2009 College Softball World Series- Huskies Win Opening Game!!

Today was a day that I marked on the calendar a couple of months ago even though I knew nothing was guaranteed. Today was the first day of the College Softball World Series and my favorite "major" college was in town (must say "major" since my alma mater, Seattle Pacific University doesn't play at the Divison I level with the nation's larger institutions). Eight teams converge on OKC every year with the hopes of coming away as the NCAA National Champions and all season long the Washington Huskies were ranked in the top 3 so I knew that they had a chance to make it to OKC. Last week they defeated Georgia Tech to advance to this tournament and I immediately knew where I was spending today.

All 8 teams played their first game of the tournament today and the Huskies were the very first game. The opponent was the Georgia Bulldogs and I am happy to say that the UW came away with a 3-1 victory. I went to the game with my friend and co-worker Nick as well as three ladies that will be involved in a local wedding this weekend. My friend and former Sonics co-worker Pam is now a resident of Norman, Oklahoma and she is getting married on Saturday. Yes, you read that correctly. The girl is getting married in less than 48 hours but she still came out to support her beloved Huskies. She also brought her Mom Melanie and Maid of Honor Lynn, both in town for the wedding. The five of us snuck on over to where the UW family section was located and found open seats right next to them so that we could all cheer in unison. There was an older gentleman (probably around 70 years old) that was occasionally leading all of us in cheers and we were by far the most exciting crowd that I was around today.

Arizona State played Missouri right after our game so some of their fans were also sitting around us. Four ASU female fans sat a few rows in front of us and they all spiked their hair up as high as they could for the occasion. The hair was so impressive that I made it a point to ask for a picture which I've included.

Our tickets were good for both games however Nick and the ladies decided to take off after our big victory but I stayed . There were quite a few empty seats in the stadium so I decided to wander around a bit and sat in a handful of different places. Spent most of the game sitting in the left field bleachers because hardly anyone was out there and I could really stretch out. The sun was out big time today and unfortunately I got way too much of it. I did finally purchase sunscreen during the second game but it was already too late as my arms, legs and tops of my feet are burnt.

Late in the game I ran into a few friends that work at the Ford Center and was invited into the hospitality tent. I was offered a soda and a hamburger which I ate. Had I known I was going to be in the tent, I probably would not have had the hot dog, pizza, Dr. Pepper and shaved ice that I ate over the previous 4 hours. Oh well, sometime you just have to enjoy the moment and worry about the proper food groups some other time.

ASU defeated Missouri 7-3 which means that ASU and UW will now play tomorrow night. It is a double elimination tournament so whichever team losses will not be eliminated but you still don't want to get that loss that puts you one step closer to ending the season. Should be a fun game.

Draft Lottery Party, Ben Wilson Leaves Thunder and Big 12 Baseball Tournament

Another slow week in the life of Steve. Would love to write about an exciting Memorial Day Weekend but I didn't do too much that would be considered interesting to most (went for a 13 mile run on Sunday morning followed by watching the Indy 500 which is a good day to me but may not appeal to others).

Last Tuesday was the big NBA lottery party at Buffalo Wild Wings and we had a nice turnout for a gathering in which all of us Thunder employees and fans were hoping to find out that we were going to get the 1st pick in next month's draft. It was a festive atmosphere and we even gave away prizes. The guy that won the grand prize in the drawing was even wearing a customized Thunder #23 Blake Griffin jersey (see picture). Griffin is from OKC and will almost definitely be the first player picked in the draft. I guess we know that that guy was wishing for. I mentioned in my last blog that I would include some pictures. They weren't the most exciting pictures ever snapped but regardless, they are included. There was big excitement in the building when we found out that we were one of the final 3 teams with an opportunity to get the #1 pick. ESPN went to commercial to keep all of us in suspense, unfortunately we found out a couple minutes later that the LA Clippers were the winners and that we were going to be drafting 3rd which was still pretty good news since we had the 4th best odds going into the draft and essentially climbed up one spot. Should be exciting to see what we do with that pick on June 26th.

Thursday morning about 30 of us were treated to a very nice breakfast at the Skirvin Hotel to say goodbye to Marketing Director Ben Wilson who decided to leaver our organization after 14 years of service. Ben loved his job but unfortunately Seattle is home and it was time for him to depart now that he has completed a season of helping the team transition to their new home (he had been commuting all season which I can only imagine was a major pain in the neck). This was a special breakfast to me because Ben started off working on the Promotions Crew back in 1995 and I was able to watch him work his way up the ladder the entire way. I even helped Ben get a part time job as a valet at the Space Needle back in the late 90s while he was waiting for a full time job to get offered to him upon completing his Sonics internship. Ben is a talented and bright guy who used his skills and strong work ethic to rise all the way up to a Director a few years back and did it with class and dignity. Ben is a friend and I am sorry to see him leave us but thankful that he is a friend and I wish him well.

