Random Thoughts & Humor
May 9, 2012 | 
Author This line has become my unofficial mantra of late. What does it mean, you ask? Read the rest of this entry »
Poster, for you less-than-hip kids, is my fictional holiday celebrating the day after Easter, a glorious Monday in which all Easter candy goes on sale for at least 50% off. Post-Easter. Poster. When thinking of names 4 years ago my final two were Poster and Pfeaster, and I went with the former. I think the Pfeaster is a bit more clever, but it’s too late – I’m sticking with what I’ve got. Read the full origins of Poster in 2011′s write up.…it’s chock full of movie references plus real and confectionary carnage.
On Poster, if you’re not physically ill from sugar consumption literally the entire day, you didn’t celebrate properly. It’s basically St.Patty’s day for children and sweet-toothed morons like myself.
At 9:30 this morning I started with what I call a “Poster Oreo”: A Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg, Followed by an Almond Joy Egg, washed down with another Reese’s Egg. (Almond Joys are white in the middle, thus the “creme” of the Oreo) I felt terrible immediately thereafter…and so it began.
You need to adopt a wave approach: eat candy until you feel like death. Rest for about 45 minutes, then eat more candy. It will take less and less candy each wave to make you ill and thus craving something healthy…push through that nonsense and keep going; this only comes around once a year.
Not pictured below is a chocolate bunny that I was planning on beheading, stuffing full with peeps, reheading with some sort of chocolate soldering iron, then consuming like a starving wolf. I’ll have to regroup and extend Poster through Tuesday to get this done. Pictures to follow.
This time of year, with more than half of my athletes out playing, my stress level mostly abates. I’m left with more free time to see my summer ahead of me, right as the sun starts poking its head around. I find my thoughts happily wandering so much that I’m often left unable to put word to page. The one thing that really melds the pleasant warmth of sunbeams into a holistically “summer” feeling, is music.
It’s officially spring. It’s time to feel good – here’s a few songs that are flat-out awesome and I believe can be enjoyed by the young, hip kid and older fuddy-duddy type alike. There’s a lot of rap using classical beats and I personally dig the combination. These songs are all, to my knowledge, lyrically pretty “clean” and appropriate. Radio-approved music is getting worse and worse (Rack City is the worst song ever), but this stuff is too cool to hit the radio anyway. I wore #13 last year in Fargo, so I’m gonna give you 13 of my favorite songs that are a bit off the beaten path.
I’m gonna start you off with a song that I guarantee almost no one has heard. If you have heard Nujabes before, please leave a comment and let me know. The dude is apparently dead and you can’t find his album, but I caught some of his stuff a few years ago from a friend. Some of his stuff is elevator music, but the following song is really good… Read the rest of this entry »
I was happy to be featured on Tom and Jack’s Cornball program once again, check it out! Follow the link to the podcast entitled Wings of Warbird
Be sure to check out Cornbeltbaseball.com - it’s a great site created by two guys passionate about baseball.
Whenever I’m faced with people discounting the role of sports in our lives, I think back to my time in Philosophy classes in college. As a Philosophy major, I spent most of my time trying to decipher the meaning of the world via the meaning of some very cryptically written essays and books. As an athlete, I never forgot the lecture in my Philosophy of Sport class in which my professor gave his argument for the value of athletics. Many academics dismiss them as petty amusements, but they are much more than that.
Desporto: To Carry Away. When the terrorist attacks of 9-11 occurred, why did the Yankees play only days later? To whisk away the troubles of a very shaken, desperate city. Why do we flip on the television to watch the game after a stressful day of work? To get lost in in the amazing physical feats of another, drowning out the tedium and nagging repetition of daily life. Sports have been and will be around forever because they always allow us to escape the reality that life is often harsh, difficult and undeterred.
