I’m angry. Very angry. That’s just as a general baseball fan. If I was a Rays fan, I would be furious.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I lost sight of baseball for a while, but I got back into it this postseason. I wasn’t planning on writing about this game or series, but I was so angry and baffled tonight that writing on here was the best release I could think of.

So let’s get into this:

It’s the World Series, and the Dodgers are leading the series 3-2 over the Rays. Blake Snell is starting for the Rays, Gonsolin for the Dodgers. Gonsolin gives up a home run to Randy Arozarena in the top of the first to give the Rays a 1-0 lead.

Enter Snell. Snell is on fire. As a baseball fan, I love seeing a dominant pitcher in the postseason, and it’s especially impressive seeing one shut down a formidable lineup. Snell was doing it. I’ve been watching this series as well as the Rays’ last one where they ousted the Astros after 7 games, but I can’t think of a more dominant start, by either side.

Through 5 innings, Snell had allowed 1 hit, no walks, and had 9 strikeouts. It’s not just the numbers though. His stuff looked filthy. Up to this point, I had never seen the Dodgers strike out like this, and their swings on the strikeouts even looked bad. I’m loving every minute of watching this. As I said before, nothing beats watching an ace go out and own the mound in a 0-0 or 1-0 game. After 5 innings, I was starting to get excited of the thought of Snell getting through 8 or maybe even a complete game! Yeah, I know – this isn’t how baseball is played anymore. Pitchers don’t go that long. 6 innings is a long outing now. But to see a guy this dominant…I couldn’t imagine him being pulled anytime soon. He wasn’t perfect, but he was damn close. He was being extremely efficient with his pitches.

There was one point I remember specifically where he bounced a curveball when the hitter had 2 strikes. He gave a big hop up and down afterwards. I love that. To me that says he’s locked in, he believes in his stuff, he’s got energy, and the passion is there. That says he’s thinking “if I throw that pitch a little higher, that’s another strikeout.”

So top of the 6th comes. Snell gets the first hitter out. Then the number 9 hitter, Barnes, gets a soft single up the middle off Snell. Kevin Cash, the Ray’s manager, walks from the dugout for the ball. He did it. He pulled Snell. I was in shock. I was pissed. He left with 73 pitches thrown and 2 hits, 0 walks given up through 5 and 1/3 innings. And Snell was pissed, they showed his reaction when he saw Cash walking towards him, and there were some profanities thrown out there. Don’t blame him. The top of the order was up, Betts leading off. But Betts had 2 strikeouts versus Snell AND Betts was hitting worse off lefties than righties for the year. Who’d they bring in? Anderson, a righty. The first 4 hitters for the Dodgers were 0 for 8 with 7 strikeouts versus Snell.

Nick Anderson, the new pitcher for the Rays, gives up a double to the first batter he faces. Men on second and third now for the Dodgers. Then he threw a slider that missed badly and beat the catcher, and the Dodgers scored their first run. Dodgers now have Mookie Betts on third. The batter grounds to first, and Betts with his speed is able to score and Dodgers lead 2-1. And they never looked back. Turner for the Dodgers almost hit a 2-run homer the next at-bat. At that point I was so mad at Cash that I wanted to see them hit a homer. But it was caught at the warning track.

The Dodgers won the game 3-1 and in turn, the series 4 games to 2. I’m not saying if Snell pitched longer tonight that the Rays would have won the Series or even the game. But what I am saying is that was a bad move, a very bad move. I have no idea how you take Snell out in that scenario. It’s like me and Cash were watching 2 different games. And I think there’s got to be some leeway to let your guys play by what you see. The “numbers” or the “matchups” don’t always tell the whole story. This was overmanagment, and man it left a bad taste in my mouth. I was ready to see 8 innings, no runs by Snell. You know, pitchers are capable of that. At least they used to be, before managers pulled them.

1. A notification center.   Consolidates your notifications into one place (texts, updates, news(?)).
   *Nice addition.
   1. Easy to access.  A simple swipe from top of screen to bottom and you’re there.
   2. From the center you can easily switch on or off certain features such as Wi-Fi, GPS, or screen brightness. 
   3. Have not seen news come through it, but it’s nice to have a place where you see your texts, calls, e-mails, and phone updates so you don’t miss anything.
      
