Rule Numero Uno

Don't mess with Texas.

I wanted to get this post up sooner, but I've been too busy with work, baseball, and playoffs for basketball and hockey.  After crossing off Utah and New Mexico from my list of states to get to, I made my third trip to Texas.  I was there in 2013 for an Astros game and the Shamrock Series game in Dallas.  I had three things I wanted to do in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area:  a Rangers game, the Bush Library, and Whataburger.  It was a successful trip.

I got in early on Friday and Wilhelm picked me up and dropped me off at the Bush Library (he had to work).  So I went through the Bush Library by myself.  This was my third presidential library.  I went to the Carter Library in Atlanta with Dennis two years ago and I went to the Truman Library in Independence by myself last year.  I had wanted to go to the Bush Library the last time I was in Dallas, but it was closed because of the government shutdown.  I'm hoping to get to the Reagan Library whenever I go to an Angels game (hopefully this summer) and I would like to go to the Kennedy Library in Boston (hopefully I'll be there in November for the Shamrock Series game at Fenway Park).  The presidential libraries only go back to Hoover.  So the only other ones that I'd be particularly interested in going to are the Roosevelt Library (it's about two and a half hours away from me) and the Nixon Library (perhaps on a future trip out to California).  If I happened to be in Abilene, Kansas, then sure, I'd go to the Eisenhower Library, but that's probably not happening.

43 and 41

The Bush Library seemed smaller than the other two I've been to, but I enjoyed it more.  I guess it was more interesting to me since I lived through his presidency.  The September 11 stuff is amazing.  I took a lot of time to take that all in.  They have steel from the Twin Towers and a wall with the names of all the victims.  They have videos that take you through each day from September 11 to Bush's speech in Congress on September 20.  That includes one of the two best moments from his presidency, the Bullhorn Speech on September 14 (I'll get to the other one).  There were lots of cool artifacts there as well, like bullhorn from the speech, the badge of Port Authority police officer George Howard that his mother gave to Bush (mentioned in the September 20 speech) and the gun Saddam Hussein had with him when he was captured.  Another thing that made the Bush Library better than the other two was that you could actually walk around the recreation of the Oval Office.  You can sit at the desk (which is a recreation of a desk that's still in the White House).  The other thing I found interesting was everything they had on the 2000 election.  It's crazy how the media messed up their coverage that night.  If I recall correctly, they called Florida for Gore and then later uncalled Florida.  I stayed up pretty late that night, but that was the situation when I went to sleep.  While I was sleeping, they called Florida (and hence the election) for Bush and then uncalled Florida again.  By the way, during my trip I read the Al Michaels book that Sean gave me for Christmas.  He told the story of how he was once staying at the hotel where Gore was on Election Night.  He snuck into the room where Gore had stayed and stole the phone that might have possibly been used by Gore to concede and/or unconcede.  That whole thing was crazy.  I'll be teaching my 8th graders about that soon.

Steel from the World Trade Center.  The names of the victims are on the wall in the background.

Me on the phone in the Oval Office.  I was not dressed appropriately.

When I went to the Carter Library, they had a temporary exhibit on presidential photography.  That was really good.  The temporary exhibit at the Bush Library was on presidents and baseball.  I had no idea it was there until a few weeks before my trip.  It's going to be there until October.  I loved everything about that exhibit.  Of course, they had a lot on the greatest first pitch in American history (the other best moment from his presidency, which was also covered in the regular exhibits).  But they went all the way back to George Washington, which I wasn't expecting.  They had these giant baseball cards for many of the presidents.  On the front was a picture,name, political party, and home state.  The back had the president's political career and a paragraph explaining the president's connection to baseball.  For Washington, it said that he never played baseball, but he would have been familiar with similar games such as cricket or rounders.  It also said that he liked to play catch at Valley Forge.  For Lincoln, it said that he had a baseball field constructed behind the White House (where the Ellipse is).  There was a lot that you could learn about other presidents.  Taft was the first to throw out a first pitch.  Nixon was offered jobs as the commissioner of baseball and head of the players' union (read this article from 1992).  Reagan was the first president to throw out a first pitch from the mound (before him, they threw it out from the stands, like the queen in The Naked Gun, I'm pretty sure that's my favorite movie ever).

Game 3 of the 2001 World Series.  It's the greatest first pitch in American history.

