Personal Stats update April 2021

You may remember that I started keeping personal stats of my consumption of reading and viewing content for 2021.  If you missed that post, check it out.  Here is a quick update of my progress through April 28:   

Movies watched: 17
Rewatch: 11
First time: 6

TV series (streamed):
Episodes: 24
Rewatch: 8
First time: 16

Books read: 9
Graphic Novels: 3
Fiction: 5
Nonfiction: 1
Pages read: 2451

Comic books read: 68
Digital: 43
Print: 25

I have no idea how I am doing as I have no stats from past years in which to compare, but I will say that this seems pretty good for me. I am really surprised by the number of films I have watched. Most of the rewatch films are MCU rewatches. Most of the TV series are WandaVision and The Falcon and Winter Soldier.

This has been fun. It seems silly, but I am actually finding it helps give me closure when I finish a story. I get to visit my Google Keep note where I keep the stats and I have a second to reflect on the story I just read or viewed. It is a short moment, but it is satisfying. I will pass on an update around July for the half-year check-in.

Fantasy Baseball Draft 2021

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to this year's Coca-Cola Kids Fantasy Baseball Team.  The Kids were established in 1988 as a National League Rotisserie Baseball Club, but then upgraded to an online team in the mid 1990's on Sandbox.  The Kids joined their current league, the League of the Gorgeous Rogues, in 2003 and took 7th place.  Since then the Kids won the championship twice in 2006 and 2013.  They have finished last more times than they would like to admit, however.  Enough history, it is time to look forward to the 2021 baseball season. 

The Coca-Cola Kids had the first pick in the draft and took  Lucas Giolito starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox.   Each team in the league gets to have three keepers each season.  The Kids elected to keep: Jose Abreu, First Base of the Chicago White Sox, Kris Bryant third base and outfield for the Chicago Cubs and Bo Bichette, short stop of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Here is how the remainder roster shakes out after the draft: 

C:  Buster Posey, San Francisco - Drafted Aaron Nola, San Diego

1B:  Abreu

2B:  Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs

3B: Bryant

SS: Bichette 

OF1: Luis Robert, Chicago White Sox

OF2: Nick Castellanos, Cincinatti Reds

OF3: Ketel Marte, Arizona Diamondbacks

Utlility:  Javier Baez, Chicago Cubs

SP:  Lucas Giolito, Chicago White Sox (first pick of the draft)

SP: Luis Castillo, Cincinatti Reds

SP: Ian Anderson, Atlanta Braves

SP: Matthew Boyd, Detroit Tigers

RP: Yimi Garcia, Miami Marlins

RP: Greg Holland, Kansas City Royals

P:  Diego Castillo, Tampa Bay Rays 

P:  Nathan Eovaldi, Boston Red Sox

Bench: Jose Soler OF, Ke'Bryan Hayes 3B, Ryan Jeffers C, Adalberto Mondesi SS, Tarik Skubal SP, Michael Kopech SP

At posting, the Kids are currently in first place, and are looking forward to a great season of baseball.  

 

Celebrate like the Baddoos

Don't give up!  Your day will come!  I don't know if Akil Baddoo ever heard that, but he certainly lived it.  Who is Akil Baddoo?  That's what I was asking when he came up to the plate for the Detroit Tigers (my second favorite MLB team).  All that is on the ESPN.com is that he is a 22-year-old centerfielder for the Detroit Tigers.  A little more digging discovered that he remarkably made the Tigers after spending several years in low A minor league ball for the Minnesota Twins.  The Tigers picked Baddoo up this last winter in the unprotected player draft.  After a great spring training with the Tigers, he made the major league team

What did he do?  In his first game in the major leagues when he came up to bat against the Cleveland Indians, he took the first pitch to the opposite field for a 370 foot home run. It was a great moment (check the video).  While one home run, even in your first at-bat, doesn't define a career, it certainly defines a positive moment of hope and achievement for hard work.  It defines a positive moment in the young baseball season where fans are back and the world is trying to figure out what a post-pandemic era will feel like.  It defines a positive moment for a family who was there to see it.  

What really caught my attention was his reaction and that of his parents who were in the stands that afternoon (again, check the video).  You could see the joy in Baddoo's face and actions as he rounded the bases, and he knew exactly where his parents were sitting.  He gave them recognition as he crossed home plate which I think is a total class act.  The cameras knew where his parents were too as if they knew something special would happen that day.  The cameras captured their instant reaction, and as a parent, it was beautiful to see.  Even though I wasn't there for all the little league games, high school baseball, years of summer ball, and what was likely a difficult decision to go pro, I could see the reward; we all could.  

We should mark Akil Baddoo's moment in time and remind ourselves of what can be achieved by the daily grind.  Our hard work will have celebratory moments.  It may not be in front of 10,000 fans and televised.  It may not be in front of all our friends or even our parents, but those moments do come.  Own those moments when you achieve them.  Take credit for your success and be proud of your accomplishments.

If you are a parent, look for the achievement, even small, in your own children and celebrate like the Baddoos did.  Be proud of your work as a parent and be proud of what your children are becoming.  I love baseball for reasons like this, but look around, I am sure there are moments like this to be found every day if we look for it.   

Akil Baddoo update 4/6/21

Baddoo's legendary start to his major league career grows.  In his second game for Detroit on Monday, he smashed a grand slam.  Then today, Tuesday, he was a pinch-runner in the eighth inning of a tied 3-3 game with Minnesota.  He stayed in the game defensively then in his first at-bat of the game in the 10th inning he hit a walk off single to win the game 4-3.  Keep an eye on this guy, he is fun to watch.