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Go Jack, go!

Today we went for a bike ride. I am on the cusp of going from the high-end of a slow rider to the low-end of a medium rider and I don’t understand this degree of progress whatsoever. So I am not very good, but I hold my own when riding with The Yankee, who is now an amateur racer.

There’s a 13 mile circle of bypass road around the town proper and we did that today. I just stayed on her back wheel for the first half. There are two “big” hills on that route. (It is coastal-plains-flat here so I qualify our hills.) When the second hill game I bent to the left and passed her.

I am good on this one hill, because I have figured out a way that I can essentially keep my pace or accelerate all the way up it. It involves closing my eyes, counting out pedal strokes and shifting to an easier gear all the way “up.”

So today I shifted down, start counting, shift up, start counting. Normally I go through about 10 strokes per gear on that hill and it keeps everything working pretty well. Only today I overcounted my pedal strokes and that just killed everything on that hill. I counted to 20 in the second gear and that was too much so then there’s the lactic acid build up and so on. I got greedy.

In cycling, commentators could say “Bang. Dropped him just like that.” Which is to say you left the other person standing still as you accelerated away from them. I was trying to do that, but I could not because I got greedy. So I pulled away from her modestly, but I was really trying to assert my control of that particular hill.

So I let her catch up to me at the next light and we rode on the rest of our route.

She stopped when she got to the distance of her first upcoming race and looked on her computer at the pace she was setting and she was very pleased. She said “I’m going to ride hard the rest of the way home to try to boost my average pace.”

I just happened to be in front of her right there, so I started off, standing up and generating more power so that I can get out of her way since she wants to go hard and she’d stopped on this little incline. She goes right by me.

Bang. She dropped me.

Nice day for Auburn sports and technology. We listened to the baseball game on the iPhone app as the Tigers beat Texas A&M at College Station. They finally found the string of at bats they’ve been struggling to put together and it paid off on the scoreboard, felling the Aggies 10-5.

Three home runs contributed to a 9-0 lead in the fourth inning, and then the usually solid pitching simply had to hold things together which, happily, was exactly how it went.

Later in the evening we watched the regional gymnastics meet. Twelfth-ranked Auburn notched a school record regional score of 196.700. That put them third in Gainesville tonight. The top two of each region move on to nationals. That score in any other region would have advanced, but instead they were third behind Florida and Minnesota.

Sophomore Bri Guy and freshman Caitlin Atkinson both advance to the NCAA Gymnastics championships, so, the future is very bright for the gymnastics team.

Finally, I share this video to make you cry. On fourth-and-one the running back breaks a 69-yard touchdown run that cleared the benches in celebration. It is the best of sports and youth and humanity and perseverance and this little guy can run:

More about Team Jack.

And his big run:

Asked what he was thinking when he ran onto the field, Jack said, “Scoring a touchdown.”

And when he broke free and scored? “It felt awesome.” And the crowd reaction? “Really awesome.”

[…]

Jack was diagnosed with cancer in April 2011 and has had two surgeries. He’s now on a two-week break from a 60-week chemotherapy regimen.

Andy said Jack is “doing great” and that an MRI at Children’s Hospital in Boston showed that the tumor has shrunk substantially in the past year.

The official Team Jack shirt.

Auburn / baseball / cycling / Friday / Samford / video — Comments Off
5
Apr 13

“Even though we’re presidents, can we still hug?”

Late in the day, just before the sun gives way to dusk. My shoulder has been bothering me a bit this week, and so I found the opportunity to treat it with the foam roller, where you take a hard piece of cylindrical as big as a small melon and roll it between your body and the floor, using your mass as the therapeutic engine. (Even though doing so with shoulders can be tricky, because you are not, under pain of all holistic devices, supposed to use the foam roller on bone. And your shoulder has lots of those.)

Allie grew indignant. Because I was in her sun. So I scooted over two feet.

So everything here is fine this lovely day.

I spent the day reading news and students’ work and grading things and writing stuff. I got in a little time on the bicycle, too, feeling like I was going nowhere fast until I would glance down at my computer and see that I was pulling off a remarkable (for me) pace. I have many questions I need to ask of someone who knows things about bikes and gears and pace.

We listened to the Auburn baseball game — they beat somebody! — over the app on my phone. I pretended like it was an AM feed, and that there was constant bleed from nearby stations. In my mind it was a gospel station, a bit of sermon, a bit of choir, mixed with a station blaring Jerry Lee Lewis and the occasional crackle of someone broadcasting farm reports.

Pretty sure I’m the only 30-something in the 21st century imagining things like that.

Anyway, Auburn downed Texas A&M 6-4 in 10 innings. All of the things that have happened to that team didn’t happen tonight. All of the things they’ve been waiting for finally showed up. On the season they are stranding eight runners a game and have lost four by two runs or less, plating people being the big problem so far this year. No wonder teams say they take it one game at a time. You’d go mad trying to find reason in the aggregate.

But, tonight, they are 18-12, 2-8, and could win a conference series on a Saturday.

One of my students shared this, President Obama meeting Kid President. It is a great tour of the Oval Office, and a nice moment all politics aside. Boy meets hero! Hero shares time and message! Everyone is thrilled!

