Best folks, though, were the 1989 A's alumni. Carney was pleasant signing two balls. Dave Stewart was really friendly, especially to a fan who brought up an old (and ripped) pair of his shoes, which he verbally declared were his (looking at something in the tongue). Dave Henderson was the best, happy bragging on one of the balls I gave him. All happy to add something if I wanted to the items. All together, an excellent included selection with my TriStar VIP pass (yes, their shows are pretty good).

On my way home, though, I realized I made a pretty good sized oops with the A's crew. My wife has an often worn, but still in good condition, Battle of the Bay T-Shirt. I should have asked them to sign *that*...

Went with my youngest daughter, her friend and her friends mother. Definitely my daughter's first opening day, I'm not sure about me.

Sad to see Timmy leave early, sadder to see Martinez both lose the win for Timmy, *then* get the win for himself so that he wins in his Major League debut.

Too bad about today's loss for Randy. Reminds me about another game he pitched when he was with the Mariners against the A's. He got like seventeen strikeouts, but still lost with the same score, 4 to 2. In the post game interview, he complained that Mark McGwire and others used corked bats that day. Hmmm...

I may never ship DHL again if they don't fix this slanted slate. Only *two* NL relief pitchers out of ten and one of them, Lidge, lost the All-Star game for the NL. And, of course, no Brian Wilson, who just got *my* vote, of course... :) Remember to write him in if you want to vote for him.

Saw Bengie's Skin of the Green Awning Home run on Friday from VB315, Row B, Seat 1, aka behind home plate on the upper deck. Dodgers fan behind us almost ruined the game for all the four letter words coming out of his mouth. Fortunately for all, he did quiet down before I asked an usher to escort him out. Also fortunately, I had neither of my daughters at the ballpark with me, although my older one could take it. Just like Bengie, I'll be anxiously awaiting next year when pitchers and catchers report to camp. Got to find out who donated those seats to this year's SHCP auction.

Now for something you would find more often in a general blog...

God, I got shellacked in the US stock market this week. Fortunately, I managed to automatically cut my losses in some things, but I still have a mess to clean up. If I did what triggered this week all year long, I would have a  *gain* in short-term trading rather than a loss. I do have some long-term gains sitting in my brokerage account (some of them quite hefty, still). I just have to pick some to keep up with my series of positive combined capital gains since 1988... :)

Well, can you believe that the umps may have *still* blown a call with Instant Replay? They may have concluded correctly that A-Rod's ball cleared the left field foul pole on the fair side, but they forgot about the ground rules at Tropicana Field. Take a look at them here: 

http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/ballpark/ground_rules.jsp

After clearing the foul pole, from the broadcaster's (must be the Yankees, as they didn't know what it hit) video, we see the ball bounce off of something. That something, I believe, would be the catwalk. By the ground rules, if a ball hits the catwalk on the foul side, it's a strike (oddly, if I interpret the rule correctly, you could *strike out* by hitting the catwalk on the foul side). Our question is what is the significance of the yellow pole on the catwalk. Is it the foul pole for the catwalk? If it is, then the umps blew things, even with instant replay.

Unfortunately, no one can argue the call. The Devil Ray front office may be able to call the umpires' attention to the catwalk ground rules.

This hit was going to be a tough call and was a great time to use instant replay, anyways. Too bad it may have been blown.

Mostly testing the mlblogs.com reply system, but Bengie has a nice post there. The commentators are adding additional notes as the Shrimps add more amazing stuff, like yesterday's back to back homers by Bengie and Sandoval. Cool... :)

To start, since it appears in both places, why do I nickname The Giants The Shrimps. Simple - just a spot of wordplay, plus just to goof around with their name.

Why ShrimpBoat.mlblogs.com? Carry the Shrimp nickname forward, combine one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump (or heck, just steal from it) and we get a Shrimp Boat to carry us on our quest for nice jewelry.

What is a Born Again Giants Fan? One who would consider The Giants in 1989 as something to avoid. (Giants are playing, better not drive by Candlestick on my way home.) I was a fan when I was a kid, but I got restarted in 1996 (what a season to do that... :) ).

Finally, My Hot Air comes from my being a politician here in San Francisco at times. Lousy because almost all of you don't know my name (despite it being on the November 1994 ballot)... :)

On a different note, my daughter had her first full day of classes at SHCP. I can't quite convince her to do basketball there, although getting into the #1 squad in the nation could be huge (but not impossible) challenge. Since I'm taller than anyone on the team, I could call them The Shrimps, too... :)