Collateral Bloggage What passes for thought around here…

MMM: Home Court?, 10K, Hoods, Baseball wrap, Food Network Star

I recognize I didn't MMMuse last week.  Family in town.  Priorities and all that rot.  Anyhoo...

I didn't really watch the NBA Finals, even though I used to be a huge basketball fan.  (That was back before I discovered that baseball is the Only Sport Worth Watching.)

Maybe the fact that the Lakers took two games on Orlando's floor takes the wind out of what I'm about to write about, but since I actually wrote it before the Finals began, I'm keeping it.

And here it is (see if you can detect my very subtle yet virulent preference for baseball):  Why, exactly, is Home Court Advantage important in any way in basketball?

In baseball, Home Field Advantage is easy enough to understand. Baseball fields aren't all carbon copies of each other. Some are domes, some aren't (and you can play the ball off the catwalks in the domes). Some have quirky outfield fences or obscene amounts of foul ground (Oakland). So knowing your own field could help.

There's also the issue of the Home Team having last-ups.  Let's say a game goes extra innings.  The home team knows that if they score a run, the game is over.  The visitor has to get a lead and then hold it. That's a definable advantage for the home squad.

But with the NBA, how's it work, exactly? Okay, sure, the home team will be loud. But that'll happen in any arena. So the noise level can't really be a factor. The basket's at the same height, and the court's the same length, and the first possession is determined by the tip-off. So where's the advantage?

I'm forced to conclude that the Home Team will normally get more Home Court Calls by the officials. Which is really, really lame. Am I wrong here? Somebody enlighten me, because this seems to be just another reason baseball is superior.

Oh, and congrats to the Lakers.  Since I don't really watch, I don't have any particular opinion about who should've won.  I like Dwight Howard better than Kobe Bryant, but I don't have the pathological hatred of Kobe that some have.  (Nor do I harbor particularly ill fillings toward a certain formerly-Twins-catcher-now-playing-in-Chicago.  Like how I still brought this around to baseball?)

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I ran (if you can call it that) a 10K on Saturday.  Colin dragged me for the last two miles, and it was my fault for starting us off a little fast.  Maybe if I'd tempered my enthusiasm a bit, we'd have come in at a lower time.  Still, we started running and didn't stop for 6.2 miles.  That's something.

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If you don't know the Hoods are in at the Farmer's Market, you are hereby notified of your First Warning.  Your Second Warning will occur if you do not consume some of them by next week.  Don't make my kick you out of Oregon.

(And if you don't know what Hoods are, please don't tell me.  I may have to issue you a bit of a fustigation.)

(They're strawberries, but you didn't hear it from me.)

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Well, it's time for the Baseball wrap.  The season is done, and Ethan wishes we had another game tonight.  It was a fun experience, and if I do it again next year, I've learned some valuable lessons, and if some of the kids (and dads) return, it could be a whole lot easier than this season.

Some highlights:

1. My son never having to hit off the tee.  Because he's awesome.
2. Two flyballs caught by one of my guys in one inning (and then he doubled off the runner at first both times).  Yes, that's four outs, but we weren't really counting them.
3. Serving up a homer to another of my guys.  Best hit I saw all season from anyone.
4. Watching one of my guys almost have a popup land on his head.  Yeah, he didn't really realize there was a game on.
5. Getting my most difficult hitter (just getting him to recognize which direction the ball was coming from was a chore) to connect twice in the same game.

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The Next Food Network Star has started up again.  Love that show, even if I generally can't be troubled to watch the actual winner's show most of the time.  I've found you can pretty much guarantee several things that'll happen:

• Somebody will have a tagline or culinary philosophy that's confusing/banal/just plain stupid.  This year's early candidate:  "I'm comin' at you from the mind of a chef."  Ummm...what?
• Somebody apologizing for their food.
• Somebody describing their dish as containing "good" or "great" or "wonderful" things, as opposed to using, you know, appetizing language including such things as flavors or aromas or textures.

Yes, it's ever-so-slightly train-wrecky.  Love that.