I've had a very sore neck, back and shoulders for the last couple of weeks so I haven't written much over that time. It's still not 100% and I'm beginning to feel as though it never will be. But I am good enough that I can spread my infinite wisdom to our readers. You're welcome.
Jeff Samardzija was named the opening day starter. A year ago it was a far fetched dream that he could even stick around in the rotation. The idea of him one day being an opening day starter would probably would have resulted in my death due to laughter. He's earned it. I'm skeptical he's the best starter on this team, but he had a fantastic 2012 season and has more than proven he's a starting pitcher. He's more than proven that I don't know shit about baseball, which I already knew anyway.
Matt Garza is out for at least a month. Assuming no setbacks, he could be back on the mound in May, but assuming no setbacks is kind of silly. Setbacks are a part of the healing process. Hopefully Garza can avoid them, but I wouldn't bet any money on it. He's definitely going to be trade bait again at the deadline so missing the first month isn't ideal. It's certainly better than being put on the DL days before the deadline. However, he's looking at having only 10 or so starts by the time teams start seriously looking for upgrades. Considering the injuries over the last year, teams probably shouldn't expect a perfectly healthy Garza if they trade for him. The Cubs asking price will have to come down.
Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Marmol could be trade bait. Duh. You know who else could be trade bait? Just about any player not named Anthony Rizzo or Starlin Castro.
Rizzo has helped lead Italy to the 2nd round of the WBC. The US nearly found a way to be eliminated after the 1st round, but a convincing finish to their game yesterday moves them forward. Good thing Hugo Chavez wasn't around to watch his team be eliminated in the 1st round. He'd probably have had a heart attack. And died.
Plastic grocery bags or reusable bags? Most of the time I use the reusable kind, but every once in awhile I want the plastic ones for various tasks.
Speaking of grocery bags, I was in the store yesterday. The dairy section is at the back, which kind of pisses me off because if there's one thing I run to the store to get most often it's milk. Put it at the front of the store.
Anyway, I picked up some milk and as I turned around a bottle of Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout was staring right at me. I paused and stared back. Then I started thinking.
- I can drink.
- It would be fun to get drunk.
- Just this once.
- I've gone years without a drink so I deserve it.
- Just get it.
- It's no big deal.
- I'll go back to being sober tomorrow.
- I'm going to get drunk tonight.
- Probably only need 2 or 3 since it's been so long.
- What's the worst that can happen?
- 0 days sober
- Turns around and moves on.
I haven't had a drink in almost 12 years and I very nearly convinced myself to have a drink yesterday. I wasn't even craving it. The damn thing just stared at me and I don't back down from a staring contest. Ask my dog.
I realized something yesterday that surprised me. For one thing, I haven't craved a drink or drugs for a very long time. Secondly, I can still justify using just as well as I could when I was using. You never forget that. Finally, going back to 0 days sober scared the shit out of me. It scared me so much that I didn't give it another thought.
You'll see on tv and movies how some recovering addicts can tell you the exact number of days they've been sober even if those days number in the thousands. I've never met anyone that could do that. Most of the addicts I've known tend to lose count at about 300 days. Even at 6 months you gradually refer to your sobriety in months and not days. By the 2nd year it's by the half year. When you get to 10 it's like you're a child again. 10 going on 11. I'm at 11 going on 12.
For the record, my handy dandy calculator tells me that I'm over 4000 days sober. If I ended up drinking yesterday, I wouldn't be 4000 days sober until 2024, which is probably about the time the Cubs have a shot to win a championship.
Dale Sveum talked about how the Cubs need more offense. It won't be the last time he says that.
Ian Stewart is out another week or so. That's about the time at which the Cubs can cut Stewart from their roster and only pay him a small portion of the salary. Odds on the Cubs releasing Stewart before then? A couple weeks ago I thought they were pretty good, but I'm surprised it hasn't been done already. Josh Vitters is also out another week, but who cares?
Bicycle helmets or no? I haven't done much biking for a long time, but I believe each person should be able to decide for themselves whether they wear one or not. Phil Birnbaum believes the law has more to do with morality than rational thought.
So would you say you’re “day-to-day”?
Hope the back feels better.
Re: Stewart, various Chicago media scribes have suggested that the Cubs are unlikely to cut him but may in fact just put him on the DL to start the season so he’s not as crammy. Probably has a bit to do with the Luis Valbuena/Brent Lillibridge platoon that they have as the contingency plan.
