June 30, 2005

Roger Dodger,

Phew! After witnessing Texas pitcher Kenny Rogers attack two cameramen on the field before the Rangers game this week, I quickly became curious about my upcoming schedule. You see, the Blue Jays host the Rangers in late July and I am covering all of the away teams except for one during Toronto's July homestands.

Well, it turns out that I am the third writer in the booth when Texas comes to Canada. So, I won't be covering the Rangers afterall. Man, that could have been close. I mean there I could've been, on the field before the game, and whap! Rogers smacks my digital recorder onto the turf and yells, "I told you not to interview me!"

I will be covering the A's, Devil Rays, Mariners and Angels in July, though. And as far as I know, no member of any of those teams has attacked any media members yet. I wouldn't put it past D-Rays coach Lou Piniella to get snappy, but at least I know my recording equipment should be safe, now.

It's amazing to me how media members can be verbally or physically attacked for merely doing their job. If you're a professional baseball player -- especially one with veteran experience like Rogers -- you need to know that you're there to do your job and the media is there to do theirs. In an ESPN poll that was online today, I was surprised at how many pollsters were voting that media shouldn't be allowed on the field before a game or that they shouldn't have access to the clubhouses. How would like us to get the team's stories? Through just the PR department? If thoe voters would be happy with just press release type news from now on they don't realize how different it would be. That's just me going off a little.

Anyways, the point is that my family and friends can rest assured that I won't be attacked by any raging pitchers any time soon. I'll be steering clear of Rogers just in case, though!

Posted at 8:11 p.m.

June 29, 2005

War of the Worlds,

I just got back from the huge Paramount theater in downtown Toronto and went and saw Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. It was the same theater where we went and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith (very funny) and Batman Begins (my favorite Batman movie to date). You buy your tickets on street level and then ride an escalator (or take the stairs if you have extra time and energy) up five stories up to where the concessions and theaters are. It isn't just regular concessions either. You can get Pizza Hut, Taco Bell or Burger King for your show if you want. The only crappy part about the place is if you have to pee you have to walk up another flight of stairs to the sixth floor -- no escalator option there. We've gone to this theater three times now on dates, so, we're already stuck in a Toronto dating rut! But it's the kind of rut Kell and I love.

Anyways, about the movie. Well, it is a lot more intense and more visually stunning than its 1950s version. Spielberg sure knows how to create an intense scene. Besides Morgan Freeman's narration -- one of the coolest movie voices out there, along with James Earl Jones -- there really is not a whole lot of explanation for anything. I won't go into details about the characters or anything, but I won't be ruining anything by saying there is a lack of a plot. That's fine, though, because the movie was really in the spirit of the Wells novel. The tripods really looked like all the old classic artwork you've seen -- not like the wimpy alien tripods constructed in the version 50 years ago.

Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in this movie, which is fine with me. I hate to admit it, but the more I think about it, I guess I'm a Cruise fan. When you ask me who my favorite actors are, he isn't one I would name. But ask me some of my favorite movies and his films would come up a lot. I loved Collateral, loved Minority Report, loved Last Samurai, loved Vanilla Sky, loved Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men, The Firm -- minus Risky Business or Cocktail and I guess I like his movies. The same goes with him in War of the Worlds. You're always aware he is Tom Cruise in the movie, but that doesn't take away from the film. You have super talented Dakota Fanning to make up for what he might lack.

Basically, the movie revolves around Cruise's family and his quest to keep them together and reunite them in the end while massive alien machines obliterate the planet. Why the aliens come, you never really know, and how they eventually are taken down, is only loosely explained. But those two parts consist of just a brief intro/conclusion. It's the middle part of the film where there is utter destruction and it's all very well done. I was leaning forward and biting my nails for a good chunk of the film -- especially in the scene that takes place in actor Tim Robbins' basement. You'll see what I'm talking about.

Overall, I'd say on my five star scale I'd give the movie three stars. It's definately the type of movie that you need to see on the big screen, too.

My favorite scene had to be when Cruise, wearing a Yankees cap, tries to play catch with his son, who promptly puts on a Boston Red Sox hat in defiance of his father. Good stuff.

Oh, and I wish I wouldn't have seen that King Kong trailer online last night. They showed it during the coming attractions before War of the Worlds. It's one of the first trailers I've ever seen in a theater -- besides any Star Wars film -- that received applause and cheering when it was done.

Posted at 11:17 p.m.

