Monday, August 31, 2009

Beau Torbert Update 1 Game Left

There is one game left in Beau Torbert and the Sioux Falls Canaries season. So, I will give another update later this week. Beau has played in 64 games in a season hampered by injuries. Beau is third in the league with a .345 batting average. Torbert leads the team in home runs with 12 and is tied with the team lead with 2 triples. He also has 10 doubles. Beau has driven in 60 runs, one behind team leader Cory Harris. Beau has stolen 5 bases in 7 attempts. He has a team high .541 slugging percentage and an on base average of .396 which ranks him 3rd on the team. Beau's one bad stat is the 8 errors, which ranks him 4th on the team.

The Sioux Falls Canaries are 40-55 overall(thru 7/29) and 19-28 in the second half. Needless to say the Canaries will not be in the post season this year. Hopefully, Beau will have a great game to wrap up the 2009 season.

Stats: American Association

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

My First Top 25 Rankings This Season

The 2009 College football season is right around the corner! Last season I did my 25 rankings all through the season, this year I plan to continue.

I have the defending champions Florida ranked number 1, I have some teams you would expect and a few surprises. Check out all the rankings here.

If you want to compare this season's first rankings to my final rankings last season, those rankings are here. I had Florida as the champs, followed by Utah, USC and Texas.

It was fun to have a rankings through out the season, as I was able to see teams climb up and other teams fall out. I am sure this season will be the same. Well here is to the 2009 college football season kicking off.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Weekly Beau Torbert Update

Beau has played in 57 games and is finally able to be listed among the league leaders. He is 4th in the league in batting with a .342 average. Beau leads the Canaries in batting, home runs with 9, and tied for the team lead in triples with 2. Torbert is second on the team in runs batted in with 50. He has scored 28 runs and stolen 3 bases.

Beau had another error. Errors are the only bad stat for Torbert as he is up to 6 for the season in 57 games. He has one more error than the rest of the outfielders have combined. The Sioux Falls Canaries are 16-24 in the second half and 9 games out of first. They are 37-51 for the season. The Canaries only have 8 games remaining on the schedule.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

next sport: rock climbing?

Well this summer I have been doing more hiking. Well, I wanted to get in better shape and it is pretty cheap. Especially, when you live as close to the trails as I do. This is very good in these economic times. I want to do more fishing, heck I want to do a whole lot more.

If I had more money, time, and all I think a sport I would pick up is rock climbing. I've been repelling, I have done a climbing wall, and I have done a bit of caving. There are some great rocks to climb close to me..

Also the sport is growing because there are more places to climb indoors. That is pretty cool. People can use it for fitness or improve their skills. They also don't have to worry about the weather.

If you live close to Washington or Baltimore(or plan to visit there) I wrote an article about some of the indoor rock climbing areas nearby. Check out the article here.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Weekly Beau Torbert Update

Beau Update:
Beau has played in 50 games now! Injuries really have cost him this season, in terms of games played and a trip to the American Association All-Star game. However, Beau Torbert deserves a lot of credit to continue to put in some great offensive numbers. He has a lot of errors (5) and I wonder if that was due to his injuries or lack of playing time? He hasn't added to that total in a while which is good.

Beau leads the team in batting, and would be fourth in the league if he had played enough games. He is batting .347 68 hits in 196 at bats. Torbert has scored 24 runs while driving in 40(which is 3rd on the team).

He has 7 home runs, which is tied for the team lead. Beau is tied for the team lead with 2 triples. Beau has 5 doubles as well. He has a slugging percentage of .500(which leads the team) and an on base percentage of .401.

Beau's team the Sioux Falls Canaries are 13-20 in the second have and the Canaries are 7 games back. Beau will have a hard time being MVP this season and his team probably won't make the playoffs.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Sail away with a mad man! boater safety

I spent last week writing like a mad man, I just sent out four articles to be published Friday. I already have 6 published this month. I am signed up for two more. So, there will be a lot of fresh stuff coming out. This is great stuff to feed the blog with...


I wrote an article on safe boating tips for Labor Day. However, the safe boating tips aren't just for Labor Day, The tips are pretty useful for any time you are on a boat. Some of the tips were basic like wear a life jacket and don't operate a boat while your drunk. Some were about boat inspections and making sure the operator course. The article was packed with some powerful statistics. You may want to read it before you go boating. Here is the link.