Rice Cube wrote:
Aren’t we all?
@ Rice Cube:
I don’t really understand the fascination with Stewart.
@ dmick89:
…and therein lies the joke
It’s not a particularly good joke though.
@ Rice Cube:
I love it when teams say a player is day to day. The healthiest player in baseball is day to day.
@ dmick89:
It might be a pride thing (though that might not be that big with this particular front office) where they don’t want to get rid of a guy that they acquired while shipping away former Cubs legend Tyler Colvin.
I think it has more to do with the fact that when/if healthy, Ian Stewart has more power potential than the other alternatives. And his contract is still relatively cheap. So it’s basically the equivalent of me putting $20 on black in Vegas hoping to double my investment. If I win, yay. If I lose, I simply stop gambling. It’s obviously still $2MM, but that’s pocket change to the Cubs for a chance to be better than Valbuena/Lillibridge, even if that chance is less than Lloyd Christmas scoring with Mary Samsonite.
Good on you for the sobriety, mb.
Other random crap to add: Adrian Cardenas is #committed to staying hidden. No one knows where he went. I have alerted the authorities, and then gave up on the search.
Rice Cube wrote:
Yeah, that is true. I was in the store looking for doggy crap bags and they didn’t have any, and then some friendly shopper told me they were a scam anyway, you can get human crap bags (i.e. for disposing of diapers) for a fraction of the price in the baby aisle.
I bought the diaper bags, which were indeed less than half the cost of dog bags, but I wouldn’t buy them again. First of all, they smell like baby power. And second of all, they are pretty transparent, which is pretty disgusting when you’ve filled one with dog shit. I don’t know what that lady was thinking.
Bubbles has come to the conclusion that he is an alcoholic. He is going to try and stop drinking after his brothers wedding this weekend. The thing is bubbs really likes to drink
@ Suburban kid:
My wife has found the opposite. She buys up the doggy poop bags (and the bone shaped holder) for $1 occasionally and stocks up on them. We have 2 dogs, but the poop bags are in the diaper bag for the 4 month old.
Way to stay strong and make new blog posts even though you aren’t 100%
@ WaLi:
When are they trading DMick to the Diamondbacks? Such grit.
We were thinking of putting dmick89 on the DL, but our replacement-level blogger is Al Yellon.
FWIW, the urge to smoke still his me on occasion, and it’s been like 8 years since I had a cigarette.
WaLi wrote:
He’s committed.
@ Myles:
Does Al still write game reports on 50 year old games? Why doesn’t OV blog do that again?
@ Suburban kid:
This sounds like a great idea.
BRB writing my next post
@ mikeakaleroy or elroy or Mackel-roy or whatever.:
I like to purchase the bags to pick up while I’m walking her. I don’t trust the grocery bags to not have holes in them and i really don’t want to touch my dog’s shit. It’s just one of those things that I am strongly against.
I use the plastic grocery bags for other reasons though. In the winter I only pick up the back yard once or twice a week and that’s if there isn’t any snow on the ground. In the summer I do it daily and I use the grocery bags to do that (along with a little trowel because I really don’t like touching poop).
As has already been mentioned, the plastic grocery bags are good for small trash cans around the house, it’s a good way to pack a few things to take with you in the car. There’s always a need for them and I would much rather get them for free than paying for them.
@ WaLi:
I’m the scrappiest Cubs blogger around. I put the blog before my health.
mb, did you get in a car accident? Or is this what happens to the body when you approach SK’s age?
@ JonKneeV:
Maybe that’s it. I’m just getting old.
I really was going to write about a mid-30′s Cubs game but I got really bored. I wonder how Al does it.
Thanks for sharing that piece of yourself.
Brett wrote:
Ya, reuseable grocery bags is a hot topic right now.
I order bulk poop bags from Amazon. They claim to be biodegradable, so that’s nice. And they store in the little poop bag holder. The plastic grocery bags don’t work as well as these because they might have holes. These are great for camping when you don’t want to use the port-a-potty.
bubblesdachimp wrote:
There are at least two things that every addict will say at one point in his or her life and they’re in this order.
1. I want to quit, but I just love it. I have so much fun.
2. I used to think that I loved to use. I used to think it was fun, but I realize how miserable I was.
Every recovering addict says some variation of those two things in that order.
