Greed

The title says it all. This blog should not be an avenue for my personal ranting, but this is baseball related. Those who know what I'm talking about will know what I'm talking about. Greed. Greedy greedy bastard. May the first pitch of 2008 hit you in the skull. May the Redsox purchase your contract and not win again for 85 years.

Day of Mourning

Please join me in a moment of silence to mourn the loss of the Rockies. They fought the brave fight. They were the underdogs. They were the little known franchise that only been in existence for 14 years. They were young and impetuous and exuded the never-say-die spirit of the early Cowboys that tamed the wild west. They were mowed down mercilessly by the juggernaut that is the Boston Redsox. Did the Redsox deserve the victory in 2004? Yes, they did. Did they deserve the victory in 2007? No. The young upstart Rockies should have won it all. Sadly they didn't.

28 Oct 2007 - Renewal

Ones: 1st Indiana, 2nd JJ, 3rd the Mick, SS NewJohn, LF Rube, CF Sandman, RF Elijah
TWOs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Geok, 3rd Charlton, SS DT, LF Andrew, CF Rugburn, RF DY

Game 1: ONEs 11 : TWOs 8
Game 1: ONEs 7 : TWOs 0

Thanks to the New Paper article last tuesday, we welcomed 4 new players to SAS (hopefully they come back). 7 actually responded (8, counting 1 from this week), but 2 of them could not make it this week. SAS hasn't seen such a large one-time renewal of numbers since the Tan family showed up. All 4 supposedly had played in school, many years ago, and the rust was pretty obvious. But we're sure they will be back on form this weekend (if they come back).

Gold Glove: Geok
Biggest Bat: Rube

Posted by request of the Rube

Hari Raya at the Osmans

We were invited post-ball to Lili's place for Hari Raya. It was a wonderful gesture, and we were all looking forward to the fabulous food. Little did we know, there was more than just food.

Check out the view. The Osmans live on the 25th floor. On a clear day, you can see all the way to T2 at Changi and JB. AWESOME!

Rube was actually stroking a cat, but it disappeared when I took the photo. Another ghost pussy in Rube's life.

Ketupat. It's rice, formed and steamed in coconut leaves.

Vegetarian Lontong. Mrs Osman was so kind to make a special vegetarian version of sayo lodeh for the Mick.

Lovely Satay.

To Quote Rickey "Damn, this fried chicken is goooooood."

My personal favourite.... Rendang. Home cooked, and foreheadsweatingly delicious.

From the top... Satay Sauce, Tahu Goreng, Rendang.

That's how you eat Rendang... with a slice of ketupat.

Yummmm. Satay...

Sambal Udang... That just sent the headsweat into overdrive.

Two pictures cos it was just so damned good.

What's left of the chicken wings.

Lili's cat... (The one Rube was stroking previously)

PS. We went to watch 'Superbad' after dinner. It was funny as hell. Although, it dragged 10mins too long. They should've ended it on the 377A scene.

PPS. We found out that Mr Osman (Lili's dad) played 3rd base for his school. We all tried to invite him down (much to Lili's violent objections). We even found his bat and glove (and they were still in good shape)

We're Famous

Click for full image

We got featured in The Newpaper. Granted, it's not the Straits Times, and only Soccer idiots read it. But at least they might learn that other sports exists besides the EPL and horse racing.


PS>>>> THIS post is a sticky at the top of the page. Scroll down for the latest updates

21 Oct 2007 - Shrugging off the White Oppressors

ONEs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Geok, 3rd Indiana, SS The Mick, LF Rugburn, CF Rube, RF Red Cowboy
TWOs: 1st DY, 2nd Sandman, 3rd Perry, SS DT, LF Andrew, CF David, RF Gil

Game 1: ONEs 4 : TWOs 9
Game 2: ONEs 3: TWOs 0 (2 innings * incomplete)

White man came, White man conquered. White man gave the locals education, medicine, sports and civilisation. White man taught the locals how to play softball. A hundred years later (ok, maybe 10 or so), the locals have mastered the game and turned around and have beaten the white man everytime they faced off.

Gold Glove: Andrew
Biggest Bat: David

Who's House? Dave's House.

A couple of folks from SAS, who don't really have real jobs and anything to do during the day popped over to JB today, at the special invite of Cool Papa. We left abt 10ish, and got back abt 7ish. Got in some Daytona action, a lovely banana leaf curry lunch, and then a hefty 3hr Counterstrike Session. Yup. We spent the day in JB playing video games.

Dunkin Donuts Anyone?

Fried Cabbage?? Lettuce?? I dunno, but I love the stuff.

Cool Papa's home away from home... across the border.

The manhole cover right in front of Cool Papa's house.

