This ‘N That
 Jeremy Moore’s hustle won the game Monday night, as the Quakes rallied to win 7-6 over the High Desert Mavericks. |
As previously mentioned, we’re in the process of selling our Irvine home to move to Space Coast (Cape Canaveral, Merritt Island, Cocoa Beach, etc.). If escrow remains on schedule, we’ll be out of here by May 27 and on a flight to Florida shortly thereafter.
That means I’ll have less and less time for online activites in the next few weeks.
This happened so quickly, we don’t even have a home yet in Space Coast. We’re going to rent a condo in Cape Canaveral on the ocean for two months. Just to give you the disparity between SoCal and Florida, a fully furnished 1,600 square foot condo in a beach complex goes for $1,450/month. A similar unit in Newport Beach would probably cost you $3,000/month if not more.
We rented online a P.O. box at the Cape Canaveral post office. This won’t be our future mailing address, but the post office’s street address is 8700 Astronaut Blvd., Cape Canaveral, Florida. If you’re a geek, that’s seriously cool.
For two weeks, I’ve been making the last rounds in my baseball haunts.
Last week I was at the Tempe Diablo minor league complex, and had the opportunity to see two of my “kids” from years ago, Ervin Santana and John Lackey, in rehab assignments. When Ervin pitched on April 29, Lackey stood watching with roving catching coordinator Tom Gregorio, which brought back memories of the two playing for Tom Kotchman with Boise in 1999.
Santana’s next start was May 4 at Rancho Cucamonga, so I went out for my farewells in the Inland Empire. The Quakes generously offered to let me throw out the first pitch. The players gave me a great sendoff, with a thrilling come-from-behind 7-6 win over High Desert (Mariners affiliate).
I’m still working on video from that game, but two clips are already online.
Outfielder Jeremy Moore collided at home plate with Mavericks catcher Travis Scott, to reduce the lead to 6-5. This was in the Pete Rose/Ray Fosse category, and it certainly lit a fire under the team. J-Mo has always been one of my favorites, because he has so much raw potential and he’s such a great kid. It’s early, but so far he has an AVG/OBP/SLG of .319/.367/.473. He has the talent to become a five-tool player, but I’d never seen the toughness in him that I saw Monday. J-Mo was bleeding from the nose, but after the trainer shoved a tissue up his nose he went back to left field. In the bottom of the 8th with the game tied at 6-6, Moore led off with a single that he hustled into a double, advanced to third on a grounder, and scored on a passed ball. Quakes won 7-6.
Click Here to watch the collision at home plate. Windows Media Player and a broadband (cable modem, DSL) Internet connection are required.
Ervin Santana, of course, was the headline. I’ll have video of his in-game performance as soon as time permits. His post-game press conference (two reporters) is already online. Click Here to watch the press conference.
I’ve been posting plenty video from Tempe too, and still have more to go. Check out the FutureAngels.com home page for all the Tempe video clips.
So now it’s on to planning the move, and trying to find a home. If you want to see some of the candidates, Click Here to go to this realtor web site and in the MLS Number field enter these numbers separated by commas, then click the Search button:
499182, 536943, 537030, 520852, 521537, 528224, 535241, 526595, 533567
(Hint: use your mouse to copy the line of numbers, then paste them into the field.)
Sales are starting to pick up in Space Coast, so anything that’s a “bargain” goes pretty quickly. Some of these are short sales, which complicates matters, but we’ll be paying cash which should make things easier.
In closing … I received an e-mail the other day from a New York public relations firm asking if I wanted to interview retired Angels outfielder Tim Salmon on Thursday for ten minutes. The catch? I had to let Tim promote “one of the coolest and most eye-catching vehicles to hit the open road, the Can-Am Spyder roadster.”
I declined, because I’m not a shill, but there are a couple fan sites for whom integrity isn’t a priority, so I’ll be watching to see if anyone sells out tomorrow.
FutureAngels.com 