Jon Sagara

Tony Torcato is a guy I went to high school with.  He was two years younger than me.  We played baseball together.  He was quite the stud, eventually becoming the Giants’ first round pick of the 1998 MLB draft.  Personally, I feel that he threw away whatever chances he had by bad-mouthing the Giants’ management, but I harbor no ill will against him.  I think he is a decent person.

But this WikiPedia entry on Tony is both brutal and hilarious (copied here in case someone deletes the bad stuff; emphasis mine):

Anthony Dale Torcato
Tony Torcato (born October 25, 1979, in Woodland, California) is a former Major League Baseball player who is currently playing for the BBC Orioles (Grosseto, Italy) of the Italian Baseball League; because he was not good enough to cut it in the majors.

MLB Career
Torcato was drafted in the 1st round (19th overall) of the 1998 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants. He was called up by the Giants on July 26, 2002. After the 2005 MLB season Torcato had a .298 career Major League batting average.

Fan Club
Tony Torcato’s fan club, Torcatoism, is based in Memphis, Tennessee. Torcatoism was founded in August 2001 and continues to grow. The Torcatoists have made it a tradition to watch Tony Torcato play in Memphis, depending on schedules. Torcatoism’s website has become quite popular since its founding. Many Giants fans and baseball fans have shown great interest in Torcatoism and the website; despite the fact he is a horrible person.

Here is a link to the Torcatoism Web site.

Pretty sweet

http://www.productdose.com/2006/04/19/i-am-8-bit-art-opening/

License plate frame seen this morning on an Oldsmobile Alero. 

Oh, how I sometimes wish I had a camera phone.

Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition Support ends on July 11, 2006

Hurray!  It’s about damn time.

(Not quite sure why it shows up on the Microsoft India site, though…)

If you don’t know what a Kong is, it’s a hollow rubber chew toy into which you place treats or kibble.  It’s constructed in such a way that it is difficult for the dog to get at the treats.  The first two times we used it, it took Homer about an hour to extract the biscuit.  I was about ready to nominate this thing for the greatest invention ever, but the little *** was smart enough to figure it out on the third try.

Looks like you’re still safe, sliced bread. 

Congrats to Andy and Mari on their newborn baby girl, Molly.  She was born last Saturday morning.

Woo hoo!

We all went to Vegas for Darci’s birthday.  I can’t remember that last time the four of us were together outside of California — probably in Hawaii while I was playing baseball as a sophomore in high school.  We stayed at the Excalibur, had dinner at some fancy schmancy steak house, and then my buddy Chris got us into Tao.  A good time was had by all.  Except the next morning, hung over, waiting in line at the airport when the e-ticket kiosk refused to give me my boarding pass so I had to wait in line with all the other schmoes and then I had to wait for 20 minutes to get a fucking Starbucks that tasted like ass because of the aforementioned hangover and then a midget bit me on the leg because I rested my drink on his head… but he had a flat-top, so IMO he was asking for it.

Happy Birthday, Darci!

For two reasons:

1. Kelly had food poisoning over the past 24 hours.  If you’ve ever had food poisoning before, you know that it is a very unpleasant thing to experience.  She seems to be on the up-and-up now, though.


2. Joseph has to return to Malaysia in two weeks.  I, of course, only heard one side of the story, but it sounds like his staffing firm flaked on him by not renewing his H1-B visa.  His original plan was to work here for several years, gaining valuable experience in some of our larger corporations, but that obviously cannot happen now.  Poor guy — he has to liquidate everything in two weeks.  I heard him on the phone today cancelling non-essential utitilies.  He even tried to give me his brand-new TV, free of charge (I declined and said that if I take it, he’ll have to accept $50 from me).  This just sucks.  He’s good people, and crap like this shouldn’t happen to good people.

Holy crap, read this guy’s obituary.  Highlights:

He volunteered to join a reconnaissance patrol whose mission was to capture an enemy prisoner for interrogation.

As he and his comrades walked up the rough slope of Hill 499, they came under enemy attack by automatic weapons and small-arms fire. Bleak tended to the casualties and then rejoined the men to continue fighting up the hill. From a concealed trench, communist forces again mowed down many U.S. soldiers.

At this point, Bleak ran into the trench, killed two of the enemy with his large hands — breaking one’s neck and crushing the other’s windpipe — and killed a third by plunging his trench knife into the man’s chest. He then jumped atop a fellow soldier to block the impact of a grenade that had just bounced off the man’s helmet and rolled into the trench.

During that engagement, Bleak was shot in the leg but ignored his wound to care for others. Later, while heading back to Allied lines with a wounded buddy hanging from his broad shoulders, he was attacked by two communist soldiers armed with bayonets.

“Closing with the aggressors, he grabbed them and smacked their heads together, then carried his helpless comrade down the hill to safety,” according to Bleak’s citation for the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest award for valor.

This man was the real Ultimate Fighter.

The Woodland Wolves play at Raley Field tomorrow night.  Game time is 6:30pm.

I remember how cool we thought it was to play at Clark Field under the lights, so I can just imagine how awesome it will be to play a night game at Raley Field.  Hopefully it doesn’t get rained out!