today will soon be gone / like yesterday is gone /like history is gone / the world keeps spinning on /you're going, going gone

My sister posted this little quiz that will tell you, if everyone lived like you, how many Earths we would need to support the planet. I scored 4.9 Earths. Surprisingly, I don’t think this was due to my low MPG car, because the bucket for that one was 15-25 miles per gallon. Instead, I think my high score was mostly related to the fact that Houston has zip, zero, nada in the way of public transportation, so I never go anywhere by anything other than car. Taking the quiz from the viewpoint of when I lived at home in high school lowered me to 3.8 Earths.

Anyway.

Last night was the Home Run Derby, and despite the fact that Lance Berkman couldn’t pull through in the end to win it (that honor went to Miguel Tejada, who set a new record for number of homers in one round and in the whole derby), it was still awesome. We got to the ballpark right as doors were opening and got in good position to hopefully catch a few batting practice balls. I was ignored by Homer the Brave, got a high-five from the Pirate Parrot, and watched Curt Schilling get interviewed for the Best Damn Sports Show Period. Later, Jason and I moved from left field to right field, where we walked past the ESPN guys and then watched NL and AL batting practice.

I got a lot of pictures of the NL guys, since most of them were hanging out in right field (since they have the 1st base — home — dugout). Clemens, Gagne, Randy Johnson (freakishly tall), Jeff Kent and sons, Glavine, Berkman…everybody! I didn’t get as many pictures of the AL guys because most of them were standing over in right field, but I did get a couple shots of Vladimir Guerrero, Francisco Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers, and Francisco Cordero. And kids. I’ll post them later.

Batting practice was fun to watch. Jim Thome was really launching them in our direction, so it surprised us when he didn’t make it out of the first round of the derby. Ichiro had surprising power during batting practice too. Sosa was firing them into right field, Giambi hit one that our friend Nick caught in the upper right field deck… Jason and I didn’t catch anything (not that I would have stuck my hand out there without a glove anyway), but the guy in front of us got one, and a guy a little farther in front got three. Just not fair.

The Derby was really fun to watch. Before it started, they brought out all of the living 500+ home run hitters, and that was so cool. All these great baseball players were standing down on the field, and I was watching! Awesome. Bonds led off the Derby with 8 home runs, including a 483-footer. Wow. Blalock only hit three, but then Berkman and Tejada both hit 7! Thome, Ortiz, and Sosa all disappointed, but Palmeiro finished the first round with 9!

Bonds disappointed in the second round with only 3, but Berkman came back up and hit 10! The stadium roof had been opened, and it was awesome seeing all his balls fly over the train tracks into the night. Lance got the loudest cheers by far, being the hometown boy. I felt sort of bad for the other guys; they would have gotten a lot more cheers if they hadn’t been going against an Astro! Tejada followed Berkman with an even more astounding 15 second round homers. The crowd wasn’t cheering at first, but once he passed Lance and closed in on the single-round Derby record, the fans livened up. Tejada hit one 497 feet–four feet farther than Lance’s longest. Incredible.

Palmeiro was up last in the second round, and the crowd was starting to clap for outs, wanting Berkman to make it to the finals. With one out left, the announcer asked “come on Houston, are you going to cheer for Palmeiro?” to which the entire stadium chorused “NOOOOOO!” It was funny. Palmeiro only hit 5, so it was Berkman and Tejada in the final. Woohoo!

Poor Berkman though, he must have worn himself out in the second round, and only hit 4 in the finals. However, three of them came with only one out left, quite an awesome display of clutch homering. The crowd was going crazy! Tejada came up, and poor guy, everyone wanted him to lose. But he quickly tied Berkman’s four, and hit the fifth with five outs still to go.
So the two last-minute derby subs were in the finals, and little Miguel Tejada won the entire thing. It was really fun to be there…and I can’t wait for tonight!!