The McFreeds report...
We are off to a day long workshop on gay and lesbian adoption this morning. The true first step to our becoming parents at some point hopefully in the next 3 years! We know its just a workshop and they don't hand you a kid on the way out the door, but it is a way for us to truly launch ourselves into one of our passions in life... to be lucky dads to a great kid! Stefan gets to be Dad while Sean wants to be Papa in honor of his grandfather.
Sean celebrates...
The Boston Red Sox's David "Big Papi" Ortiz has been a horrible slump since the beginning of the 2008 MLB Season. Tonight (April 18, 2008), he broke the jinx with a GRAND SLAM against the Texas Rangers at Boston's Fenway Park!!!
Congrats Big Papi! Welcome back!
Sean pants heavily...
What a game in San Diego on April 17, 2008!
SAN DIEGO (AP) -Let's play 2 1/2!
Colorado and San Diego did just that Thursday night and into Friday morning, slogging through a 22-inning game that was the longest in the majors in nearly 15 years.
The Rockies finally won 2-1, with Troy Tulowitzki 's two-out RBI double bringing in Willy Taveras with an unearned run in nearly empty Petco Park. A game that lasted 6 hours, 16 minutes was decided by an unearned run.
Reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy threw the game's first pitch at 7:05 p.m. The game didn't end until 1:21 a.m., when Padres pitcher Glendon Rusch took a called third strike. Colorado's Yorvit Torrealba , who caught all 22 innings, wearily pumped a fist in celebration.
''It's tough to keep your head into it and put together good at-bats and be into every pitch,'' Tulowitzki said. ''We were talking about how our legs were hurting out there. It's tough to stand on your feet for 22 innings and keep moving.''
Manager Clint Hurdle noticed that his players were a little tight.
''This was a good game to get outside yourself,'' Hurdle said. ''About the 16th inning, I said, 'Hey boys, no matter what's in front of us, there's a world of people out there who've got harder rows to hoe than we do. No matter what happens the rest of the night, have some fun with this thing.' ''
His players listened. It just took them six more innings to score a run.
''It's definitely better to win in a 22-inning game than lose, I'll tell you that,'' Tulowitzki said.
It was the longest game since Aug. 31, 1993, when Minnesota beat Cleveland 5-4 in 22 innings. It was also the longest game in Rockies history and in the 5-year history of Petco Park. It was the longest by innings for the Padres, and one minute short of matching the longest by time for San Diego.
There's something about these two teams and extra innings. On Oct 1., Colorado rallied past the Padres for a 9-8 win in 13 innings in the wild-card tiebreaker game.
There was a little bit of everything, but far too little offense on Thursday. There were planes to catch - The Rockies open a series Friday in Houston and the Padres will be at Arizona - but the game was scoreless until the 14th inning. Wouldn't you know it, each team scored a run that inning to prolong it.
In the 22nd, Taveras reached on a two-out grounder when shortstop Khalil Greene 's throw pulled 6-foot-7 first baseman Tony Clark off the bag. Taveras stole second and took third on catcher Josh Bard 's throwing error. Tulowitzki doubled to left-center of Glendon Rusch (0-1), the seventh Padres pitcher. Taveras set a club record with 10 at-bats.
Only a fraction of the crowd of 25,984 was around to see the final out.
Some Padres players amused themselves in the 18th by taping up the head of a stuffed ram and placing it on the front bench in the dugout. After the 18th, shortly after midnight, the sprinklers came on in the Park at the Park, a grassy knoll beyond the bleachers in right-center.
There was a seventh-inning stretch, a 14-inning stretch and finally, a 21st-inning stretch.
Greg Maddux had his glove on in the dugout in the 22nd. It was wishful thinking, because he's scheduled to start Friday night at Arizona, when he'll try for his 350th career victory.
The stadium's cleanup crew sat listlessly in the far upper deck as the game dragged on, knowing they were going to be working into the wee hours.
There were 659 pitches, by 15 pitchers. There were numerous foul balls. In the 14th inning, a man in the second deck caught a foul ball and yelled, ''That's it, I'm going home!'' as other fans cheered. He stayed until the end.
