Baseball review…

Posted on September 24, 2015 by kdarcy21

We made up one of our ball games from a few weeks ago, it was rained out back on September 5.  Last night was a good night for ball, mild, temps in the upper teens.  The sun at Glenmore Park in the evening is brutal for the first basemen and right fielder.  Luckily, in the first 10-15 minutes of the game, the sun dips down below the trees and they can see.

We started out well, scored 2 runs in the top of the first.  My pitcher took the mound – he’s a side arm thrower, pretty good control and a different look for batters facing him as well.  He threw well, put the ball into play, but, the guys behind him couldn’t seem to make a play if their lives depended on it.

Fifty pitches and ten runs later, the inning was over and we were down 10-2.  Not a great start, after all.

He came out of the game, his choice, I was going to give him another inning and a young pitcher went in, it was my first look at him.  He threw the next 5 2/3 innings and threw well.  The defence behind him improved greatly as well.  We were almost done in the top of the 5th inning, down by 10 runs but were able to score a run to go into the bottom of the 5th.  The game ended in the 7th, as it should with us losing 17-10, but really, it was much closer than that.

I am happy with the progress of this team for sure and am liking what I am seeing from some of the new players to Babe Ruth.  If they come out next winter, I can see potentially drafting some of them.

I am really enjoying coaching Fall Ball.  I am having more fun than I have in recent years.  The guys are relaxed, they are having fun as well.  It is an easy going evening coaching this team, which is good for everyone I am sure.

We have another month or so in the season, hoping for some continued good weather.  We have a practice tonight and three weekend games – two on Saturday and a late game on Sunday.  Wish us some luck.

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A busy Monday, back to work…

Posted on September 22, 2015 by kdarcy21

As I’ve written, yesterday was my first day back to work in a little over two weeks.  Mondays are always our busiest day of the week and Mondays in September are a little more insane.  The day went by quickly, to say the least.

I am glad to be back to a regular routine though.  The commute to my office was a little slow today, there was a dog in my way.  Tough times…

Nothing else on the agenda for the day for me.  No baseball, we are back on the field tomorrow.  As long as the weather is nice, I am planning on taking the dogs to River Park after work for an hour or so.  It is good for all of us.  Blondie and Hera will go after the ball continuously without ever tiring of it.  I purchased a Chuck-it, whoever invented that is likely a millionaire.  You don’t need to get slobber all over yourself and you don’t need to use any real arm action to throw the ball a hundred feet or more.  Great invention.

I plan on going into the office on Friday morning.  I have to prep some laptops for an upcoming conference.  The conference is in Banff at the Banff Centre.  The food and accommodations are amazing.  It is nestled right in the middle of a few mountains and the views are awesome.  By the end of October, the weather is often cold and white as well.  The dogs will be boarding just for one night, drop them off around 4pm and pick them up 24 hours later.  I am actually looking forward to this conference – there isn’t really a lot to do, most times.  Make sure everyone has the software they need and that is about it.  Banff is only an hour or so away as well, makes for a nice drive.

Well, I best get going and start working – enjoy your week.

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A no hitter…

Posted on September 21, 2015 by kdarcy21

Yesterday, I witnessed the best game of baseball that I have coached since moving to Alberta and one of the best games that I have ever been a part of.

We played the early game, 10am start and the weather was beautiful.  It was warm, 15C (not bad for the morning, this time of year) and partly cloudy.  The diamond was in great shape as well which is always nice.

The “senior” player on the team got the start on the mound.  By senior, he’s one of our two 18 year olds.  In the top of the 1st, he easily found the rather small strike zone and got three up three down.  The Bandits did him excellent service and we scored 10 runs.  It has to be a great feeling for pitcher when his offence comes alive and he returns in the second inning with a 10 run lead.

Excellent defence kept the opposition off the bases with just about every team member having a part in our great D.  Two runners did get on base, through errors, keeping his no hitter alive.  I guess, if you are going to let someone on, you might as well make an error when the pitcher is trying for a no hitter, as rare as they are.