June 29, 2005

King Kong Lives,

Yeah, so I just saw the trailer for the new King Kong movie directed by Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) and it blew me away! I used to watch the original all the time when I was a kid and it looks like Jackson is sticking pretty close to the original style of the old one. If you want to take a look, click on the big mean gorilla below! Kell and I are going to try to go see War of the Worlds tonight. I'll let you know how it is.

CLICK ME!!!!! RAHARRRR!!!!!

Posted at 3:19 p.m.

June 28, 2005

My First Weeks with MLB.com ,

In my last entry I promised that I'd write a little about my first two weeks of writing for MLB.com. So, here goes nothing:

My first week was more of a getting-to-know-my-way-around week. The Toronto Blue Jays beat writer Spencer Fordin is who I work with at the Rogers Centre and he spent the first week getting me used to the routine and each day we would add something new onto my tasks in order to get me ready for when I was supposed to cover the Orioles completely.

I started by just writing next-day game previews. They're pretty simple. You just have to do a short blurb about what the game means and what pitchers are squaring off. You include a player to watch, some quick-hit stats, and a short upcoming schedule. I did a bunch of those for the Blue Jays and I also did a couple for the Brewers site when they were in Toronto. You can see an example of one here.

The first story I had the chance to write was when the Blue Jays' first-round draft pick, Ricky Romero, came to the Rogers Centre to sign his new contract. It was a big press conference with a lot of media and it was the perfect sidebar story opportunity for Spencer to allow me to have. You can see that one here. I enjoyed writing that one and thought I did a pretty decent job.

The day before the Orioles came to town Spencer had me take care of the pregame notebook for the Blue Jays. He wanted me to get one out of the way so that I was accustomed to doing them when I had to write four for Baltimore. You can take a look at what this looks like here.

Then the Orioles came to town. I made sure I was at the ballparl extra early so that I was ready. Actually, I'm always one of the first people there. I've beaten Spencer to the ballpark every day I've worked withthe exception of one time -- and that was because I stopped off to get a jumbo hot dog from a street vendor. Mmmmmm. Anyways, I introduced myself to the writers from the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post and they were a great help to me all week. I was surprised when the week was up that they actually made the gesture to come over and say goodbye to me. They didn't have to give two craps about me the lowly intern, but they helped a great deal.

My first day went smooth except for my editor. I made a few typos in my notebook the first day and he didn't give the stories a good read through. I caught the mistakes later and was pretty upset about it. I just had to tell myself that it wasn't my fault -- I did my part, he just didn't do his. You have a different producer/editor from game-to-game and I'm learning quickly that some are better than others.

As far as covering the team, you learn fast which players are going to be good sources/quotes and which guys just don't want anything to do with the media. There were a few guys I could count on to ask questions to after the games and there were a couple others who went out of their way to avoid the media. I'm not going to name any names here or anything in my blog. A few times, though -- if you read through my stories -- you'll see certain players that were crucial to the story who are not quoted. Hmmmm.

I did get to talk with Sammy Sosa, which surprised me. Accessing him at Spring Training in 2004 was impossible. You had to go through a PR person and run it by them before you talked to him. This year, you could just walk up to him at his locker, which had no boombox blaring salsa music as I experienced in Mesa with the Cubs. Maybe once he heard word that a teammate smashed it with a bat he decided not to risk bringing one anymore. Or maybe he just doesn't take it on the road. He might have a whole sound system at Camden Yards for all I know.

I also talked with American League batting-leader Brian Roberts (great quote), future Hall-of-Famer Rafael Palmeiro (nice guy), Miguel Tejada (very accessible), and pretty much most of the rest of the team. After walking into the Chicago Cubs clubhouse in Mesa two years ago -- where some of my childhood heroes were -- I wasn't at all star-struck this time. I was very nervous in 2004, but I think that experience made this current internship all the easier. Now, they're just baseball players -- not the Gods I saw when I was a kid. It's fun to be able to talk to pro ball players, but you realize you're in there to do a job and if you just stand around in awe you're going to walk out of there with nothing...then you won't have a job.

The rest of the Baltimore series went smooth. In the second game, Melvin Mora injured his hamstring in the eighth inning and I wrote a sidebar on it right away. Spencer was impressed because no one asked me to do that. I just figured it was an important piece of information to get out there. So that day I was there pretty late -- one of the last writers in the pressbox. But it was worth it. I received a good number of compliments from people on my work that day. After the next day, one of my bosses e-mailed me to tell me he like my story for the third game. I feel very confident about my work so far because of the positive feedback I've been getting. Usually you don't get e-mails from your boss unless you screwed something up. It felt good to hear he thought I was doing a good job.