''That was an incredible baseball game,'' Padres manager Bud Black said. ''It will go down as one that everybody who was here, will never forget it.''
San Diego's Josh Bard , who also caught all 22 innings, was angry.
''You give up two runs in 22 innings and you should win,'' he said.
''It's disappointing that we played so long and didn't get a win,'' right fielder Brian Giles said. ''Hopefully we'll play nine tomorrow.''
Had he ever played a game that long?
''Just in softball,'' Giles said.
The previous longest game this season by innings was 15, on April 9, when the Cubs beat the Pirates 6-4 at Pittsburgh. The previous longest in time was 4 hours, 53 minutes, Toronto at Texas on April 16. Texas won 7-5 in 14 innings.
Kip Wells (1-0), the eighth Rockies pitcher, pitched four innings.
Padres pitchers tied a team record with 20 strikeouts and their Rockies counterparts also set a record with 17 punchouts. Colorado stranded 16 runners and San Diego 14.
The Rockies went ahead 1-0 in the top of the 14th inning when Brad Hawpe drew a bases-loaded walk off Kevin Cameron to bring in Taveras.
The Padres tied it in the bottom of the inning when Bard's bases-loaded single off Manny Corpas brought in Kevin Kouzmanoff , aboard on a leadoff single. Tony Clark was forced at home for the second out and rookie Colt Morton - San Diego's last position player - grounded to third in his fourth big league at-bat. It was Corpas' second blown save in five chances.
The Padres blew a big chance in the 13th. Paul McAnulty led off with a line drive into the right-field corner but was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple. Left-hander Randy Wolf , who beat the Rockies 6-0 on Tuesday night, followed with a pinch-hit single to center field but was stranded.
Three Rockies pitchers retired 23 straight Padres batters from the second to the 10th inning.
Peavy and Rockies lefty Jeff Francis started a pitcher's duel that the bullpens continued.
Peavy was trying to win his first four starts of a season for the first time. He struck out a season-high 11 in eight innings, the 25th time in his career he's reached double digits. He allowed four hits, walked three and lowered his ERA to 1.20.
Francis kept the Padres scoreless for seven innings while allowing three hits, striking out seven and walking one.
After Peavy's broken-bat, bloop single down the right-field line with two outs in the second, Francis retired 16 straight batters.
Brian Fuentes pitched a perfect eight and Taylor Buchholz a perfect ninth. Buchholz retired pinch-hitter Jim Edmonds leading off the 10th before allowing Greene's single.
Notes: The 13 full scoreless innings were the most in the big leagues since July 20, 2004, at Oakland, when the A's beat Toronto 1-0 in 14. It was the longest for the Padres since July 15, 1994, when they won 2-1 at the New York Mets in 14. It was 0-0 after 13. ... The Padres have gone 94 innings without a home run.
Sean shares a silly story...
On April 17, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI held a mass at the new Nationals Park (the home of the MLB Washington Nationals). DC's Metro put this ad on the air but it was quickly yanked because of objections from the papacy due to the portrayal of the pope as a bobblehead doll and the colors of his vestments. So here it is for y'all to enjoy! The first words of the ad are in Latin...hence the subtitles!
Sean relates an experience...
Yes, its true I was raised a good Catholic boy. I attended Catholic school from 1st through 8th grades. Both my parents attended Catholic school as well as did my sisters. Unfortunately, I always felt an outsider to that denomination of Christianity. Maybe it was the teasing a received while there, the feeling of not always meeting the moral expectations of the faith's beliefs laid out by the teachers and nuns, or the uncomfortableness with the faith's teachings. Or maybe it was my inner gay man rejecting teachings that excluded anyone who was not Catholic and/or not following the Catholic teachings as not being worthy of Heaven or afterlife.
I learned how to dig into my spiritual nature because of my experiences with Catholicism however and learned that you can talk directly to God without a priest listening at confession. Nowadays, I think of myself as a reformed agnostic Catholic of no particular denomination. I enjoy attending Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) services now where denomination isn't important, personal communication with God and good works is. I haven't been in a while but I truly miss my former church in Fairfax under Pastor Kharma. I need to find the one here that has a better time and invest in it more.