I just got off the phone with my student Chris, one of the finest young men I know. He had texted me and my good friend Daryn letting us know that he was dropping out of our throwing and hitting academies, respectively. This young man’s girlfriend had just suffered a huge family shakeup and he felt that he had a duty to be a man and take care of her. In her time of extreme need, he explained, he couldn’t justify playing a foolish game. Very few males at his age would show this kind of character – he’s a man at age 16 if there ever was one. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been crazy busy the last few weeks getting back from California, which was a tremendous experience, organizing my schedule (booked to the teeth) and writing new programming for 50 strength training students and 42 Warbird throwers. Here’s a few things to look forward to on my site in the next week or so:
1. Early results from the first 30 Warbird Throwers. A rough look at my data suggests that my group has gained on average 3 miles per hour and as high as 7. I’m pretty excited, and have new technology (Thanks Mike!) to share throwing data on my site. Check out the Player Velocities Page under the Warbird parent tab. If you’re not local you won’t know the names, but you can check the progress some of my hard workers have made. Nick Hieb, a Junior, just threw in front of a few college coaches and sat 3-4mph higher than he had previously peaked as of last year (his peak is about +5-6). Pretty excited about him – he’s earned it.
2. My Trip to LA for Alan Jaeger’s Pro Camp was awesome. I have lots to share but as of now too little time to share it. Soon – it was well worth the trip.
3. I’m going to share via video some of what I’ve learned about velocity this winter, and I’ve learned a whole, whole lot. The radar gun is the greatest pitchers’ training tool ever created, in my opinion. You’d be amazed how much pitch-by-pitch feedback can do for a thrower and a coach who wants his kids to throw harder. I’m not going to give away my proprietary program, but I will give you insight into what you can do at home today to throw harder immediately.
Thanks! Stay Tuned….
I was just flipping through my iPhone looking for a photo for a future blog post, when I came to a realization: there’s a big story to be told via my photos. So, I decided to share the best of the best with you. This is unlikely to be in perfect chronological order, but I’ll do what I can.
This was in Spain last Christmas, which isn’t technically 2011, but it was within 4 days or so and is worth sharing. This was the best breakfast ever, and was provided every morning in our hotel. Fruit, meat and yogurt. Pretty simple, but healthy and delicious. Jamon Serrano is the ham shown, which is cured for 400 days and sliced paper thin; it’s incredible and unlike anything made in America. Depending on the pig’s diet, the fat can even melt at room temperature.
But for as well as Spaniards do breakfast, they don’t seem to have a clue about what is, and what is not CREEPY. Christmas just passed, and I guarantee one-surgically-removed-one-button-eyed-denim-Santa did not come down anyone’s chimney, at least not without a greeting by a shotgun. Seriously – these things (there’s another one in a top hat next to it) were creepy as hell, and did NOT want to make me buy whatever crap they were peddling. Read the rest of this entry »
Welp, I’m officially 26. I’m like 45 in the baseball world, but so be it. Anyway, I’m going to share some of my vast wisdom on this day…26 little pearls for you. Enjoy or don’t. Read the rest of this entry »
The music at Meijer has alerted me that it is once again Christmas season. It’s just barely December and already everything is decked with boughs of everything else.
This year, rather than write a simple “What Gifts to Buy” article, I decided I want to encourage a zero-possession-shift for this year. Yes – I am going to impose my lifestyle of very few material items on everyone else. So, I’m going to suggest 5 things to buy for your athletic friends and family. I am also going to recommend that you steal and destroy 5 of their current possessions, items that are likely holding them back from productivity. That way, you can get them new things without increasing the amount of “stuff” attributable to their name. Hopefully by getting them new, cooler things while destroying their old, counterproductive crap, we can put them on the right track to having a better year in 2012. Without further ado… Read the rest of this entry »
I occasionally discuss the role of the opposite gender in each of my athletes’ lives. What Do I tell them?
Stay away.
In a roundabout sort of manner, I’m advocating chastity in my gym. While I’m fully aware that making young athletes more athletic, strong, and successful at their sport increases their attractiveness to the opposite sex, and the subsequent testosterone built during training also increases their natural drives toward the opposite sex, my interest is in building a good career for them. For most athletes, a boyfriend or girlfriend is a major distraction in their quest to make something of themselves. I advise my youngsters that girls are the devil, and that boys are big pieces of garbage. Is this true? Yes and no. Here’s why I hold these views: Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve recently found myself in social situations in which I have to describe my life and interests to people. As it turns out, all I bring to light is how little I have.
Since I’m a transplant to a new city, I have no family within 8 hours driving distance. I have few friends in town. I have only enough possessions to fill the trunk and back seats of my average-sized car. I have no furniture in my room aside from a bed and unused shelf; no curtains, no posters, no photos. I’m almost never home, anyway.