The rest of Friday was pretty low key.  Wilhelm and I drank some beers (John had told me to have some Shiner Bock while I was in Texas, good stuff) and went to a really good Tex-Mex place for dinner.  The next day, we went to Fort Worth and walked around some festival that was going on for a little bit.  There's a statue of Kennedy in Fort Worth because that's where he made his last public speech.  Wilhelm took me to the stock yards in Forth Worth and we got there just in time for a cattle drive.  I texted Dennis that never had a fish been more out of water.  He said that I was more out of place at the Stone Mountain laser/fireworks show.  It was a good point, but I did enjoy that other than the part that was a salute to the Confederacy (although Stone Mountain is itself a salute to the confederacy).  After that, we stopped by Wilhelm's parents' house and they took us to Whataburger.  It was good and I'm glad I went, but I don't think it beats Five Guys or In-N-Out.  We went back to Wilhelm's apartment for a little bit and then later we went to the vigil mass at a church near the stadium.  Unless Catholic churches in North Texas are like houses in Levittown, it was the same church that Sean and I went to on Sunday morning after the Shamrock Series game.

John F. Kennedy in Fort Worth

Yep, this happened.

After mass, we were off to the stadium.  Jerry World is right by the baseball stadium and they're both surrounded by parking lots.  We went in and took a lap around the lower level.  You couldn't see the field from most of the lower concourse, but you could in the outfield.  The outfield setup was pretty cool.  There's a statue of Nolan Ryan in center behind the batter's eye.  Then we went up to our seats.  We got a beer before the game started.  There was a good selection of beer.  They had a stand with a bunch of Texas beers.  Wilhelm told me where they were all from.  I think the one I had was a Dallas beer.  It was pretty good.  The food selection seemed pretty good too, but we tried to get food early in the game and the lines were way too long (get some more concession stands in there and/or more people working them).  So we ended up not eating anything at the game.  We just stopped at Sonic on the way back to Wilhelm's apartment.

The game was not particularly competitive.  It was Yovani Gallardo against the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona (Roberto Hernandez).  Adrian Beltre tripled and scored on an error in the bottom of the first.  It reminded me of when Paul O'Neill did that when Kramer needed him to hit a second home run to get George Steinbrenner's birthday card back.  Actually, I think Beltre's play should have been scored a double and two errors, but whatever.  The Rangers scored another run in the second.  Marwin Gonzalez hit the only home run of the game for the Astros in the third to make it 2-1, but the Rangers scored three in the fifth and the final score ended up being 6-2.

Our view for the game

Despite its' terrible name, I liked Globe Life Park.  It opened in 1994, which was the same year as Progressive Field in Cleveland and two years after Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  Those were the two stadiums that it reminded me of the most.  I liked it better than Progressive Field, but not as much as Oriole Park.  You can check out my most recent stadium rankings.  I'm sliding Globe Life Park in at number 16 on my list.  It is supposed to have several features that remind you of classic stadiums: the roofed home run porch in right field (Tiger Stadium), the frieze around the upper deck (Yankee Stadium), nooks and crannies in the outfield fence (Ebbets Field), and arched windows (Comiskey Park).  I liked all of that, but they took out the hand-operated scoreboard on the left field wall which was a nod to Fenway Park.  That was a mistake.  Now they have an electronic scoreboard that was confusing.  It had five panels.  The middle one was for the game being played at the stadium.  The other four were out of town scoreboards.  It didn't make sense that the scoreboard for the Rangers' game was in the middle of the out of town scoreboards.  Even if it wasn't confusing, they should have kept the hand-operated scoreboard.  I did like the offices out in center field, though.  It would be pretty cool to work in one of those.

Me and Wilhelm at the game.  No flash, but you can see that I purposely wore my New York Rangers shirt for the Texas Rangers game.

So that's it for my first baseball trip of the season and my third trip to Texas.  One thing that amazed me was how much open space there is.  I know Texas is huge, but I was in fairly heavily populated parts of the state.  I do really like Texas, but I probably won't be back any time soon.  Notre Dame does play two games there in 2016.  Going to Austin to see us play Texas would be fun, but I assume tickets will be very difficult to get.  I assume I could get tickets for the Shamrock Series in San Antonio against Army, but I'm only interested in seeing us play Army if it's at Yankee Stadium or West Point.  But we do play at Texas A&M in 2024, so that's a possibility (and Houston would be on my list of places for a Shamrock Series game, playing in Texas can only be good for recruiting).