Of course all this rambling brings me to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to DC. My whole office watched him drive by in his pope mobile from above Pennsylvania Ave yesterday (April 16, 2008). It was exciting I must admit to see a figure in a position that has been around for centuries and has had a huge role - positive and negative - in world events. I mean I ws so excited that I sent "I've been Poped!" text messages to friends and family to let them know of the event! But I also have to be a bit reserved to the fact that this pope is not the forgiver that Pope John Paul II was and he is not a friend to gays and lesbians around the world. I say this because that is where I lay my hat and until religion recognizes that living life according to the Golden Rule of "loving thy neighbor as yourself" is the most important in any faith regardless of sect or denomination then I will always be cynical or organized faith.
In addition, I was struck by President George W. Bush saying the following during the Pope's visit to the White House:
"In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need your message that all human life is sacred and that each of us is willed."
Strange how a man can say this yet advocate the death penalty (which I actually support with some restrictions), torture, unlawful imprisonment, and corporate welfare as well as wage war (and I do support the Afghan conflict reasonings btw) at the same time without admitting he to has sinned. But I guess "our" President sees it as a crusade or vegeance or something. Hypocracy is just one of many reasons January 20, 2009 needs to get here soon.
Anyone else have thoughts about Catholicism, the pope, or religion in general? I love taboo topics for the dinner table!
Sean says...
My sister Mikelle decided to commit harassment by texting this week while my brother-in-law Eric, their son Zachary, and she vacation in Orlando.
Mikelle: "How does it feel to be working? Sucks doesn't it?"
During her texting she sent this hysterical yet adorable photo. Enjoy! Will she never learn that big brother always wins... (evil laugh)!
The McFreeds issue a radio tuning alert!...
Attention all Floridian major league baseball fans!!! The 2008 season has begun and that means Stefan's brother Andy Freed is working it on 1250 AM WHNZ radio with his on-air partner Dave Wills.
The Tampa Bay Rays made some changes in the off-season for the better and are slated as one of the teams to do well this year! As long as they don't beat the Boston Red Sox, Sean is excited to see the Rays win this year! If you love listening to baseball on radio, even if you are not a Rays fan, take a gander on how they call the game and tell them the McFreeds sent you! We try and catch all the games on mlb.com's audio set up which are also available on XM as well.
The McFreeds relate...
We enjoyed a really fun evening with our friends Thom and Chris last night in the Bolton Hill section of Baltimore. It was a beautiful evening for a while until the rain had us wait an additional hour at the restaurant we chose, but we had fun talking anyway and the restaurant provided great service and some free food to us to boot! We chose Abacrombie Fine Food and Accomodations venue for our long-time coming visit with Stefan's great friends. The restaurant received great reviews in Bon Appetit, the Baltimore City Paper, and the Baltimore Sun... so naturally Stefan chose it with great excitement. We walked from Thom and Chris' incredible town home and ate a great dinner. The place was empty when we arrived at 830pm because the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was on and everyone had cleared out to see the show at the Mayerhoff Symphony Hall across the street. The staff was all over us with service, a little too eager, but it was appreciated and we got to know practically everyone there including the partners! We also learned a lot about cheese from Greta - one of the partners in the place - and had great service from Lucas our waiter. We are sure we will return and celebrate as we did our gal Helen over at Chiapparelli's! It was a lovely night with great friends and fun conversation!
The McFreeds blabber...
We found ourselves rushing off spontaneously to go see the latest film being played as part of the Alfred Hitchcock revival at The Charles Theatre here in Baltimore, Dial M For Murder. In 3-D!!!! The Charles shows the revival movie of the week on Saturdays, Sundays, and Thursdays in the large theatre. The films shown are not always in the best condition as they might be on DVD, but the experience of watching an old film with an audience is always too hard to pass up becuase it gives you a new perspective on a given film. Plus this was in 3-D (said with as deep a booming voice we can make...no giggling)!!!!