2. Windows Store updates will auto-update over Wifi.  It is a pain to manually update your apps and features all the time.
   *It is now awesome now to have to manually update my apps.  Battery life has not seemed to suffer significantly from this either.
3. Another 2 columns for your live tiles so that you can fit more tiles onto your screen.  I think this will come in handy as there are several useful tiles.
   *This is my favorite change.  I am a bit OCD about organizing, and now I can fit just about everything I use regularly onto the front screen.  I was originally concerned about the small tiles being too small in that I might inadvertently touch the wrong tiles from time to time and it be frustrating, but this hasn’t been the case.  Below are 2 screenshots representing the difference (right screen has 14 apps, while the left screen is capable of showing 25):

Windows has made some great strides with this phone, I am very impressed.  I don’t have any major beefs.  If there were a few minor things remaining, it would be

1. Still no turn by turn once Navigation/GPS is undergone.  You can see it before you start navigating, but not after.
2. Cannot create a homepage on Internet Explorer.  If you open it up, it opens your latest webpage, which could be taxing on your data, something you’re not remotely interested in, and could take a while to load.  I’ve pinned a shortcut to Google and use that instead to launch IE, but the tile looks tacky and out of place.  Aesthetics matter when you pay $600 for a phone.

That’s really it.  Other than that I love it.

After a year of use, what have I used it for the most?

• First, I don’t talk on the phone much.  I’m a single dude, and I’m quiet to begin with.
• I text more than I talk.  Texting is definitely a primary function I use.  I like the word prediction, and texting is easy and intuitive.
• GPS.  No major problems with the turn by turn GPS voice navigation.
• Podcasts.  I listen to these regularly at work.  They download overnight over Wifi connection.  Catholic Answers, How Stuff Works, and the Dianne Rehm show are my most listened to ones.  Definitely helps get me through the day.
• OneNote.  A handy app I use to make lists, random things to remember, or even keeping a journal.
• Camera.  8.7 MP camera takes some good pictures, and is good for low-light.  Has a video camera and rapid photo taking option, but I haven’t used either of those much.
• Checking my e-mail.
• Weather updates.  Checking for rain in the forecast, how hot or cold it will be in the upcoming days, looking at the radar if a storm is in the area.
• Calendar.  Making reminders for upcoming plans.
• News, Sports updates.  I like the Bing News app alot.  However, the Bing Sports app has been frustrating.  When trying to get some news or scores, several times the connection is “unavailable”.
• Games.  I player Solitaire every now and then, not much more than that.
• Flashlight.  It has a strong light, def has come in handy.
• Alarm.  Use it every morning for work and many times for my nap during lunch.
• Dictionary app.  Use it when reading.  I remember when you used to have to get a big book out anytime you wanted to look up the meaning of a word.  Now every word can be on your cell phone.  Amazing.

So that’s 14 different functions I use my phone for.  That’s impressive.

I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent for a second.  I think it’s important to keep in mind the main point of a phone — communication.  It’s about reaching out to the people you care and love.  Some people let their phones own them.  I avoid Facebook and Twitter for that very reason.  I believe that some people check their phone compulsively for unimportant events or conversations when they should be focusing on relating to the people right in front of them.  Cell phones and the several different “apps” have hurt our social skills in some ways.  If you ride a bus in these times, you will see less conversations, and more people hunched down looking at their 5 inch phone screen.  The connection between your eyes and your phone screen acts as a barrier to interacting with other people.  I think it’s a good idea to keep your phone away at dinner and when you’re having conversations with people.  Keep yourself open to friendly conversation.  That’s my 2 cents on that.

What has improved?

