dodgertown... a poem

sitting in my kitchen at half past nine with a mug filled with ginger, lime, and water- I am reminded that I have not fully related my story of visiting dodgertown. i have been rudely reminded of said visit by the beautiful montage of dodger memories by eric neel at espn.com.

when i was twelve years old i spent a summer in southern missouri. i fished for croppie and hung my line in front of fat rotten carp for hours. the air was warm and the ice tea was cold and good and i felt the sweat and fire orange sparkle of bottle rockets every night.

sitting in my kitchen at my oak table taken from the farm, i think back to that trip and the trip to florida with the same longing.

i was looking back today on the career of paul lo duca. he had his best season in 2001 when i was a junior in college. he hit twenty-five home runs. he was good and young and bright-eyed. eight years later, he's in new york city, sleeping on dollar bills, cheating on his wife and blowing diamonds across waves of cool white race horses- hooves blasting red dirt galloping like roy rodgers. calm and cool. blue shadows on the trail. blue moon shining through the breeze...

i can't figure out if it was the baseball or the fishing. maybe it was the charlie daniels song that played low at seven in the morning, hanging thick in the florida air of africans and crinkly white women... i ate a pecan waffle that was filled with too many stale pecans and enjoyed it for sentimental reasons...

the smoke hangs in the south with sweet cancer in a way that it never hangs in the west... still pungent, it is strong and weighted and connected-- with the husky whisps of robert e. lee's beard and the embedded wound bleeding inside of john wilkes boothe.

the fishing. the poles were twenty dollars apiece. twenty of which i still owe matt. we used shrimp to bait the hooks. to cover our hands with the smell of gulf stream salt and rancid sea. we pierced their eyes and ran silver through their backs- trying to emulate the live glowing bounce of the long dead animal.

we met a crazy man. twenty years old and filled with medication. abercrombie and fitch pressed white t-shirts with logos. his mind filled with mixed-up thoughts of puerto ricans and murder and drugs. we didn't have any and we didn't know anybody to kill. it would've been nice to meet his dad and it would've been nice to have shaken the hand of a real vietcong killer, but the trip was too too short...

the baseball was good, too. and the fish we caught- the small pretty one, struggling with the barb, sitting on the ledge of the pier, splinters in its scales, slapping the water and swimming away. the croaker and the pregnant one we let go- its eggs popping out of its belly.

i saw scott elbert get roughed up for three homeruns. and was grouched at by tommy lasorda- his belly loose like the atlantic we walked by in port saint lucia at dusk while talking about the oysters we ate and the records we would sell if we had the time or energy or talent.

maybe the lime and the water moccasain will get me in the end.

3.19.2007

i had a sweet time this weekend will every human i made contact with.

i am watching steamboat bill jr.

i just ate cheese.

i listened to harry potter and the curse of the jade scorpion on my piepod today.

my mom is coming over to bring us the dog. my phone is ringing. bye.

3.14.2006

man. i'm burnt out. just straight burnt out. not much of a post. i eat too many goldfish crackers and drink too much coke. i'm getting fatter by the day and i don't care anymore. i'm going to be the brian wilson of teachers in east los angeles.

3.13.2007

good times in florida. anyhow, as great a fielding team the pasadena bawlers would've been- it may not have even mattered if we'd jumped the gun and recruited mr. askay for our team...

scroll down some... he's on the giants. linky time!

3.10.2006

we've just arrived home from an evening walk along a1a. it was nice and breezy. i talked with ryan coultas, a friend who is playing in the mets minor league system. we were going to try and meet up with him in port st. lucia, but it didn't really work out.

we've had a pretty relaxing day. checked out vero for the third time and watched some minor leaguers take bp. i said,'hi' to ned colletti. he looked a lot less like a baseball man than supposed geekazoid paul depodesta. he was wearing alligator boots, though, which did earn him street cred points. we also ate a very tasty lunch in the town of stuart. our bellies were filled with some crab soup, raw oysters, crab cakes, fried oysters coffee, bread pudding, key lime pie, and sweet cuban blow. we then read and hung out some.

we've seen some fun games and will see more action tomorrow on our way out. in a little while, after eating dinner, we're going to go after some snook. we fished until 2:00 last night and probably will fish that late again. nothing else really. i am eating gummy worms.

3.9.2007

we've had a very nice first day in florida. my parents and matt are outside in the somewhat heavy gulf air reading the bible and drinking coffee. i am finishing a bad danish.

yesterday, we arrived and were in a rental car by about 5:30 am. we drove from tampa to a waffle house to st. petersburg to check out the devil rays' training facility. i ate a pecan waffle. it made my heart sing.

at the devil rays' facility we read plaques that told us about the great old teams that had played at the park. we also saw bj upton walk in for his morning workout. he was nice and gave me five and asked if i wanted to help him warm up with some catch.

we then drove over to pittsburg's workout field. the complex was actually four fields put together. some younger players were scrimmaging a college team, while others were warming up, taking bp, and the like. we talked a little to jim colburn who was helping tom gorselleany (sp?) and ian snell doctor up their pitches with sandpaper and doritos. i also heckled jason bay while he took batting practice. they were having him practice his bunting. i told him it was stupid because bunting won't help either his real team, or my fantasy team. we then waited around some for colbourn to invite us to the clubhouse for sub sandwhiches, but left when it seemed he was avoiding us.

from there, it was off to vero and our little pad by the gulf stream waters. our little pad is nice and we're going to do some night fishing with our new friend doug.
doug told us about his crazy life. now we've got to leave. we're going to watch another game- hopefully santana will pitch. they lost to florida last night.

anyhow. no spell check as we've got to run. bye bye!!