Speaking of Notre Dame football, I have to apply for the lottery for this season soon.  Right now I'm leaning toward only applying for the Shamrock Series game at Fenway Park and the game at Clemson.  I would be interested in the Texas game, but I don't feel like paying $125 for a ticket, plus flights, plus a place to stay (the total cost would end up being more than the Fenway game even though tickets for that one are even more expensive).  So this might be the first year that I don't get back to campus.  I can live with it.  But if any of my Notre Dame friends have any thoughts, let me know.

I know I have at least one more baseball trip coming up this season.  Hopefully there will be a few more so that I can finish off the stadiums that aren't dumps.  My next trip will not involve baseball.  I'll be in Key West next weekend.  I just hope I survive.

2015 NBA Playoffs Power Rankings

Last month I did my NCAA Tournament Power Rankings.  I might as well do the same thing for the NBA Playoffs.  This is my order of how I'm rooting for the teams.  There is no connection between my rankings and what I think is actually going to happen.  Before we get started, watch the Tesh brothers if you need to get ready for basketball.  Now here we go, in reverse order:

16.  Lakers

16.  Knicks

16.  Heat

16.  76ers

That was fun.  Now let's get started for real:

16.  Cavaliers

I don't hate them the way I hate the Lakers or Knicks or Heat.  I'm going to root against LeBron James, but it won't kill me if they win.  Also, they're playing the Celtics in the first round, so I have to root against them.

15.  Nets

I don't like the Nets, but if they hadn't traded Kevin Garnett, they'd probably be number 3 on this list.

14.  Raptors

They play in Canada.

13.  Warriors

I like Stephen Curry.  I like Steve Kerr (How hard does he laugh every time he thinks about how he could have taken the Knicks job?).  But they're San Francisco's team.

12.  Pelicans

If Anthony Davis didn't go to Kentucky, they'd be higher.

11.  Bucks

10.  Trail Blazers

9.  Grizzles

I have no thoughts about these teams.  I don't like them.  I don't dislike them.

8.  Rockets

I like the state of Texas, but I like the other Texas teams more.

7.  Bulls

6.  Hawks

The Hawks and the Bulls might be the only chance for an Eastern Conference team to beat the Cavaliers.  I'll always fondly remember Tom Thibodeau's contributions to the Celtics in 2007-2008.  And I just want to watch Kyle Korver shoot threes.

5.  Clippers

Doc Rivers abandoned the Celtics, but they got a draft pick and Brad Stevens as a result.  And he abandoned them after winning a championship in 2008.  So I can't be mad at him.  Also, the Clippers play in Los Angeles and they're not the Lakers.

4.  Mavericks

I will always remember what Dirk Nowitzki did for the nation in 2011.  Also, Rajon Rondo helped the Celtics win a championship in 2008 and he outplayed LeBron James in 2010.  Amazingly, the Celtics are now much better off without him.

3.  Spurs

It would be great to see Tim Duncan win a sixth championship.  He's the best player since Michael Jordan, but that would solidify it.  Also, I love Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard.

2.  Washington Professional Basketball Team

I love Paul Pierce.

1.  Celtics

Originally, I wanted the Celtics to get a good draft pick again, but Brad Stevens is too good.  I read an article a month or so ago about whether the Celtics had a Brad Stevens problem.  No, the rest of the league has a Brad Stevens problem once he gets some good players.  It's amazing what he has done with this team.  They're terrible.  It's a team of role players.  And the only player that's in the correct role is Isaiah Thomas (and maybe Jae Crowder).  Thomas fits as a scorer off the bench.  But their starters are not good.  Maybe a good team could have one of those guys as the fifth best starter.  If they win two games, I'll be pretty happy.  But as the great philosopher Shaquille O'Neal once said, "If you go 72-11 and don’t win (the championship), it doesn't mean anything.  Actually it does.  It means you've cheated and played an extra regular season game."  So let's see what the Celtics can do against the favorite to win the East.  I am really really excited to see what Brad Stevens could do with some good players.  If Danny Ainge can get him some good players, championship number 18 is coming soon.