Saturday I did manage to get on down to the Bricktown Ballpark and watch Oklahoma play Missouri in the Big 12 college baseball tournament. Two college baseball games in one month for me, not bad for a guy who had only been to one college game in his life before this year and that was while wearing a costume. It was a great day for baseball as the temperature was around 80 degrees and the sun was out. Unfortunately for Oklahoma they came up a little short and lost to the Tigers 5-4. The game was at 4pm and I was debating whether or not to stick around and watch the Texas A&M vs Texas Tech game that was to follow it. Fortunately I made the right decision by leaving. Dark clouds blanketed the sky right after the OU game and apparently a major storm hit downtown as soon as I started driving away (didn't get a drop of rain at my place 15 miles away). The rain and hail were so bad that the final game of the night didn't start until almost 10 pm but I guess the weather for the rest of the evening was nice. Crazy Oklahoma weather. For the record, Texas defeated Missouri on Sunday to win the Big 12 tournament that had been in town all week.

My buddy Jon and I did manage to have some extra fun while walking back to his place after the game. There is a field a few blocks from the ballpark with these statues of bison so we climbed the fence and snapped some pictures which I decided to share.

Tacoma Rainiers, Rumble Appearance, Heavy Winds and A 21 B-Day Celebration.

Big day for the Thunder today. The NBA draft lottery takes place later on this afternoon and the Thunder have an 11.9% chance of landing the #1 pick. We are having a lottery party at Buffalo Wild Wings tonight which I will be attending and should have pictures to go along with another blog shortly.

The temperature has been nice here lately and is perfect for baseball. The Tacoma Rainiers made their only visit of the year this past weekend so Todd and I decided to wear our Mariners gear and caught the 4pm game yesterday. All tickets are $7 on Mondays and the early start meant that the crowd was small so we were able to get front row seats. I would guess that there were only around 1,000 people at the game which shocked me since it was about 80 degrees. Unfortunately we didn't pick a very good game to watch the Rainiers as they were defeated by the OKC Red Hawks 9-1. It was still fun to hang out at the ballpark and see some of the potential Mariners stars of tomorrow (Clement, Carp, Moore, etc). I also brought my camera and managed to get a picture taken with some sort of cavity-fighting superhero, Captain Supertooth. The ballpark also continued with its major league ballparks promotion by featuring Philadelphia's Citizen's Bank Park so I also included pictures of the liberty bell signs.

Rumble's assistant was out of town this part weekend so I filled in for him and helped out at an appearance. This was my first appearance with Rumble and it was short and sweet. We did a 30 minute appearance at a place called Crystal Lake for a group of around 200 kids that were part of some sort of mentoring program. The kids were all ages and were going to be spending the day fishing, playing on inflatables and various camp type of games. Rumble managed to sign plenty of autographs and I managed to take a few pictures of him holding the microphone for a guy that was teaching the kids how to fish. After the event we went over to Lake Hefner and grabbed lunch at Mama Roja's, a new Mexican restaurant that everyone has been raving about. I thought it was good but wouldn't say it was the best ever.

We did have some interesting weather last week as there were tornado warnings on Thursday night (tornado touched down about 20 miles south of here) and the winds last Wednesday night got up around 60 MPH which made for an interesting night and managed to do some damage around town. The hospital outside my window had damage to the giant cross on top of the building. Not sure what happened but they were tying rope around it the other day and it hasn't been lit up since that night. Bummer since it is a really nice cross that rotates and usually very bright at night.

Also went out Wednesday night at midnight for a quick drink as my co-worker Tyler's girlfriend Lindsey turned 21 (for the record, Tyler is 23 years old). 15-20 people showed up at Edna's which supposedly is the oldest bar in OKC. It is a nice small bar and is known for the dollar bills that people staple all over the walls and ceiling. I only stayed for about 30 minutes but I'm told the rest of them were there much longer and that Lindsey wasn't feeling very good by the time she left. She had already had around 8 drinks/shots when I left and rumor has it she spent some time on the bathroom floor prior to leaving (can't say that I miss those days).

