Cardinal Girl

Game Haiku - 08/09/08 - Cardinals 12, Cubs 3

2008-08-10T07:03:20Z

Glaus breaks out of slump
with two homers. Cards keep drunks
on Waveland scrambling.

Game Haiku - 08/08/08 - Cubs 3, Cardinals 2

2008-08-10T06:45:26Z

A loss is a bit
less painful, when my old crush
Jim knocks two homers.

Cubs Haikuist wants
a war. I will battle with
all 17 guns.

Game Haiku - 08/07/08 - Dodgers 4, Cardinals 1

2008-08-10T06:41:06Z

The Dodgers' rookie
pitcher Clayton Kershaw stumps
Cards hitters. P'shaw!

Game Haiku - 08/06/08 - Cardinals 9, Dodgers 6

2008-08-10T06:32:25Z

Ludwick ties record
homering in fifth straight game
plus, Pujols grand slam!

Cardinals, MLB unveil '09 All-Star logo | MLB.com: News

2008-08-06T17:34:31Z

Oh man, I wanna go!

Game Haiku - 08/05/08 - Cardinals 6, Dodgers 4

2008-08-06T17:30:33Z

Bullpen lets Carp down.
Ludwick's 11th inning
walk-off jack saves game.

Central Division Competition Heats Up in Haiku

2008-08-06T17:16:32Z

I got an email from Dustin Block, a fellow haiku enthusiast and Brewers fan. Dustin's blog is Brew Crew Haiku and features daily haiku game recaps. He challenged me to a haiku war during the 2-game Brewers/Cards series at the end of August. Unfortunately, I'll be unable to accept the challenge since I'll be at Burning Man without access to the internet or my cell phone, completely cut off from all things baseball. But hopefully we can have a haiku duel down the road. I also noticed on Dustin's site, there's a blog called The Cubs in Haiku. Now if somebody would just start haiku sites for the Astros, Reds, and Pirates, we could cover the whole division 5/7/5 style!

Carpenter is back. So is CardinalGirl.

2008-08-04T04:47:32Z

Hello dear readers, CardinalGirl is back! I have a goal to be a faithful blogger for the remainder of the season. OK, there will be about 10 days where you won't hear from me because I'll be out of internet and cell range at Burning Man, but other than that, I'll be here!

It's not that I haven't been paying attention to the Cards. I have, somewhat, and I've been impressed at their performance overall and glad to see them in the thick of the chase in what we all expected to be a rebuilding year. I've just had a very busy summer. First off, I met a fella, who doesn't like baseball but has enough other good qualities that I can overlook this (and perhaps he can be trained). Secondly, I've had some visitors from St. Louis and New York, so I've been playing tourguide. Check out my pics from Disneyland and Legoland. I threw a birthday party for The Edgar Winter Dog, with a doggie cake and an agility trainer giving lessons to Edgar and his canine pals. I also took a trip to Albuquerque and Roswell, where I attended the UFO Festival. Work has been busy, and I co-captained the Google team at the Santa Monica Relay for Life (we raised $12,000 to fight cancer - it's not too late to donate!) and led the planning on the Google Santa Monica and Irvine offices joint summer picnic, which we had at Long Beach on Friday.

Phew! I'm out of excuses. If Carpenter can come back from Tommy John surgery, the least I can do is write some daily haikus.

Game Haiku - 08/03/08 - Phillies 5, Cardinals 4

2008-08-04T04:44:21Z

Glaus' late homer
gives hope, but Lidge causes that
hope to slide away

Game Haiku - 05/23/08 - Cardinals 2, Dodgers 1

2008-05-24T22:14:39Z

They say it never
rains in Southern Cal. They lie.
Cards weather the storm.

Trip to Petco Park

2008-05-24T22:03:38Z

Tuesday, I drove down to San Diego from LA to catch the Cardinals game. Unfortunately, I picked the one game of the three they lost, making me 0-2 this season. I was really impressed with Petco Park - very cool place to watch a game. We were sitting in field level seats, between third base and left field. As usual, there were quite a few Cardinal fans in the house.