Whoa Whoa Slow Down There, Maestro

There's a New Mexico?  Yes, it turns out there is.  By the way, that's one of my favorite Simpsons lines of all time.  I went to New Mexico to see the Albuquerque Isotopes take on the Reno Aces on Triple-A Opening Day (I already covered Major League Opening Day).  The Isotopes were the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate from 2009-2014 so it would have been nice to see them before this year, but oh well.  Of course, things just haven't been the same since they moved from Springfield.

There should really be a statue of Homer in his softball uniform outside the stadium.

I remember thinking I couldn't come up with any reason to ever go to New Mexico, but now it's my Paul Pierce state (number 34).  Here's my current map.  I hope to add a few more before the end of the year.  I got to Albuquerque by flying to Las Vegas (I hate that city) and then to Albuquerque.  On the way there, I flew over the Grand Canyon.  It was the second time in two days that I flew over the Grand Canyon.  My flight from Phoenix to Salt Lake City flew over it as well.  I might never get to see it from the ground (I thought about going three years ago when I was in Phoenix), but it was cool to see it from the air.  It's amazing how big it is.  I thought about the homily at my friend John's wedding.

On the way from Phoenix to Salt Lake City

On the way from Las Vegas to Albuquerque

I didn't really have anything to do in Albuquerque before the game and I was tired so I just took a nap at the hotel and then went to the stadium early.  The game was supposed to start at 6:35, but that was really just the start of the pregame festivities.  The mayor of Albuquerque was there and they had a representative from the Colorado Rockies (their new Major League team).  They introduced both rosters.  I went to a double-A game last year.  This was a different experience.  A bunch of the players on the two teams had Major league experience so I knew a lot of the names (Jair Jurrrjens, Aaron Laffey, Jorge De La Rosa, Roger Bernadina, Jamie Romak).  Glenallen Hill and Phil Nevin were the managers.

My view for the game

One thing I was paying a little attention to was the pitch clock.  They had 20 seconds on the clock for a pitch to be thrown, but it seemed like it wasn't really being enforced.  The clock would start as soon as the pitcher got the ball back, but a lot of times the batter wasn't in the batter's box.  So I don't know how you can have a pitch clock going if the batter isn't in the box.

I bought my ticket as soon as I could because I didn't really know what the crowd would be like on Opening Day.  There was a decent crowd, but it wasn't really close to a sellout.  Attendance was 8,702 and capacity is 13,279.  Despite not having a huge crowd, long lines for concessions was an issue.  I got up in the bottom of the second to get some food.  I walked around looking for a short line, but there didn't seem to be one.  At the concession stand I ended up going to, there were several cash registers, but it seemed like every person working a cash register had to work two of them.  That was obviously one of the reasons the lines were so long.  I ended up getting a green chili dog and a local beer.  The green chili dog was very messy, but pretty good.  The beer was fine, but nothing special.

It ended up not being a very competitive game.  Albuquerque led 2-1, but then Reno scored four in the fifth and ended up winning 8-2.  Indians' legend Roger Dorn's son Danny was 2-5 with a home run and two RBIs.  It was pretty cold and I had a very early flight the next morning, so I left after eight innings.

It was an interesting stadium.  Albuquerque is pretty much at the same elevation as Denver, so it's a hitter's park even though the dimensions are pretty big.  There's a hill out in center field like the one in Houston, but it's much bigger.  Also the fence in center curves in toward home plate.  Around the concourse they have Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa.  No Maggie, though.

I watched a half inning from right field.  You can see the hill in center field.

Homer sits with his back to the field.  They'll always be the Springfield Isotopes to him.

He's no Dancin' Homer

I had much the same reaction to this as I had last year at the minor league game in Arkansas.  If I lived in the area, I'd probably go to a bunch of games, but I can't imagine being particularly invested in the success of the team.  If they win, that's nice, but if they lose, whatever.  It was a fun day, though.  I'll probably never be back in New Mexico again.

My Larry Bird State

I got home from my first baseball trip of the year yesterday (more on that later in the week hopefully).  I'm getting very close to finishing off the Major League Baseball stadiums that aren't total dumps, but my other goal is to get to all 50 states.  I've started using my baseball trips to get to other states that I've never been to before (like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas last year).  So with this baseball trip, I wanted to get to a couple of states that I hadn't been to.  I wanted to see some minor league baseball, but the season didn't start until Thursday.  So for Wednesday, I decided to go to an NBA game.  I picked Utah over Portland just because flights were cheaper.  So Utah became state number 33 for me.

