Archive for the 'baseball' Category

Apr

Are Your Parents Registered to Vote?

If not, they should register.
The registration form can be filled in at home and mailed to the following address:
Nassau County Board of Elections
240 Old Country Road (5th flr.)
Mineola, NY 11501-4800

You can find a registration form here.

Remember, there is a Presidential election, along with the House of Representatives and a Senate position at stake in November. Additionally (and perhaps just as important), the school budget vote is May 15. I’ll refrain from sharing my opinion on how you should vote but I’m sure you can figure that out.
However, I will share my opinion that I believe it is your civic duty to vote in elections.

Schreiber Students Shine
I was reading recently on the Port Washington Patch that former Green 7 students were honored at the Suffolk Classical Society’s Annual Certamen contest. Congrats to all of the students, especially Robert and Rachel.

The Mets have a double header with the Giants today. I hope they beat up on the Giants as they will be playing the Reds tomorrow. Furthermore, I hope they take a long time while beating the Giants. The Reds will be well-rested with their day off today.

Did you read today during World Book Night? I read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie (remember that one?) with my kids and enjoyed a tasty cookie afterward as a treat. I tried to read a little of Washington but couldn’t concentrate. I’ll finish that one off soon enough.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Current Events,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Apr

World Book Night

Begin planning now. World Book Night is April 23rd.
Of course, every night should include some reading. However, there are many people that absolutely detest reading. Perhaps April 23′s World Book Night can be a springboard into frequent night’s of reading.

I’ve always felt that reading a good piece of fiction is like “reading” a television show. The best part is, you get to be the director/producer/head of casting/etc.

Let me know if you are going to participate in World Book Night.

The last day of ELA Testing. Whew…glad that is over. Just in time for 3 days of math testing next week. We’re also going to have a Social Studies quiz on Monday. There will be Extra Help Monday morning.

If you’ve been watching Sportscenter or reading the newspaper, I’m pretty sure you are aware of the Reds’ dreadful start to the year. I know it is early, but they need to pick it up quickly. They are digging a pretty big hole. Hopefully they can snap their horrible hitting ways this afternoon against the Cardinals.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Books,Current Events,School,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Apr

World Series Rings

I came across this interesting website on World Series Rings. Check it out. Which championship ring do you think is the nicest?
The 2004 Red Sox ring jumped out at me as the nicest. Perhaps I’m a bit biased but I also believe the 1990 Reds ring is nice.

Here are the most recent championship rings for the Yankees (2009), Mets (1986) and Reds (1990) along with the oldest ring.

1922 NY Giants

Interesting that the Cardinals decided to place their rally squirrel on their ring.

I’m sorry that I had to use profanity on my website. However, the website only has an image of “Carpenter”‘s ring.

The squirrel even appeared on Skip Shumaker’s baseball card. In fact, Shumaker isn’t really even on his card.

Those squirrel/Shumaker baseball cards are going for over $50 on ebay!

posted by Mr. Dowling in The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Apr

The Weekend of 4/14

Bowling Scores For the Week: 168, 158 and 168. I’ve finished the season (as a sub) with a 159 average…not too bad for only bowling 5 times in league play all year as opposed to all 36 weeks the past few years.

The story of the night, however, was that one gentleman in the league bowled 12 strikes in a row. That’s right a perfect game!!! This is the fourth perfect game I’ve ever witnessed live. The other three times happened 3 weeks in a row by the same guy. Now that is talent!

If you’ve been following baseball closely, you know how frustrated I am by the Reds early this season. They are not hitting at all. As I saw on the internet this week, the Reds lineup looks a little something like this:

1. Out
2. Out
3. Joey Votto
4. Out
5. Out
6. Out
7. Out
8. Out
9. Pitcher’s Spot (also an out)

The Reds were number one and two in scoring the last two years so I don’t expect this to continue. However, they don’t want to dig a hole they can’t get out of this early in the season.

On Thursday, the Reds lost to the Nationals on a walk off wild pitch. That tragic loss caused rookie catcher to react this way:

Some had a problem with this outburst. What do you think?