Well, on a Thursday night at 9pm, the move was close to being sold out...and on a school night even!!!! There were a ton of people in their 3D glasses. It was great! The movie is not one of Alfred Hitchcock's best but it was fun to watch it with an audience. It stars Ray Milland as a conniving golddigger of a husband (a great charming performance in a minor and somewhat dismissable Hitchcock) who uncovers his wife Grace Kelly's infidelity with Bob Cummings and attempts to have her killed murder-for-hire. The film itself was only rarely shown in 3D upon its initial release so it was a real treat to see it like that. All that was notable though about the 3D was there were a lot of lamps in the way and Grace Kelly's hand was creepy when she grabs for some scissors. Otherwise, the film is one that can be skipped or postposed to the end of your Alfred Hitchock film fest. Although, it could be a camp classic because of some of the corny lines it it. Our fav was something like...
Bob Cummings: "In a couple of days you're going to have the most wonderful breakdown!"
Grace Kelly: "Mark, I think I'm going to have that breakdown now!"
Ray Milland: "I'm so glad we don't have to go to Maureen's; she's such a filthy cook."
Oh those quotes...they are going down next to The Valley of The Dolls quotables now! The crowd we believe felt the campiness too! There was a lot of laughter throughout which made some of the staginess of the film a little more palpalble We wonder if Hitchock meant it that way since he kind of ignored the whole 3D aspect and had the camera navigate around the lamps. But the power of Ray Milland's villain and supporting player John Williams (who also appeared in Hitchock's The Paradine Case and To Catch A Thief as well as two epsiodes of 1979's Battlestar Galactica!) and as Inspector Hubbard does allow you to keep entertained and enjoy the naughtiness of Hitchock's banter upon occasion.
Although not a great film like Vertigo, Psycho, North By Northwest, or Rear Window, it was incredible to see the power of Hitchcock's name and reputation today with an audience of people of all ages going out on a nice evening and enjoying an old film.
Here is the trailer!
Sean rings out his ears and puts the vomit bowl away...
Last night's (April 8, 2008) American Idol seriously disappointed and almost made me blow chunks. I am all for taking twists on songs that truly are great and either perform them straight out or re-imagine them. Last night, two songs that I would put in my personal top 20 list either underperformed or just torn to shreds... Robbie Williams' 1998 hit Angels and Queen's The Show Must Go On. Part 1 will address the dismal thrashing of The Show Must Go On.
Carly Smithson delivered a horrible version of The Show Must Go On that I fear will discourage people from trying to hear what this great and honest song tells. Inspirational in that it does what William's Angels does also - keep fighting and don't let them see you cry until you win.
"Inside my heart is breaking, my make up may be flaking, but my smile still stays on... The Show Must Go On!"
Here are two great versions. First is a video (sorry couldn't find a live version on YouTube) is from Queen. The second is from Baz Luhrman's film Moulin Rouge, with Jim Broadbent and Nicole Kidman giving a great dramatic rise to the song (ignore the French dubbing at the beginning). Enjoy and don't even think about Carly's huge drive off a high cliff.
Here are the lyrics to this song about going on when obstacles get in your way and pain is a factor.
Empty spaces - what are we living for?
Abandoned places - I guess we know the score..
On and on!
Does anybody know what we are looking for?
Another hero - another mindless crime.
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.
Hold the line!
Does anybody want to take it anymore?
The Show must go on!
The Show must go on!
Inside my heart is breaking,
My make-up may be flaking,
But my smile, still, stays on!
Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance.
Another heartache - another failed romance.
On and on!
Does anybody know what we are living for?
I guess i'm learning
I must be warmer now..
I'll soon be turning round the corner now.
Outside the dawn is breaking,
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free!
The Show must go on!
The Show must go on! Yeah!
Ooh! Inside my heart is breaking!
My make-up may be flaking!
But my smile, still, stays on!
Yeah! oh oh oh
My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies,
Fairy tales of yesterday, will grow but never die,
I can fly, my friends!
The Show must go on! Yeah!
The Show must go on!
I'll face it with a grin!
I'm never giving in!
On with the show!
I'll top the bill!
I'll overkill!
I have to find the will to carry on!
On with the,
On with the show!
The Show must go on.
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