Streak Speak - July 29

Getting close to the end of the month and yesterday was less than desirable, a dismal 1-2. I seem to be doing well getting the first pick of the day on the board right. Dynamo Dresden took away a 1-0 win, but the tennis pick after that was close, but the American Isner won it straight sets. Then the favored Connecticut Sun get bounced by 15 at home. Note to self: stop picking WNBA games. The one win kept me on top of hte group for the month as Tim went 2-0 yesterday. So I'm still up, but just 47-46 today. I'm pretty sure we both have the first pick today as well...

Today the Auid cup starts in Munich and both openers start the day. I'm taking Manchester United over Boca Juniors, only because it looks like most of their starting XI will be playing today. They're expecting a competitive game, and as much as the draw scares me, I'm going with Man U. In the 2nd game, right now Bayern Munich Win is down in the picks 87-13 to AC Milan Win/Draw. Milan doesn't look the same as they have in past year, and this is a team that last week lost all 3 games in the World Football Challenge and drew with the LA Galaxy. Munich is also looking to get a lot of their normal starters into the mix, so I think I'm gonna go with the home team. Finally, I'll probably skip down to the next soccer match: the MLS All-Star game at 9:30. The MLS All-Starts are 5-0 against foreign clubs and Everton just started preseason training with their first match on Sunday, a 1-0 loss to River Plate. 3 soccer fixtures and at this point I'm hoping for a 2-1 day. Best case scenario I win the race to 50 today and don't have to try and scrape it out tomorrow and Friday. I'll worry about actually getting a streak going again next month because I'm officially back to the W1, L1, W2, L1, W1, L2 days of the beginning of the month. I would love a short streak to wrap the month up though. It would be really cool to end the month over .700.

Streak Speak - July 28

It seems I have returned to the up and down days of late June. Bringing a W1 into the day, I got my first soccer pick right as AGF Aarhus knocked off Randers FC on the road 3-2 in a Danish SAS-Leagen fixture, but went right back to the red as FC Porto shut out Lyon in their Peace Cup match 2-0. Hoping for one more win and hoping to put some distance between Tim and I in the monthly count, I grabbed what I saw as a lock. I hit the last prop on the board - Tim Lincecum vs. Felix Hernandez in who can get more Ks. Lincecum had another amazing night against the Pirates, fanning 15 in a 4 hit complete game. Hernandez only managed 2 K's in 5 and 2/3rds innings of work. So coming into today, I'm back at W1.

Tuesday again starts kinda late with the first pick being a German Bundasliga 3 match between Dynamo Dresden and SV Wehen Wiesbaden. From what I understand, this is like the Double-A of German soccer, but the talent difference between the different leagues is not as big as in the American minor/major league baseball system. Anyway, I've got the win/draw on Dresden and they are up 1-nil at the half. So being hopeful there, I plan on moving to the 3pm tennis pick, Benjamin Becker vs. John Isner. Becker is 0-2 against Isner, but playing far better on the hard court and the 8th seed in the LA Open. I'm gonna go with the German here. I like the Connecticut Sun over the Phoenix Mercury in the 7:30 WNBA game and if there's time, I'll try to pick the Toronto/Seattle game. Still up in the air about that one though.

The group win race is still close. I now have a 2 game advantage on Tim 46-44 and we both have Dresden, so the gap won't change no matter the result. Just 3.5 days to get to 50 and beyond. Since the group record for wins in a month is 48, we'll both probably shatter that one. Armando claims he's going to play more in the coming months, but we'll see about that one...

Streak Speak - July 27

It was a long and frustrating weekend that kicked off on Friday with both of my Wembley cup picks tanking after a successful Tour de France pick. I get redeemed by Chelsea's win in the World Football Challenge, and then dashed by a featherweight boxing fight that went the distance. So 2-3 Friday. I got my last Tour de France pick in Saturday, as Vincenzo Nibali placed better than Christian Vande Velde, bringing me to 9-0 for the Tour and putting me back on a W1. The Rays came back from a 9-run deficit to knock off the Blue Jays, but Mike Bliss wrecked early in the Nationwide series race and I ended the day back on a losing streak after Hanely and Manny Ramirez pushed their total bases prop. Sunday should have started off with a win, as I wanted to take Mark Cavendish to win the final stage of the TDF, but my bleeding network went down and was not back as of 4am. But the first soccer pick of the day, a Danish SAS-Leagen fixture got me green, the US got blown out 5-0 in the Gold Cup finals and ended a lot of streaks. But The White Sox came out quick with a 4 run 1st inning and I bucked the majority and got back into the green. Overall, this weekend... 6-5-1. But the important thing was that I got one win up on Tim, who also had a rough weekend. So the race to 50 stands with me at 44 and him at 43.

