Cardinals take a Giant Step
They left Texas at around three in the morning. Enough time, they thought, to get there for the first pitch. It’s a nine-hour drive from Prosper, Texas, to St. Louis, you see, so Rick and Tammie Carpenter figured they’d cover the 600 miles, no problem, if they drove straight through, and they got to Busch Stadium in time, with a few hours to spare.
A late-inning pinch-hit: that would be nice, probably the most they could hope for. They’d come to Game 3 of the National League Championship Series to see their son Matt — but Matt was, after all, a 26-year-old rookie utility man, a forgotten player on a championship team loaded with stars, a bench warmer who hadn’t started a game the entire postseason and hadn’t even had an at-bat in the series. The Carpenters are a baseball family — Rick was Matt’s high school coach; Matt’s younger brother, was a former Mets farmhand — and they know how hard and tough and cruel the game can be.
When they arrived at the stadium early Wednesday afternoon, the Carpenters didn’t know, of course, that Carlos Beltran, one of the greatest postseason hitters ever, would leave the game with an knee injury; that Matt would be called upon to replace Beltran in right field and hit second in the lineup; that Matt, a player with six career home runs, would step up to the plate against Giants ace Matt Cain for his first at-bat in the bottom of the third, and that he would launch a 421-foot, two-run home run through the oatmeal-gray sky and into the right-field seats, for the biggest hit in the Cardinals’ 3-1 win.
But then again, crazy and wild and unexpected things have happened in October, especially this one, and you never know who the hero will be. So why couldn’t it be Matt Carpenter?
***
Remember this?
***
The extraordinary pictures reveal an intricate maze of computers that process Internet search requests, show YouTube video clips and distribute email for millions of people. With hundreds of thousands of servers at each location, Google’s vast server farms are housed in buildings ranging from a converted paper mill in Finland to cavernous warehouses in Iowa. The data centers represent Google’s nerve center, although none are located near the company’s headquarters in California.
***
This German guy bounces off frozen pool, it’s gotta hurt: Germans are usually very bright people, heck, they invented the Volkswagen. But I’m not so sure this guy is all that bright. Be carful with this video, not sure it’s safe for work.
***
Too little, too late?
Opportunities exists where you never thought they would.
An example of how the internet makes things go viral.
***
***
Thanks for reading the blog. This week is flying by, make it a good Thirsty Thursday!
About Me