Crain Life

The Happy Fishermen

2008-08-11T23:56:00.001-07:00

Intramural softball at UCSD, something about playing against the college kids that makes me feel old.

Mobile blogging

2008-07-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just updated my blog and posted a photo right from my phone.
This new fangled tecnology is amazing.

Carin, you really don't have an excuse for not updating BTs blog since
Christmas.

Brian's First Beer

2008-02-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

Rarely are moments like this caught on film. Fortunately, through the magic of digital transfer is this incredible footage.

Padre Disappointment

2007-10-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

I'm over it already but I think it should be known, Holliday never touched home plate and here is the conclusive video evidence to prove it. Notice this is the same angle that the home plate umpire had. I think someone just wanted to go home after 13 innings.

Padre Status

2007-09-17T10:01:00.001-07:00

The lack of updates is by no means a reflection of my enthusiasm for baseball at the moment, particularly the Padres. After a great series of games on the road against the Mets and Phillies which included a stellar home stand against the Diamondbacks, taking 3 of 4, the Padres hit the skids a bit in Colorado, Arizona and LA but have turned it back on as of late. They currently find themselves just 2 games back of Arizona in the West and 1.5 games up on the Phillies for the wildcard with only 14 games left in the season.

Leading the way as of late has been the rookie 3rd baseman, Kevin Kouzmanoff, who is hitting .299 with 16 homers since May 1, and there's no reason to think he can't continue producing along those lines. I like the Padre's chances for the post season and I am confident the Pads can leap past the Diamondbacks with a little help from the Dodgers and Colorado to take the West! Hold on tight, no days off until the end of the regular season for the Pads.

The Crushin Russian watches another hot smash to the opposite field!

Classic Moment

2007-08-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've put something up here. So here is a classic moment from the past. Enjoy!

July 4th Festivities

2007-07-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

The fourth of July is almost upon us, a holiday which has always been a favorite of mine. As a child the 4th usually meant a day spent at the pool, hovering around the BBQ, watching the homemade ice cream turn and of course fireworks and sparklers. Nothing like tauting your younger sister with a blazing metal stick emitting glorious streams of white hot light. While I try and still keep with tradition, minus the tauting, I have recently added another event to the enjoyment of the holiday. So what is the wonder you ask? Well it is nothing less than amazing, it is Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest! It is the SuperBowl of competitive eating and biggest event held in the world for the International Federation of Competitive Eating or IFOCE for short.

For those of you that may not be familiar with the IFOCE and the hot dog eating contest, this event has been dominated for several years by Japan's Takeru Kobayashi, who has held the record for hot dogs consumed at 53.75 until recently. The United States' own Joey Chestnut broke Kobayashi's record earlier at another IFOCE sanctioned event by eating 59.5 hot dogs setting up the big July 4th match! Rumors have also begun to fly that Kobayashi may not be 100% due to an arthritic jaw but I believe he is just playing mind games with the young Chestnut. This year's big event will be broadcast live on ESPN on July 4th at 9AM (Pacific Time), don't miss it! Nathan's also makes a great dog for grillin so be sure to bring a pack to your July 4th BBQ. Just be careful if a eating contest breaks out. Lastly, reflexes contrary to swallowing are cause for disqualification.

I Wanna Pitch!

2007-06-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

On the week my Dad officially retired and while Roger Clemens can't commit to retirement I got a chuckle out of this video. I suppose if any of us could get paid a cool million for a day of work I might find it difficult to hang them up.

Congratulations on your retirement Dad! I highly recommend home brewing to fill your weekdays
Roger Clemens 2057

Father's Day

2007-06-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already heard I celebrated Father's Day by brewing the first batch of beer this calendar year. I can't believe it is already June and I am just now getting something into the fermenter, better late than never. For this brew session I went with a homebrew favorite Denny Conn's Rye IPA recipe! It's been fermenting away now for several days and smells heavenly already!!
That's 13 gallons of pure statisfaction!

Khalil OS

2007-06-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

You guys do know our shortstop is a robot right? His operating system has been revealed. For exclusive images of his recent wife click here.

Hilarious graphic below can be found at Gaslampball.com

What does this Family Guy clip and Dodger Fan have in common.....

2007-06-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

uncontrollable vomiting last night.... this is one of my all-time favorite "Family Guy" clips, Enjoy! Dodger Fan may want to advert the eyes.

NL West Analysis June 8th

2007-06-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Wow!! What a series against the Dodgers this week! Padres pull off the sweep with three very different games. Game 1, Padres win with 2 hits and 1 run which scored late in the game on 8th inning single with a runner on second. Game 2, Padres jump out to an early 5-0 lead and win 5-2 capped by Trevor's 500th career save. Last but not least, the Pads rally in the bottom of the ninth with 5 runs to win in dramatic fashion 6-5 to complete the sweep. Entering the series the Friars were a half game out of first and by the end of last night had taken sole possession of first place 1 game ahead of Arizona and 2-1/2 games up on LA. So what do the numbers look like compared to our last evaluation?? Lets look at the figures..