After 4 innings completed, we had a comfortable 15 run lead (15-0) and I had a relief pitcher warm up.  I didn’t realize at that time that we had a no hitter in the works so of course he returned to the mound.  The reliever, being a true team player had no issues with not taking the hill and will start in our next outing.

We retired the side in the 5th inning to win via mercy rule, we were up 15-0 at the time.  It was a good baseball day, that’s for sure.  In thinking back, I don’t specifically remember one of my pitchers ever throwing a game like that – it might have happened, I’ve coached a long time.

At any rate, congrats to the Bandits on an excellent game and good luck for the rest of the Fall Ball season.

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Back to work…

Posted on September 21, 2015 by kdarcy21

I guess all good things must end. Back to work this morning. Well, saying “back” sort of implies that I’m going somewhere, I’m not, well, other than the front bedroom that I use as an office.

I am happy that I am not working at 430 on Mondays any longer. That was fine in the summer months, but 630 is a much better start time. I’m still done at 3 which leaves me plenty of time to get stuff done before I have to venture off and do whatever I’m doing in the evening.

No baseball until Wednesday. It’ll be a busy weekend of ball though, hopefully the weather will be nice. It is typically dry this time of year, unless we get some snow. 🙂

The dogs will likely be disappointed that we don’t go to the park until after work. We could go at lunch, but we’d be rushed. I think we will go for a regular walk at lunch then the dog park after work. I will try to make that the normal routine.

So, welcome, back work, not that I really missed you all that much 🙂

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Busy day of baseball

Posted on September 20, 2015 by kdarcy21

Up early this morning… If this Fall is like others, in a few weeks, I will start to be able to sleep in again and will be dragging myself out of bed for work.

Baseball warm ups start at 830, game at 10. Not as cold as I had feared this morning, the cloud cover did its job and kept in some warmth, it is already (or still) 12C. Hopefully we can build on yesterday’s game and pound in a few runs. A win would be ideal.

After coaching, I zip home, maybe take the dogs for a walk and then head back to umpire for 3pm. Will be good to get back on the field for that as well.

I will also take the dogs to the park but need to wait until 645 or so when the sun starts to rise. Gotta get them their daily excercise and get myself some as well. After ball, I might catch some football so it looks like it is a sports day. The Patriots are in Buffalo to play the the Bills. Buffalo has reinvented themselves this off season. It is too bad that taking in a game isn’t possible, at least their games are covered on tv.

Enjoy your Sunday.

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Back to the diamond…

Posted on September 19, 2015 by kdarcy21

Babe Ruth Fall Ball has finally, officially start for me. I’ve attended a few practices but the double header I was supposed to be at before I went to Ontario was rained out. I missed a few games when I was away, although th had rain as well and one game was rained out in the 4th, so that’ll be made up.

Anyway, we played this afternoon at 5pm. It was a good game, pitching was good, defence was solid but our offence was lacking. We drove in two runs in the first and then went dry until the top of the 7th. We ended up losing by a final of 7-3, not a bad game at all.

We are out again tomorrow morning for the early game, starts at 10am which means we need to be at the diamond for 830, I’m sure the boys will look be that now that they are back in school. Oh well, I presume they’ll survive.

I also have to umpire tomorrow at 3pm. The umpires association can’t, for some reason, get umpires to fill our games. Not sue what the issue is. I don’t mind, will give me some cash. 

Tomorrow is also, sadly, the end of my vacation. Back to work and a regular routine on Monday.

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End of my vacation…

Posted on September 19, 2015 by kdarcy21

My vacation is nearly over.  I have been off of work since the 4th of September.  I don’t remember when the last time I took two weeks off of work, if I ever have.  I might have once, over the Christmas holidays, that was a while ago.  All in all, it has been a pretty relaxing two weeks.

My trip to Ontario was not what I expected, unfortunately.  It was a shortened trip but it was nice to see family and friends.  I got to go back to one of my favourite old haunts, Duff’s Pizzeria.  It was as good as I remember it being as well – nothing changed, the pizza and wings were awesome.  I didn’t get to see everyone that I wanted to, but that happens in a shortened trip I guess.

