Bastian's Blog

September 13, 2005

Hey Papi,

Well, my first day covering Boston was an eventful one. David Ortiz hit two homers, including an 11th-inning game-winner, to beat the Blue Jays, 6-5. Before the game, All-Star center fielder Johnny Damon was scratched from the lineup so he could fly back to Boston to get an MRI on his injured shoulder -- but they didn't pull him from the lineup until right before the game started. So, I almost had my notebook written, which said he WAS starting despite still having pain, and then I had to rewrite the thing with only quotes about how tough Damon was for playing through it. Needless to say, I had to get some postgame quotes to have the notebook updated properly.

But despite all of that, everything went rather smoothly and I don't think my game story or my notes turned out too bad on my first day covering the World Champs. Both stories were in the top headlines on the MLB.com news homepage -- the game story was also on the MLB.com main page. I've had that happen a couple times. The highest one of my stories has been listed was when Toronto said Roy Halladay was done for the season -- that one made it into the top two headlines that day and was still listed high a day later.

I'm going to keep this short, though, because I have to leave for the ballpark in a little over an hour for the second game. I'll post more later...

Posted at 12:39 p.m.

September 11, 2005

13 More Games,

When I arrived in Toronto, I had 52 games on the schedule for me to work at the Rogers Centre. Now, here I sit with only 13 more to go before this internship is up. Tomorrow I begin covering the Boston Red Sox for a three-game series against the Blue Jays and I'm really looking forward to it.

Today was the final day off for me this week. Kell and I have been getting back on track with our running this week, too. Today I ran three miles without stopping at all, which was the first time I've accomplished that since injuring my foot back in April. So that was a nice little achievement for me. Kelly and I are going to be trying to run each day now because we have set September 29 as our target date for our crazy run! We are planning to run all the way from our apartment to Lake Ontario. As you might know, our address is 6210 Yonge St. The Lake is a little bit past 1 Yonge St. That is about an estimated 11 miles! We probably won't be able to run the entire thing, but a mixture of running and walking all the way will still be impressive. Then we'll hop on the subway for a ride back home. So, needless to say, we need to kick it up a notch over these next few weeks to get prepared for our quest.

It's been exciting to have college football and the NFL back. With college football starting up again, though, it's really finally hitting me that college is behind me now. I haven't been able to see any of the games so far either -- because of work AND because our TV is broken! No TV until we get back to Illinois isn't the worst thing that could ever happen to us, but it still stinks. At least I didn't have to sit through the awful Bears game today. How do you keep a team from scoring a TD and still lose?! Oh yeah, you're the Bears.

Kell and I went and saw two movies this week. We saw "The Brothers Grimm," which was good, but perhaps more of a renter, and we saw "The Excorcism of Emily Rose," which was a lot different than the original "The Excorcist" movie, but if you're into scary flicks, it doesn't disappoint. I'd give it three stars out of five. We also have been continuing our AFI Top 100 movie list quest -- renting the ones we haven't seen and watching them on the laptop with the TV being out. We watched "On the Waterfront," which was REALLY good, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," which I enjoyed more than Kelly, "Annie Hall," which was really funny, and "Dr. Strangelove," which was a great movie as well. We also watched "To Catch a Thief" today, which isn't on the Top 100, but is a good Hitchcock movie with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in it. Tonight, we'll keep out Top 100 journey going with Humphrey Bogart in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." Kelly and I really like these older classic movies. I'm glad she's into them as much as I am. I grew up with older parents, which has it's benefits. I was exposed to all the great classic war movies by my dad and all the classic Hitchcock and other old epic movies by my mom. That's probably one of the reasons I've turned into such a film buff and I'm so critical of movies, too (those of you who know me personally will know what I'm talking about).

Anyways, I don't want to keep Kell waiting to see her Bogey! She made us some awesome chili yesterday and we ate the leftovers tonight. Mmmmmm. That didn't have to do with anything, it was just a yummy sidenote. I'll be blogging more while I cover the Boston-Toronto series. Stay tuned...

Posted at 9:30 p.m.

September 7, 2005

Pray for Kelly,

There is bad news on the Bastian Front. At approximately 2 a.m. this morning, while laying in bed and watching Rescue Me, there was a loud pop and our TV screen went blank. Our initial thought was that the power went out -- that had happened before. But with our Sherlockesque detective skills, we noticed that our little fan -- also not working right, by the way -- was still working its hardest on keeping us cool. So, the TV just quit working. With all of my engineering training, I tried unplugging and replugging the TV and repeatedly hitting the power button. Nothing.

This is not good news for Kelly, seeing as when I go to work she is stuck at home for 9-10 hours with not a whole heck of a lot to do. She has been getting her daily dosage of Dr. Phil, Oprah, and the Huricane Katrina news. And to top it off, Kell and I both have been getting into Rockstar INXS -- yes, I'm into a reality show and the elimination episode is tonight and we're going to MISS IT! Ah well, we can catch the video online later.

At least we only have a month left at this apartment in Toronto. Kell can maybe finally finish up that Leo Tolstoy epic novel she's been struggling through, now. It still kind of stinks to be holed up in a place you're not use to, surrounded by people you don't know, with no friends or family around, with no TV to occupy some of your time. It doesn't really matter for when I'm home with Kell, but losing the TV and the internet when I'm at work will make her time seem even L O N G E R.

Anyways, I wrote three articles yesterday: the Player of the Month, Pitcher of the Month and Player of the Week stories for the American League. For tomorrow, I'm doing an off-day piece about some Minor League award winners in the Blue Jays organization. Also tomorrow, I have to do the weekly report for the New York Penn League. Friday-Sunday I'm off, and then back to the ballpark to cover Boston on Monday.

Kelly and I just printed out the AFI's Top 100 movies list and marked which ones we've both seen or just one of us has seen. Our goal is to eventually have seen all of the films. I've seen 49 and Kelly has watched 45. Boo-ya! After we get dinner, we're going to head to Blockbuster to try and rent a few. At least I still have the laptop to watch movies on. Bye for now...

Posted at 6:33 p.m.

September 5, 2005

A Week Off,

It's been a very busy last week for me -- as I'm sure you've guessed by my lack of blogging. I helped cover Toronto last week, stepped in to help out with Baltimore on Thursday when the O's had the whole situation with Sidney Ponson, and then I was the fill-in beat guy for Tampa Bay all weekend. Now, I'm off for this week until I cover Boston for a three-game series on Sep. 12-14 (beginning Monday).

I will have some stuff to do for MLB.com this week. Right now, I'm sitting waiting for a couple press releases for the Player of the Week and Month for the American League. MLB.com doesn't know if they will be announced today because of the holiday, but I still have to be ready just in case. If not, I'll be looking out for the same thing tomorrow. Then, I just have to write two short little articles on them -- nothing too fancy. On Thursday, I will have my final Minor League assignment when I do the weekly report for the New York Penn League. Other than that, though, it will just be a week to relax with Kell.

We might go see a movie tonight. We're debating between The Brothers Grimm, Transporter 2, and we want to see The Excorcism of Emily Rose when it comes out -- it looks like a newer version of the classic horror flick, The Excorcist, so it should be pretty creepy.

No more news on the job front. There are still a couple papers I've been talking to, though. And I'm still keeping an eye on anything with MLB.com -- you never know what could open up. Anyways, I just thought I would blog a little today to let you know what's been going on. I'll keep posting this week. I'm really looking forward to covering the Red Sox on Monday. Stay tuned...