As you can see the Friars have been playing out of their minds! They have increased their run differential dramatically! You'll also notice that Arizona has also moved from the negative to positive side of the graph propelling them right into the thick of the NL West. The Giants remain a team that is a complete mystery looking a lot like Jeckle and Hyde from game to game.

The Father's open up interleague play tonight while on Sunday the Crain family is headed to the game for Ellen's first major league experience. I should have lots of images of the event posted to Ellen's World come next week.

Test your Padre knowledge

2007-05-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Think you know your 2007 San Diego Padres? Take this quiz and test your knowledge.

Here is another Padre puzzle for you fans out there. Enjoy the long weekend!!

Crossword answers available by clicking on the image below.

Looks like #2 and #10 Down were the stumpers for most people. Some of you might remember ramicackle from the days at Qualcomm when they would flash it across the score board following a hot smash. While even myself can't say I've seen a fungo up close and personal.

Until next quiz.....

Padres Win!!

2007-05-24T00:00:00.001-07:00

That's pretty much all I have to say. You can read all about it here. Time for me to get to bed as Ellen will be waking before I know it.

NL West Analysis May 22

2007-05-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

It's been a long time since I have posted lately. I've been so busy trying to keep Ellen's World updated that I really have neglected Crain Life. I figure most people rather see fresh content of Ellen anyway since she changes on a nearly daily basis. Speaking of which she is recently become infatuated with her feet! I got some really great shots of her playing with them and will post them soon at Ellen's World.

Moving on to other things, after Ellen hits the sack I usually take in several innings of the Padre's game. This season has been more of same compared to last two years, which isn't a bad thing! The games are usually low scoring which makes for close and dramatic endings. I don't know this for sure but I'd be willing to bet the Pads probably have played the most extra inning games in MLB. Currently, the Padres find themselves just a half game out of first place in the NL West just behind the Dodgers, who have been struggling as of late. With the Cubs in town who have also not played great as of late the Friars could find themselves in first after tonight. While looking over the standings I also noticed an interesting trend which doesn't really completely surprise me since I keep a pretty close eye on statistics but I thought I would share it with those baseball fans which might not.

Below is the amount of runs scored by each team (blue bar) in the NL West along with the amount of runs scored against them (red bar).

Nothing terribly exciting.... most of the teams have scored similar amounts with the edge slightly going to the Giants. The Padres are just ahead Arizona and Colorado the latter of which play half their games a mile high. Albeit, Coors field is not the Coors field it use to be with the installation of humidors to store game balls. Maybe the Padres are not the woeful offensive team we were led to believe. Before you protest, I will confess they aren't exactly knocking cover off the ball but they do break out every once in awhile. They lack consistency at the plate and generally don't hit well in clutch situations.

So if everyone is so close in runs scored what does separate them you ask??? The answer lies in the pitching. Below is a graph of the differential of the runs scored minus runs allowed adjusted for each game.

Wa La! The Padres are head and shoulders above the rest of the division. Their inconsistency at the plate explains why they are not at the head of the division. The teams are ordered from left to right as of May 22nd in their respective places. What is also interesting is the two young teams in the division, Arizona and Colorado, are both in the red! It's hard to win games when you give up more runs than you score. Not looking so good for the Rockies. I really thought they stood a better chance this season.

Well I hope this extra long post makes up for the lack of content recently. Cubs in town to face the Padres with Peavy on the mound tonight. Should be good one. Any game Jake starts has a really excellent chance at being a WIN!

Padres open season versus Giants

2007-04-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

Baseball fans rejoice the season has begun!!! Before I continue the screaming baby is not Ellen, as she will never wear the colors of the enemy as long as I can stop her. I just found this image to be quite humorous after the Padres took the first 2 games like candy from a a baby.

My Padres opened the season Tuesday by taking 2 out of 3 against the Giants. The Padres looked strong in all 3 games and nearly swept the Giants, falling short in the last inning. This team shows no quit and even though they lost again last night in the home opener they once again fought till the end! I expect great things from this team. In just the first few games of the season people are already starting to take notice.

"Now, one of our preseason whipping boys, the Padres, could further our anguish. See, we did pick the Padres to finish dead last in the NL West. We just don't like their offense. But our numerous critics reminded us in the Power Rankings feedback how we are overlooking perhaps the division's best pitching staff.
Touché.
Jake Peavy could really make us look bad picking his team last. As could third-year breakout starter Chris Young and the best starting pitcher you might have never heard of, Clay Hensley. And that doesn't mention a bullpen fronted by future Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman, free-agent-to-be (and closer) Scott Linebrink and another unheralded arm, Cla Meredith."