• They’ve fixed the problem where I couldn’t text over Wifi.  That was a major frustration.  Good job there Windows/T-Mobile.
• Notification of a text not sending isn’t sent through a separate thread anymore.  It’s within the text now, which is much more user friendly.
• If you hold the “back” button down on your phone, it will show all your open apps, and you can X out of them completely rather than having to push back multiple times.  Particularly comes in handy for Internet Explorer.
• Haptic feedback is now an option instead of mandatory.  I’ve never liked the feel of it, and I also hated thinking about how it was unnecessarily using my battery.
• Even though it’s not ALL the way there, you can see turn by turn directions to a place in Here Drive BEFORE you click on “Start” to begin the navigation.  It’s better, but Android has it where you can switch views DURING the navigation.  It seems like a very important feature to me to be able to see what turns you’ll be making in 2 or 3 turns down the road instead of only being able to see the immediately next one.  Especially if you’ve got someone riding with you…then they could give you the rundown of the turns, and you wouldn’t have to rely on the phone voice.

What is lacking? (First world problems, I know..)

• As mentioned above, GPS still does not have a turn by turn menu.  You can see it before you actually “start” the map, but once you start it’s no longer available to see.
• Battery life.  According to the AT&T website, the 925 model should have a battery life of 12 days if on standby.  Well, I’m not a heavy user, and I don’t even come close to that.  I basically need to charge daily.  I’m looking at 50-60% of battery left after half a day of moderate use (maybe listening to an hour long podcast and light texting, no calling).  If I use GPS for an hour or more it drains even more quickly.  That’s really disappointing.
• The Microsoft sports app continually says “Service not available” or something similar when I clearly have phone service.  This is very frustrating when I’m trying to check the score of a game currently going on.
• Manually having to update through the Windows store for apps and your phone.  You can auto-download podcasts over Wifi, but not important software updates.
• Privacy on the internet.   History is automatically saved, and you have to manually delete it.  I want an auto-delete upon exit feature with the browser.  You can do it for Internet Explorer on your computer.
• Audio on the video camera.  My friend and I went to the Formula 1 race in Austin last year, and we both got video of a passing of the cars.  He has an Iphone (not sure which one), and his audio sounded like you were there.  My audio was pretty crappy compared to his.  Mine sounded much more quiet and less crisp.
• Internet explorer doesn’t have a homepage.  Really? If you pull up IE, it goes to the most recent page you were on.  I’d rather have a homepage of Google every time.  There’s a work around, but then your tile looks weird.
• There’s no “stop” button for audio.  If you pause an audio, and lock your phone, anytime you change the volume, the track you were listening to stays on the audio status bar at the top of your phone for a few hours, kind of annoying.  You can pay for an app for a “stop tile”, but I would expect a stop button to be programmed on the phone already.

The Lumia Cyan update

There is an anticipated update for the Windows 8 Phones called the “Cyan” update.  It’s actually already available for AT&T users (AT&T is also the provider that carried the Nokia Lumia 1025 Model, which has a 41 MP Camera rather than my 8.7 MP).  I have T-Mobile, and still not available for me.  T-Mobile has stopped selling the 925 Model,  so I’m hoping this update doesn’t get put on the back burners because of that.  I would hope this month sometime.

There’s really only a few things I’m looking forward to in the update:

1. A notification center.   Consolidates your notifications into one place (texts, updates, news(?)).
2. Windows Store updates will auto-update over Wifi.  It is a pain to manually update your apps and features all the time.
3. Another 2 columns for your live tiles so that you can fit more tiles onto your screen.  I think this will come in handy as there are several useful tiles.
4. “Cortana” is the female voiced “assistant” that can help you make calls, get directions, etc., through voice command.  I honestly don’t see myself too hyped about this one.   If I’m going to query my phone or perform a task, I’m more comfortable using my fingers than my voice.

But the one that gets me the most is the last goal USA gave up. It definitely felt like the last 5 -10 minutes of the game momentum totally shifted away from USA and towards Portugal. There’s the saying that the best defense is a good offense. Well, Wondolowski, Bradley, and Yedlin had some runs at the very end of the game, but we didn’t have anybody forward so it was a lost cause. The rest of the team was so focused on staying back it was next to impossible for us to score in those last 10 minutes. I would have liked to have seen us have a more attacking mindset during the last part of the game and at least give ourselves a chance to get that 3^rd goal, which would have completely devastated Portugal. But instead, it was Portugal laying the pressure on us at the end, and the end result – them coming back and getting a goal in the 85^th minute, a cross from Ronaldo to Varela. We were definitely milking the clock at the end, which is to be expected, but I appreciate it more when I see a winning team fighting and playing rather than pretending to be hurt or walking off as a sub to buy time.

