Neurology, baseball, and blogging

Gilles de la Tourette was a French neurologist who first described the neurological disorder which bears his name.

I'm pretty sure he never described any cases with baseball-exclusive triggers, though.

One of my siblings made the mistake of calling me during the baseball game today. I usually am polite enough to answer the phone, but I likewise expect all of my relatives to be equally polite and expedite the call, once I tell them I'm watching a game. This sibling was not so accommodating, however, and got an earful when Jeromy Burnitz hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to put the Cubs ahead for good.

It's good to know that I share the same vocabulary with some of the Astros' relievers, though--namely, Mike Gallo, who gave up said runs. We should both wash our mouths out with soap--and I owe someone a dollar.

The remainder of this post will ramble, a reflection of blogging Attention Deficit Disorder. (BTW, I have no idea as to Dr. Deficit's nationality.)

The loss today (3-2, Cubs) dropped the Astros back to only one game ahead in the wild-card race, waaaaay too close for my comfort level. (It's a good thing I stocked up on Tums today when I went to the store.) The game was broadcast in my area as a Cubs' game (yeah, I don't understand it either). It's always interesting, although not always enjoyable, to listen to a game from the opposing point of view. For example, a couple of months ago, the 'Stros were playing the Rangers--at Minute Maid--and yet somehow it was broadcast locally as a Rangers' game. One of the broadcasters for the Rangers has a slight lisp, which I'm afraid I found rather annoying after a while. Also, he described the Astros' mascot, Junction Jack, as "a large, furry, rabbit-like creature that scampers about Minute Maid Park." Which, as you can see from the picture above (from astros.com), is actually fairly descriptive.

Except for the scampering part. Damn thing's 7 feet tall, it doesn't "scamper" anywhere.

ANYway. So the Cubs' broadcasters weren't too bad, they gave Pettitte his props, and treated Berkman and my boyfriend Ensberg with appropriate respect. In fact, the only time they vexed me enough to even raise an eyebrow was when they called Jason Lane "bone-headed." Actually, they called his base-running bone-headed (he got picked off at third), which, while technically I don't disagree, I just can't imagine Brownie and J.D. being so. . .blunt. (Of course, I'm totally spoiled by Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies. They are so freakin' funny, especially J.D. Early on in the season, they said that Ausmus was complaining that they were keeping a hit count on Biggio--you know, "and with that hit, he moves up into a tie for 48th on the all-time hit list," that sort of thing. So, they started doing it for Ausmus--"and with that hit, he moves into sole possession of 1,203rd place on the all-time hit list." And Deshaies' interview with Ensberg after his recent injury was one of the funniest damn things I've ever seen. I get a big kick out of Larry Dierker, too.)

Speaking of broadcasters, today's game was the last radio broadcast from Wrigley Field for Hall of Famer Milo Hamilton, who has decided to only cover Astros home games starting next year. I'm sure it was rather bittersweet for him, as he was the Cubs' broadcaster from 1956-57 and again from 1980-84, and attended his first-ever MLB game at Wrigley as a child. I'm sure Cubs fans, as well as Astros fans, join me in thanking him for the memories.

So, back to the game being broadcast as a Cubs' game (I told you, blogging ADD). One of the cool things about my guys playing at Wrigley is that it's such a historic site. One of the sucky things about my guys playing at Wrigley is that it's an outdoor stadium, and for the second day in a row, there was a rain delay. (Actually, there was quite a delay in calling the rain delay, but whatever.) But since it was broadcast as a Cubs' game, then during the delay, they showed stuff of interest to Cubs' fans--and today, that was Ryne Sandberg's Hall of Fame induction speech from earlier this summer. It was amazing. I had read a transcript of it, thanks to lakeline, but getting to see him give the speech was awesome.

I didn't mind the rain delay at all.

Speaking of rain, everyone I know came out okay here with Hurricane Rita (in fact, we didn't even get any rain where I am, it was just a little windy). Thanks for the good thoughts!

And, one more ramble, unrelated to baseball. This is cool. It's a search engine that is partnered with a bunch of charities. So next time you need to Google something, use ClickNow instead, and support your favorite charity at the same time!