Quantum Entanglement (A Love Story)
Which is one reason that Chess drives me kinda nuts. I don't know how to think about the board when I'm playing, let alone where to move the pieces in a great way. There's just too much going on, and I am cognizant of that which I do not grasp.
thats chess in a nutshell, even for masters and beyond. The term is cognitive load and chess causes an overwhelming of it. Throw in the factor of the clock, "the ticking", and that's another reason why there have been many chess masters, but No One has been "The Master of Chess".
There's something great about chess, almost divine, perhaps somewhat spiritual. I used to joke years ago that chess was my religion.
Basically human beings only play chess through heuristics, pattern recognition, and intuition. Like when we start out we learn the piece values and basic "rules". Then we learn about the quality of the pieces and eventually the exception to those "rules".
I actually was watching this game at the time, and holy hell what a ****ing homerun.
Those were the days, man!!
I remember how intense the house ball tryouts were when I was like 9 years old.
We stood in a wrap-around line around the school for what seemed like hours.
Eventually I got to a warmup area, where I did drills like soft toss for 3 minutes before being ushered into the main arena.
Where all of the Dad's in town sat waiting in the bleachers with their expectations.
And all of your friends watching too...
Real pressure.
They had us complete 3 tasks:
Fielding rolled ground balls
Throwing a ball and catching
Hitting a Wiffleball
The fielding and throwing was Easy. I practiced this drill with my neighbor almost every day.
A lot of kids were ****ing up badly at this point. I don't blame them, the stakes were high.
Depending on how you did affected your draft position.
Yes, we had a draft lol.
All the kids in town, all the dads congregating around the coaches.
Musta been a riot.
Anyway, We got down to hitting and I nearly put one out of the gym right into the basketball hoop.
At least it's how I remember it. I did well that day, and went in the 1st or 2nd round to a fun team who I bonded with for several years.
One time, i kid you not, a guy at school showed up to varsity tryouts wearing blue jeans and a mullet.
Even when I had the yipps at varsity tryouts I still made the team. Coach H acknowledged something was wrong with my mechanics and tried to help me fix them on the spot.
I remember the most important exercise at the tryout was how you looked running a simulated ball out. I don't know exactly why this was so important, but it became a mini contest between the best players who coult trot with the most swag. I remember on one of my runs I bowed outwards directly out of the box, and turned up the jets as I rounded first. The coaches said I looked like a serious player.
It was always the little things that got you far in baseball. It really was a mental game, but the physical part couldn't be denied and it was for too long in my development.
The best were the dads who would do anything to win.
One guy called us a bunch of pussies and was asked to never coach again.
One guy was a professional sign stealer and sat on our bench.
Baseball was nerve wracking at times, but I always enjoyed the postgame meals with the team. I never had to ask myself if the salad buffet would bean me in the neck and paralyze me.
I wouldn't say I was afraid of the ball.
I was, but not really. I was a serious player remember.
But I could not get it out of the back of my mind in pre-game.
I knew the dark necessicites of the human spirit.
I'd seen our best pitcher turn towards the fielders, wink, and then bean someone pretty good.
I knew of the ultra rare cases where a kid ends up with a heart attack :(
I'd heard of some guy getting drilled flush in the back of the head and never being the same again.
I don't think I was ever thrown at intentionally. I usually hit near the bottom of the lineup and was never a threat.
I did end up getting hit a lot though. A couple times in the head, nbd we had good helmets and kids topped out at 75mph.
I got kicked in the head once sliding to catch a short fly ball in right field with the second basemen's shin. Luckily my neck flexed back and It wasn't a direct blow, If I lost consciousness it was for less than 2 seconds.
Overall tho I'd say baseball is a pretty good experience for kids in the right environment.
My lil sister at age 7 broke or dislocated her pinky playing softball and she refused to come out of the game.
I took a couple grounders to the face doing fielding drills on the shittiest gravel parks you can imagine.
I wasn't the best big brother but I did well with what I had.
I simulated fighting with my sister when I was 9 and she was 4. I pushed her to the grass with minimal force and told her she wasn't allowed to cry, and then we did it again and again.
She's now a welder and world class at drawing.
I'm just checkin' it up, baby one more time for you.
Checkin' it up until the pile hits the sky.
A guy named Ryan Parker used to write folk songs about sports and sports stars back in the early 2000s. It's impossible to find Junior's song but it's really ****ing good.
He's the greteast home-run hitter,
That baseball should consider,
Who has never put a needle in his thigh!
No the argumen's not iffy,
when the answer's "Junior Griffey"
To the question: Who's the greatest of our time??
Not Bonds, or Mcgwire.
Sosa and Palmeiro Don't Inspire.
There's just one.
It's Junior.
Griffey.
I remember how he dazzled, when he started in Seattle
As the greatest talent we had ever seen.
He was naturally producing
With no anabolic juicin'
And Still gettin' by on pure ability.
I've seriously been looking for this song for 20 years since it was Hosted on Deadspin back in the day.
February remains undefeated for me.
I don't love this. But I respect it. I'm not a traditional metal head.
It picks up at 2:25 featuring a guitar duet. Pretty cool.