The best portrayal I’ve seen of Alcoholism on TV was with Leo on The West Wing. It was the first show I ever saw that tried to seriously presenet a character with alcoholism. I’d never thought about alcoholism much, but for some reason it was the first time that I realized how amazingly tough it is to live with an addiction, and how difficult it can be for someone like me to truly understand what it’s like.
Well done Dmick, thanks for sharing. Good luck.
Agreed shopping bags are a last resort for poop collection. I use them as trash bags and to store homemade bread, but I wouldn’t care if they cost. In north Champaign, there is a super gross empty lot downwind of the Walmart covered it Walmart bags. If the money goes to clean that up, I’ll gladly pay (on days when I forget my reusables). In the scheme of things, plastic grocery bag pollution is minor to negligible compared to agricultural pollution and fossil fuel burning.
I wish, instead of a bunt tournament, we had a coach who laughed at the idea and said, “only pitchers and Tony Campana should be bunting regularly, so what’s the point?”
@ josh:
It might qualify as over-thrifty, but I check the bags for holes and separate them into poop bags vs. general garbage bags as soon as the groceries are put away. I don’t see that as a major inconvenience and it takes all of like two minutes to do. Especially when I just jack an entire string of bags that haven’t been used yet, those almost never have holes in them.
You guys use bags to pick up dog shit? Why don’t you just pick it up with a shovel and throw it in your neighbor’s yard?
@ Rice Cube:
I’m too lazy for all that. I just buy biodegradable poo bags.
Plastic bags also work for diapers in a pinch, though I have wetbags for them (we use cloth diapers). Whatever. The point is that I could live without them.
@ Mucker:
It helps that mine is a min-pin/chihuahua
@ Rice Cube:
I try to move to a neighborhood that somebody has the same kind of dog I have. That way I can let my dog shit in their yard and they’ll just think it’s their dog’s shit.
@ josh:
We are almost 100% sure we are doing cloth diapers except for when traveling. What is your take on them?
@ Mucker:
I have no idea where the article is now but I recall reading that in some regions they mandate that pet owners have their pets’ DNA on file so if they don’t pick up the nuggets, the poop can be traced back to the offender. Doesn’t seem very cost-effective to me, but as long as you don’t live in those areas I think your plan will work.
@ Rice Cube:
Seriously? That seems a bit extreme. Somebody must have really gotten pissed off about picking up some other dog’s shit.
It’s worked for 7 years.
@ Edwin:
It’s funny that you mention The West Wing. I emailed Aisle424 last night about that show (should I watch the 2nd half or not?). I watched the first 4 seasons, but I only vaguely remember Leo’s alcoholism.
Berselius and I were talking one time about how tv shows and movies depict addiction. They don’t do a very good job. Most of them have a tendency to show it over a period of episodes and then, bam, problem solved. It’s like the guy starts drinking heavily (or using another drug) on Tuesday and by Friday the entire family is having a meeting and they get them to go to rehab.
dmick89 wrote:
It’s possible, I suppose, but I doubt it. As far as I know, no one has been able to make plastic from cellulose (or some other bio-hydrocarbon) at anywhere near the necessary efficiency. Oil is cheap. Natural gas could also be used, of course.
Let me know if you find a source for that.
@ Rice Cube:
(dying laughing)
New Shit
I don’t have a dog, but one of my neighbors does. I found the dog taking a dump on my lawn, so I passive-aggresively took out my pitching wedge and chipped the poop into her backyard (it’s fenced off). Problem solved!
@ GW:
Just did a quick search and this was the first link (did not read anything other than two paragraphs): http://savetheplasticbag.com/ReadContent667.aspx
Also only read two paragraphs: http://greenreview.blogspot.com/2008/08/plastic-bags-are-bad-but-they-are-not.html
I’m somewhat confused, but that’s probably because I only read a couple paragraphs. (dying laughing)
Re: The bag law, in my mind it’s just so simple. If you know that your law is going to do the exact opposite of what you intend (ie increase oil usage), don’t pass it. A gas tax would have been so much more effective in that regard. But adding a few cents at the pump doesn’t do anything to make the scenery at the grocery store conform more closely to their idyllic view of what the world should look like.
Brave
Big
Strong
Heroic
way to go!
That was an impressive act of sobriety!