Ridiculous Ramblings

I guess I'll try to make this a regular (weekly) segment where I talk about whatever comes to mind. In other words, it will be the most un-read of my posts.

My career at Ohio University is winding down and I want to elaborate on some of my final week disturbances. First of all, it's been an adventure living without air conditioning when the high temperatures hit 90 degrees over the span of a week. Three showers a day doesn't even seem to cut it at this point. I guess it was my own bad decision in not finding a place with air conditioning built in, but I've really enjoyed my time at 6 1/2 Coss, so I guess I can tough it out for another week.

My last undergraduate class ever was on Wednesday. It was actually supposed to be Thursday morning at 9, but being the celebratory person that I am, I did not wake up in time for that class. In no way am I complaining about being able to go out any night of the week -- it's actually a very nice gig.

I have a six-page research paper for English (due Tuesday) and a Blue Book final exam in History (Thursday morning) as my final obstacles to a B.S. of Journalism with English and History minors. Well, technically I have all the necessary pieces of my overall degree, but if I don't get credit for those minors, there will be about 10 classes that were essentially worthless -- unless you count personal development as an award for having taken them.

The apartment hunting has been slow to say the least, but at least I have another thing to throw at the facebook naysayers. The facebook marketplace is an online classifieds section that allows anyone to look to different schools and see what's for sale or rent. It ranges from event tickets to books to electronics to... available houses and apartments.

I like it better than craigslist because pictures are easier to upload/view and the website itself looks better -- but that's just me. Don't get me wrong... there's a good chance I'll find my new abode on craigslist. But my preference goes to "the book." But my one-year contract as a news producer at WMTV NBC 15 is in the mail, so I should probably start finding somewhere to live soon...

I find it interesting to delve into statistics, especially in baseball, trying to find trends and patterns among the teams. A recent stat that I noted was a direct relationship between playoff teams in Major League Baseball and those teams' home records. The top five in each league (overall MLB rank in parentheses)...

AL
1. Boston -- .800 (1)
2. Tampa Bay -- .706 (4)
3. Chicago -- .654 (7)
4. Baltimore -- .607 (t-12)
5. Oakland -- .588 (14)

NL
1. Chicago -- .765 (2)
2. Atlanta -- .735 (3)
3. Houston -- .640 (8)
4. Arizona -- .636 (9)
5. St. Louis/Philadelphia -- .618 (t-10)

If the playoffs started today in Major League Baseball, here's how it would shake out...

AL
1. L.A. Angels -- .613
2. Boston -- .594
3. Chicago -- .567
4. Tampa Bay -- .590

NL
1. Chicago -- .629
2. Philadelphia -- .587
3. Arizona -- .541
4. St. Louis -- .571

The National League is especially telling in this stat, considering all four playoff teams made the list of the top five home records. (OK, there were six teams, but Atlanta basically doesn't count because its record on the road is an abysmal 7-21) In the American League, three of the four made it and L.A. missed the list to West Division rival Oakland by .007.

All of these teams are also (at least) above .500 in games played within their respective divisions. So if a team wants to make a playoff push, it needs to win home games, especially home games within the division. The same can be said for last year's playoff teams -- all eight were above .500 at home and all but the Arizona Diamondbacks had division winning percentages above .500 (Arizona was right on the mark).

It's too bad I won't be able to make it to Progressive Field in hopes that the Indians can turn this ship (or "shit" perhaps) around in time to salvage their season. Instead I'll be spending my only week off trying to figure out what I need and what I don't, packing my car until it's nearly bursting at the seams before heading to Wisconsin.

It's less than two weeks away from the (first) big move and it still hasn't really set in. I guess right after I get that diploma on the stage in the Convocation Center a week from today it might hit.
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Not every person can be perfect in every
way, shape, form; we tend to be
experts by some manner.