Finally, this week marks the 100 anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
I thought this cartoon was pretty funny.

Back to school tomorrow…get a good night’s rest and be ready. We’re in the home-stretch! We’re laying the groundwork for the Civil War over the next few weeks. Don’t forget, you have a homework assignment due Monday.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Bowling,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball,history and have No Comments

Apr

The Weekend of 4/7

Check out this video of Lindsay Lohan over the years. I’ll let you make your own conclusion.

Beyond the obvious conclusion, I’ve learned that I spend too much time on the computer!

I heard on the news this morning of the death of Thomas Kinkade. Kinkade is a noted artist with many wonderfully paintings of serene settings. I had no idea that he was even a current artist. I always thought that he was already dead. Anyway, I got to know his paintings from putting together jigsaw puzzles of his art.
Check out some of his work below:

I always liked the snow covered scenes the best. That’s about as close to art appreciation as you’re going to get from me.

Tonight is Opening Night for the Reds. They try to make a big deal of their first night game to draw a big crowd. It has worked the past few years. I’m especially excited about seeing Mat Latos pitch for the first time with the Reds.
How about that Mets win the other day?
I watched the Yankees blow it late yesterday. One thing I took out of watching that game was that the Yankees do indeed play incredibly long games.

Fast Five is on tonight on HB0 at 8. This is the most recent Fast and the Furious film. You can see for yourself if there is a resemblance between Vin Diesel and yours truly. Ask your parents permission before watching.
I’ll be DVRing the movie. I always liked the Fast and the Furious movies.

That’s all for this weekend. I’ll be back early next week.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,Television,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (3)

Apr

Friday, 4/6

I was asked yesterday if I was serious about the one page report on the Reds game. Of course I was…not. If you thought I was serious I must be pretty convincing. I even said in class that it wasn’t serious.
The only assignment you have over the vacation is the one from Tuesday. Many of you already completed that assignment. Check out the homework page for the questions if you need to see them.

I enjoyed watching baseball back in action yesterday. The Reds won by a score of 4-0. I was impressed by the fundamentally sound play of the Reds. From Drew Stubbs bunting for a base hit, great defense, the good base running and pitching from Cueto, Chapman and Marshall, there wasn’t really much to complain about.
Marshall pitched a lights-out 123 inning in the 9th. If one game is any indication, the Reds will be fine with Marshall as a closer. Of course, this is a long season.
I was also impressed by Joey Votto’s defense yesterday. Although he won the gold glove last year, I was never impressed by his glove work. Yesterday was a different story.

Thank you to everyone for all the kind words you had after meeting DJ and Casey in school yesterday. DJ loved walking around the school and playing with everyone. He especially had a good time playing with Mrs. Convey and Mrs. Fishman.
They probably won’t be back for awhile. They are a bit too young to handle coming to school with us.

As I said in class, enjoy the vacation. Take advantage of this time to be with family and re-charge your batteries. We are in the home-stretch. 10 weeks of school remaining!!!
I’ll be around posting on the blog this week. If you have a moment with nothing to do, stop by and say hi.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Casey,DJ,School,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Apr

Votto Hits the Lotto

Apparently there was another Mega-Millions winner this week. It was announced the Reds first baseman Joey Votto extended his contract another 10 years. He will now be with the Reds until 2023. I read that the contract extension is worth over 200 million dollars.
Imagine what you could buy at a dollar store with that kind of money!!!

I will be 42 years old when Votto is no longer with the Reds and my son will be 13. Votto is poised to be to my son’s generation what Barry Larkin was to mine.
Some are even saying that when it is all said and done Votto will be considered the best Reds hitter ever. That is a pretty bold statement with the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, Barry Larkin, Ernie Lombardi, George Foster and Eric Davis having great careers with the Reds.
What this could likely mean is that this year will be the last of Brandon Phillips. I can’t imagine how the Reds will be able to afford Votto at his price tag and Phillips at the rate he wants. It is especially tough because Cincinnati is not New York. The revenue does not come in the same in Ohio.

