Last words of 2009 (barely)!.

OK so here we are at the very tail end of the year 2009. This past year has been OK for the most part, except I did lose two good friends in the latter half. I'll have some of the boring details of my year (maybe in a day or two) on my website Nesredna's Knook on my Year In Review page(s) there.

RANDOM PICTURE:

So Happy New Year all 4 or 5 (if that many) of you who read this silly Blog. I've been in shows with some of you, I've laughed with some of you, I may have cried with one or two of you, and one of you I might have... well never mind that I'll just edit this bit later. LOL!

Back To Classic Pinstripes.

I should have posted this a week or two ago, but didn't get around to writing it until now.

Anyway... Nick Johnson who at one time was the first baseman for my beloved Washington Nationals was traded to the Florida Marlins during the 2009 season. I first blogged about that on 31 July in my NO Nats NOT NICK! post.


Nick began his Major League Career with the New York Yankees in 2001. Around the time I wasn't really paying much attention to baseball let alone the "Damn Yankees".

Well then in 2003 at the end of the season he was traded to the Montreal Expos, it was around this time that I was beginning to get back into paying attention to baseball, a little before the talks about getting an MLB team back into DC started. Nick was with The Expos when they made the transition to become the Washington Nationals. Once the Expos/Nationals were established in DC I immediately followed them, since I had been a Senators fan from way back. Nick when he was healthy with the Nats was one of the best at finding a way to get on base. His On Base percentage is exceptional. I got used to seeing number 24 on first base for DC. That was until around the middle of this past 2009 season when the Nationals traded him to the Florida Marlins just before the deadline for mid-season trades. The Marlins switched his number to 20.

Well now Nick has traded in his "fishstripes" for the classic pinstripes of the Yankees. He signed a one-year contract 23 December, 2009 with the Yankees for a cool $5.5 Mil. Well he's back to his roots, I'm not too thrilled with the team he is on now, but I will still sort of keep track of his career (at least through baseball cards LOL). Well it looks like both numbers 20 and 24 are already taken on the Yankees Roster so I don't know what number he'll end up with.

A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Gas Pump.

Friday 04 December, 2009 While on my way home from work, I stopped to get gas at a Shell station that is about 4 or 5 miles from my apartment. It is somewhere between 6:30 and 6:45 PM. Well first I have to wait a little bit to get to a pump that will put my gas tank on the correct side. There was a spot that was in front of a minivan's rear-side (the van was facing me) the pumps right in front of me had cars. I had to squeeze between the van on my right and the car in front of me. To get to a right hand side pump that was free. As I'm going for that pump a car appears in front of me and is backing up, and unbeknown to me the van was now pulling away. So after an irate guy requests that I move back to the pump the van just now left. I start to go about my business.

Then a newsguy with his cameraman approaches the guy in front of me who apparently doesn't want to talk the news guy (Richard Reeve with WJLA-ABC 7) with his cameraman approaches me and asks me if I have a few minutes to answer some questions about the upcoming snow storm. I agree and I answer a few questions for about 3 minutes. The news guys leave. I Then go back to pumping my gas.

While I'm driving away I think "Cool, I'll probably end up on the 11 O'Clock News" which I did for about 3 seconds.

The main point of the news story was to tell about the upcoming winter storm we are supposed to get tomorrow evening and a new road treatment mixture they are going to try called "Ice Bite" which is a natrual organic blend of enzimes and beat molasass. Well if it works why not?

Here is a link to the video.
Region Readies for Winter's First Bite|ABC 7 News

Schneider-Man moves from NY to Phillie

Well once again my favorite current MLB catcher Brian Schneider is moving on to another team. This time he's going to Phillie. When I first got back into baseball around the time the Montreal Expos were set to become the Washington Nationals Brian "Schneider-Man" Schneider was their catcher. He began his Major League Career with the Expos in 2000, and was their starting catcher during the transition to Washington DC to become the Nationals in 2005 and my favorite current catcher in the game. He was with them until the off-season in Dec 2007 when he was traded along with outfielder Ryan Church (who is now on the Atlanta Braves) to the New York Mets for youngster Lastings Milledge (Now on the Pittsburgh Pirates). That trade really got me upset, but I started getting used to seeing Brian and Ryan in The Mets Blue and Orange (or are they Blue and Purple with black?).


Well now Brian is going to once again be wearing red.

Um remember this from 2007? The media seems to have all but forgotten. The media circus of the "Race to the Record" is a thing of the past, but it still turns my stomach every now and then.

OK I said wearing RED!

There that's better, except now he will be looking more like this:


Wait that's the guy he will be backing up Carlos Ruiz. Oh well you get the idea. Anyway Brian signed a 2-year deal with Phillie for $2.75 Million. Well now that sort of rounds out the NL East division with Ex-Nats, Schneider now with the Phillies, Church with the Braves, 1st Baseman Nick Johnson with the Marlins, and Pitcher Tim Redding with the Mets.