Bits (1)

-My brain is too scattered and shaky to actually create a full post around one topic. Hence, bits.

-I don't recall deliberately watching a single of second of hockey before the belated start of this last season. I'd always been a baseball fan, and college football and basketball snuck up on me the way that winning seasons tend to do, but hockey? The Stars, Dallas' local team, were last relevant (to my knowledge) when I was 8, and though Modano, the name, has a sticking place in my sports memory, I'd never really thought that I would find myself ever watching overtime hockey hoping neither team would score. Now? Overtime for the third straight game would just be awesome.


-Mike Olt hit two home runs tonight, in the ninth inning, helping the Express come back from a 4-1 deficit to win 9-4. That's just a nice fact, right there. Not as nice is that Hickory had one of those nights they'll have, losing to Delmarva 4-2 and giving Hagerstown the first-half title in the process. No one hit a home run, and in a more concerning turn of events, nobody walked. It's a learning process, though.

-I watched a good 12-15 hours of golf this week, more than I think I've watched across the rest of my life. I'm not sure how I suddenly became interested in the sport of still-ball-flat-stick (when there was admittedly terrible moving-ball-rounded-stick on at the same time) but it made for a good work-hours background noise. Well, it was good background until Merion, the course that ESPN was so sure was going to play soft and under-par, showed "her" teeth and the eventual winner of the U.S. Open was a cool 1-over-par, and then it was an actual distraction. Fortunately, my day job is not that mentally taxing.

-If you were looking for a feel-good story, here's one. 22-year-old Mike Zouzalik, an Austin native, threw two scoreless innings in his professional debut for the Spokane Indians, Texas' short-season affiliate. Zouzalik, who is possessed of an amazing name, was signed out of an open tryout held at the Round Rock Express' stadium after going undrafted in his senior year at the University of Texas-Pan America in Edinburg, Texas. He threw 95 with a decent curve in a bullpen session at the tryout, and earned a 1-in-a-million chance to play pro baseball.

-I have not watched a single minute of the NBA finals. I'm not really that much of an NBA fan, to be honest. I'll root for the Mavericks, of course, because even someone who's not a fan of the NBA is a fan of Dirk, but when I was in the American Airlines center this past spring, I was much more excited about walking past the Stars locker room and seeing those banners than I was about the Mavs.

-Back to golf: Phil Mickelson and what could have been. This could have been a perfect 30 For 30: Lefty, on his birthday and Father's Day, after flying in late because of his daughter's 8th grade graduation, wins his first U.S. Open at a historical and difficult course, finally achieving what had been so cruelly held from his grasp 5 other times. Of course, because sports are not like that, a Brit named Justin Rose lifted the silver trophy for his first Major victory.

-Finally, Stokowski's transcription of one of the most famous pieces from Bach. Your night needs a little epic.