NEWS IN BRIEF

2007-04-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

My friend Kelly gave me this really great Onion calendar with a different Onion related topic each day. I thought today's was so apropos I had to share it with everyone.

Internet Collapses Under Sheer Weight Of Baby Pictures

SAN FRANCISCO—Many web users were trapped without service Monday, when a large section of the Internet collapsed under the weight of the millions of baby pictures posted online.

2007-03-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this picture for some time but unfortunately it kept slipping my mind. Thanks to Jonathan for kindly doing so and now I'd like to share it with everyone. I think you'll get a kick out of it.

Can you spot which one of these things is not like the others?

NL West Predictions 2007

2007-03-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

The NL West has quietly become a pitching rich division. With such names as Barry Zito, Greg Maddux and the return of Randy Johnson and David Wells. Not to mention the young talent of Arizona's Brandon Webb and of course home town hero Jake Peavy, this could be one of MLB's most competitive division.

Without further wait here are my predictions for the 2007 NL West.

San Diego Padres I know this pick might not carry the weight that it should being I'm a San Diego homer but I truly believe this team is more talented than last year and will three-peat as NL West Champs. Heck I'll even go out on a limb and predict they will win the division wire-to-wire. Strong offensive production from young hitters like "A-Gon" (Adrian Gonzalez, 1B) and a break out year from the "Crushin Russian" (Kevin Kouzmanoff, 3B) will put this team ahead of the pack while the deep bullpen and strong starting pitching will keep them there for the season. I anticipate better success this post season! Also look for Khalil Greene and Jake Peavy to improve from last year's mediocre performances.
Los Angeles Dodgers This young team with veteran leadership from Nomar and Jeff Kent reminds me a lot of the Padres. The Dodgers stand to give the Padres the most competition this season in the division but like the last several years the Pads have the Dodgers number.
Arizona Diamondbacks New look but same result. The Snakes and Randy Johnson reunite for a farewell tour but he is not the same pitcher as in 2001 when they were World Series Champs. Arizona will compete and find themselves near the top of the West for most of the season but they just don't have the talent yet to get them any higher than second place.
Colorado Rockies Of all the picks thus far this might be the most risky one by putting the Rox ahead of the Gigantes. The Rockies have shown improvement these last few seasons and have a real chance of finishing above 500 this year. So does every team in this division though. The Purple Dinosaur will finally find its way out the cellar.
San Francisco Giants Despite the off season signings of Barry Zito and Dave Roberts, which will prove to be unwise in years to come, the Giants will struggle to be competitive in the NL West. The former Padre skipper Bruce Bochy will have success in seasons to come but this first year at the helm will be a rough one. Giant fan will still celebrate the tainted record breaking homeruns of Barry as he takes the all time homerun record away from Hammering Hank Aaron. I only wish he does it away from the friendly confines of Phone Co. Park and is booed relentlessly has he circles the bases.

I'm sure my picks will be wildly criticized but only time will tell. If you have any predictions now is the time to lay them on me before the season starts. I believe it is going to be an entertaining one. Can't wait to take Ellen to the ballpark! Play Ball!

My List

2007-03-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to compile a list of some of my favorite places to eat and drink in San Diego for some time but it is only now that I have made the effort . Maybe it is the fact that Ellen's arrival has severly cut down on our ability to go out to eat that I found longing for them. Well here is the start of the list. I hope people find the information useful for those planning trips to San Diego or just trying to find some where new to try.

Let's play ball!

2007-03-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

Well it is that time of year again. The boys of summer are back and spring training is in full swing. The approaching season of baseball brings daily games and the ritual box score reading in the evening before bed and mornings before work. It also means the grass around the house will become thick and lush and will require weekly mowing once again. Something I do not necessarily relish.

So before the season begins it is time for my NL West predictions. For some reason I did not post them last year but I did find my predictions for 2005. For those that don't remember you can view them for yourself in the archives.

In summary here were my 2005 NL West predictions.

San Diego
Arizona
Giants
Los Angeles
Colorado

So how did I do come the end of the season you say? Results from baseballreference.com

West Division
Team           W   L  WL%  GB
SanDiego SDP  82  80 .506  --
Arizona  ARI  77  85 .475  5.0
SanFranc SFG  75  87 .463  7.0
LosAngls LAD  71  91 .438 11.0
Colorado COL  67  95 .414 15.0

A perfect match! I like to think I know the NL West well I only wish I had made predictions last year. Nothing is more important that reproducibility! Now that I have proven my greatness, for the time being, I invite you come back soon as I plan to post my 2007 picks shortly. You might want to take these babies to Vegas I'm so money!

