1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. The first day of the NFL Draft
3. All-Star Saturday (including the 3-point shootout, the skills competition, and the dunk contest)
3. All-Star Saturday (including the 3-point shootout, the skills competition, and the dunk contest)
4. The first day of the College World Series
5. Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies
6. The day of the Homerun Derby
7. NBA Draft
So anyways, today is obviously the night of number 3. The Skills Competition and the 3-point shootout kind of take a back seat to the slam dunk competition. Tonight I'm going with Dwight Howard as the winner. I'm going with him because I think he's the most innovative of the four dunkers. Last year he did a few things that had never been done before and that's what it's going to take to win it this year. In my opinion the dunk contest is starting to make a comeback. In the late 90's the dunk contest was as good as ever. After Vince Carter's showing in the 2000 dunk contest it all went downhill. For a few years they tried experimenting with a few different things knowing that it didn't have the luster that is once had. The NBA can do all they want to try and spice it up, but what it really comes down to is who's in it and what kind of creativity they're going to bring to the table. There have been so many dunk contests that it almost seems that all the dunks have been used up. With that said, the guys that are the most innovativc end up being the most exciting to watch.
Yesterday was another great day to hit. I took some live batting practice on the field against a guy who was with the Royals last year. I felt good swinging the bat, it was nice to see some live pitching. The last real at-bat that I had was all the way back in April I believe. I was able to square a few balls up, so it was pretty encouraging. I need to do some things during this spring training to let the coaches and front office personnel know that I'm back healthy and as good as I've ever been. I need to show the Marlins that they made a great choice with pick number 515 in the 2006 draft.
When I got back to the hotel yesterday afternoon I got a call from Brett asking if I would be willing to go to the beach with him and Lindsey to take some photos for their wedding invitations. Being around Lindsey and Brett gets me excited to get married. I see how happy they are and I know that I'm going to be the same way. Planning a wedding and everything can be chaos sometimes, but that's really the beauty in the whole thing. Anyways, we got down to the beach and I took about 25 or so pictures. They also brought Lindsey's dog Bailey to the beach with us. She's a big fan of the beach but a little timid with the waves. I would just love to see Desi and Maizie down here on the beach. I'm not sure how either one would handle it but I do know that before we could ever bring Maizie down here she'd have to be obedient without the leash.
After we left the beach we headed back to their place and had some italian take out and watched some of the celebrity all-star game. It's always nice to get away from the hotel and hang out with some friends.
Today has been a great day for me to sit back, catch my breath from the week, and relax. I originally woke up around 6:30 and had some breakfast. I obviously went back to bed though! I got up the second time around 11:30 and headed over to Duffy's to watch some Slingbox. I watched an episode of Three Sheets and an episode of Timeless. Both of these shows run on Mojo, a channel specially designed for HD. In the Three Sheets episode the host, Zane, was in Japan trying out some sake. It's always good to see some footage of my heritage! Timeless is a show that has two segments and outlines a different sports stories. Today's stories were about the kids state wrestling championships in Ohio and the second segment was about the life of a 36 year old minor league baseball player. It was good to see the baseball story, I was able to relate with a lot of the things that he goes through.
After I left Duffy's I went over to Tropical Smoothie and had a health nut smoothie. It's pretty good not only taste-wise but also is very good for you. There's one thing that confuses me though, everytime I've gotten that particular smoothie (3 times) it's tasted different. Today it had more of a blueberry flavor. Either way, it's been good everytime.
My next stop was over at the book store. I always like to sit, take a laod off, and read some magazines and books. Today I read a little bit about working out and flipped through a few different magazines. There was an author there today that was signing books for his latest novel. I felt kind of bad for the guy because they had this station set up for the guy and there wasn't anyone who came over to him for the 45 minutes or so that I was there. You could tell he was kind of embarassed. He was slouched down in his chair with his head down and kept playing with his pen.
I tried watching a movie earlier but it started skipping. The first skipper that I've had since I've been down here. So now I'm back here in the room blogging and watching some All-Star Satuday night. Tomorrow I'll have my review of tonight's dunk contest, I'm sure it will be a good one!
I just want to thank everyone for reading my blog. Hopefully it never bores anyone too much and entertains you just enough. It really does mean a lot to me for people to read my thoughts.
I just want to end tonight with a little inspirational story:
There was a group of frogs hopping along one day when a couple of frogs out of the group fell into a hole. The group stopped to see if they could help their fallen compadres, but unfortunately they couldn't help. The two frogs in the hole kept jumping away, trying to get out. After awhile the frogs at the top of the hole began telling the two frogs to just give in and just go peacefully. One of the frogs obliged and croaked (no pun intended of course because this isn't a funny story!), while the other kept jumping away. The frogs at the top kept yelling at the frog to stop and just let it go. The frog at the bottom of the hole kept struggling and from out of nowhere gained up enough strength in his little legs to jump straight out of the hole. Tired and exhausted and finally out of the hole, the group of frogs asked the frog "Didn't you hear us telling you to give up and just let go?" The frog simply looked at them with a dumbfounded look and said,"I can't hear anything that you guys are saying...I'm deaf." So the moral to this stroy is that you always have to think positive. Sometimes you have to turn your hearing off when it comes to naysayers.
There was a group of frogs hopping along one day when a couple of frogs out of the group fell into a hole. The group stopped to see if they could help their fallen compadres, but unfortunately they couldn't help. The two frogs in the hole kept jumping away, trying to get out. After awhile the frogs at the top of the hole began telling the two frogs to just give in and just go peacefully. One of the frogs obliged and croaked (no pun intended of course because this isn't a funny story!), while the other kept jumping away. The frogs at the top kept yelling at the frog to stop and just let it go. The frog at the bottom of the hole kept struggling and from out of nowhere gained up enough strength in his little legs to jump straight out of the hole. Tired and exhausted and finally out of the hole, the group of frogs asked the frog "Didn't you hear us telling you to give up and just let go?" The frog simply looked at them with a dumbfounded look and said,"I can't hear anything that you guys are saying...I'm deaf." So the moral to this stroy is that you always have to think positive. Sometimes you have to turn your hearing off when it comes to naysayers.
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