: Carlos, RF: Lily

TWOS: 1st: Generalissimo/DT/H, SS: Horfun, LF: The Mick/Generalissimo, CF: H, RF: DT

Game 1: ONES 3 : TWOS 6 (7 innings)

First game of the new year and we were blessed with wonderful weather after weeks of intense rain. Our primary field was being used by the inter-hall touch rugby carnival, so we migrated to the alternate. Sadly, even with the wonderful sun shining down on us, we could not get enough numbers to start the new year off on the right foot. Rugburn was back, but ill, Sandman was around, but he'd rather go shoe shopping with Lexus, Jason and Diana are still on their honeymoon, and who knows where Indiana and Burma girl disappeared to.

With 9 follks, the Generalissimo graciously volunteered to play all time. Thanks to Rube and New John for doing some recruiting or we might've had only 7. Rube brought Carlos, an engineer from Chicago who's been here for 3 years and New John brought Lily to play. Both teams looked even when counted, but The Mick and DT's doubles up the centerfield line helped edge the TWOS to victory. The Rube was not finding the boom in his bat that day and the ONEs had a tough time replying to the onslaught.

We lost Carlos after 7 innings as he had to run off and attend a teleconference with the US, so instead of continuing the game with 8 men on the field, we decided to do some BP instead.

Hopefully we'll see the same wonderful weather next week. Better yet, with more people.

DT's depressive rant - The Year in retrospect

2006 has come and gone. Many had predicted the demise of Saturday Afternoon Softball after the loss of so many regulars, but somehow we managed to overcome the odds and get in 1 good year of games. The numbers were definitely short for most of the games, but it did help us come up with unique and creative rules to get around our shortfall.
Much thanks must also go out to the new generation of SAS family members who've joined our ranks. The Mick, Rugburn, SuperDad and NewJohn have certainly buffered our ranks. We saw the return of Burma Girl from her trip abroad. The youth squad has also broken out of the farm system, and with Clement's entrance into NUS, we have been seeing him every week too.

With 2007 looming ahead, we are preparing to bid farewell to even more regulars. Rickey has left to wander whitemanland for a year, The Generalissimo is heading to the highlands for god knows how long, and Seven is finally taking the leap to getting his aeronautical engineering degree downunder. We may even lose the Rube once he completes his PhD. Not all is lost however, as Gunz will be returning in February. Hopefully DY will start appearing again as lil Keagan is growing up quickly, and Jason and Diana should return to our folds once they've gotten over their honeymoon period.

We may face some lean times ahead this year, but I'm sure we'll pull through as we've always had.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

A lifetime of sadness

Lil Keagan is the perfect age. In 84 years when he's lived a full and wonderful life, he'll get to know true joy when the red sox win again. IMO, This is too much pressure on the kid. Better to make him a Rockies fan. They have much better chances of winning within the century.



Ironically, This link was published on SI.com
Red Sox Oldest Fan Dies
She had a taste of the Red Sox winning, and she had to stick around for one more championship.

30 December 2006 - Smokey stepped over the line

Although it was one of the clearest days in a few weeks, not enough people showed up. Since there were low numbers, The Venezualan Jaguar, The Rube, DT, The Mick and New John went to the batting cage, where they learned about The Jaguar's wicked curveball. After an hour or so of hitting they joined Rickey, Horfun, Sandman and Mrs. Sandman at Joe's. After some drinking and pool playing, we headed to bowling. The Jaguar and New John had to head off elsewhere, but the rest rolled (joined by Jonesy).

Teams:
ONE: Rickey, The Mick, Horfun
TWO: Sandman, DT, Rube, Mrs. Sandman

The TWOs got out the brooms as they had a sweep in three games, despite the Mick's best efforts. Rickey and Horfun struggled in different games and the Mick couldn't make up the difference, despite bowling 198 in the second game. The Mick's low game was in the 170s. Rickey had second best honors, but not by much. Rube, Sandman and DT also bowled well. As for Mrs. Sandman, they oiled the lanes in the middle of the second game, and it hurt her spinning game. Horfun had a rough start, but once the Mick coached her on delivery she was rolling with the pros.

Lebowski: The Mick
Walter: Rickey
Most Elegant: Mrs. Sandman
Number 9: Rickey (taking the crown from Sandman)
Angriest Bowler: Rube

Japanese Baseball

I found this while surfing for Japanese baseball on Youtube



Now the question is, can we get cheerleaders like those?

23 December 2006 - Down in the Swamp

ONES: 1B: Seven/Rube; 2B: Horfun; SS: New John; LF: Rube: Seven; CF: Sandman; RF: Chicago Bald
TWOS: 1B: Rickey; 2B: Surabaya Jack; SS: DT; LF: Gunz; CF: The Venezualan Jaguar; RF: Chicago Hair

ONES: 8
TWOS: 9

We played Indiana/Prof. Zen rules on the alternate field. The ONES took an early lead, heading to 8 runs in the 3rd or 4th inning. Then, they ran out of gas (and Rube's knee starting flaring up). The TWOS slowly worked their way back, tying the game in the 8th and taking the lead in the 9th, thus coming back from an 8-3 deficit. Afterwards, since Joe's was closed, we all went to Botak Jones.