Beer, Nuts and Padres

2007-02-25T23:48:00.000-08:00

These images probably belong over at Ellen's World but I have negelcted this site so much as of late I thought it was only fair to post something fresh. Besides with a title like Beer, Nuts and Padres you know the content is for me. So this weekend Ellen and I spent some quality time together. Starting with a some yard work around the house followed by a little homebrew and wasabi almonds.

Bochy

2007-02-10T23:19:00.000-08:00

So I wrote these thoughts down back at the end of October of last year after former Padre skipper Bruce Bochy left San Diego for the hated Giatns. For some reason I did not post them until now.

With the baseball season quickly approaching I'm beginning to become very excited. As this will be the first oppurtunity for Ellen to attend her first major league baseball game!!!

Change is good and it has been awhile since the Pads had a new manager. I believe the role of a manager can be a little overrated at times and I fully expect the Pads to continue winning in the seasons to come with someone else at the helm.
The qualities that made Boch a good manager were also the ones that drove me crazy at times. His ability to provide clearly defined roles for players gave those players a since of purpose and often times is what is needed to make people successful. However it was those same defined roles/plans that made his so predictable that it really became a tired act. I got sick of the right/lefty match ups and at times really would have liked to see Bruce go against the grain (Bellhorn's at bat with the bases loaded against the Cardinals... WTF??).
My biggest fear is that the Boch might take free agents like Dave Roberts and Mike Piazza with him to SF. San Diego has a core of good young players to build on if they do not extend Roberts and Piazza contracts. These veteran players might not come back and I could live with that, but seeing them in Giant uniforms would be a unfortunate!
We need a well respected baseball man to take his place. Running some guy out there with little to none managerial experience could send the wrong message to the players. We also need someone with the SoCal vibe not some drill sargent!
Boch is French!
Lastly, the Giants have a guy in Boch whose size of his melon rivals that of Barry's. Only difference is Boch fills his with chicklets and carne asada while Barry's is purely hGH. Good luck getting that good asada in NoCal frenchy!

Get your Skype on!

2007-01-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

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Hey Everyone! So Kathleen, Ellen, Elizabeth and I just had our first video chat with Amanda and Trever this morning! I had purchased a webcam through Amazon.com, installed it in a matter of minutes and were up and chatting in no time at all. It was an amazing experience! Not only were we able to see Amanda and Trever's friendly faces but they also gave us a brief tour of their home. Brief meaning just the immediate room which they were in, due to the length of the cable the cam was attached with, interesting none the less.

So how do you get in on this great experience?? I'm glad you asked. You can follow the banner above to Skype.com and download the free software that allows you chat online to other Skype users for free. You can also make calls to land lines worldwide for small fee. If you are going to chat with video you'll need a webcam. Lastly, you can view my Skype status and contact me directly from the right side bar of this website. Hope to Skype you soon!

Babies, Chargers and Padres

2007-01-21T11:09:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't heard and haven't seen all the pictures, Ellen Elizabeth Crain was born last week! Since then Ellen's World has been flooded with videos and pictures on a nearly daily basis. So make sure you take a moment to visit Ellen she just might be the cutest thing you ever see.

As for non-baby related news the Chargers promising season fizzled quickly in the post season as so many San Diego sports teams do. In an ironic twist it was the day we brought Ellen home that the Chargers lost in their first playoff game while their previous post season game also ended on a heart breaking loss 2 years ago on the day we brought Gypsy home. Note to self, do not bring another new family member home during a Charger post-season game.

So now that the football season is over, in respect to San Diego, it is time to turn our attention to the Padres. Who have quietly been amassing a respectable roster. In a free agent market which has seen some absurd contracts (i.e. Soriano, Gary Matthews Jr, Zito) the Padres have made smart moves in not over extending themselves and positioning another run at a division title, which would give them 3 straight. So if you are not a Padre's fan what are these roster changes? To list a few.....

2B Barfield traded to Cleveland for a promising and much needed 3B, Kouzmanoff.
Sign free agent 2B Marcus Giles, current Padre right fielder Brian Giles younger brother.
Sign free agent starting pitcher Greg Maddux.
Re-sign starting pitcher David Wells.

While these signings are not the blockbuster moves Padre fans were looking for they are changes that make a solid team even better in my opinion. With a starting pitching rotation of Peavy, Wells, Young, Maddux and Hensley you have a good mix of veterans and youth. The biggest question marks remain the offense with new comers like M Giles and Kouzmanoff whose productivity is undetermined. Will Kahlil Greene have a healthy full season? Can Sledge make left field his? Will Josh Bard continue to succeed at catcher now that he is out of the shadow of Piazza? All of these questions will help determine the Padre's success next season but they do not concern me as much as fans of other teams in the NL West should be concerned about their team. In short the Padre's have less holes and more upside.