As for today, it's Monday, so there's slim pickings. I've got AGF Aarhus in the first pick of the day. That's another Danish SAS-Leagen fixture, and AGF is getting the win/draw option. The rest of the plan for the day looks like this. Lyon and FC Porto go off at 4:30 in a Peace Cup matchup. I'm liking Porto for the win here. I'm thinking of skipping all the way down to the 10:10 prop with Tim Lincecum striking out more Pirates than Felix Hernandez can fan Blue Jays. The Giant's ace has 18 K's in 2 starts this season and the Blue Jays strikeout the 7th least in the MLB. It seems like this should be the lock of the day.

Streak Speak - July 24

Saved, screwed, then saved again. An interesting run of luck yesterday. Once again, I got the Tour de France pick correct as Alberto Contador seals up the yellow jersey in Paris with a time trial victory, taking the victory away from Fabian Cancellara. Then, the best team in the WNBA gets blown out, San Antonio over Indiana 84-65. But it was all Gold Cup the rest of the way with the US getting a 2-goal win over Honduras and Costa Rica tying their match with Mexico in injury time. Mind you, Mexico broke the nil-nil cap in the 89th minute and the equalizer was scored at 90'+3. But it got me another win. Oh, and a UEFA Europa League win for FC Honka for me as well. 3-0 in soccer.

So today, I picked the coin flip on the nationality of the winner of today's TDF stage. I would really like the World Champion Ballan to keep his lead on the breakaway. They're within 10km at the moment. And it look like I'm gonna take the 2 Wembley Cup props, mostly to get 5 picks in today, as well as an attempt to stay away form baseball. Not sure about the nightcap yet. I'm defiantly thinking some CFL, but there's a boxing prop too...

Tim and I both picked out streaks back up and we're once again tied at the top of the board with W3. He's still 2 wins ahead of me in the monthly race 40-38, but I think that we both will pass the 50 win mark but next Saturday and that would be another first for our group.

Streak Speak - July 23

Well, I should have known better. After writing yesterday's article, I picked the Phillies. Hottest team in baseball, 10 win streak, veteran Jamie Moyer on the mound, facing a Cubs team that's had trouble swinging the bat, that's almost a lock, right? No, Chicago lights up the Phils for 10 and my streak goes down the crapper. Didn't stop their either. The Nationals pulled a win out of their ass to take 2 of 3 from the Mets, strike 2. Finally, Manny hits a pinch hit grand slam to shatter the 3 or less runs prop in the inning and I ride a L3 into today.

Good news for me is that is stayed a perfect 7-0 at the Tour de France with Alberto Contador's time trial win, which should lock up the yellow jersey for him all the way to Paris. So I'm back at 1, but so it everyone else in the group. Although, I may be going red again, since I picked the Indiana Fever in the noon-30 WNBA game and they're currently down 14 in the 1st quarter. At least I'm not the only one going down there. But a 5-pick day is still possible with a UEFA Europa League game and both Gold Cup semis. So, basically I'll be doing whatever I can to avoid baseball today. The national pastime is quite dangerous on a streak...

Streak Speak - July 22

Well, it's been awhile since I did this but I've been on quite a run recently and there was very little to speak of in June. July has been far more kind to me, especially within the last week and a half. I've build W7 streaks twice, including the current streak. Yesterday was my best day of the competition, as I went 4-0. The big win for me was my WNBA pick. The Indiana Fever downed the Washington Mystics 82-70, giving me my first WNBA win and snapping a 4-pick losing streak. After that, I ended up staying up til about 1am to catch the end of the 2nd U.S. Open Cup semifinal between Seattle FC and Houston. It looked bad through the first 60 minutes, but Seattle scored an equalizer late in the 2nd half and then got the go-ahead goal earth in the 1st overtime to seal their trip to the finals against D.C. United and my perfect day.