Foodwise, I sampled their big hot dog which was probably the biggest I've seen and cost like $7 or something insane like that. It was good but nothing really special - not up to the Dodger Dog level.

I think the coolest aspect of Petco Park is the construction that incorporate the old Western Metal Supply Company building into the stadium, so there are actual luxury boxes in the building. They shot off some nice fireworks when Kouzmanoff hit his game-winning 3-run homer, but of course I wasn't cheering. I'd love to go back next season when the Cards visit - hopefully with a better outcome.

Game Haiku - 05/20/08 - Padres 3, Cardinals 2

2008-05-24T21:04:49Z

Troy Glaus shines in his
homecoming game; Kouzmanoff's
three-run shot sinks Cards

Scary Moment at Petco

2008-05-24T20:55:48Z

It was a scary moment at Petco Park on Wednesday, when Padres pitcher Chris Young got hit in the face by an Albert Pujols' line drive. Fortunately, Young wasn't knocked out and emerged with only a broken nose. Albert immediately went to check on Young to make sure he was okay. Albert knocked out two Padres unintentionally in the inning, after sliding home into catcher Josh Bard's foot, leaving him with a sprained ankle. Tony took him out of the game, as he was clearly shaken up. Read the full news story here and Albert's comments.

Warning: the video is not for the faint of the heart.

Game Haiku - 05/12/08 - Brewers 8, Cardinals 3

2008-05-13T06:00:38Z

Yadi ejected,
turned fight with ump into a
Chippendales try-out

Check out the video of Yadier Molina fighting with the ump and leaving his catcher's equipment scattered on the field in disgust. Tony got tossed too, for coming to his catcher's defense. Tony kept his uniform on.

Cal Ripken, Jr. Comes to Google

2008-04-20T04:05:12Z

On Thursday, I had the exciting opportunity to see Cal Ripken, Jr speak. I work for Google in the Santa Monica office, but this week I'm in New York where Cal was visiting our NYC office as a stop on his book tour. I'm a member of the team that puts on authors events at Google. In our various offices, we've had everyone from Jane Smiley to the Iron Chef to Hilary Clinton. You can watch many of these talks on You Tube. In fact, here's a link to a recent event I organized in Santa Monica featuring the "Too Hot Tamales" chefs. I will post the link to the video of Cal's talk when it goes live.

Anyway, it was a thrill to see this Hall of Famer in person and I have to report he was incredibly nice and generous with his time. He spent over an hour at the office, talking about his new book: Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverence that Make the Difference. He answered questions, signed books, and even posed for pictures with fans (like me!). He went the extra mile and signed book plates that will be sent to Googlers in remote offices who had tuned into the talk via videoconference (typically they would receive books for attending but obviously not have the chance to get them autographed).

Cal is a dynamic speaker. He told some funny stories related to his book, such as how "stubbornness" can be a good or bad quality depending on the extreme (at times his dad took it too far as evidenced by some amusing anecdotes, but stubbornness helped Cal Jr. reach his consecutive game record). In talking about the streak, he described some challenges, such as negotiating with his wife so that he might be able to skip the birth of their second child if it would cause him to miss a game. He told her that if he broke the streak on that day, then their son's birthday would always be known as the day the streak died and baseball fans lost hope in Cal to save the game. ;) Fortunately for everyone, the baby was born on an off day.

One of the eight pillars Cal spoke about was "life management." He described how he took a proactive role in his relationship with his managers. He would meet with them before the season and tell them what he needed to do to be successful (i.e., not playing in every spring training game, but instead spending time in the weight room, watching video, etc.). He said managers appreciated his candor and respected his methods, while many of his teammates never considered this approach and instead just complained about the way they were being managed.

A Googler asked (or more accurately, begged) Cal to take an active role in the Orioles as a manager, GM, or even owner. Cal laughed it off, suggesting we pass the hat and all the Googlers chip in to buy the team. He gave a noncommittal answer, saying for now he wanted to not be tied to a long baseball schedule while his kids were still in high school. So cheer up, Orioles fans, he may be back in a couple years!

I look forward to reading the book, and I can see why Cal is finding success as a corporate speaker.

Thank you, Cal, for taking the time to visit Google!