Monday, January 04, 2010
Revisiting Resolutions
In the first post of the new decade, I thought I'd revisit some New Year's resolutions I made last year, when I was writing for Bugs and Cranks. As 2009 dawned, I ticked off four things I vowed to do to make myself a better Giants fan, and a better baseball fan in general. How did I do? Let's find out.
1. Go to more games. Let's see, in 2008, I attended just one lousy game, and I pushed it as far as I could take it, since it was the very last game of the season. In 2009, I made it to three Giants games at Mays Field, so check this one off in the victory column. I attended the games on Memorial Day and Labor Day, both exhilarating wins, and also sat through one stinker, a late season drubbing at the hands of the Dodgers.
Since I live in Sacramento, making it to Giants games tends to be an expensive ordeal, which, coupled with a general lack of time and money, makes attending more than a handful of games each year unlikely. This year, though, I discovered the wonders of the Vallejo ferry, which takes you straight from the Vallejo docks to Mays Field, and right back after last pitch. For a man who has blown many a blood vessel screaming at the infuriating San Francisco traffic over the years, finally utilizing this was a total epiphany. Instead of having to deal with the traffic, the Bay Bridge, and the incompetent, overpriced fiasco known as stadium parking, we just drove the 45 minutes to Vallejo, paid for ferry tickets, and sat on our asses as the boat rolled across the bay. Pure money.
2. Stick out the tough games. There were some blowout games where I came home, sat on my couch, fell asleep, and woke up just as the games were ending, which sort of counts, I guess. For the first time in my life I finally got cable this year, which would theoretically make it easier to see every minute of every game, no matter how unwatchable. However, usually when the Giants were getting their butts handed to them, it was just so much more interesting to flip the channel and see the latest bad stock Jim Cramer was calling a can't-miss or check out whatever was making Glenn Beck cry on a given day. I probably didn't stick through as many hard losses as I should have, but I sat through every single minute of this one, dammit, so I'm calling this a break-even.
3. Listen to less sports talk radio. Done and done. I don't think I listened to a second of KNBR or any other sports talk show this season (much less the gawdawful KHTK 1140 that pollutes Sacramento), which is a minor miracle when you really think about it. I got my fill of mindless fan blather by reading the ESPN user comments, thank you very much. Seriously, I think I saved several thousand brain cells by going cold turkey from sports talk this year.
4. Update Stankeye more. This one I had trouble with, and continue to do so. Here's the problem. I get home from work dead tired, and want to do nothing but sit down, relax, and not think. After tending to stuff around the house, by the time I actually have a second to write anything, it's late and I'm torn between reading all the other great baseball stuff on the Internet, watching my Netflix, reading the stack of books on my reading list, or playing Guitar Hero. This problem is exacerbated when it's actually baseball season and the majority of weekday games don't end until like 10:00. Sometimes I have a legit excuse for not posting for like a week, other times it's just because I'm being a lazy bastard watching Firefly over and over again. I promise nothing, but I hope to ramp up the activity on this blog for the new decade, hopefully at one point writing a raving post following a Giants championship.
Here's for a great 2010, and a great Giant decade!
1. Go to more games. Let's see, in 2008, I attended just one lousy game, and I pushed it as far as I could take it, since it was the very last game of the season. In 2009, I made it to three Giants games at Mays Field, so check this one off in the victory column. I attended the games on Memorial Day and Labor Day, both exhilarating wins, and also sat through one stinker, a late season drubbing at the hands of the Dodgers.
Since I live in Sacramento, making it to Giants games tends to be an expensive ordeal, which, coupled with a general lack of time and money, makes attending more than a handful of games each year unlikely. This year, though, I discovered the wonders of the Vallejo ferry, which takes you straight from the Vallejo docks to Mays Field, and right back after last pitch. For a man who has blown many a blood vessel screaming at the infuriating San Francisco traffic over the years, finally utilizing this was a total epiphany. Instead of having to deal with the traffic, the Bay Bridge, and the incompetent, overpriced fiasco known as stadium parking, we just drove the 45 minutes to Vallejo, paid for ferry tickets, and sat on our asses as the boat rolled across the bay. Pure money.
2. Stick out the tough games. There were some blowout games where I came home, sat on my couch, fell asleep, and woke up just as the games were ending, which sort of counts, I guess. For the first time in my life I finally got cable this year, which would theoretically make it easier to see every minute of every game, no matter how unwatchable. However, usually when the Giants were getting their butts handed to them, it was just so much more interesting to flip the channel and see the latest bad stock Jim Cramer was calling a can't-miss or check out whatever was making Glenn Beck cry on a given day. I probably didn't stick through as many hard losses as I should have, but I sat through every single minute of this one, dammit, so I'm calling this a break-even.
3. Listen to less sports talk radio. Done and done. I don't think I listened to a second of KNBR or any other sports talk show this season (much less the gawdawful KHTK 1140 that pollutes Sacramento), which is a minor miracle when you really think about it. I got my fill of mindless fan blather by reading the ESPN user comments, thank you very much. Seriously, I think I saved several thousand brain cells by going cold turkey from sports talk this year.
4. Update Stankeye more. This one I had trouble with, and continue to do so. Here's the problem. I get home from work dead tired, and want to do nothing but sit down, relax, and not think. After tending to stuff around the house, by the time I actually have a second to write anything, it's late and I'm torn between reading all the other great baseball stuff on the Internet, watching my Netflix, reading the stack of books on my reading list, or playing Guitar Hero. This problem is exacerbated when it's actually baseball season and the majority of weekday games don't end until like 10:00. Sometimes I have a legit excuse for not posting for like a week, other times it's just because I'm being a lazy bastard watching Firefly over and over again. I promise nothing, but I hope to ramp up the activity on this blog for the new decade, hopefully at one point writing a raving post following a Giants championship.
Here's for a great 2010, and a great Giant decade!
