People will most definitely come

Well, my first foray into watching professional sports live is fittingly the first professional sport I remember watching on TV: baseball. Last Wednesday I watched the SF Giants host the Cincinnati Reds, and on Tuesday, I watched the Oakland A's host the Detroit Tigers. In the former game, Reds won 8-7, and in the latter, A's won 5-4. SBC Park (or Candlestick for you old fogees) is a more impressive stadium than the Coliseum: better view, bigger field, larger screen. However, the A's have more giveaways than the Giants. Section 315 received free Round Table Pizza for Eric Chavez's 3-run homer. And I cheered for 8 strike-outs, so that I could get a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi. Too bad their relief pitchers sucked and couldn't throw strikeouts.

But back to reminiscing about baseball. Of course, if you ask me now, my favorite sport to watch is basketball, with Lakers being the team to watch (perhaps less so now that Shaq is gone, but I hold out hope). And my favorite sport to play: quit asking questions, and let me get on with the story. I picked up a little of baseball as fan of the Atlanta Braves. At that time, they dominated the NL: going to World Series after World Series, to lose to teams like the Blue Jays and the Twins. I cheered for Otis Nixon, base stealer extrordinaire, Deion Sanders, two sports man, and John Smoltz, well, actually, I thought he was a horrible pitcher. Now, baseball is too slow, a game for those who play baseball, without the excitement of basketball. Regardless, the Braves still have a special place in my heart. Go Braves!

And now for something completely different.

A reason to hate Berkeley: lack of astronomical phenomenon. Perhaps the urbanites don't see this as much of a problem. But then again, NYC and LA kids would probably die of shock if they looked at the sky in my hometown. The number of stars would so overwhelm their senses that they would collapse while convulsing and foaming at the mouth. In Berkeley, clouds covered the Mars opposition (about when Mars is closest to Earth) a year ago, buildings and hills blocked a total lunar eclipse, and clouds covered today's peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Damn you, Berkeley. I shake my fist at you. Though I suspect Santa Barbara won't be any better in this respect.