If you want to see the stories I referred to for the Baltimore site, just go to the MLB.com Links section above and go to where it says Baltimore. There you can see each day that I wrote for them and access all of the articles.

It's still REALLY hot here today and Kell still isn't feeling the greatest so I'm not sure what we're going to be up to today. I want to get out of the apartment, but it all depends on how Kelly is feeling. Anyways, stay tuned for my next entry...

Posted at 12:47 p.m.

June 27, 2005

Too Hot In Canada,

Yeah, so all those mental images you have of Canada and snow and cold -- all wrong. It was in the 90s again today and with our air conditioner broken it feels more like 120 degrees in our little apartment. Kell and I went for a walk today and it almost was too hot too walk outside. We broke and went next door to Baskin Robbins and each got a large Strawberry Banana Smoothie. Mmmmm. It's my new crutch. It's no good having that place right next to our apartment building.

Kelly wasn't feeling too good today so we just stayed in and watched movies. We did venture out to the Mall next door to walk around in the air conditioning for a while. I think it's supposed to be this hot for the next few days.

It was like this when we first got here two weeks ago, but back then we didn't have a fan or a nice big bed. So, during the first few days of married life in Canada, Kell slept on a twin bed and I slept on the couch. Now, though, we have a pretty big bed and a fan on either side to cool us off. Yeah, all my life I thought it got cold in Canada. Apparently that is farther north. Where we are feels just like Michigan and when you go to downtown Toronto it feels like Chicago -- seeing as it is right on the lake.

Well, I need to run. I have to go make myself a turkey and muenster cheese sandwich for dinner. As you can see, there is nothing too exciting happening up here right now. I'm sure it'll liven up in a few days.

Maybe tomorrow I'll write some about my time covering the Orioles. It was a great experience being thrown right into the fire like that during just my second week with MLB.com. Stay tuned to hear all about it...

Posted at 10:05 p.m.

June 27, 2005

Can't Sleep,

Yeah, here it is almost 2:00 in the morning and I'm not in bed. I'm not used to my crazy schedule yet. See, if I was working this week I would leave for work at 2 p.m. -- Kell drives me to the subway -- I would take the Subway from Finch Station for about 25 minutes to Union Station in downtown Toronto. From there I have to walk about a mile to Gate 9 at the Rogers Centre. I work for 9-10 hours, get out around midnight, take the subway back to Finch and walk home. I usually wake up and scare Kelly about 1:00 a.m. each night. I eat a small dinner or snack, depending on if I ate at work, and then I usually don't get to bed around 2:00 a.m. because I hop online and save my links and read over my edited stories before I go to bed.

So, here I am at 2:00 -- not tired. Now, since I'm off this week I should be laying comfortably on my air mattress next to my wife. But I'm not that tired and she isn't feeling too well so I'm going to let her fall asleep before I hog up the bed and blankets.

Today we went walking around the neighborhood and picked up a couple movies from Blockbuster. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers On A Train" tonight. Kell wasn't sure if she had ever seen it and it is probably my second favorite Hitchcock flick next to Vertigo. It was also the premise for one of my favorite comedies: "Throw Momma From The Train." That was one of my Ma's favorite movies and we used to watch it all the time. I think she liked it so much because of its connection to the old Hitchcock movie. She had all the old Hitchcock films recorded off of TV and I lived on those movies as a kid. "North By Northwest," "I Confess," "Psycho," "The Birds," "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "Dial 'M' For Murder," the list could go on forever! I love old classic movies -- especially old Hitchcock flicks.

I was paying attention to some games online today and it was good to see that Mark Prior made a quick recovery for the Cubs. As many of you know, I am a Cubs fan at heart -- even though in the line of work I'm in, now, I can't really hold on to my loyalties. But I will always hold that place inside of me that roots for Chicago teams and hopes to see the long losing streaks end someday. My friend Kelly from Michigan State is actually doing the internship in Chicago with MLB.com and getting to cover the Cubs and Sox. I think I'm at a better place in Toronto and not Chicago because I think I might have had a more difficult time jumping right into working in my home town and would have been a little starstruck -- even though I already had the chance to meet and work with the Cubs in Arizona at Spring Training in 2004. Kelly is doing a great job in Chicago and it's cool to see two former Spartans representing MLB.com.