Long Live The Vottoman Empire!!!

posted by Mr. Dowling in The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Mar

Wednesday, 3/28

The MLB Baseball season has finally kicked off. Early this morning in Tokyo the A’s are playing Seattle.

Speaking of baseball, have I ever mentioned how much I like Albert Pujols? Of course I haven’t because for years he has been a thorn in the side of all Reds fans while playing for the Cardinals. Now he’s on the Angels and is very valuable. Allow me to explain. This past weekend my brother bought a pack of baseball cards for DJ. When he opened it, he found an Albert Pujols baseball card. Apparently this card is very rare and can only be found once in every 50 cases of cards produced. The card is going for as much as $100 on ebay. Not bad at all!

posted by Mr. Dowling in Uncategorized,baseball and have No Comments

Mar

Monday, 3/26

On Friday, I was greeted by a former student with great news. Current 9th Grader and former Green House Student, Ethan, had a cartoon published in the Schreiber Times. I don’t recall reading the Times before this weekend. I have to say I was quite impressed by the articles and enjoyed reading about past students. I hope to see future copies of the Spartan Times, especially with articles and cartoons by former students.

This weekend the Reds were the recipients of bad news. Over the winter, the Reds signed Ryan Madson to be the team’s closer. Madson pitched quite well for the Phillies last year and was slated to be a more than suitable replacement for Fransisco Cordero. Sadly, Madson had elbow problems once Spring Training started and tests showed that he had torn the ligament right off his elbow. He’s going to need Tommy John surgery and will be out the entire season.
The excitement that I had for Opening Day is still there but I’m more worried about the season that last week. The Reds do have Sean Marshall to step in to fill the void. However, if the Reds thought Marshall was good enough to be the guy, they wouldn’t have signed Madson after trading for Marshall.
We’ll see how it plays out. There is still a slight chance that Aroldis Chapman will be moved to the closer position.

Finally, an interesting “article” from the Daily News.

Like many people who get summoned to jury duty, Jacob Clark didn’t want to go. But unlike most people, he had a legitimate excuse-he’s 9 years old…His dad called the jury commission office in Orleans District Court in Massachusetts to find out what happened. It turns out that someone apparently typed 1982 for the Yarmouth 3rd grader’s birth year instead of 2002. The mistake was quickly corrected.

Have a great day in school today.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,School,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (2)

Mar

The Weekend of 3/24

Stonybrook To Hold Classes On Religious Holidays
Click the article above. I’m curious to hear what you think about a college having classes on religious holidays. Stonybrook has decided to hold classes on days usually reserved for religious observance such as Rosh Hashanah, Passover and Good Friday.
My guess is that the backlash of this decision will lead the powers that be in Stonybrook to re-think their decision.
Do you think they are right? Justified? Making a bad decision?

Tim Tebow to the Jets
Adding a solid quaterback to the Jets could be a good move. It also could be a bad move as Mark Sanchez might be looking over his shoulder every time he fails now that a viable backup is available. What do you think?
I know for sure it is a good financial move. Tebow t-shirts and jerseys are selling like hot cakes.
By the way, do hot cakes really sell that well?

Does Joba Chamberlain think he plays for the Mets? Joba broke his ankle the other day while playing on a trampoline. Those things are dangerous. I know Chamberlain was playing with his son but given that a trampoline is such a dangerous piece of equipment and Joba is a professional athlete, perhaps he should have thought of another way to enjoy playing with his son.

This is not the greatest footage (pun intended) but check out this video of Paul O’Neill.
Paul O’Neill was a Yankee great during the 90s. However, he first made his name as a Cincinnati Red. O’Neill helped the Reds win their 1990 World Championship.
I doubt this play helped. Check out how O’Neill got the ball back into the infield. Perhaps he has a future as a punter in the NFL.

posted by Mr. Dowling in Current Events,The Reds,Uncategorized,baseball and have Comments (4)

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