The Best Game Ever

Ok, so the game between the U.S.A. and Puerto Rico the other night may not have truly been the best game ever but it certainly was the most exciting sporting event that I have ever attended. The U.S. took on Puerto Rico in an elimination game in the World Baseball Classic this past Tuesday and we were there for all of the action. I'll get straight to the most exciting part first, a video that shows the game winning base hit in the bottom of the ninth by David Wright.




I apoligize for the shaky video handling. I'm actually surprised I was able to keep it that steady, believe it or not. I actually over-extended my elbow earlier in the inning when Brian Roberts got a hit to put two runners on the bases with no outs. I jumped up and raised my arms too fast or too far and it was sore the rest of the night. Team USA has had about 5 players leave the team due to injuries and now even the fans are joining on the disabled list. Anyways, here is how the drama unfolded.

We bought tickets that day online. Two of Jackie's sisters were in town, Margie and Jeralyn, so they were there with us. I told them I would buy their tickets if they would let us go to the game that night (I wanted to go Saturday night but Margie wanted to go hit the scene at South Beach).

Since I was buying, I sprang for the cheapest seats I could find, $10 a piece. This was our view:

The great part about the crowds here is that there are no crowds. We only lasted one batter in those seats. We got there in the bottom of the first and watched the final out before we decided to try and move closer. We moved to the upper deck seats behind home plate and had this view:


A little bit better to say the least. Here is how the game unfolded:

2nd Inning - Puerto Rico hit a solo home run to go up 1-0. I was bummed we didn't strike first but I didn't worry because the entire day I had this strange feeling it was going to be an awesome game. I just sat in my cubicle, smiling all day, and daydreaming about a walk off dramatic hit to send the U.S. on to the next round.

In the bottom of the inning the U.S. scored two runs to take the lead. The highlight was the slide by David Wright to score the first run on a sacrifice fly.

3rd Inning - Kevin Youkilis smacks a homer out to left field. The U.S. fans are really starting to come out now while the Puerto Rico cheers are subsiding. We end up leaving a guy on 3rd base and 2nd when Mark DeRosa struck out to end the inning. It was our chance to really break things open. I began to think my daydream might not come true but that it might be our turn to blow out Puerto Rico

4th Inning - That feeling only last a few minutes, because Carlos Delgado came out and hit a two run homer to tie the game at 3-3. We actually didn't see it because we decided to try our luck and move down to the 1st level. We got denied by the lady guarding the section behind the plate but there was nobody guarding the section further down so that is where we made it.

The seats were great. For the next couple of innings I felt we had stumbled into the Puerto Rico wasp nest. There were scattered "U.S.A." chants but the Puerto Ricans were definitely more vocal.

5th Inning - pretty uneventful

6th Inning - Walks given by our pitchers continued to bite back at us. Puerto Rico scores a run to go up 4-3. They threaten to score more but I calmed down when USA brought in Scot Shields. I knew he would get us out of the jam and sure enough he did. Go Angels in 2009!

In the bottom of the inning Brian McCann smacked a home run to tie the game 4-4...or at least should have. Carlos Betran, center fielder for Puerto Rico, made a great play and robbed McCann of his home run. I couldn't believe it. Pure disappointment. I could only pray that wouldn't come back to haunt us.

7th Inning - Scot Shields dominates and needs only 10 pitches to get three outs.

The U.S. once again appears it will even the score when they have 2 guys on base with only one out. Jimmy Rollin was at the plate and I yelled, "Jimmy, I got you on my fantasy team! Don't let me down!" The girl in front of me wearing a Puerto Rico hat turned around and was laughing. I actually enjoyed their fans because they cheered for their team but they weren't hostile. Well, Jimmy did let me down but he did advance the runner to third. Youk came up next and grounded out to end the inning. At this point I couldn't get McCann's home run out of my head.

8th Inning - We replaced Scot Shields with J.J. Putz and he dominated just like his predecessor.

McCann came up with a runner on 2nd and two outs but he struck out. D'oh! I still can't get his should-be home run out of my mind but I rejoice in the feeling I had the entire day at work, I new we could do something in the 9th inning.

9th Inning - Puerto Rico scores another run to increase their lead to 5-3. Oh man. A few fans started to leave and I couldn't believe it. It was a couple in their 60's and since it was late, I decided to give them slack, although I couldn't believe they would leave with the top of our order coming up.

We started the inning with two base hits. This is when I hyper-extended my elbow. Jeter came to the plate representing the winning run and the U.S. fans came alive. He flied out but got Shane Victorino over to third. A few pitches later Brian Roberts stole second base and my heart almost stopped when he took off. When the ump said he was safe, I was jumping up and down, while nursing my elbow. Rollins then walked, so did Youkilis, and then Wright stepped up to the plate to send the U.S. to the semi-finals. It was awesome.