The rest of the game though, passes were more sharp, we looked more fit, Dempsey making more runs, and Bradley better passes. The goal by Jermaine Jones was sick, and the stomach-bump in by Dempsey was well deserved. Zusi was a good replacement for Altidore, and Klinsmann also seemed to make the right move by bringing Yedlin on at the end for some raw speed. After the first 5 minutes, a draw felt welcome for a U.S. fan. But when Dempsey scored in the 81^st minute, a draw made you sick to your stomach.

Christiano Ronaldo was a no factor – other than the cross at the very end. He was not involved in the game, and the few free kicks or shots he did have were way off target.

Match Stats:

Scenario for U.S.: If U.S. draws with Germany they both advance. If U.S. loses but Ghana and Portugal draw, U.S. advances. If U.S. loses, and the other game results in a decision, U.S. will advance if their goal differential (goals scored – goals conceded) is greater than the winner of the other match. For example, if U.S. loses 1-0, and Ghana wins 2-0, Ghana will advance with a GD of +1 to USA’s 0.

This time around was a different result.  America defeated Ghana 2-1.  But the score line doesn’t tell it all. Dempsey scored in the first minute. I honestly didn’t even know how to react, I was expecting to have to bear down as a fan and hope for that first goal, and we had it before I could even ask for it. But from a U.S. perspective, things weren’t so bright going forward. In the 23^rd minute, Altidore, our go-to forward with a strong physical presence, pulled up with a bad hamstring. For the remainder of the game, Ghana dominated possession and shots.  I felt like it was only a matter of time before they tied it up, and they did in the 82^nd minute.  At this point, I was just hoping we wouldn’t end up with a defeat.  We looked inferior. But football is a funny game, and the better side does not always prevail.  John Brooks, a late substitution, scored a late header to put the U.S. ahead of Ghana 2-1, which was the final result.

Match Stats:

USA will play Portugal in a few hours. If US wins, they advance and Portugal is eliminated. If not, US will have to get a positive result against Germany in their final group stage match.  Germany tied Ghana 2-2 in their second group match, and has looked strong in their first 2 matches, so I feel as if U.S. needs at least a tie here.  I hope Bradley has a better game and Howard will continue to perform as a great goalie. Altidore will be out, and it will be interesting to see who replaces him – Wondolowski, Johannson, Zusi?

I tried to find something from the official FIFA website for the 2014 World Cup and cards, but the best explanation I could find was here:  http://www.socceramerica.com/article/38551/new-yellow-card-rule-good-for-the-game.html

2 Yellow cards in a game = immediate suspension from the remainder of the current game and automatic one game suspension in the following game
1 Red card = immediate removal from current game, automatic one game suspension in the following game, and review for possibly more games depending on the severity of the foul

There is one point in the World Cup tournament where all Yellow Cards are “wiped off” and everybody again has a clean slate.  Before 2010, this happened following the group stage, the first 3 games.  For the 2010/2014 WC and going forward, this happens after the quarterfinals round.   The reason for the change is Yellow cards in the semi-final games will no longer cause a player to miss the championship games.   Previously, a player could get a yellow in the knockout round, a yellow in the semis, and then have to miss out in the final.  This was the case in 2002 when Michael Ballack, many considered Germany’s best player, was forced to sit out in the Championship game b/c of a yellow card in the semi-finals.

A player must now go 5 games without being carded 2 times to avoid being banned a game, whereas previously it was 3.  By moving the “clean state” period to a later stage in the tournament, everyone without a red card will be able to play in the final, but it also means anybody with a yellow card must play cautiously through the first 5 games of the tournament.