This week has been good – the dogs and I have spent a fair amount of time at the dog parks around Calgary.  Yesterday, we visited Sue Higgins Park and they splashed around in the river for a bit, a tired dog is a happy dog, or so I have heard.  I think we might tackle Nose Hill Park tomorrow.  Hera has not been there before, Blondie, Zeus and I were there shortly after we moved to Calgary and made the mistake of walking the entire park.  We won’t do that again.

The weekend is supposed to be nice, weather wise.  I have a ball game tonight at 5pm and another tomorrow morning at 10am.  The 10am game is going to start out a little cold, today’s should be good.  I am looking forward to getting back on the field, it has been two months now since I’ve coached a game.  The team looks solid, we will see how we do on the field.

On Monday, I am back to my regular shift, no more flex days so no more early morning starts.  Back to 6:30am, Monday through Friday.  I am actually almost looking forward to getting back to work.  I feel like I have been retired the last two weeks, it is nice, but a regular routine is nicer, for now.

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you might be.

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My Nexus 6

Posted on September 18, 2015 by kdarcy21

I purchased a Nexus 6 Android phone a few months back. In general, it has been an excellent phone, but, I’ve had some odd issues with it.

Back in August, it was hanging on my pretty badly. It started suddenly and I would be willing to bet that some update in one of th apps caused th issue. I did a factory reset and reinstalled my apps and the phone seemed to be much better behaved.  Recently though, the battery has been dying far faster than I’d expect. It might have 4-5 hours of life with minimal use. Very odd.

The battery monitoring app said nothing was using the battery heavily. Well, somethi was for sure. I did a factory reset of it again and it has been much better. I didn’t reinstall a few Microsoft apps, essentially the Office Suite, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. I’m thinking it as Outlook, connected to my work Exchange account that was killing the battery.

I do have a work phone, so, I might as well use it and leave work stuff off of my personal device entirely. I recently upgraded to an iPhone 5s and it is a nice device, small when compared to my Nexus. There are a lot of good features, I really like the finger print reader, very handy.

So, thus far anyway, the battery issue on the Nexus seems to have been resolved. I have an app that monitors usage and another that turns off WiFi if I’m not in range of a known hotspot, same with BlueTooth. So far, so good.

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An “easy” payment…

Posted on September 17, 2015 by kdarcy21

Months ago, I made an enquiry into purchasing the domain, darcy.ca. It is being sold by an online holding company of some sort, based out of California. I wasn’t sure what the owners would want for it, can’t hurt asking, right?

Well, I think it did hurt a little. I told th broker at the time that it was way too much to pay, we parted ways, so I thought.

Yesterday, I received an email offering to allow me to finance th domain with “easy” monthly payments of “only” $565 USD for 48 months. How could I resist? Oh, I forgot to mention, $5500 down. So, total price for the domain, just under $33000, that’s US. Nearly $45000 Canadian, I’d guess.

I am also guessing that they think I’m insane. They must also think that anyone else who’d possibly want the domain is insane. I u subscribed from their list. I’m really not interested in any offers. Thanks.

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Retirement…

Posted on September 16, 2015 by kdarcy21

I sort of felt like I was retired today. I was wandering around Chinook Centre for an hour or so, sort of aimlessly. Sort of like a lot of the older people who seem to do this on a daily basis. I’m only 20 years shy of retiring, or so. It was a relaxing day.

I still need to go to Walmart tonight at some point. I am running low on coffee. Running out would be nearly tragic. I also need to get a few other things, finish my grocery shopping. My place was just about out of food while I was away.

Back to baseball tomorrow. It seems like it’s been forever. We’ve missed a few games due to weather. We’ve had a lot of rain. It is supposed to be nice this weekend, so hopefully we will get in all of our games. We practice tomorrow. The long term forecast calls for above average temperatures in October. Not sure I will believe it, they can’t get tomorrow’s forecast right.

Well, only 4 more days off before I’m back to work. Gotta enjoy it.

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