Just minutes ago, I tied my longest at 8 with another Tour de France pick. Lance Armstrong hit the line 5th, taking that prop and making my cycling record 6-0. I may stay away from tomorrow' TDF pick, mostly because it's a 40km individual time trial and a lot of things can change there. Looking at the rest of today, its a toss up for the next pick between a Swiss Super League match at 1:45 and the Brewers/Pirates at 12:35. No matter what I think I'm going to take the Mets over the Nationals in the nightcap, hopefully making a big for the blue star.

So after the first round of the day, here's how the group looks:
I'm on top of the current streak at W8, Tim's right behind at W6 with a pick selected, JRo's at W1 next, then Zack who had his streak of 7 ended last night at L1, and Nikki also at L1 having lost the Armstrong prop this morning.

Tim still leads the month at 36 wins, I'm in 2nd at 34, and Nikki is back in 3rd at 19.

Looking long term, Tim still holds the longest streak in the group at last week's W10. Although I have the substantial lead in overall wins with 146. Zack is the next closest at 89. But the race that matters now is the monthly wins and with just over a week left it will be interesting. More tomorrow.

Missing the Hill

There is a hill in Bowling Green, really the only hill in Bowling Green, on the BG golf course at the far corner of campus. It's an anomoly in the ridiculusly flat Wood County and was obviously man-made. In fact the green for the 15th is nestled into the one side. This hill and I have some history. Back in high school, the hill was the centerpiece of the league cross country meet. Yes, there was a time when my knees and ankles worked well enough for me to compete. And, I wasn't as out of shape as I currently am. The peak of this hill was the 2.5 mile marker of the course, a rather evil thing to do we thought. We just ran the last two and a half miles on flat football practice fields and gold course roughs and now when the finish line is in sight, you give us a sharp left turn and charge us up this kinda steep hill. Bit a of a dick move I thought. But I digress.

Darrow Hall is relativly close to the hill, within about a 10-minute walk directly across the IM fields and around the Doyt. I rediscovered the hill my freshmen year one late March night. My girlfriend and I at the time had recently broken up, it had been a really really really busy week between school and work, and I was kinda bummed at the excess weight I had gained while laid up with an ankle injury. So, after a lot of beer, I went walking. There were about 8 of us hanging out in someone's room, getting sloshed as was the normal Friday night ritual by then. I just rememeber being hammered and everything kinda hitting me at once after trying to hold it in for the past few weeks and I just got up and left the room, trying not to actually cry. I'm not sure that anyone else saw that, but I just kinda disappeared, grabbed a sweatshit from my room, and went wandering. I walked away from main campus towards the overflow parking lot where most of the kids in our quad ended up parking. I was passing the last of overflow and working my way around the stadium when I remembered that hill. We weren't exactly friends from high school, but I decided it wouldn't be a bad place to head for.

Climbing the hill, I just stood at the top, staring out. I-75, a darkened golf course, and some buisnesses across the highway is not exactly the most scenic of outlooks, but it did it for me that night. I let myself cry for the first time in about a month, letting weeks of frustration out. The good thing about the hill is that it is far enough away from campus and the city that the lights don't blur out the stars. I laided down on that hill and just stared up at those stars. I can't remember how long I was up there, but the party was over when I got back and almost everyone had passed out. But I felt better and I found my place.

I kept going back to the hill over the next 5 years whenever I needed a time and a place to get away from everything and everyone and just think. That's where I decided to change majors. The whole mistaken process of getting back with said HS girlfriend and the fallout of that one drove me there a lot. I figured out a couple of different situations at work there. I managed to talk myself down off the ledge so to speak there once as well. I toasted from the top of the hill the weekend that I finally graduated. I wrote my best man's speech on that hill. Long story short, almost all the serious thinking that I had to do, I did on that hill.

The last time I was on the hill was the night I before I moved home, before I officially left Bowling Green. I went up there to reflect on the last 6 years, on who I am, and who I was when I got there. Now, I find myself missing that hill as I sit between years in a master's program. I want that place to be able to push everything else out of the way and think deeply. And try to cope and understand and figure things out. There is no place like that out here. Granted, I spend plenty of time alone in my apartment but there's more destructive than constructive thinking there. More mourning memories that trying to put memories and feelings in perspective, coping, and hopefully healing. There's a very good chance that I'll find my way back to the hill this weekend. I think more than anything else that's really what the brain and heart need right now.