Also, there’s the Emancipation Proclamation, just hanging on the wall. Remarkable.

“Even though we’re presidents, can we still hug?” Great moment.

Have a great weekend!

Alabama / Auburn / baseball / photo / weekend — Comments Off
30
Mar 13

The baseball Iron Bowl, game three

With the weekend series tied 1-1, Auburn and Alabama met again to decide the three-game set. Ryan Tella doubled down the right field line in the first inning and probably has a sore neck for his troubles. Mikey White probably has a bruise on his leg:

Will Kendall, still returning from last year’s Tommy John surgery, had another solid outing under his rehab pitch count. He went three innings and allowed only one hit and one run. He walked two and recorded two strikeouts. That’s Austen Smith leading off first for Alabama:

Daniel Koger was solid in long relief. He pitched six innings, walked three, allowed only one hit and one run:

Auburn’s second baseman Jordan Ebert beats a throw back to first. Not that it mattered much. He’d be out on a double play soon after:

And despite pitching a two-hitter, Auburn was down two runs in the ninth inning. Alabama’s Spencer Turnbull was pitching a complete game, with a great defense behind him. Auburn would not get a runner to second base after the first inning.

Auburn hit into four double plays today.

Ryan Tella lined out in the ninth inning:

Auburn lost 2-0 today and have now dropped the first three series of the year.

The biggest problem right now is the bats. Only two players in the lineup are hitting over .300. (To be fair, in conference play they’ve faced five incredible starting pitchers.) The Tigers left two on base today — a statistical anomaly because of all of the double plays. Auburn is stranding eight runners a game so far this season.

The Tigers are 10-44 against the SEC in the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament.

Alabama / Auburn / baseball / cycling / Friday / friends / iPhone / photo — Comments Off
29
Mar 13

The baseball Iron Bowl, game two

Alabama’s second baseman, Kyle Overstreet who is really quite good, committed an error in the sixth inning tonight. Naturally the helpful fans at Plainsman Park pointed this out.

By then Auburn had the game under control. They found their first lead in conference play, which came in their 66th inning of conference play. The Tigers’ bats came alive again in the fifth, putting four more runs on the board and Auburn finally won one, 6-3.

Check out the highlights, particularly the gem in the ninth inning at the three minute mark:

So, now, Auburn is 10-43 against the SEC in the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament. It has been the worst year ever since Title IX in terms of a cumulative conference record.

But a beautiful day otherwise. Got out for a quick ride on the bike and was about seven miles from home on a quite road that has been closed because the bridge two miles down was out for construction. I heard a nice ting!-ting!-ting! doppler off to the left and behind me.

It seemed important to stop, to see what had just fallen off my bicycle. And I was happy to realize that the brakes were still working and the wheels weren’t falling off.

Finally I realized it was the metal clamp that holds my bag to the seat post and saddle rails. So we spent a while looking for the parts. I’d hit a bump and something felt loose, so up and down the shoulders, stomping on plumes of grass and bending over to peer at ever dark piece of material near the roadway.

After about an hour I found the metallic piece, realized that was the only part I was missing, so that’s a win. I only have to replace two screws. And get home in time for the baseball game, managing only an impressive 10 miles for my troubles.

But I had a turkey burger for dinner, we closed down a restaurant with our friends Adam and Jessica and that somehow makes it all better.

It was a good afternoon as we head into a great weekend. Hope yours is even better!

Alabama / Auburn / baseball / journalism / links / photo / things to read / Thursday — Comments Off
28
Mar 13

The baseball Iron Bowl

Alabama visited Auburn for a three game series, starting tonight. Things did not go well for the Tigers.

Ryan Tella was 1-of-5 with three strike outs:

Tella

Garrett Cooper had one hit in four at bats and struck out once:

Cooper

Between the two they stranded five of Auburn’s eight base runners as Alabama won 6-2.

In the major sports – football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and baseball – Auburn is now 9-43 against the SEC since the 2012 SEC baseball tournament. I’m keeping count because someone has to.

Other things: Nineteen percent of Alabama are on food stamps.

Then there’s this most depressing lead:

In Hale County, Alabama, 1 in 4 working-age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale.

[…]

As far as the federal government is concerned, you’re disabled if you have a medical condition that makes it impossible to work. In practice, it’s a judgment call made in doctors’ offices and courtrooms around the country. The health problems where there is most latitude for judgment — back pain, mental illness — are among the fastest growing causes of disability.

[…]

In Hale County, there was one guy whose name was mentioned in almost every story about becoming disabled: Dr. Perry Timberlake. I began to wonder if he was the reason so many people in Hale County are on disability. Maybe he was running some sort of disability scam, referring tons of people into the program.

After sitting in the waiting room of his clinic several mornings in a row, I met Dr. Timberlake. It turns out, there is nothing shifty about him. He is a doctor in a very poor place where pretty much every person who comes into his office tells him they are in pain.

“We talk about the pain and what it’s like,” he says. “I always ask them, ‘What grade did you finish?'”

What grade did you finish, of course, is not really a medical question. But Dr. Timberlake believes he needs this information in disability cases because people who have only a high school education aren’t going to be able to get a sit-down job.

It is an enlightening piece, and worth your read.