I got to Salt Lake City around 2:00.  I started by going to Bruges Waffles and Frites, which Adam Richman visited on Man vs. Food.  I got the same thing Adam got, the Machine Gun sandwich.  It was interesting.  I didn't love the sausages, but the fries and the sauce were good.  There is sauce on the sandwich and you can pick one other side sauce for free.  I did enjoy the fries and the andalouse sauce on the sandwich and the aioli sauce were good, but not as good as European Republic's fries and sauces.

The Machine Gun sandwich

After that, I took a walk around Temple Square.  It seemed to me like it's the Mormon version of St. Peter's Square (of course, I've never been to St. Peter's Square, so maybe it's not a good comparison).  As I was walking around Temple Square, all I could think about was the South Park episode about Mormons.  Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.  They believe some wacky stuff, but I do like Mormons.  Every Mormon I've ever met has always seemed really nice, which is also what the South Park episode is about.

Joseph Smith was called a prophet.  Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

I went back to my hotel and watched the first half of the Celtics' game.  Brad Stevens is going to get them into the playoffs.  They should have won like 25 games with the team they have.  Part of it is that the Eastern Conference is terrible, but part of it is that Brad Stevens is awesome.  Danny Ainge, for the love of God, use all those draft picks to get Brad Stevens some legitimate NBA basketball players and the Celtics will be winning their 18th championship soon enough.

Then I headed to the Jazz game.  They were taking on the Kings.  There's nothing like a late season NBA game between two teams that aren't going to the playoffs, but I was excited to see Jack Cooley, the only current Notre Dame player in the NBA.  The Jazz also have Gordon Hayward, who was my second favorite non-Notre Dame college player (behind Doug McDermott).  Hayward scored the first two points of the game, but he only played 20 minutes (the Jazz were resting him) and scored two more points for the rest of the game (1-3 shooting, 2-2 at the line).  Jack Cooley was the first Jazz player off the bench.  He had no points and one rebound in five minutes.

Karl Malone and John Stockton

The Kings were up by six at halftime, but the Jazz controlled the second half and the Jazz won 103-91.  Rodney Hood scored 20, Donte Exum (an Australian) hit four threes, and Derrick Favors had 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  The game also had a wedgie (Tas Melas was excited) and Trey Burke hit about a 55 footer at the end of the first quarter.  I would have applauded for that, but Trey Burke went to Michigan.

My view from the last row

So with that, I crossed Utah off my list.  There's a pretty good chance that I'll never be back there again.

Opening Day Diary

Two years ago, Opening Day was during my Easter vacation.  So I finally crossed Opening Day off my list of things to do.  Last year, I really wanted to go to Opening Day in Australia.  If it had been during Easter vacation, I would have done it.  John was at Opening Day for the Red Sox, so he wrote the first ever guest blog post here.  This year, Opening Day is once again during my Easter vacation.  As much as I would love to go, it's not something that I need to do again.  And I have another trip that I'm leaving for tomorrow anyway.  But when Opening Day is the same day as the championship game of the NCAA tournament, it seemed like a good day to keep a running diary.  Here's what transpired:

4:09- Vin Scully is on my TV.  Yes!

4:12- Clayton Kershaw delivers the first pitch of the season for the Dodgers.  A fastball is fouled off by Wil Myers.

4:13- Kershaw hits Myers on an 0-2 pitch.  Nuts.

4:14- Kershaw throws his first curveball of the season for strike 2 to Derek Norris.  That's a beautiful pitch.

4:15- Kershaw gets strike 3 on a curve.  Matt Kemp is coming up.  He gets a nice hand from the crowd.  He should have been the MVP in 2011.

4:17- Myers steals second.  A good throw would have had him.  I'm a little surprised the Dodgers aren't challenging this one.  Kendrick hit Myers on the leg, but it might have been with the arm, not the glove.

4:18- Kemp goes the other way against the shift.  It's a weak ground ball that goes for a hit and an RBI.

4:20- The Good Upton strikes out looking to end the inning.  I know there are two Uptons.  One of them is good and one of them is bad.  I don't know which one is which and now they're on the same team again.

4:21- Don Newcombe, Fernando Valenzuela, and Eric Gagne threw out the Opening Day first pitch.  I definitely would not have had Gagne in there.  Newcombe and Fernando are cool, but two years ago it was Sandy Koufax and last year it was Vin Scully.