Everglades: Part II

We made our way back out to the Everglades National Park this weekend. The park has several different entrances, each one a little different from the other. This time we headed to the entrance at Everglades city, located on the gulf side of the park. At this location you can rent a canoe and float through the park. For day trips, they recommend two different routes. One route takes you out to the "10,000 islands" while another more safer route has you going up a little stream. We opted for that route.

Go cougars. On the back of the shirt it says something like "I cheer for BYU and anyone playing against UTAH." We got ice cream after and one of the locals came up to me in the parlor and said, "Oh the runnin' utes ain't that bad. I was hoping they'd play Florida 'cause that would've been a helluva game."

Jackie took on the roll of being the front canoeist and boy did she do a great job

We started out on a bay but then made our way to the river

The video is of Jackie giving the tour through the mangroves

I spy a little turlte, do you?

It was actually very beautiful canoeing through the river, especially when we got to the "mangrove tunnel" section

At a couple of points, it got a little tricky. We ran into the trees and I thought it would be a great time to get a picture, so you guys could see how thick it truly is. Well, Jackie is smiling in this picture but about 4 seconds later is a different story. As I was putting the camera down, she started yelling to back up. I looked up and she just looked me dead in the eyes and kept yelling "BACK UP!" At first I imagined that we had run into an aligator nest, or something like that. As scared as she was, I knew an aligator couldn't do that. Nope. It had to be a spider. When she had turned around, she saw the biggest, scariest spider in her life. The spider varied in sizes the rest of the day but at one point it was as big as her fist and at another time she compared it in size to our nephew Jack's face (2 year old Jack can be seen skiing here).

Florida is home to the best lawn decorations in the world

The fish were biting

This stork flew over our boat not with a baby, but a fish in its mouth. You could see the fish still jumping around in his mouth. When we paddled downstream, we ran into him again. He was still working on the fish. If you click on the picture you should be able to see the tail of the fish sticking out of his mouth.

One way to tell the birds are big around here without actually seeing one

Miami Heat

Jackie and I went to the Heat vs. Clippers game a few weeks ago. They have $5 nights when bad teams come to town so we decided to take advantage of it. The $5 nose bleeds were not bad for the first half but we lucked out when we got a call from a couple here in Miami that said they had open seats next to them on row 10, right behind the Heat bench. The Heat dominated that game.

We went again last week when the Minnesota T-wolves came to town. It was Jermaine O'Neal's first game with the Heat so there were a few more fans. Below is a picture from that game...

Fake out! Don't you hate it when that happens? Here's the real picture...

You can kind of make out the players from up here

The view of downtown coming out from the game. Our building is the building on the far right (goes up to about half of the buildings on the left)

Valentine's Day - Florida Style

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple was a success. It's hard not to make it a success when you have such resources as the Florida Keys next door. I'll admit I was actually a little nervous as February 14th approached because I didn't have a plan. I tried to remember what we did last year and then I finally realized we both worked that night and then probably just watched a movie.

We packed up a lunch and headed to Marathon Key, about half way down the keys. There is a little, family friendly and sandy beach there. The water temp right now is around 72 or 73, not bad for February. That is about as warm as it gets in California.

Our battery light came on while we were on the drive down so we didn't get as many pictures as we would have liked. We turned the camera off and saved a few pictures for the sunset.

Heading into Key largo

Driving on one of the many bridges. It was weird to see all of the power lines on the side of the road
It made a nice resting spot for all of the birds

All of the travel brochures said that the Keys have the best sunset in the world. It turns out that their sunset is similar to the one I've seen in California, Hawaii, South Africa and anywhere else the sun sets over the water.

Orlando Temple

Jackie and I went up to Orlando last week to go to the temple. We took the bus with other members of the Stake, leaving at 5:00 am. We slept on the way up there and a little on the way back as well. It took all day but it was worth it because the temple is always a wonderful place.

One of the best parts was the trip to Camila's Brazilian Restaurant in Orlando. It was so good. It felt like I was in Brazil again. We were excited when we found out they have another restaurant in Miami and then even more excited when we saw that the address is just a few blocks away.

We took a trip out to the Everglades National Park at Shark Valley this past weekend and had a great time. It is a beautiful area and not too far from downtown Miami.

Posing with the aligator

I was a lot more nervous about the gators than Jackie, and you can tell in the video posted below

We took a tram that did a 15 mile loop. At half way point, there is a tower and it is great for taking pictures. You can see about 20 miles in all directions.

This guy's mouth was resting on the sidewalk, yikes!

Jackie loved the baby alligators the best

She made me get in real close

So close that we scared them so that they jumped back in the water. Oops

Beautiful birds were all over the place

The most popular hang out

They have crazy feet