Prost!

Happy High Holy Days, my fellow adherents of the church of baseball. Glorious that it roughly coincides with Oktoberfest, isn't it? So obviously you won't likely find me rooting for the Yankees anytime soon, so the Phils are my team for now. I'm deciding how much I want to let it stick in my craw about Jayson Werth, Charlie-Whathisface and the All-Star Game that Pablo was robbed of. But then really their penance is that the Panda could have won the game and handed home field advantage to the NL team. Bahaha. Hence, they now must win one of these first two in the New Bronx. It's the only foreseeable path to a repeat. I should very much like to see the Phillies spank New York around, American League style.

Now to change gears a bit, because I do realize that I named this thing the "Ocean Beach" chronicles and that's what I intend for it to be, not just to talk about baseball all the time (I hear you, Lilize. Or is it Elize? Well, whoever you are. You know who you are). So the other morning on the beach with Miss Blue I found a very pretty shell. Shells and sand dollars, I can't help collecting when I come across them. Especially the sand dollars--one of those in mint condition (especially by the time I get them all the way back to the house) is a pretty rare find. They are vewwy fwagile. Anywho, so I find a nice little shell that was a keeper, and I forgot about it in my pocket by the time I got back to my block and I was curious about this lot nearby because the house on it isn't like you're ordinary mass produced Sunset house. So I wanted to see if there was another house behind it or if it took up the whole section of the block, which would be pretty absurd now that I think about it. But anyway so I jump up and down, and the shell falls out of my pocket and cracks in two. So I figured it would blow away in the wind easier if I broke it up, so I stomped on it to kind of crrrrush it. A little upset about losing that one, I suppose. Then this morning on the way back from our walk (park, today) I see my neighbor sweeping up the pieces, that just kinda stayed there. Oops.

In any case, Happy Holidays! Please note: today is also officially Day 2 of 30 Days of 30. Stay tuned.

The LCS situation

The Yankees certainly seem to have that "indestructible force" look to them this year. So, too, might the Dodgers. As much as it makes me physically ill, a Dodgers-Yankees World Series has a lot (a LOT) of history and tradition behind it, and baseball (like me) is about nothing if not reverence for history and tradition. But it's early yet. I'd love to see the Phillies knock off the Dodgers AND the Angels OR Yankees in succession, but I'm getting pretty goddam tired of hoping for the Phils to do the Giants' dirty work (especially since they've never seemed to be especially adept at it). But I'll leave it off with this thought tonight: As I headed back into the City this afternoon after my crazy odyssey into the near reaches of the Central Valley (another blog post altogether) I had the Dodgers-Phils game at Los Angeles on the radio and I was driving over the Bay Bridge and I saw the Ballpark off to my left and thought to myself, a year from today that game could be taking place in that very spot. OUR ballpark could be the one rocking. Ed asked me if I meant that it could have the bridge itself rocking as a result.

I said to him, "With your help, pal, maybe."

So keep the faith, Giants fans. And that reminds me, happy 20th, fellow survivors (almost). That is all.

I Love Seeing the Dodgers Lose

I am a Giants fan, born and raised. Threw that in there because I didn't want to begin on a negative. But long live the Black & Orange. Where I come from, if the Dodgers lose, it's a good day. I'm from the City, born at Children's Hospital. I live at Ocean Beach now, with my girlfriend and my dog. I have a dream that one day all three of us will roam the beach in front of our building as we please. I've decided to keep a blog.