Christmas 2013
Au contraire mon frere.
I dig stats. I dig numbers. That's why I throw around all the stupid numbers that we keep and shake 'em about and try to make some kind of sense of them. December 21st is deeply significant; both from date tracking stand point AND to your psyche.
Lets start with the psyche. Today, the 21st, is the shortest day of the year in terms of minutes of sunlight. People think of late January and early February as being the dead of winter, and that is true from a temperature standpoint, but not in terms of sunlight. On the 21st there will be (or was) 9 hours and 31 minutes of viable sunlight. No wonder you're depressed. On the 22nd, there will be 9 hours and 32 minutes. On the 23rd 9 hours and 33 minutes. In fact, you won't even hit January and there will already be more than 10 minutes per day of more sunlight than there was on the 21st of December.
This is an important date to winter haters like me. From here on, everything gets better. This is the day that the corner is turned. A day of optimism, which I'm not very accustomed to. A day where I'm pretty damned sure that the light at the end of the tunnel is NOT a train.
The stars are beginning to align.
Not only are the days getting longer, but we've also hit the baseball equinox.
Huh?
The baseball equinox, which you find described in John: Chapter 7, Verse 43-48. "He who doth hurl and swing at said vexed spheriod, shall be forever damned if they do not praise all things divisible by three on equinox of baseball on December, 21st".
Alexander Cartwright? Abner Doubleday? Strike thee down, baseball has been around a lot longer than those folks. Its in the bible, for Cyrenius' sake, I have no choice. So, our playoffs which were won by the (head bowed) Draft Kings, ended on September 15th. The next league event where everyone is together is Draft Day which is tentatively scheduled for March 29th.
Those two events are a seemingly unbelievable 196 days apart! Yahweh, now I'm really depressed.
But wait, the baseball equinox is the half way point between these two events. So, 98 days from the end of the season and 98 days until the draft. And that, you guessed it, is December 21st. It only happens once every 127 years that that winter solstice and and baseball equinox fall on the same day. Tell your kids.
So we've learned 3 things.
1. After December 21st there is slightly more than a minute of sunshine more than the previous day.
2. After December 21st you are actually closer to next season than last season.
3. The bible has baseball quotes.
Now I think I may have a few editions of the BLOG as we go through January and February. People seem curious with the "goings on" and while I have very little insight, I'm happy to impart what little I do have. For one thing, our 2014 executive has been hard at work with improvement already! The lights at Keogh Park have been under repair for the passed few days.
Not the best picture, but you can see folks hard at work on the week leading up to Christmas.
Rob has been working hard coming up with ideas for the 2014 season that will push Grisslie antics to a higher level. We need a game schedule and a team rosters to fully plan things out, but there a some things that we know for sure.
1. Fan Appreciation Night will return! Rob is determined to make this bigger and better and involve as many teams as possible.
2. Rookie night will return. Ideally we'd like to do this with the Dodge City Rounders again, but it'll depend on the schedule, and truthfully, there a number of teams that would be a blast on rookie night.
3. Opening night antics.
4. The Grisslies Awards Banquet.
5. Events for famous people (Richard Gere, Starsky, The Whale, The Beechey, etc). Of course, those are in the books. Who's next is the question. If you played with someone who has a striking resemblance to Mr. Dressup or Hansel (He's so hot now), it would probably be a good idea to let us know. If you tell us, it gives us a target & keeps the heat off you.
6. Finding a new whipping boy to replace or add on to The Beechey. He was stellar. But like Doris, Tito, Chiasson and Doyle before him....it will get stale if it goes too long. But Mark and Danny will tell you, when stories get thin, I don't mind going back to this group for a chuckle.
7. And Rob is also talking about a preseason event too...(stay tuned for that one).
Oh, the 2014 Grisslies will be contributing in a large way to how the BLOG is designed this year and will also be driving the content. We'll explain this in preseason meeting with the new club.
Expect things to get fast and furious off the hop with our TOT Tournament being moved to early in the season, there will be a lot to do quickly a the beginning of the season.
So while I work on summarizing all the New Years resolutions that you all have submitted, have a safe and Merry Christmas.