13 Oct 2007 - Mercy Me!!

ONEs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Dr Geok, 3rd Indiana, SS NewJohn, LF Rugburn, CF Gunz, CF Gil, RF Red Cowboy
TWOs: 1st Rube, 2nd Supermom, 3rd The Mick, SS Bucky, LF Superdad, CF Daniel, CF Craig, RF The Cheetah

Game 1: ONEs 1: TWOs 11 (7 innings Mercy)
Game 2: ONEs 8: TWOs 16 (7 innings *It was actually Mercy at 5 innings 5-15, but we decided to continue and finish the 7 innings)

Gold Glove: Supermom
Biggest Bat: Superdad
Best Play: Superdad fires a torpedo to Indiana from deep left to catch a limping Uboat out before he can reach the safety of the pen.

7 Oct 2007 - Away in HK

DT was away in HK for the weekend. Unfortunately, no one picked up the baton to write the blog for this week.

Honey, I've got Matsui

Some of our SAS crew got around to playing some Fantasy Baseball this year. Thanks to Rube, who organised the league and pushed people to join. We had a pretty decent turnout with Rugburn, Rube, The Mick, Ricky, H and DT participating.

We're hoping for a better turnout next year, filling up all 12 slots with SAS folks. It was hella fun talking baseball, talking smack and making trades this season and it'll be more fun if everyone was within a localised area (It was tough making trades with strangers who don't answer emails)

Considering that almost half the league were unknowns or strangers, the SAS folks did really well, winning the league during the normal season (Rugburn), taking the top 3 places in postseason (1st H, 2nd DT, 3rd Rugburn) and winning the consolation draw (Rube), and a decent 9th (Mick) and 10th (Rickey) finish.

An email will be going out soon to recruit participants for next year.

29 Sept 2007 - No Losers

ONEs: Catch Red Cowboy, 1st Uboat, 2nd Maglite, 3rd Mick, SS NewJohn, LF Superdad, CF Knees, RF Jason, Rover Wayne's Wife, Rover 2 Sandman

TWOs: Catch H, 1st Indiana, 2nd Diana, 3rd DY, SS DT, LF Rugburn, CF Rube, RF Craig, Rover Dr Geok

Game 1: ONEs 14: TWOs 16 (11 innings)
TWOs: 0 1 6 1 0 2 4 0 0 0 2
ONEs: 3 3 0 0 4 2 2 0 0 0 0

Game 2: ONEs 3: TWOs 1 (3 innings)
ONEs: 2 1 0
TWOs: 0 2 0

Perfect weather. Perfect field. Perfect numbers. Perfect game. What more can one ask for.

The Ones got on the board early and they hit hard, taking a 6-1 lead by the top of the 3rd. But the addition of the Sandman into the ONEs outfield must have put them to sleep because the TWOs scored 6 runs in the 3rd inning, stringing together hit after hit after hit.

Their lead did not last long as the ONEs fought back in the bottom of the 5th with 4 runs.

As usual with perfect games, the teams saw themselves tied at 14 a piece going into the 8th. From then on, it was a defensive struggle of monolithic magnitude as both teams flashed some amazing leather. No runs were scored for 3 complete innings before the TWOs managed to sneak in 2 runs in the top of the 11th. The ONEs had no reply. Their offense was shut down completely and the TWOs walked away with the win.


Quote of the day:
Qn: Why do you play softball?
Ans: To drink beer after.

MBP: DY
DY award: DY 5 years ago
Gold Glove: Leftside of the TWOs infield
Most Improved Batter: Wayne's wife
Strike-out King: Jason (2 Ks)
Most amazing throw: Craig firing an Ichiro-esque one hopper from RF to 3rd base to prevent the batter from advancing.

TOP: Rickey on the DL

UPDATE 092707: Rickey is mobile. He's limping around quite well at home. I'll be moving this post down after this Saturday's post. Word of caution, if you visit him, and you see a rock/paperweight on his coffee table, DO NOT pick it up. You don't know where it has been (inside him).

UPDATE 091807: Rickey's gone home. He was discharged today. If you want to pay him a visit, head to his place. Call first cos he'll probably need some time to get to the door to let you in.

UPDATE 091307: The Op was successful, the man is in recovery. Sandman did a good job of bringing him out of unconsciousness.

UPDATE 091207: The man has checked into his room for the week. Procedure is at 5pm today. Email me if you want his room number.

UPDATE 081407: The date for the procedure has been confirmed. I'll post another update closer to actual date. Please email me for details if you want to pay him a visit.

UPDATE 072407: Turns out it's not what it seemed. Surgery is still on the cards, but not quite so urgent. I've stuck this as the top post. All newer posts will appear below this post.


