Thursday, April 11, 2013

Three Dot Journalism Is Alive

TEN DAYS of good weather have really thrown me off stride. The things that I was jazzed up about eight months ago have receded with the rain clouds and grey skies. I am listening to more birds and less to mind chatter.

IT'S THE BEGINNING of the baseball season and after 10 games the Oakland A's (see Moneyball) are off to a great start (8-2). I will also watch the Dominican Blue Jays (In Canada they are called the Toronto Blue Jays). This vaunted super team is supposed to be the best money can buy but the team has tripped over its own bats this  week just trying to get out of the dugout. They are 3-6 and falling.

I WAS INVITED to participate in the opening anniversary game to celebrate the 46th year of a weekly softball game in Berkeley. I wrote a short history of the guys who began playing at UC Berkeley in 1967. I joined them in 1974 and played for six seasons before being traded. In all my days I could never hit Lewis Dolinsky, a founder of the team. He always beat me in tennis and got me to ground out in softball. I was easy prey so he had it fixed I would never be selected to his team. He had a menacingly slow and jerky delivery. Today, Lewis has left the mound and devotes his time to writing about each game. He's covered virtually every game at Monclair Park in Berkeley and other fields, since the beginning. There must be hundreds of us waiting for his e-mail to arrive. This past Saturday, he writes: Michael hit a home run on  the second pitch of the 2013 opener, and his squad led 15-0 in the third inning. The M's eventually won 18-9. The hitters were clearly ahead of the pitchers. In addition to his homer, Michael had a triple and two singles. Gary, starting his 98th season, had two doubles and a single. In six plate appearances, Ian tripled twice, doubled twice and singled twice. But since he failed to hit for the cycle, he will be required to take extra batting practice. Casey led the Andys with a homer, a triple and a single. Big Jeff made the play of the game, a running over-the-should catch in center field. The field was not wonderful after rain on Friday and a bit more on Saturday, but the grounds crew did fine work and then the legendary Mike O'Connor threw out the first pitch. Attendance was 10 geese and a raccoon. The raccoon was limping. That's a tough way to start the season. 
 Next Saturday at Montclair: Batting practice at 11:30, Game at noon.

KUDOS TO THE EmotionBeats for keeping it real:You sometimes think you want to disappear.. But all you really want is to be found...

BIG LOSERS OF the Week: The CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada gets caught lying over the firing of Canadian IT workers while hiring non-documented workers from Asia. The capitalists are circling the wagons as other Canadian banks are similarly listed as suspects in international drug smuggling and slavery. Wasn't retail banking good enough for your profits?

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER Stephan Pipeline is still planning to hire un-documented Chinese workers to build his personal oil reserve on native land in British Columbia's wilderness without resolving land claims. Next, he will build a wall around himself.

I INVITE YOU TO check out my fan page: La Demoiselle, a script I wrote about a young woman who was abandoned on an island for being a witch in the 1500s. Become a friend and "like".

SPEAKING ABOUT rough justice: Christy Clark, BC's Liberal Premier, is so unpopular that a first-time politician could realistically take her riding in the May provincial election. Despite being more than 20 points behind in the polls Clark spent $11 million on a gala event this past weekend promoting B.C. to East Indian "Bollywood" filmmakers and producers to film here in B.C. At the same time, Clark is telling B.C.'s beleaguered filmmakers that her government will not increase much needed tax subsidies to help keep the province's film community competitive. Say what?!...









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