I do think it encourages more goals, especially through the first period of the tournament, but I also think physical defending may not be as present b/c of players fearful of racking up cards.   Yellow cards are given nearly every game to at least one player on each side.   To go 5 games without 2 for a physical defender can be a lot to ask.  Yellow cards are given frequently enough that I’ve even thought having yellow cards wiped clean after every match would be about right..

The 2006 Cup in Germany saw the most cards ever with 345 yellows and 28 reds in 64 matches, averaging nearly 6 cards per game.

Univision is also losing its rights as they were outbid by Telemundo for the 2018 and 2022 cups.  Univision paid $325 M for the 2006/2010 Cups, and Telemundo upped that to $600 M for the 2018/2022 Cups.

A few stats regarding soccer and sports viewership in the U.S.:

• The 2010 World Cup viewership was the most ever, averaging a 2.1 rating (2.29 million households and 3.26 million viewers), a 31% rise from 2006.
• 15.9 million watched USA play Ghana Monday night between ESPN and Univision.
• This crushed the viewership of the NHL Finals Game on Friday (~6 million) and competed with the NBA Final Game on Sunday (17.9 million).
• 24.7 million watched the World Cup Final on Univision/ESPN in 2010.
• This is still a long ways from the NFL, which touted 111.5 million viewers for the last Super Bowl.

I will be curious what the viewership for this World Cup Final will be.  I expect much larger.  Regardless, the stats are there — futbol is growing in America, and I like that.  A lot more money for TV coverage, and a lot more viewers.

The last point I wanted to make here is the high bar ESPN has set for World Cup coverage this year.  There are 64 total matches over a one-month period in 12 different stadiums.  ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC are covering every single one of them in high definition, with ABC covering 10.   They also have 6 different pairs of commentators (6 play by play, 6 analysts), with certain analysts always paired together to call for the England, USA, and Mexico games.   I think this is very important for the viewing experience as I enjoy listening to an Englishman analyzing a England game, an American a USA game, or a Venezuelan a Mexico game.

Finally, ESPN is providing the coverage on their WatchESPN app, which means if you have a cable provider, you can watch any of the games and their replays over the internet on your computer, phone, or tablet.  It’s what I’ve been using, and it’s been playing high definition quality on my computer with no problem.  It is awesome to me how much dedication and resources ESPN has put into this Cup.

And to be honest, this is why I’m a bit disappointed that ESPN lost future cups on a blind auction.  I don’t understand why there wasn’t negotiating involved.  It makes me weary that once the baton is passed, the standards won’t be as high.

It will be up to FOX to prove that.  I hope they will at least be on par with ESPN with their dedication, wide coverage, access to all, high technology, and expert commentary/analysis.  I fear it could be different…such as charging to have access to stream the games, not covering every game, or not having the all-star commentary that ESPN has brought in this year.  FOX has began using Gus Johnson as a play-by-play guy for some soccer matches on their network, apparently prepping him to be the go-to guy for future World Cups as Ian Darke has been for ESPN.  I really enjoyed listening to Gus commentate during March Madness and College Basketball.  He has a great voice, and his passion for the game comes through his voice.  But when I first heard him talk during a soccer match, it was different.  He doesn’t know the game as well, and it was awkward at times.  There were stretches of him being quiet, and since he’s just recently learned the sport, it seemed he wasn’t even familiar with all the rules.  It seems like a bold idea by FOX, to throw someone with no background of the sport to the forefront of calling the biggest soccer matches in the world, but its 4 years away, and we’ll see how it unfolds.

All I’m saying is — FOX, you’ve got a high bar to live up to.  And ESPN — Thank you for the awesome coverage this year.

Coming from an Android phone, I have to say (unfortunately) that Windows is still behind Android.  If I could trade my phone in for the Galaxy S4 at this point, I would, but it’s too late for that now.  I would advise anyone with Android over Windows at this point.  I can’t speak on the IPhone b/c I’ve never owned one.  Windows simply doesn’t have as many customizable options, and the system is just lacking and not as intuitive as Android at this point.