UPDATE 071307: Rickey will be discharged today, and re-admitted next week. Those of you thinking of paying him a visit please hold off. Watch this space for updates.

PS. DL stands for Disabled List.

071107
Hey Folks,

Rickey's been placed on a 60 day DL.
He's currently located in one of our finer medicare institutions under the watchful eyes of the Sandman
Email me if you want to pay him a visit and I'll send you the details.

DT

Some photos with the New Canon 40D

This is the new 10.1MP dSLR from Canon, called the 40D. I was lucky to get my hands on it for a short preview before its launch.
Check out some of the shots.
Resized for your 56K pleasure

The Joba of Slo-pitch

Perfect Swing

It shoots at 6.5fps

Same as above, but Clay's bat speed is so fast, only 3 shots were captured

The view from Rickey's

Yup, that's cropped from the above shot. The woman is topless, but the man is in Speedos. For Male and Female viewing pleasure (I don't discriminate)

White Gold in the pool at Rickey's place (this is also cropped from the above shot)

22 Sept 2007 - Not the Brightest Candle

ONEs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Horfun, 3rd Rube, SS DT, LF Mick, CF Superdad, RF Dr Geok
TWOs: 1st Indiana, 2nd Maglite, 3rd Red Cowboy, SS NewJohn, LF Rugburn, CF Rube, RF H, Rover Lil' One

Game 1: ONEs 14: TWOs 8

It was too hot. Brian wsa freid bofere teh nd fo teh geme.

All I remember was the Newpaper reporter showing up (finally) to interview some of us

The game was pretty fun though, despite the heat. The ground was hard, and the ball took some awkward bounces in the undulating and uneven turf.

It was a close game till the bottom of the 8th, when the ONEs suddenly opened up their big bats, and batted around almost twice, scoring 9 runs to take an unsurmountable lead.

The TWOs had no reply as the ONEs tightened up their defence to take a 1-2-3 9th inning.

The game was too close with too many excellent performances to give out awards.
Everyone deserves an MBP for this game.

15 Sept 2007 - Defensive Struggles

ONEs: 1st Indiana, 2nd Dr Geok, SS NewJohn, LF Mick, CF Rube, RF H

TWOs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Maglite, SS DT, LF Ramadan Dave, CF Knees, RF Rugburn

Game 1: ONEs 4: TWOs 3 (12 innings)

Beautiful day. Sun was shining from behind clouds, the rain had stopped and the field was soft and springy. No cricket monkeys in sight, and the frisbee idiots came too late to get the field.

For the first time in a long time, the diamond was set up at the 'old' corner. The backstop and fencing did not come into play as no one overthrew their targets (rare, I know)

With only 12 on the count, Prof Zen and Indiana rules were in effect. And with no obvious weaknesses in both lineups, the game quickly became a defensive struggle.

For 4 innings, it was the case of leaving men on base, as every inning ended with bases loaded. The ONEs finally managed to get on the boards, leading the way with 1 run in the 4th. The TWOs quickly answered with 2 runs of their own in the top of the 5th, but allowed another 2 runs in the bottom of the same inning. The TWOs finally managed to score a run to tie up the game in the 7th, and that score would remain the same through the normal game, deep into extra-innings.

It was the aggressive running from The Mick in the bottom of the 12th that led the way to a ONEs victory. He tried for 2nd base on a single into LF and was rewarded for his aggression. NewJohn stepped up to the plate and hit a booming liner into the gap between left and center and the Mick scored for the win.

Maglite had the best play of the game. In the 11th inning, with 1 out, and a runner on 1st and 2nd, she fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on 2nd base to force the runner out and made a perfect throw to home for the DP.

Indiana easily won the award from Most Beatup Player. He was elbowed at first by a runner, crashed heavily into the ground while rounding 3rd and was hit in the spectacles by a liner going back up the middle. We had to stop the game so many times to check if he were ok, we might have to change his name to 'Time-out'. The spill he took going around 3rd base was the worst. We were worried he broke his collarbone or hip, but he gamely got up and carried on playing. In fact, after being throw out at home, he went on to pitch for his team for the next batter... and took a line drive that bounced out of his glove into his spectacles.

Prof Zen rules is hard when the outfield consists of people like Ramadan Dave, Rube, Knees, H, Rugburn and The Mick. No homeruns were allowed, and doubles were easily reduced to singles.
And with those arms, even doubles with a runner on 2nd were easily thrown out at home.