The thought of sailing away does sound good! Heck, I'd settle at just using my inflatables at this point. Float around the pound in the raft with my fishing pole and a box of worms...or go explore down river where the water is flatter in the inflatable kayak. Oh well until next time be safe!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Les Paul has passed away

No one lives forever, and 94 is a nice long life. I am sad Les Paul has passed away today. His music will live on. People will event more things. However, there won't ever be another Les Paul. The innovator of muti track recordings and amplification. Not to mention the beautiful Les Paul line of guitars made by Gibson.

One of my favorite bands is Led Zeppelin. I know musically we would be comparing apple and oranges with Led Zeppelin and Les Paul. Not that Jimmy Page and Les Paul could find musical common ground, they did and they have played together. However, without Les Paul's inventions on multi track recording and effects Led Zeppelin would not have been the same. Zeppelin is just a good example that comes to mind but the same could be said about any band from the birth of rock and roll to now.

I am thankful to his contribution to the music I like. I am thankful for the music he created. I am thankful for Les Paul guitars. I am sorry for his families loss. As a fan I hope their will be tributes for him so we will be able to appreciate his life and music some more. As a fan of his life, I offer this bit of appreciation and I am grateful for his contributions to the world.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Baseball Top Five Lists and a Beau Update

I am still waiting for two articles to publish which aren't baseball related. In the main time I published two baseball top five lists.

The first one, My List of Top 5 Hitters of All-Time, list the top 5 hitters of all-time in baseball. Of course these are debatable. The five I chose were Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Tony Gwynn and Joe Jackson.

The second one, The Top 5 Outfielders of All-Time, could be just as debatable if not more than my list of hitters. My list of top 5 hitters could also be exchangeable except for Pete Rose. I chose Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr.

In both articles I know I left out a lot of great ones. It is tough to narrow those two categories down to 5 with so many years of baseball history.

Since, I am on the subject of baseball I might as well give an update on Beau Torbert, the greatest outfielder in the American Association. Beau's batting average has cooled down a bit to .339, however he has played in 44 games now. He is tied for second on the team with 6 home runs. Torbert is third on the team in runs batted in with 34. Beau does lead the team in batting and would be fourth in the league but hasn't played enough to be ranked among the leaders. It is August so I will try to keep the updates coming more often on Beau as his season winds down.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

No Hitters

After a six month break from publishing anything I started writing again. As you know if you read the blog my first article I wrote since returning was about Mark Buehrle's perfect game. I followed that article with two more articles about no hitters.

The first one was the top 5 perfect games of All Time. List like these are always debatable. The gems I chose to include were by Lee Richmond, Don Larson, Cy Young, Randy Johnson and Mark Buehrle.

The second article was the top 5 no hitters of All Time. I decided to exclude perfect games from this list since I had just written an article on perfect games. The no hitters I chose were by Mike Scott, Allie Reynolds, Nolan Ryan, the Astros 6 pitcher no hitter of the Yankees, and George Bradley.

I am currently working on an article about indoor climbing walls near Washington DC and a boating article. Those articles should be a nice break from baseball. However, I will be back with upcoming baseball articles on the top hitters and top outfielders soon so stay tuned.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Play Till You Drop

I came home from work yesterday and took my daughter to Chick-Fill-a. Where she had diner and was able o play on the playground. She also got a balloon toy. After about 2 hours there we stopped and checked the mail at the Post Office. The girl saw he park and wanted to play at the park. Who am I to say no? (yes I know I am the dad, the parent..) So we ended up going to the park for another hour. She was able to swing, climb on the fish, go down the slide, and spin around on the merry-go-round. When it was all said and done, the girl was a sleep in the car before we were home. When you are 2 you are supposed to play hard and have fun. When your a Dad your supposed to watch your daughter having fun and enjoy the moment.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Beau Torbert Update

July has ended so I thought it would be a great time to give an update on Beau Torbert. Beau has now played in 38 games, is hitting .355(55 hits in 155 at bats). Beau is third on the team in runs batted in with 32 despite missing 31 games. He has scored 16 runs and stolen 3 bases in 4 attempts. Beau has 5 doubles and 5 home runs. He has also hit a triple.

Overall, the Sioux Falls Canaries are 27-42 for the season including 6-15 in the second half. The Canaries have dropped 7 straight games and are 6.5 games out of first place. Hopefully Beau can stay healthy and finish strong.

sources for stats:
american association website