4:22- Juan Uribe fields the grounder and throws to Howie Kendrick for a force to end the inning.

4:24- I'm joined by Sam Adams Summer Ale.  Jimmy Rollins is leading off for the Dodgers.

Baseball and Summer Ale, it doesn't get much better.

4:25- Rollins reaches with a sharply hit grounder past the second baseman.

4:26- Vin Scully mentions Lorenzo Bundy for the first time.  I love that name.  And I love it even more when Vin Scully says it.

4:28- Yasiel Puig goes down on strikes.  Then Adrian Gonzalez goes the other way against the shift, but it's a hard line drive right at Middlebrooks.

4:30- Howie Kendrick comes in with a .538 average against James Shields.

4:35- Vin Scully says Clint Barmes tripped while carrying deer meat and broke his collarbone.  That sounds made up.  Kershaw finishes off an easy inning.

4:37- Vin Scully is allowed to call me his friend.  Jim Nantz is not.

4:39- Carl Crawford's broken bat hits both the catcher and the umpire.

4:41- Joc Pederson is coming up.  Hopefully he'll win Rookie of the Year.

4:43- Pederson goes down on strikes on a good changeup.  Shields is looking good.

4:46- I check on the White Sox and Royals.  Jeff Samardzija just gave up an RBI double.

4:48- Derek Norris hits a two-out double.

4:50- Kemp grounds out to Uribe to end the inning.

4:52- The Padres are the only team without a no-hitter.  They have never had a cycle either, which is surprising because Petco Park is a good place for triples.

4:56- Rollins laid down a bunt that looked really nice, but it eventually went foul.

4:58- Rollins draws a walk.  Same result as a bunt single.

5:00- Rollins steals second.

5:07- Good Upton strikes out on a curveball in the dirt.  It took a good throw from A.J. Ellis to get him at first.

5:10- Crawford makes a nice sliding catch on a line drive.

5:12- Jedd Gyorko hits a double down the right field line.

5:14- Kershaw strikes out Yonder Alonso to end the inning.

5:17- Adrian Gonzalez ties the game with a home run.

5:18- Kendrick triples to deep center.

5:20- Crawford doubles in Kendrick.

5:22- Uribe grounds out the other way to move Kendrick over.

5:24- Pederson pops out.

5:25- The Padres intentionally walk Ellis with two outs and a man on third to face Kershaw.  Mistake.

5:27- Vin noted that Kershaw was 5 for 15 last year with runners in scoring position, but he strikes out to end the inning.

5:30- Barmes doubles off Kershaw on an 0-2 pitch.

5:31- Vin says that the foul poles were in foul territory when the stadium opened in 1962.  He explains how nobody noticed it until after the season.  He's the best.

5:32- Shields strikes out.  I'm taking a break for dinner.

6:00- I'm back.  The Padres lead 3-2 after Matt Kemp hit a two-run double after Norris beat out an infield single to keep the inning alive.  That's probably a play Uribe should have made.

6:05- Kershaw strikes out Barmes on a nice curve to end the top of the sixth..  He's probably done.  He wasn't great today, but with a little help from Ellis and Uribe, none of those runs would have scored.

6:09- Joc Pederson doubles.  He also made a really nice catch during my break.

6:11- Pederson steals third without a throw.

6:12- Ellis strikes out.  Justin Turner is coming up for Kershaw.  He was the man last year.

6:14- Turner goes down on strikes.  The Dodgers are 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

6:17- Yimi Garcia is now pitching for the Dodgers.

6:23- 1-2-3 inning for Yimi.

6:26- Nationals Park is getting the 2018 All Star Game.  That will be the fourth straight All Star Game in an NL Park and none of them are Dodger Stadium.  Maybe in 2020 to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1980 All Star Game at Dodger Stadium.

6:31- Gonzalez hits a two-out double.

6:32- Howie Kendrick hits an RBI double to tie the game and get Kershaw off the hook.

6:36- Scott Van Smash is pinch hitting for Crawford after the Padres brought in a lefty.

6:37- They walk Van Smash intentionally after the count got to 2-0.  The Padres go to the bullpen again.

6:40- Uribe grounds out on a bad swing.

6:42- Joel Peralta is in for the Dodgers.

6:48- 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.  It was nicely turned by Kendrick.