NOTES:
1) Rickey brought Surabaya Jack, who was actually a great player. We're trying to trade Rickey to Surabaya. We'll keep Jack; 2) The outfield was a lake. The Jaguar was throwing up major trails of water while chasing balls down; 3) The TWOS came back when DT left for two innings to look for the Dictator (yes, he was visiting from South Korea) who was back at the old field. Does that make DT's absence "MBP"?; 4) Rickey was remarkably slow (even for Rickey); 5) Overall, good "D"; 6) Both Surabaya Jack and Chicago Bald are lefties. They wore righty gloves backwards and still made plays; 7) The Jalapeno poppers at Botak Jones have to be the best in town; Caesar Salad needs some ham.

MBP: Surabaya Jack
Biggest Bat: Rube
Gold Glove: Chicago Bald and Surabaya Jack
Best Assist: The Jaguar helping Rube with the ring

2006... Not 2003

Back Row - Ironman, Female Magazine's Most Gorgeous Man of 2006, Clement
3rd Row - Rube, Mr Furious, New John, Cheetah
2nd Row - Burma Girl, Kojak, DT, Rugburn, Rickey
Front Row - Generalissimo, The Mick, Indiana, Misty, Sandman, Coach
Taking Photo - Mrs Sandman

BBQ

Coach Explaining to Guppy the subtle nuances of grilling Chicken

From left - Jason&Diana, Fake Wife, Indiana, Mrs Sandman, Burma Girl, Rickey

Rube and Guns celebrate the Cardinal's World Series Win.

DY arriving with lil' DY (and a bag of Chilli).

Rube's Changing room

The Cheetah and The Sandman working the grill (and sampling the food).

The marvelous cake that Marvelous brought.

The Main Event (Dom's Farewell Yard)

Rube gives his speech.

Dom's turns a little misty.

Dom chokes as he tries to swallow.

He looks good (for the first 20% of the yard)....cont below

...but soon throws up... note that he's barely hit the halfway mark.

Shirts off, trousers on. Dom makes another effort to finish his drink.

DONE!!! FINALLY!!! Most people throw up AFTER they finish the yard, Dom does it halfway.

The RE-PROPOSAL
Rube asks Jones to marry him.... again for the benefit of the cameras and the crowd who missed it during Dom's wedding...

New Picts from Dom's Wedding

A couple of picts have surfaced from Dom's wedding. Much props to Kari who bothered to record the festivities (instead of getting drunk like the rest of us)

Zoolander

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: gilbert song
Date: Dec 16, 2006 11:44 PM
Subject: Video click
To:

Hi guys..

 

Something to share with u all.. Well, just look.. Try not to laugh.. And.. dont tease when u guys see me in the field.. :P

 

http://multimedia.asiaone.com.sg/2006revamp/vodcast/2006/12/06a/story.html

 

Well.. I looked like very restless rite.. Ha.. Enjoy..

 

 

Regards,

Gilbert Song

--
Be desireless. Be excellent. Be gone.

16 December 2006 - Old Timer's Game

ONES: P: Zoolander; 1B: Coach; 2B: Misty; 3B: The Venezualan Jaguar; SS: DT; LF: Rube; CF: The Cheetah; RF: Ironman; Rover: Geok
TWOS: P: Seven; 1B: Indiana; 2B: Mr. Furious; 3B: Clement; SS: New John; LF: The Mick; CF: Sandman; RF: Rugburn; Rover: Rickey

Game One:
ONES: 7
TWOS: 14

Game Two (3 Innings):
ONES: 1
TWOS: 2

Look at the photo and the line-ups. That's our 2nd old timer's game in 3 weeks. We had a bunch of people coming back to play. Misty from Vietnam, Mr Furious from the States, Coach from Holland Village. Plus, The Cheetah and his boys came out. Later at the BBQ, there was Guppy, DY, Marv-elous, Gunz and Cool Papa all out for a good time.

The games were well played, with good fielding and hitting. Among the best was Rugburn, who was amazing at bat. He hit the ball of all three outfielders. He carried the TWOs to victory in both games with the bat, plus he brought the Fake Wife to the BBQ. Good day for him. Both teams had solid infields. For the TWOS, DT and the Jaguar were doing a good job, while the ONES had New John and Mr Furious looking like a well-oiled machine. Plus, with nice outfield play from Sandman and the Mick, all was well.

Afterwards, there was a BBQ. As usual, there was too much meat (but that's never a bad thing, unless your the Mick). Good to see everyone come out.

NOTES:
1) Seven pitched a great game. Must be the new Tupac look; 2) The Mick caught 8 out of 9 outs to end Game One, and start Game Two. Didn't have to move much either to do it; 3) Rugburn hit for the cycle in Game One, and hit the homer that gave the ONES the 2 runs to win Game Two; 4) Congrats to Zoolander (formerly Gil the Gazelle), our first certified male model. The Ipoh Assassin's DHL shots don't count; 5) Romantic Rube re-created the proposal at the BBQ; 6) The Mick talked smack at the BBQ about his shortstop skills.

MBP: Rugburn
Best Bat: Rugburn
Gold Glove: The Venezualan Jaguar
Playing Catch: The Mick
Cy Young: Seven
Best Meat: The Venezualan Jaguar
Golden Tongs (Best BBQ chef): Coach

One can only Dream

There's an advert in the beginning. Let it finish playing before the real film.