First Fish of 2011 Campaign

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I’ve started to think of my fishing in terms of campaigns. In California we fished year round, but in Washington the freshwater season definitely ends and there is no ice fishing to do here because the local BoW’s don’t freeze over long enough to be safe. So now I have to think in terms of the 2011 campaign or the 2011 season. It’s kind of fun actually, sort of like a sports season.

I’ve had fishing fever really bad all winter and today the temperature was approaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the sky was overcast, and there was no wind. I purchased an electric trolling motor earlier this week, a Minn Kota Endura with 50 lb. thrust, and I wanted to field test it on my own pond in preparation for fishing this spring. So this wasn’t really a fishing trip, but while I was by the pond I stuck a shovel in the ground and grabbed a handful of nightcrawlers and decided to fish for an hour. I put a #6 worm hook 11 feet under a bobber and after about 10 minutes I hooked a 15.5 inch rainbow trout. This is the biggest trout taken out of my pond so far since I planted the initial 100 fish in 2008.

Before I started fishing I took a surface water temp and it read 38 degrees Fahrenheit. I know this time of year that water will be warmer deeper under the surface and I know that trout start to get active at 42 degrees Fahrenheit. I also know that my pond is 13 feet at the deepest point so I was hoping that somewhere in that 13 feet I would find 4 degrees of temp. I lucked out with that fish on the first cast.

This is a terrible video, but I was able to at least capture a few seconds of the first fish in the water.

I picked up another smaller 9 inch trout on the third cast and luckily that one was only lip hooked so I was able to release it.

First Professional Shutout

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Teddy Hammerzeit earned his first professional shutout today against the Mississippi Braves.

Hammerzeit is in his second season of AA ball with the West Tenn Diamon Jaxx. In 25 starts he is 6-8 with a 3.85 ERA.

Cutestory Hits First HR

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Cherith Cutestory (C), the first round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners, rounds the bases after jacking his first professional home run. The 417 foot drive allowed the Mariners to tie the game in the seventh inning, but they were ultimately defeated 2-1 by the Mississippi Braves.

I’m doing some experimentation with the My Player mode of MLB 2k10. I’m trying to figure a way to develop a player in My Player so that when he gets called up to the MLB club I could “import” him into my MLB 2k9 franchise using create a player or editing and existing player with ratings earned in 2k10.

5 Game Streak (NCAA Basketball 10)

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Washington dominated the ASU Sun Devils 82-43 to end week fifteen and climbed to #16 in the polls. The Huskies head out on the road to play #6 Cal and unranked Stanford in week sixteen.

Freshman SG Bob Clarett drives to the basket early in the game and draws a foul.
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PF Bobby Wade hits a short jumper for two points.
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Bench Player PF Kurt Shank drives and dunks for two of his season high twelve points.

SG Bob Clarett sinks a three to open up a wide lead late in the first half.

Morrow K’s 9 (MLB2K9)

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Brendan Morrow struck out nine batters and walked three in a solid six and two thirds innings work and helping his team defeat the Baltimore Orioles 3-1 before thirty seven thousand fans at Safeco Field. The twenty-five year old Morrow improved his record to 4-2 in his 12th start of the season. Vargas came in to relieve Morrow, holding the Orioles scoreless, and Percival earned this save. Morrow was later named the Pepsi Clutch Performer for the game. The Mariners improve to 31-29 and hold a one and a half game lead over Oakland in the AL West.

Seattle’s third starter, Morrow has been the Mariners most dominant pitcher so far this season. In 76.2 innings of work he has amassed 82 K’s while giving up 74 hits and 34 walks. His ERA stands at 4.04. Opponents are hitting .239 against him.


Brendan Morrow shown throwing a strike three fastball to Brian Roberts in the top of the first inning for the first of his 9 K’s of the night.

Chris Davis Comes Through (MLB2K9)

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Chris Davis hit a two run blast in the top of the tenth inning in Seattle to power the Texas Rangers over the Seattle Mariners 3-1.

The Mariners were unable to mount any offense despite jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Starter Dustin McGowan pitched a solid five and a third innings before leaving the game with a cramping hamstring and being relieved by Ryan Rowland-Smith. Rowland-Smith was excellent in three innings of work, allowing no runs and striking out four with one walk allowed. Chad Cordero mopped up the ninth inning and then struck out Ian Kinsler to start the tenth. Michael Young walked and Josh Hamilton hit into a fielder’s choice. With two outs and Hamilton on first Cordero allowed a fastball to drift up into the zone and Davis blasted the 2-0 pitch over the right-centerfield fence. Cordero finished off the final out and during the Mariner’s half of the inning Ichiro struck out, LaHair lined out to second, Beltre singled to left, and Griffey struck out to end the game.