6:52- Pederson leads off with a walk.

6:53- Ellis pops out on a bunt.  Alonso caught it and took an elbow in the face from Shawn Kelley.

6:54- Andre Ethier is pinch hitting for Peralta.

6:57- Ethier reaches as Alonso has trouble fielding the grounder and then Kelley misses first when Alonso flips it to him.  It's scored an error on Kelley.  They really should get a half error each.

6:59- Rollins has a hit in 11 straight Opening Days.  Ted Williams never went hitless on Opening Day.

7:03- Jimmy Rollins!  He hits a three-run homer on a 3-2 pitch.  The Dodgers lead 6-3.  By the way, Jimmy Rollins is shorter than me.  It's crazy that he can hit a ball that far.

7:05- Vin says that left-handers like the ball down.  That's often said in baseball.  Why would lefties be more likely to be good low ball hitters than righties?

7:08- Puig steals second.  His slides are atrocious.  The Padres have challenged.

7:09- He's out.  Nuts.  Somebody needs to teach him how to slide.  I can't think of a player that I've ever seen that's worse at sliding than he is.

7:11- The Mets won.  Thanks for beating the Nationals, the team that's supposed to be the Dodgers' competition for the best team in the league.

7:13- Chris Hatcher is in to close.  He hits Gyorko.

7:15- The Dodgers turn a 6-4-3 double play.

7:17- Hatcher gets a strikeout to end the game.  The bullpen was good.  Hopefully that's a sign of good things to come.  Crank up the Randy Newman!  I'm taking a break until the basketball game.

9:18- I'm switching to red because I'm rooting for Wisconsin.  I hate the Big 10, but I now consider Duke a rival.  And former Lou Holtz assistant Barry Alvarez is their athletic director.  Wisconsin goes mantaman!  Cook scores for Duke.

9:19- Kaminsky for three.  Is there any basketball player with a less basketball playerish-sounding name than Frank Kaminsky?

9:24- It's 6-5 Duke at the first TV timeout.

9:26- Indians-Astros is the only game on right now.  This seems like a good time to remind you of my plan to fix Opening Day.

9:27- Both teams have bad uniforms.  Why do they have to wear different uniforms for the conference tournament and NCAA tournament from what they wore for the rest of the season?  The answer, of course, is Adidas and Nike.  It was particularly ridiculous in the Big 10 Tournament when Wisconsin and Michigan played each other wearing the same exact uniform, just with different colors.  And Duke's uniform looks exactly like Kentucky's (the shorts might be different, but still).  I'm so happy Notre Dame is an Under Armor school now.

9:29- We have a foul on whatever Plumlee is playing for Duke now.  How many of them are there?

9:31- Okafor with the jam.  It's 12-11 Wisconsin.

9:36- During a commercial, I see the Rangers tie the Blue Jackets with 27.5 seconds left.  Derek Stepan scored the goal.

9:37- Bill Simmons tweets about Bill Raftery.  It is nice to have him doing this game.  I have nothing against Grant Hill, but is he necessary?

9:44- Duke is up 4 at a TV timeout.

9:46- Derek Stepan scores again.  Rangers win!

9:50- Kaminsky's three-point play gives Wisconsin the lead.  That's two fouls on Okafor.

9:56- There have only been two team fouls on Wisconsin.  That's surprising.

9:57- Wisconsin is up 2 at the last TV timeout of the first half.  One of those Buffalo Wild Wings commercials is on.  The white guy's brother is a priest that's a year older than me.  I took religion classes that he took for work.  He was really funny.

10:02- Wisconsin misses at the buzzer.  We're tied at 31.  I'll be back after halftime.

10:33- I'm back a little late because I was planning another trip.  More on that in a future post.  It's 42-37 Wisconsin.

10:39- Three for Wisconsin, they lead by 7.

10:41- Kaminsky scores.  It's 48-39.  Timeout Duke.

10:44- Duke is getting back into it.  It's 48-45 after a three-point play, but Hayes hits a three for Wisconsin to make it 51-45.

10:48- Coach K is ten months older than Bo Ryan?  It doesn't look that way.

10:50- Timeout Wisconsin as Duke has cut the lead to two.

10:51- The Giants took a 1-0 lead against the Diamondbacks.  I hate both of these teams.  But I hate the Giants more.  That reminds me of perhaps the greatest Chris "Mad Dog" Russo rant ever.  Russo has now had three times.  Can't I get just one?

