my four things:

1. the pirates/braves game.
2. cole hamels
3. the latest addition to my fantasy team
4. chicago baseball?

1. the game. SO awesome. if you haven't looked at my facebook pics yet... you should. they're nice. i went with some friends from my staff team... and we got there early enough to discover a few things around the park... including my favorite beer... ON TAP. it's a brew from the east coast that i haven't been able to find in the mid-west... and certainly wasn't expecting to show up in pittsburgh. anyway... my cup was tasty and it really made my day that they had it. next... batting practice. we walked around the stadium for a bit... soaking it all in... and kinda landed in the outfield for awhile to watch bp. some of the guys were hitting the ball out pretty good. this one guy hit a ball up to the stands above and to the left of where we were standing... and we were all watching as this 9-ish-year-old kid picked up the ball and cheered. it was pretty fun. next thing you know... this ball whooshes right in front of me as i'm looking up and to the left. seriously... it missed me by about 2 feet. no one saw it coming, cuz we were all looking at the kid. haha... no one... including the poor lady that the ball nailed in the neck. she was REALLY mad. didn't really look like she wanted to be there anyway... esp. on mother's day... and now she got hit in the neck by a baseball. after the ball hit her, it bounced off of my friend ruth's back and dropped to her feet. amongst the scuttle of ppl trying to find the ball, ruth casually looks down, sees the ball, picks it up, and says, 'oh here it is!!!' i DIED laughing. you have to know ruth and here how she said it to think it's funny, too... so i'm not worried if you're not laughing. my friend bryan tried to give the ball to the lady... but she just GLARED at him. i'm sure she was thinking... 'yeah... like i want the stupid baseball that almost killed me!!!' i woulda taken it, though. then again... i love baseball. so... after all that... i got to keep the ball... which was totally fun for me, of course. although, we all took turns holding it. the game itself was AMAZING. 13-2 pirates over braves. i don't really care one way or another about the pirates... but i absolutely loathe the atlanta braves. so it was a glorious day for me. our view was absolutely incredible. i've discovered that my favorite seats at a baseball game are in the upper deck above home plate. we had those... and had a perfect view of the river and the city. absolutely beautiful. the weather was perfect... although... i did get a bit of sunburn. oh- and here's an interesting fact. of the 13 runs the pirates scored, none of them were off of home runs. they gave us some great plays at the plate. it was just exciting all around. i'd recommend taking a trip to pnc park. quite the enjoyable experience.

2. my boy cole. this guy... i tell you what. chase is getting a run for his money. although... i think it's harder to have a sports crush on a pitcher... cuz you only see them perform once every 4-5 days. at least half of the sports crush is according to the ballplayers magnificent ability to play the game. chase hasn't lost me yet, though. have no fear. oh! but the point. cole had a perfect game going into the 7th inning in his last outing. SO exciting. i think he'll go far in baseball. he's seriously pretty incredible.

3. and then there's this guy: fausto carmono. the tiger's bonderman went down on the dl... so i needed a new pitcher for my fantasy team. i scrolled through the available players and saw this guy. he wasn't at the top of the list... and actually had quite a few ppl ahead of him. there was something that made me want to pick him up, though. plus... he was pitching the next day. well... that next day... i played him... and he threw a 4-hitter for a complete game and a 2-0 win!!!! i think it was 4 hits. the memory is going. anyway... FOR REAL. that was insane. very lucky pick.

4. the question of the month. if i begin to root for a chicago team... which one should i root for??? here's the problem. i don't dislike either team. however... i lived 2 blocks away from the white sox for 6 weeks... but... they're in the same division as the tigers. i kinda feel like i can't root for them. then there's the cubs. they're in the nl. however... they're in the same division as the cards... so i could easily root against the cards by rooting for the cubs. however... there's something that i remember from last summer that makes me want to not root for the cubbies. don't ask what that is... cuz i'm not gonna tell you. here's another thing. i have a bunch of friends who like the cubs in town. so then part of me wants to root for them just b/c of that. in fact... one of my new friends in the city told me that he'd write me an email explaining all the reasons why i should root for the cubs for me to post on here for him. he prolly won't do it, though. so... i haven't decided yet. i guess we'll just have to see what happens.

5. [i'm adding one.] the phils have made it over .500. i'm really proud of them... cuz i didn't know if they'd be able to pull it together or not. after a 4-11 start... you wonder a bit. the nl east standings aren't set in stone yet, my friends. we'll just have to wait and see!