Cinco de Mayo with JB and "TB", Thirsty Thursday Baseball, Kasey's Piano Bar B-Day and Bedlam Baseball

For a guy that has been somewhat of a recluse over the last few months around OKC, I did alright this past week.

Tuesday was May 5th and of course CINCO DE MAYO!! Didn't have any concrete plans for the evening but ended up hooking up with friends Todd and JB for a trip to a mexican restaurant. Arrived there and grabbed a table next to the bar and after 5 minutes JB decided that the service was slower than it should be and suggested that we go to another mexican restaurant. Somehow the plan changed as we walked out the door and he ended up talking us into going to his favorite hangout which was next door to the place we were exiting. It is a smokey little blues bar and there is nothing Mexican about it (keep in mind it was Cinco de Mayo) but we ended up over there. It was a nice night out so we ended up sitting outside and enjoying a few drinks with a couple of JB's friends that we ran into. The highlight of the night was Todd was wearing a Tampa Bays Rays baseball team hat that has the initials TB on it (see picture) and one of the girls asked him if it stood for tuberculosis. Somehow that turned into her calling him "Todd Berculosis" which ended up being his nickname for the rest of the evening. Todd owns hats for 23 different major league baseball teams and that hat had been one of his favorites but he mentioned that he may not be able to wear it as much any more.

Thursday night I went out with about 15 Thunder co-workers to watch the Oklahoma City Red Hawks baseball team play the Albuquerque Isotopes at Bricktown Ballpark. The Red Hawks are the Texas Rangers AAA minor league baseball team (one step below the major leagues) and the Isotopoes are the Los Angeles Dodgers team. Thirsty Thursday Nights is the local promotion and all beers are $1 up until the 5th inning which was the big draw for many of them. I'm not much of a beer drinker so it isn't quite as exciting to me but I did manage to have a beer. I did have my camera with me but only managed to take a few pics, none of which were worthy of ending up on this blog. Wasn't a good night for the hometown team as they were shut out.

Yesterday was my friend Kasey's birthday so a handful of us went out and celebrated with her by going out for dinner at Abuelo's followed by a great time at the new Bricktown piano bar, Michael Murphy's. Abuelo's had shut down for a while for some renovations and it showed. About 10 of us ordered food and at first only 3 dinners were served, one of them was the wrong order and one had cold food. They took both back so one of our friends had to eat while the other 9 of us waited for a long time for our meal. At the end of the meal the restaurant manager came out and apologized to us for the delay and explained they probably should have stayed closed for a few more days as they weren't completely organized yet and comp'd all of our dinners, minus the alcohol. I was drinking water with my dinner so I ate for free, not bad seeing my entree cost $14.95. We all had a great dinner though and our waitress was from Seattle. Turns out OU has a really good veterinary program so she moved out here to study.

We then headed over to the piano bar where we all had a blast. Kasey had called earlier in the week to reserve tables at the very front of the stage and we were treated to hours of great entertainment. They had dualing pianos and a set of drums along with an occasional guitar. There were 3 main entertainers and they rotated back and worth on the instruments (all 3 played piano, one played drums and one played guitar). Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were playing baseball that night right down the street so they had a contest to see which school would tip the most money to have their fight song played. A person would go up and give $10 for OU and one guy would play the fight song, someone else would then beat the tip for OSU and the other piano player would break into OSU's song. This went back and forth for about 5 minutes and I'm guessing these guys made about $200 during that time. I included plenty of pictures. Kasey is one wearing the black top and her boyfriend Jason (my friend and co-worker) is the one that she has her hands all over :-) The only bad part of the night was that they had Kasey sit up on top of the piano so that they could sing Happy Birthday to her. Kasey had fun with that but managed to fall off the stage when returning to the table. I didn't get any pictures of that but she was okay other than a sore thumb. There is also a random picture in here of me with our waitress. She was a cutey and a lot of fun so I had to include her.

Today my friend Nick (another Sonics/Thunder co-worker) and I headed down to the Bricktown Ballpark to watch Oklahoma and Oklahoma State play another "Bedlam" baseball game. The two teams had played each other on Friday night in Tulsa and last night in OKC and OU had won both games. Today OSU got a little revenge by winning 5-1. Nick was able to get us 2nd row seats on the first base line so I was sure to get plenty of pictures. We also ran into OSU mascot Pistol Pete out on the concourse and had our pictures taken. One of my favorite moments of the game was when it was lightly drizzling out, the woman sitting behind me told her daugther that it was a "Seattle weather kind of day". I turned around and told her we were from Seattle. Apparently her daugther was on the phone talking to the woman's brother who lives in Seattle.