10:54- Kaminsky scores and draws the fourth foul on Okafor.  He completes the three-point play.  Then Winslow elbows a guy in the chest on a drive to the basket.  Of course, Winslow is shooting foul shots because he plays for Duke.

10:57- Duke draws an offensive foul with a flop.  Wisconsin leads by 2 at the TV timeout.

10:59- Mark Trumbo triples high off the wall to tie the game in Arizona.

11:01- Tyus Jones ties it at 54 with a jumper.

11:03- Duke takes their first lead of the half, but Wisconsin quickly ties it.

11:04- Wisconsin retakes the lead, but Duke hits a three to take it back.

11:07- Last TV timeout.  Duke leads 59-58.

11:08- Hanley Ramirez hit a home run today.  Whatever.  I'm not going to miss him.

11:10- Grayson Allen has 16 for Duke.  I had never heard of this dude before tonight.

11:11- Okafor gets the basket and the foul.  Winslow was out of bounds before getting the ball to Okafor, but the refs missed it.

11:12- We have a shot clock violation for Wisconsin.  It might be slipping away.

11:13- Duke has the ball with 1:51 left.  They're reviewing an out of bounds call.

11:15- They stay with the call.  After many replays and some zooming in by CBS, I disagree.  It looked like Winslow's finger bent as he touched the ball.

11:16- Kaminsky answers a Duke three with one of his own.

11:18- Hayes with the jam with 50.1 left.  Duke leads by 3.

11:20- Tyus Jones makes two foul shots.

11:21- Duke gives a foul.  Wisconsin was taking way too long.  Then they take a bad shot.

11:23- Duke wins 68-63.  Nuts.  This is the third time in the last five years that Notre Dame was the last team to beat the eventual champs (Connecticut in 2011 and Louisville in 2013).  We went 2-1 against Duke.  Hopefully we'll beat them two more times next year.

My 19 Favorite Churchill Quotes

My favorite non-divine historical figure is Pope St. John Paul II (I'm taking Jesus out because it's not worth comparing anybody else to him).  He was the pope for the first 21 years of my life.  Thursday was the tenth anniversary of his death.  I remember the day he died pretty well.  We knew it was coming, but it still hurt to know that he was gone.  I think I found out that he died on ESPN.com.  It was a Saturday and I was in my first semester at Notre Dame.  I went to the vigil mass at the basilica.  I hadn't planned on going to mass until Sunday, but I had to go.  It was really crowded.  I remember getting up at some ridiculous hour six days later to watch his funeral.  I was very excited when he was finally canonized last year.  He's right in the running for my second favorite saint.  Mary is number one.  John the Apostle is right up there.  I'm a big fan of Paul also.  John and Paul are kind of two sides of sainthood.  We never really hear about John doing anything wrong.  There are plenty of saints like that.  Paul, on the other hand, was kind of a scumbag (when he was Saul).  And then he became one of the most important saints in the history of the Church.  He should be an inspiration for most people.  I like John Paul II so much because I got to share this earth with him for 21 years and he was the most important person in the Church during that time.

Anyway, after John Paul II, my next two favorite historical figures are George Washington and Winston Churchill.  I have Washington ranked behind Lincoln as a president, but I still think he's the greatest American ever.  My first blog post was inspired by quotes from Winston Churchill and Vincent Antonelli.  With the three year anniversary of my blog coming up, I decided to rank my favorite Churchill quotes.  There are so many good ones.  Here we go in reverse order:

19. "From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put."

18. "There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true."

17. "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

16. "My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best."

15. "We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."

14. "If you are going through hell, keep going."

13. "A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly."

12. "Always remember, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

11. "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the 

inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

10. "Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong."

9. "This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning."

8. "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

7. "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

6. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

5. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

4. "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

3. "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

2. "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

1. "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

There's so much there.  I can't even explain why I like all of them.  But if Churchill was American, he would have been a great football coach.  Churchill is the Knute Rockne of world leaders.  He is an honorary American citizen, an honor that he deservedly was given in 1962.  (But how did it take until 2002 for the Marquis de Lafayette to be named an honorary citizen?  He should have been the first one).  Fortunately, he was a British politician when the world needed him.  Winston Churchill, more than any other person during World War II, helped save the world from evil.