2.21.2007

so, i'm trying to become hip and relevant by starting a blog for my class. i was looking on youtube for interesting videos and came across this clip from gary soto. gary is a writer of young adult fiction.

he is also the funniest man ever as evidenced by this sweet video.

poll: should i show this to my students?

2.16.2006

friday. recording. later. drinking diet cherry pepsi. writing a movie. relaxing. eating goldfish crackers. they are good. looking at the deer head on my wall. thinking i should take a picture of it. YOWZERS!

2.15.2006

now reading: blood meridian or the evening redness in the west and it's blowing my mind. i usually have one mind blowing read a year and this is it. my mind is blown to bits of sage and fire.

now listening: chopin. i like him. he is the randy newman of the romantic era.

now getting ready for: finally making a real rio bravo record.

happy for: finding a fisher price record player someone was throwing out at school during my prep period.

sad about: having a job where little humans you actually care for constantly tell you they hate you and how bad you are at your profession. my wife tells me to not let it bother me but i really can't.

happy about: dinner i made and some stuff i'm writing and the wife i had dinner with. i'm also happy about the dog i played fetch with and the fantasy baseball league i'm into with my homies.

2.12.2006

2006 year in review

my favorite movie i saw last year was casino royale. i also saw a lot of things on netflix. my favorite movie i rented was shoot the piano player. i hadn't seen it until this year. my favorite book was the beautiful and damned. my favorite record was leon russell self titled. my favorite wife was robyn. my favorite food: the sushi platter at koba (followed closely by klamata olives and goldfish crackers). my favorite drink was the cha cha bloody mary with horseradish, pickled green beans, and olives. my favorite time of day was the morning just before i leave for work when i say goodbye to robyn while she sleeps. i tend to think of each day as precious because each day could be my last the way i live my rebel life. my favorite new interweb site was tomgreen.com. my favorite bible is my new esv leather cool one. my favorite idea was to put beef jerky in said bloody mary. my second favorite idea was to become a rawkstar.

2.9.2006

this is cool to me.

from the cleveland plains dealer...

On the last day of the Indians' recently completed Fantasy Camp in Winter Haven, Fla., eight teams of campers faced a team of former Indians big-leaguers. Hall of Famer Bob Feller faced 24 batters -- the first three batters from each of the eight teams -- and allowed four hits.

Feller, 88, threw from the required distance of 60 feet, 6 inches.

2.5.2006

i'm reading this cool book on walt disney by neal gabler. i'm realizing i need to slow down on my book buying. i'm trying to catch up on everything i should've read that seems interesting. some of my recent purchases include: the crossing, roald dahl's omnibus, summerland, the crossing, blood meridian, portnoy's complaint, cities of the plain, this side of paradise, the usa trilogy and herzog. i shall try and finish these by summer

2.4.2006

super wha--? super flamboyant!

2.2.2006

listening: ipod random for my jog in a moment.

reading: that one superman comic that became smallville.

watching: these cool short films the disney studio put out for ww dos. i am also watching ellen because she is funny and has much charisma.

i will be doing the following this weekend: eating dinner with the pattersons, eating breakfast at backdoor, relaxing/ writing, watching jayson play soft rock, churching, watching the super with the belts and family, chilling, sleeping... working.

1.30.2007

i'm doing grades today- so don't call me to hang out.

listening: shuffledown

watching: love in the ruins

reading: st. luke's missiology

1.22.2006

wow. this is just... wow. id suggest click on the "America is doomed. U.S.A. = Iraq = Babylon" article first. not for the faint of heart. just wow. link

update!

http://www.godhatessweden.com/

1.16.2007

it is now the middle of the week. i should be reading a book.

1.9.2007

so, we're playing with the colours on thursday at spaceland. show starts at 9:00. if you wanna come- drop me an email or call, seeing as we have a guest list.

1.6.2006

i am eating the greatest food ever. i am eating a skippy snack bar. the package tells me to fuel the fun. boy is the fun being filled. i highly recommend them to athletes and everyone. go buy some today. they are replacing klamata olives of my food of the moment. expect a 20 pound weight gain from me. i will rule with power and strength

also congrats to j and d. mike- you're loosing a sister, but gaining a woman.

1.4.2006

i'm not really looking forward to going back to work next week. the job's tough and not very enjoyable. it pays the bills, which is what we need at this point. i hope i'm not doing it in thirty years, though (or three). anyhow, time to make robyn dinner- which is a highlight.