March « 2012 « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

March, 2012

Auburn / baseball / Samford / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
27
Mar 12

“Hit hard! Left field!”

On the occasions that Auburn and Samford play each other in some sport — as they did in football last year, as they occasionally meet in the non-revenue sports and as they do in every year in baseball — my loyalties are not torn. There’s my alma mater and there’s my employer. I’d like for both of them to win.

But since everyone doesn’t get a trophy in collegiate sports, I hold out for a good finish.

Auburn was at Samford tonight. They’d trailed for most of the game, but took a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning. In the bottom of the ninth the Tigers’ Justin Bryant was on in relief. He hit a batter. Then he allowed two singles, so the bases were loaded.

Sophomore Phillip Ervin walked to the plate for Samford:

Samford wins 8-5. The Bulldogs are now 17-8, the Tigers 15-10.

More here.

Glomerata — Comments Off
27
Mar 12

Glomeratas

We’re winding down my not-complete collection of Auburn University yearbooks. Having showed them all off here in a chronological, yet piecemeal, method I am now in the process of filling in the gaps. This one, and the next two weeks, are covers from the collection that I’ve obtained since I started uploading them to the site.

For example, today’s contribution is a 1921 Glomerata. It is 75 years older than the one pictured below, which happens to be my freshman yearbook:

Things have changed a bit over the decades. Just a bit.

Do go check out the 1921 Glomerata, which in great condition for a 90-year-old book. To see all of the covers in my collection, go here. For details from within a select few volumes, try here. Also, you can check out the university’s official collection.

Monday / music / Samford / site / video — Comments Off
26
Mar 12

I’ve got nothing.

Roy Orbison, Iggy Pop, The Bangles and Darius Rucker each have a song with that title. I don’t especially relate to anything of them just now. Even so:

There’s a busy schedule and a weary feeling, same as everyone else.

I taught a class. So that was fun. We talked about the best spring break experiences. Someone went to Disney. Someone went to Disney. Someone got snowed on in the grand canyon. I spoke with someone who dislocated a shoulder. And someone else who had shoulder surgery.

The best spring break stories are usually a degree or two better than the surgical ones, if you ask me.

Caught up on a bunch of reading. So now my stack is merely overwhelming, I suppose.

That’s a big enough word for me, thanks.

Just so it’d be done I spent a few minutes cleaning up the photo galleries. February and March were hastily dashed off and will now pass for up-to-date.

And now on to more pressing things. More when I got something.

Auburn / baseball / hobby / photo / weekend — Comments Off
25
Mar 12

Catching up

Another beautiful day here, how has your weekend turned out? Hope the weather is lovely, hope you got a dose of this. I hope you don’t mind if we hang on to it for, roughly, ever.

This is the day on the site where I throw a bunch of pictures on here that haven’t otherwise been featured from this week. Sometimes there is context, sometimes there is a theme. Often they are just pictures I thought were worth uploading. Enjoy!

The bird feeder has attracted a couple of sets of cardinals. And now we’ll find out how territorial they are:

Fans at a baseball game. The little one needs a bit of directional practice, but she’ll get there.

They thought it was beach night at the park and so a dozen or so college kids blamed her for talking them into wearing their floral prints. Turns out she was unjustly accused. It was beach night. No one else knew it:

The guy that made our cable and Internet problems all better. For now, at least:

I do a lot of pictures of the cat, so I thought I’d show her off as a watercolor. I was pecking away at something in the library and she was fascinated by the dramatic bird chatter going on just beyond her reach:

You want fries with that? At Publix:

A sliver of the moon. Jupiter and Venus were shining brightly over it, but the photographs didn’t do it justice. Mine never do:

Freshman Daniel Koger threw three perfect innings today against LSU. He had three unearned runs given up behind him, but he had another solid outing today:

Aubie is looking for a series sweep:

But he would not find it. For the third game in a row LSU-Auburn was in doubt until the last pitch, this one. Kody Ortman had the unenviable task of being put in as a pinch hitter. With the tying run on first Auburn took out a guy that was 2-3 on the day and batting in the .330s for a cold player with about half his average. Ortman hit it well, driving the ball crisply into centerfield:

… but the ball was caught, the game was over. LSU avoided being swept by Auburn for the first time since the Reagan administration with the final, 4-3.

Auburn / baseball / cycling / iPhone / photo / video / weekend — 1 Comment
24
Mar 12

Gorgeous day

It was the kind of day that should last forever and not change at all. Only you’d get bored of it. Sunny, breezy and 79? Again?

Maybe you’d get bored of it. Not me.

And if you don’t believe me, here:

Look at that sky, check out those clouds, ignore the guy pretending he knows how to ride a bike.

Rode 30 miles today, my first time on the bike since Tuesday. I was just beginning to convince myself that I was figuring something out about my bike or my legs or … something … earlier in the week because everything felt great. And then I got sick, and then it rained and now here we are. I’m on some precipice where three days off feels like a long time for whatever I have that passes for conditioning. I thought that today might be feel like I’d taking a slide backward.

But it felt a lot better than I thought it might. My legs were fairly strong. On the particular route I took today, one third was familiar and the rest was new. It didn’t include the most daunting hills around, but I was moving up rollers and slight hills with ease. I’d look down and realize I hadn’t even changed from my smallest gear.

Not sure what to make of that.

Baseball: Auburn beat LSU 3-2 in another game where the outcome was in doubt until the last pitch.

Here are the highlights:

That’s eighth ranked LSU. Auburn has won five in a row and is tied for the division lead in the young season. And this is a young team, picked to finished closed to last, still learning to put it all together, still stranding almost 10 runners on base per game.

The future looks bright. Maybe all of the days will be as pleasant as this one.