Friday
30
Mar 12
Rainy day baseball
Auburn hosts Mississippi State for a three game series this weekend. The first pitch was delayed for an hour by rain. Between the fifth and sixth inning there was another 23 minute rain delay. Auburn starter Derek Varnadore went six innings, collecting five strikeouts while walking three and giving up three runs, one of them unearned.
In the bottom of the seventh inning Auburn trailed Miss State 3-2. With a runner on third Dan Glevenyak was punched out by the first base umpire to end the inning:
In the bottom of the eighth inning Auburn trailed Miss State 4-2. Ryan Tella is at bat here, he singled to right, scoring Jay Gonzalez and moving Creede Simpson to second base:
The heavily accented guy in the background is not me.
Also in the bottom of the eighth inning, with Auburn now trailing 4-3, the tying run was standing on third base in the form of Creede Simpson. Garrett Cooper hit a fly ball into right field.
State’s Brent Brownlee had a fine throw home to get Simpson in the double play. It was aggressive base running and a great tag by catcher Mitch Slauter.
It ended Auburn’s rally. Mississippi State scored again in the top of the ninth and would go on to win the game 5-3.
23
Mar 12
Tigers host Tigers
It was one of those days that you thought it would rain all day. When it finally started raining, which seemed delayed somehow. But then it did rain and, even though it didn’t rain hard, you thought it might take over the entire day. Except for when it wasn’t raining, which was beautiful.
My meteorological skills may be a bit off.
But there was the rain, so it was an indoors morning, which suited me just fine. We had our weekly Barbecue House breakfast today — one of my favorite parts of the week and not even because of the hash browns — where we did not see any local celebrities for a change. We also did not see anyone pulled over nearby for a change.
We had a quiet breakfast, a biscuit for The Yankee and a sandwich for me. The food is all delicious and they know us by name and the place is busy, but quiet. You could probably get a splinter by rubbing your hand on the wall. The restaurant is the same age as I am, so I’m trying not to make the details of the joint autobiographical, but I wonder about the splinters.
It rained in the afternoon. I don’t ride in the rain if I don’t have too — one day I’ll change my mind about that — so I stayed on the computer.
Things cleared away late in the afternoon, just in time for baseball. Only as time for the game drew close there was an allegation of a lightning bolt. So they kept the field covered. The sky was beautiful, but the radar showed a blob, and this is a day that seemed like it could rain at any time. The fans were impatient for baseball:
Here was sunset over Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum (click to embiggen):
Finally they played removed the tarp:
And finally they played, the young Auburn squad trying to figure out where they should sit on the spectrum of SEC baseball this year, and the eighth ranked LSU team. It was a terrific game of back and forth momentum. It was tied at two after six innings. Auburn scored in the seventh. LSU answered in the eighth frame to tie things at three. In the bottom of the eighth Zach Alvord doubled. He moved to third on a sacrifice and then Ryan Tella brought his hot bat to the plate:
That swing gave Auburn a 4-3 lead. LSU would manufacture a double in the ninth. They put in a pinch runner. Auburn collected two outs. And Auburn baseball announcer Rod Bramblett takes it over from there (this video is helpfully queued to the last play of the game):
There’s a certain way you can look at the framing of that shot that might give you the inclination to say that umpire’s call was a bit of home cooking. LSU certainly seemed to think so, but they lost 4-3. It was a great game.
16
Mar 12
The definition of only
So long, and thanks for all the flips:
Laura Lane and six of her teammates were honored on senior night which, thanks to unfortunate scheduling, took place during Auburn’s spring break. The gymnastics squad has a devoted student following, filling one half of the floor at Auburn Arena. Two of them were there, the rest were young families. So there’s some work to do on the scheduling side of things.
The Tigers did not have their best meet of the year, but they did enough to defeat BYU handily, 195.950-192.575.
But after this meet the stakes get bigger. The SEC championships are later this month in Georgia. Auburn will have to face the likes of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Florida, but they battled each of those squads within a point during the regular season.
In April the NCAA regionals will be at Auburn Arena.
Dinner at Cheeburger, including a basket of fries and a shake. I don’t mind the indulgence: I rode 27 miles this afternoon. And I’m now to the point where I said “I only rode 27 miles.”
I got scoffed at for that, but I was disappointed with the effort. I wanted more, but my energy levels disagreed. My hand hurt. (Remember a while back, I fell on my wrist? My chain slipped in a turn and jolted everything just right today.) It was hot. I forgot to press through. I was too busy trying to find reasons to stop after only 27 miles.
Terrible, I know. Tomorrow, then.
9
Mar 12
No really, buy me some peanuts
I couldn’t say if there is a lot of video like this, or if it is a one-of-a-kind contribution to the International Institute of Outflow Mesoscale Gradients.
That’s from a small town east of Lexington, Ky. and that’s serious business. They aren’t used to seeing that sort of thing up there. Once a Louisville meteorologist confessed to his shock at seeing three rotations in one radar sweep. He’d never seen that before.
Here we call that Tuesday.
Of course they can deal with snow, so there’s a trade off.
Felt sluggish all day. I guess it was the week catching up with me, but there was no energy to be found anywhere. So this evening I made myself ride my bike. I want to ride even when I don’t feel like it, not just when I feel good. That’s how I can really churn out the miles — I told myself while inflating my tires.
So I set off on the warm up routine, down and out throw the neighborhood and then on the two back roads that border the local area. My legs were heavy. Actually they were dead. The wind was blowing. I’ve found that a mild headwind kills two or three miles an hour. Going up hills felt more like standing still.
I did have two nice sprints, the first hitting 31 miles per hour and the second at 30. Otherwise it was a remarkably poor 30 mile ride. Except for this:
It is a lovely neighborhood.
At the Auburn baseball game, the Tigers were leading here 5-3:
They’d jumped out to that score early, and it stayed there a long time. In the top of the ninth Belmont scored two runners on sacrifice flies. It was tied when the Tigers ran off the field.
In the bottom of the ninth Auburn’s leadoff man reached first on a field error. Jay Gonzalez then stole second. There was a strikeout and then an intentional walk. And then Cullen Walker hit one just past Belmont’s diving second baseman. Gonzalez raced around the diamond from second, giving Auburn the 6-5 win.
Nice way to start the weekend series. The only thing missing? The peanuts.