Anyways, I don't know what I'm up to tomorrow, but I think Kell and I will venture out of our hot apartment and find something cool to do. Someone gave us a "Toronto For Dummies" book, which has a lot of good suggestion on places to go and things to see. We might take it up on some of the ideas it has. So, stay tuned...

Posted at 2:04 a.m.

June 26, 2005

It's a beautiful day for a Sunday Nap,

I just got up from a great FOUR HOUR NAP! Kelly and I went to a church down on Steeles Ave. to try and find a place where we can connect with some other people up here. It reminded me a lot of Pulpit Rock in Colorado Springs and I think she and I will be going again. The people seemed very friendly. With how much time Kelly is alone at our apartment and me working, we thought finding a church would be good to see if there might be any potential couples that we could meet so Kelly didn't have to be at home every single long Canadian day.

As you can see, I was able (with the help of my Big Bro) to get my site up on JordanBastian.com. I also had the e-mail address, jordan@jordanbastian.com, set up so if any of you can't remember my hotmail e-mail, you can use that one.

It is such a huge relief to be done with this site, now. I thought it was going to take me a week to get it done, but once I got the banner/logo design done at the top -- which took me a good hour to come up with -- it was smooth sailing and I got the site done in just two days! Now, the only things I have to do with it are update my links as I get them and continue blogging here. Since I don't work again until July 5, Kell and I will spend this week exploring, going downtown, maybe catching a flick or two.

My car is still acting up. It almost overheated driving about two miles to the church this morning. Something is wrong with the radiator I'm guessing -- not good news. I want to wait until I find someone who can tell me about a good place to go get it fixed. I don't want to just drive up to any place. With my lack of knowledge about cars it is a lot harder to not get ripped off! I'll get it fixed soon, though, and once it is good to go I want to take Kelly to Niagara Falls, which is only like an hour/hour and a half away from here. We've both been there, but it's a lot of fun.

Anyways, that's about all that has been going on today. During some of this blog I'll talk about baseball and, as you can see, I'll be talking about daily life up here, too. I know I have friends and family that are interested in one or the other -- some both. I'll probably blog some about baseball in my next entry. We'll see.

Posted at 3:07 p.m.

June 25, 2005

Welcome to Bastian's Blog,

Well, I'm here in Canada -- as you could probably tell by the "Live From Toronto" image on the front page. That was a picture of the CN Tower, which is the tallest structure in the world. They like to boast up here that it is even taller than the Sears Towers, but I'll quickly point out that the CN Tower is not a building -- so it doesn't count! Kelly and I live on Yonge St. (pronounced "Young" for you Americans), which is the longest street in the world. A lot of pride they have up here in Canada.

I started writing for MLB.com last Tuesday (June 14) and I'm having a blast so far. It kinda stinks for Kelly, though, because she has to stay at home while I'm at the ballpark for 9-10 hours during home games. At least I don't travel with the team and Kell and I get to spend time with each other during the road games. Like this week I'm home all week and don't work again until July 5. So we'll have July 4th to celebrate our true Independence Day -- not July 1st like they do up here.

It's not so bad in the North, though. Granted, they offer fries at Taco Bell, the milk comes in a bag and butter in a big block, but all-in-all in kind of reminds me of Chicago in places. There is a Lake Shore Blvd., for example. Our neighborhood is on the very northern edge of Toronto and when you walk into the residential area it kind of looks like any normal suburb in South Holland or Thornton back home.

I have already covered my first team on my own this week. During the June 20-23 series against Baltimore, I was the MLB.com writer for the Orioles for the entire series. You can see my clips in the MLB.com Links page and see what other teams I'll be covering next in My Schedule. I talked to just about every player you could imagine and even interviewed Sammy Sosa once. As many of you know, Sosa was one of my childhood favorites. I got to meet him two years ago at Spring Training, when I went with the Lansing State Journal, and now with the Orioles. I wasn't as in awe as I was two years ago. Now, he just seemed like another player to get a quote from.

Anyways, I just wanted to get my first entry onto this blog as I am setting up my new Web site. Thanks for reading. I'll be posting on here as much as I can with work. I'll use this blog so you can keep up with Kelly and I up here in Toronto. Stay tuned for more...

Posted at 2:39 p.m.