This is what I mean:

• The battery status doesn’t update.  I completely charge my phone, but the meter will read 70% or 80%.  I have to turn my phone off before it will read correctly again.  This is a big deal for me b/c I want to know my true battery life, and it being off by 20-30% is not a small difference.  Just a bad operating system.
• I’m not sure if it’s something about the reception with this phone or what, but I’ve had more failed text with this phone in the last month and a half than I usually did with the Android I had.  I live 30 miles from Dallas and in a highly populated suburb, so reception should not be a problem, but sometimes I’ll send a text 5 to 10 times in a row and it still doesn’t send.  I’ve realized that I can either wait 10 minutes or so and re-send, or usually turning my phone off, then on again will get the next text sent, both of which are a major inconvenience.  Are you listening Windows? I paid 500 bucks for this phone, and it can’t text as well as my $150 phone from almost 3 years ago!
• To expound the problem of the failed text–notification of a failed text is sent through an entirely new text message thread instead of within the current one, and it only provides the phone number of the failed message, not the contact.  You’re not able to just hold the message and “resend” as in Android.  Again, a major inconvenience.
• For GPS Navigation (Here Plus), you’re not able to see the next turn or exit you’ll need to take.  Instead, it only shows the road you’re currently on, and you must rely on the voice to tell you when to turn.  There is no screen for you to look at that gives you a list of turns you’ll be taking at which roads.  Inferior to android.
• Not able to disable haptic feedback.  I don’t need it, and it uses extra battery.  Android had a way to turn it off.
• At first, I liked the little square Icons and how you could customize them.  I still like how you can customize the color, but after some time with the phone, the squares seem over-simplified to me now.  In android, the icons were more distinguishable from each other–these all seem to blend in together with the same color, shape, and size, so that finding an app can take a second longer than with Android. 

But, it’s not all bad.  Here are a few good things about the phone:

• It has a solid, good look.  Aluminum casing, black front, white back.  Looks slick.
• There’s a camera button on the side of the phone.  That’s a feature many phones don’t have.
• That camera is very good, which was part of what sold me on the phone.  I’ve had some good shots with it.
• The predictive text bar it uses when typing texts or anything else is very efficient, and easier for me to use than swype was.
• There is an app called OneNote that’s a sort of notepad for writing down notes or checklists or anything, and it’s a nice little app.
• Easy to save pictures, etc. on the Cloud so you can access them on a PC without having to send them via e-mail or connecting your phone with a wire.

All in all, in my opinion, don’t get a Windows phone.

The Rays beat the Rangers 5-2 tonight.  It was a close game–the Rays did not score the 5th run until the top of the 9th.

• Longoria came up huge with a 2 run HR (2 RBI), a double, a single, and 2 runs scored.
• David Price, even though coming in with a record of 1-7 against Texas, grinded through the entire game, going the full 9 innings and giving up 2 ER.  His command was off at times and he gave up 7 hits, but he was effective enough.
• Martin Perez, on the other hand gave up 3 ER in 5 1/3 innings.  The homer by Longoria was killer b/c there were 2 outs, and it wasn’t a bad pitch either.  Not a bad outing by Perez, you would want better from him in this type of game.

Cruz came back tonight after a 50 game suspension, and the crowd went crazy for him with the “Cruuuuuz” chant as well as “Nellie, Nellie, Nellie”.  It was pretty cool seeing such a warm welcome for him.  Unfortunately, though, he went 0 for 4 on the night.

One thing I did like — Longoria said in an interview after the game that he savored beating Texas with Texas beating them in the postseason in 2010 and 2011, and he talked about how hard it was to play in Texas against the Rangers.  Props to him; you don’t hear the players give credit to the opposing team or fans like that much.  I have a higher respect for him after that comment.  David Price, on the other hand….well, he was jawing throughout his entire performance.  It was a gem of an outing for him, but I don’t like seeing a player’s mouth run that much.

The Rays now play in the AL Wild Card game on Wednesday night in Cleveland for a spot to take on the Red Sox.  The Reds play in Pittsburgh tmrw night for the NL Wild Card for the spot to play the Cardinals.