I no longer have Facebook – deleted it over a month ago. I watch almost no TV whatsoever, save one or two programs per week. Movies rarely capture my attention. I watch sports only when I’m in a public place that displays them; no football, baseball (I’ve watched a combined 10 innings or so of the entire playoffs), or any other sports. I don’t scour YouTube for videos or any of that worthless shit on the internet, either.
I don’t go out that much and don’t have hobbies. I really liked rockclimbing, which I did for about a year and a half, but I had to give that up because it bothered my pitching arm; I’m a little bitter about that breakup. I don’t have pets (if you knew my ex’s dog you’d understand why), don’t call my family enough, go downtown only occasionally, and rarely take trips. I don’t have any debt, I own my car and all of the equipment I bought for my gym. I make ample money and put nearly all of it back into my business. I also don’t have a girlfriend or anyone to occupy significant amounts of my time.
A reasonably accurate depiction of my room and myself.
And yet, my immediate goal in becoming better as a ballplayer and more productive as a person is to do even less. By this, I mean that I have to remove myself even further from my distractions and sit and be quiet. I have to learn to set aside time to meditate, and do so more often and for longer durations. Despite how little I have, need and want, it’s difficult.
Meditation is going to sharpen my mind and allow me to focus more intently on my work, be it on the mound or at my gym. I’ve started recently after reading Alan Jaeger’s book, Getting Focused, Staying Focused.
I had problems with negativity creeping into my mind and undermining my abilities this summer. On the mound, I found myself doubting my ability to command pitches and get outs. I couldn’t turn my mind off, and I couldn’t silence the negativity; it affected my physical performance. Being a Philosophy and Psychology major and a very intellectual, analytical person, I’ve always thrived on mental activity. Pondering things over and over in my mind was natural exercise for me. Having to suddenly find a way to ignore the very thing that has made me successful in life has proved, well, impossible. While impossible overnight, I’m on a mission to develop this ability, the ability to ignore my mind when I need to. The first step in this is learning how to sit still, let my mind wander and pay it no heed. It can chatter at me all it wants; I’ll be focusing my attention elsewhere.
So, I’ll be finding ways to take time away from whatever it is that distracts me and sit and do even less. A rollercoaster descent into monkdom.
Also – don’t pity me. I’m happy, have great family & friends, time to do the things that I value, ample quiet time when I’m not training, and few things to tie and slow me down. Despite having virtually none of the hobbies and “things,”on which most people give life a materialistic valuation, I’m living my personal dream – doing whatever I want, whenever I want. I run my business how I see fit and train in pursuit of my dreams and the dreams of my clients. Television programs, Facebook statuses and wine-tastings wouldn’t add to that.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs; Cadbury Creme Eggs; Peeps. What do all of these have in common? Easter Candy.
Why we revel in consuming chocolate effigies of garden-dwelling rodents and the candy-coated unhatched offspring of Cinderella’s little friends (why else would eggs be blue?), I will never know. But, I do know this:
They are delicious.
“Honey, the eggs were right in the basket last night where I put them…”
I don’t know why, exactly, but I felt great today. I had a really crappy night with a person very close to me but with a beautiful, warm day in my new hometown, things just melted back to being very, very good.
Having a long, cold winter really does change you, and it’s hard to step back and appreciate how the sun and some warmth can alter your perspective, or at least shine light (pardon the pun) on the good things you do have.
The bottom line is that I’ve been making a comfortable living in a new town filled with awesome people. I’ve met new people who have been receptive to me seemingly each week, and it turns out that they give me as much as I try to give to them via my training. Read the rest of this entry »
Using curse words is, to the baseball player, about as traditional as The Star-Spangled Banner, hot dogs and sunflower seeds. What would our beloved pastime be if our heroes weren’t yelling expletives, audible even to the upper deck, after beating a very hittable pitch straight into the ground? Who would we be as ballplayers if we didn’t randomly insert F-Bombs into even the most pedestrian of sentences?
Who the f**k knows? (oops – sorry) Read the rest of this entry »
Okay. I just got out of a relationship with a terrific girl. We couldn’t hold things together for a bunch of reasons. The biggest? My other girlfriend…
Now, don’t misunderstand me – this lady in the lovely onesy is just a representation, a personification, of the biggest love in my life – Baseball. So Baseball, the lady pictured above, is quite attractive to me, so much so that it would be hard to NOT be excited about her. Read the rest of this entry »