It was very hard, sports-wise, to wait few more days to play the first softball game of Summer 2006. Worst thing was that whenever we planned to have a practice session, weather-gods played spoilsport. Finally, my waiting times came to an end on Tuesday as Grace Lutheran faced Houghton Baptist in the Church League opener. Game was pretty close, with both teams solid on defense and a bit crappy on offense in the beginning, till about 4th inning. Chye bros pulled off some Sports Center type of catches and our offense pretty much exploded the next inning, leading to a comfortable victory in the end. In an after-the-game party at the Downtowner, I had my first glass of beer - Budlight - it tasted pretty much like Diet Coke. Why did I decide to do that, you ask? I have waited long enough (to play softball this time), season started off, /me is batting at 1.000 avg, /me didn’t mess too much with fielding, we won the game one and friendly group of people - these are as good as any reasons can ever be! As an extra bonus, some beers are made out of wheat, barley and most beers are cheaper than wine. Just when I was about kick myself for having forgotten the camera in car, Amy came to my rescue - her sleek camera was there to document the event and if you still don’t want to believe, here is that picture

This is something I love about sports - a good day on field can (and will) often result in a very decent day off the field too and this is so true in my case. With some of the butterflies put to rest, I guess there has been some significant amount of progress research-wise too. We are just about to finish a manuscript and there has been no time that I have loved my Mac than now. One operating system does work of two - all my research packages open without much hassle, making my life so much more easier and enjoyable. Working on more project has also been fun and am looking forward to the next few weeks.

Talking more about other activities, last Sunday, I went to see Canyon Falls with a few friends of mine. I had tried this once last year, but had failed to realize that the trails leading to the falls start in a rest area. Past few days of heavy rains and a mild-to-severe floods in most of rivers meant that the Canyon Falls were in full glory. The current was pretty strong and could easily scare one to stay well off the waters. Needless to mention that /me took some nice pics and they should be posted pretty soon.

Coming back to Softball, we finally started the Graduate League this Thursday. Probably one of the most satisfying things has been to see many other teams come out and practice. I guess Team Fiziks’ committment (and its institution-like website) has been a chief factor in this and I am glad we have shown time and again that practice helps. Our first game was against Materials Science and Engineering — like almost every game against this team, we started off in a sloppy fashion and they lead us by a decent margin. Fortunately, our rustiness didn’t last too long and once we got into our Team Fiziks groove (cheering every play and lifting each other up), it wasn’t hard to contain. Added to this, Dr. Suits is undoubtedly one of the finest pitchers in this league. End result, not a very surprising one - our 24th straight undefeated game. In other words, we won by a margin of 14-4, which led to an after-party in KBC (well, you should know what that means - I got to taste Red Jacket Amber Ale, another not-so-great beer).

Talking about some major league sports, I learnt (pretty late) that Red Wings lost the play offs in the first round of NHL. The other team I care a lot more about, Detroit Pistons, have sucked very bad. After a near-50-point blowout over Cavaliers, series win should have been lot easier. Apparently, they were playing to live another day in Cleveland in game #6. Just as the stats go (they don’t lie), when Pistons are forced to look down the barrel trailing 2-3 in any play-off series, they come out blasting all cylinders to win the next game, irrespective of where it happens. I had seen this personally against the Spurs in last season’s Finals and having seen them beat the Heat in game #7 in Miami last year (in Eastern Conference Finals), I wouldn’t be surprised if Cavaliers get blown out this Sunday at the Palace!

Something that has been pissing me off badly is the following: all through the regular season, Pistons played great (if you didn’t know, they have the best record in the NBA this season), pulled off some amazing victories, never lost more than 2 games in a row — and no news channel (barring Fox Sports Detroit) ever showed or talked about them. But Rasheed Wallace makes his usual game #4 guaran-sheed thing and Pistons loose that game — every god-damned channel starts to pick on him (and rest of the Pistons). For an outsider, Rasheed’s comments might have sounded very cocky, but having followed them over last two years quite closely (and having been recepient of such criticism - not that our team lost any game), I strongly believe that it was due to confidence, having experience and practice as the foundation. Hope things will settle down and Pistons get better (and so will we).

Pistons weren’t always my favorite team, not in the least when I was growing up. Being a sports-fanatic since my childhood days, I remember watching a 30-minute sports show on Sundays. During the closing minutes of that show, usually international sports were covered and I clearly remember having repeatedly seen the heroics of Chicago Bulls, New York Yankees, LA Lakers from the major league sports. I still love Yankees and love for Lakers has been fading away, slowly and that for other teams (Cubs, White Sox, Braves, Packers, Patriots, Steelers, Seahawks, Bears, Cow Boys, Panthers, Broncos, Bengals, 49ers, Nuggets, Knicks, Nets, 76ers, Suns, Spurs, Heat, Mavericks, Cavaliers, …..) has been growing slowly. As far as NBA is concerned, I have nothing against any other team but just cannot support anyone but Pistons, at least as long as I live in Michigan and as long as they are in the play-offs