The CPU swept the next three games against the Rangers and the Mariner’s record climbs to 29-28 climbing above .500 for the first time since April 26th. Seattle takes over first place in the AL West, holding a statistical lead over Anaheim which holds a 30-30 record. The Mariner’s host the Baltimore Orioles in a three game series before traveling to San Diego to start interleague play.

Welcome Home, Jim

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My stepson came home Thursday from his second and final deployment with the USMC. This time he was in Okinawa. He’s due to discharge within a year and is pretty excited about that. We travelled to Twenty Nine Palms, CA to welcome him back to his girlfriend/fiance’ and his new son who was born while he was away.

I didn’t realize that Jim had never really been fishing before. He went once with an uncle and cousins when he was five years old, but they didn’t catch anything and he had never gone again. He had been bugging me about fishing since he found out I was getting back into it pretty heavy last summer. I used to fish a lot as a teen, fished even more after my first marriage dissolved and fishing was also something that Jim’s mom and I used do a lot when we were dating and after we got married.

So I decided to get together with my old fishing buddy from CA while we were there and the three of us made a trip to Irvine Lake. My friend, Bob, had a couple of good trips there in the last two months and was hoping for another solid outing. Unfortunately it had rained pretty hard the previous week for about four days and the lake was covered with tons of floating and suspended debris from runoff and detritus or humus. The water was severely stained with visibility under a foot at best.

We made the best of it and we were able to boat two rainbow trout, the only bites we had all day. Fortunately Jim was the one that hooked and caught both fish. Bob and I were skunked, but to be honest I’m glad that Jim got the fish because Bob and I both know that you have days like this and you just make the best of it. Jim maybe would not have realized this and I hate to see anyone get discouraged by a tough outing and maybe give up before they discover what a great sport/hobby fishing really is.

I was able to film both of Jim’s fights with my new Droid X (what a great gadget) and then got a picture of him with his catch at the end. You can hear us barking and giving a lot of advice. I like to think we’re not usually dickish like this, but we wanted to help him get those fish on board considering how slow it was that day. I don’t think he minded really, but when I heard the video playback I was surprised at how much we were yacking at him. Anyway…..

Welcome home, Jim.

Felix in Form (MLB2K9)

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A quality start by Felix Hernandez and timely relief by Troy Percival led the Mariners to a 6-4 victory over the Angels in Anaheim. Seattle shot out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning off a two run Griffey Jr. HR. They were later able to add four more runs and take a 6-2 lead into the eighth inning before Hernandez faltered and gave up three straight hits after Balentien committed an error on a sharp line drive to left field. Percival came in with no outs and men on first and second and shut down the Angels in the eight and ninth, allowing no hits or walks, and securing the win. Percival was awarded the Pepsi Clutch Performer for the game.

The CPU split the remaining two games with Anaheim and our record improves to 26-27 as we head home to host Texas next.

Disaster Averted (MLB2K9)

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I was able to work through the corrupted save problem and didn’t lose a single game! The work around this time was to load the corrupted save and immediately save it under a different name. I was able to successfully quit the game after that and decided to reload it and finish it. It worked and all is well. I have a working save and two backups now.

I was able to beat KC 8-2 on the strength of Brandon Morrow’s 5 2/3 inning start and solid relief. He struck out seven, walked two, and gave up two earned runs before Vargas came in and held down the final 3 1/3 innings. Wladimir Balentien hit his fifth home run of the season and made an outstanding diving catch in the outfield. Ronny Cedeno also contributed with three excellent defensive plays.

The CPU split the final two games and the Mariners climb to second in the AL west with a 24-26 record. We travel to Anaheim next.

The Corrupted Save (MLB2K9)

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Ugh. This happens every so often with MLB 2k9. I’m in the third inning of a saved game and now every time I reload it it freezes when I quit or when I save mid-game. I’ve had this happen before and the work around has been to quit out of the game in progress, re-save, and start the game again. In my mind I treat it like a rain out that has to be replayed later. This time though it is freezing even when I quit, which is new. I do have a back up save because I started backing up when this issue appeared during season one. Unfortunately my back up is a bit aged and goes back a full month to when Seattle was 10-10 at the end of April. I should have been more diligent. It’s disappointing to lose a month of a season to say the least.