MBP (Most Beatup Player): Indiana

Gold Glove: Both shortstops

Best Bat: Uboat (1.000)

Best Play: Maglite (4-2 DP)

09 September 2007 - Foreplay

ones: 1st uboat, 2nd Jialin,3rd Generalissimo, SS DT, LF Sandman, CF Rube, RF H
twos: 1st Rugburn, 2nd Maglite, 3rd Wayne, SS NewJohn, LF Mick, CF Knees, RF Red Cowboy
game 1: 12-12 (9 innings), Twos lead 14-12 (going into middle of 10th, game called on account of the security guy asking us to leave)

Went to Insomnia post-ball. Dave's new gig. He rocked, his band rocked, and the hot little number fronting his band likes the hard ball. She also called us 'Dave's foreplays'. No clue why. Rumor has it that Party Rambo Mick made an appearance late into the night. No confirmation though, as this writer was too busy celebrating his singlehood with a Margarita Party.

Why the White Man cometh to Asia

For the beautiful Asian Woman....

For the first time in SAS history, there were only white men and asian women on the field. Too bad the reporter didn't show up, or it would've made a hell of a story.

Waiting for the real blog entry.

We're better off putting on porno than Tony Jaa and an elephant

Winners: U-boat, Burma Girl, New John, Indiana, Rube, Gunz, H
Losers: Rube, Maglite, The Mick, Wayne pending nickname, Rugburn, Knees, The Red Cowboy
Crippled: Kernel

Game 1: 12-10
Game 2: 2-1

In game one, a big inning by the winners gave them a lead they would never relinquish. A combination of bloops and blasts got them through their lineup twice. H laced a triple down the right field line that the Kernel initially called foul. If not for her Keystone-cop speed, she might have had a home run. The winners also benefited from an "Ole!" by the Mick ending his run as Ozzie Smith, and a meltdown by Rube first. Unfortunately, with big innings, come big consequences. The Kernel came up lame and will be put down by Michael Vick.

In their failed attempt at a comeback, the losers were lead by the Red Cowboy who was crushing line drives, including one that easily cleared Rube in left. Knees and the Mick managed back to back triples and were a consistent source of baserunners, until they decided to start getting out every at bat. Rugburn launched two shots over the left fielder, both ending up as triples all but all was not well. A poor baserunning decision by Rugburn forced the Red Cowboy home where he was easily thrown-out.

Again, there were a number of noteworthy throw-outs on the basepaths. After a clean single to Knees in center, Gunz rounded first too wide and got picked off by a series of quick throws from Knees to the Mick to Rube. Also, Rugburn threw U-boat out at second when he had no business taking two. On another errant adventure, U-boat again was out at second with Rube quickly coming over from first to cover. And finally, to end the first game, Gunz threw out the Red Cowboy at first after a line drive to center! Perhaps the Red Cowboy needs a mathematician other than Wayne to guide him to first. Instead of the long parabola, a straight line might have been more appropriate.

Why did Derek Jeter (swallows) give Jessica Alba herpes? And where did he get it from? (answers to be provided next week)

Not that it won them the game but the losers turned three DPs while the winners got the pattened 1 - 8 - 3 DP...thats a grounder to DT on the mound, turns to Gunz covering second, and fires on the U-boat. Uboat booted a throw from newjohn on what should have been another fine double play. There are moments when it almost looks real out there. Ahhh, but they are fleeting.

DT was called in to pitch from about the 7th inning on and pitched the best relief since Pedro shut down the Indians for 6 perfect innings back in the day. His knuckle-slider-cutter is just plain nasty.

Geok, The Mick, and Rugburn are trying out for the New Al - catchers who make questionable efforts at the plate in the pursuit of victory. Thankfully, none of their efforts seemed to impact the outcome of the game.

Maglite felt up U-boat at first. She was out...but yet safe.

Did I mention that we had the best weather in forever? The second game lasted 5 innings. It was awesome.

MBP: DT & his knuckleball
Biggest Bat: New John
Gold Glove: H
Golden Gun: Gunz
DY: The Red Cowboy

After game activities included pizza and Tony Jaa at the Mick's. It seemed to be going well, and then it was over. Maybe the wine fairy would have helped. or just a healthy dose of porn?

Daytona!!!

After Sandman's wedding, we found a midnight arcade open, and they had Daytona...

The first qualifier... The Fun Begins...

Notice the faces change as the race progresses...

1st place... 27 secs left... but he chokes away the win.

Second quaifier. The ladies round... (sorry Guppy)

Rugburn, the coach, helps Fakewife to a second place finish.

1st place.... And using a cell phone while driving... so many violations...

Party-Rambo Mick and his friend John

The Winners circle.. Fakewife, H, Rickey and The Mick

1st place, 40secs left... can he hang on to the lead?

Nope, evidently not. H takes the win. She is the Grand Champion

Foooosball.. To Spin or Not to Spin.. that is the question.