Stephen Strasburg: The Go

May 18th, 2009

May 18, 2009 — Well, it’s official. I missed the Bees game last Thursday to watch a #1 Draft Pick. Oh, sure he’s not a sure thing until Bobby Williams speaks his name into the phone on June 9. Nonetheless, the Washington Nationals think so highly of him, they’ve announced to nearly everyone in the known universe they will use their #1 pick to take Strasburg. Jonathan Mayo, draft geek extraordinaire, says this kid is the real deal.

Stephen Strasburg is an interesting story. Prior to his collegiate career, he was all but invisible. Actually, that’s not exactly correct. He got overlooked because he was a fast-food-fed 6’2″, 250-lb Jumbo whose nickname during his early days at SDSU was “Slothburg.” Bad temper, bad work habits. All he could do was throw hard. Nonetheless, the coaches for San Diego State University took him in and worked with him. It didn’t hurt Strasburg idolized Head Coach Tony Gwynn.

Last summer, a rebuilt lean, mean, Strasburg machine played for Team USA at the Beijing Olympic Games, helping them win the Bronze Medal. Although he was the only college ballplayer on the team, Strasburg held his own on a roster full of organized-baseball professionals. Now he’s the considered the best amateur pitcher in the country. And potentially the best ballplayer in the upcoming draft. Even more exciting for yours truly, Strasburg is A-student, as well as athlete.

I thought I’d try out a little experiment for this post. Live blogging. I figured Strasburg works fast. If I got lucky, I might be able to squeeze 7 innings out of my “Pink Lady,” an ASUS eeePC sub-notebook. The toughest part would be typing quickly and accurately. It usually takes a little practice time before I’m comfortable with the 3/4-sized keyboard.The hardest part is reaching for the Shift key, which is no bigger than the regular letter keys and placed a bit closer than on a standard keyboard. It’s easy to end up skipping up and over a few lines or introducing a few extra line breaks before I notice I’ve “lost my place” and have to hunt around for the cursor.

Another reason for excitement. This was my first opportunity to ride UTA’s FrontRunner. I packed my message bag with Pink Lady, digital camera, bottle of water, and of course, the trusty radio. Also in my bag was a short stack of player stats for Utah and SDSU, and some news stories.

On board the Ogden-bound train, I found the rumors were true. This is one nice ride. The cars are double-decker, and the view from upstairs is fabulous.

Better yet, some of the seats have small tables with electrical outlets and WLAN. It’s geek-girl heaven. Somewhere between Layton and Clearfield, I actually watched YouTube videos of previous Strasburg appearances.

You can see the ballpark from the train station.

On the way home, I plugged my headphones into Pink Lady and listened to the last couple of innings of the Bees game via Internet broadcast. I got to hear Matt Brown’s walk-off, three-run homer. Life is good.  .  .Your friend in baseball.

Click here to read the live-blog post

Entry Filed under: Major League Baseball