My Ball

I have been to many Major League baseball games over the last forty years. Until yesterday I had never caught a Major League Baseball. I have caught many balls at minor league games and college games, but yesterday was my first. I caught the ball during batting practice (and I like a dummy I got four Oakland A's players to sign it):

My Ball

Travis Blackley's sig

Tommy Milone's sig

Grant Balfour sig top, Pedro Figueroa sig Bottom

That was the start of a thrilling day. I will blog more about this game later, but I wanted to share my ball.

The Art of Daniel Clowes

Daniel Clowes-self portrait

Daniel Clowes is one of my favorite cartoonists. I have loved his work for a long time. I saw his work for the first time in the Lloyd Llewellyn comics (which he penned) at a comic shop when I was a senior in high school. Clowes was nominated for a screenplay Oscar for Ghost World. Also, he lives in Oakland, so he is an East Bay resident. He was in the alternative comic section of the store and I would go that section on my weekly visits to the store and the baseball cards(ok, I am getting into my youth inner geek way to much here, sorry). But here are some pics I took of his original artwork that was on display:

Death Ray

Enid Doll from Ghost World

Wilson by Daniel Clowes-My Favorite

Daniel Clowes Original Art Work

Ghost World

Eightball

As I said I am a big fan of Daniel Clowes and can't wait for him to come out with something new.

America's Cup World Series Practice

An Open 5.70 class catamaran

Friday as I headed down to the Book Sale at Fort Mason, I could see all these yachts going across the Bay and decided to take a look. Went down behind all the buildings at Fort Mason and saw all of these catamarans. I guess they were doing practice for the America's Cup World Series races that are happening in two weeks on the San Francisco Bay. I learned that they are using the smaller AC45 class to learn on before going to the AC72 class (which is a lot bigger) for the America's Cup races in 2013. Please tell me if I have misidentified anything as I know jack about sailing other than Dennis Conner and the boats go fast and look cool:

AC 72 class of Ben Ainslie Racing-England

Team China's AC72

Team Luna Rossi (Italy) going by Alcatraz

Two Artemis Racing boats and the English entry

One of the Team Oracle (USA) entries

A Team Luna Rossa chase boat.

FSFPL Really Big Book Sale

One of my favorite times of the year. The Really Big Book Sale put on by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. I love going to it every year. It is truly something I look forward to doing. It is held at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Nothing beats it: A great view of the San Francisco Bay (I got an added bonus that I will blog later on) and a lot of books. Man, do they have a lot-over 500,000 books. They have them in every category and they do a great job in marking the categories. The books are priced great: $3.00 for hardbacks, $2.00 for softcovers and a buck for media (DVD, VHS, CD's, Cassettes and Records). On Sunday which is the last day of the sale everything is a buck. It is truly something to attend. I usually go on Friday to avoid the crowds:

As you walk in

CD's-Took me over an hour to speed look

Books

A guy going through the boxes

I love going the boxes under the tables

People going through the books

This guy was serious about buying

And you never know what you will find:

A CD by the Dripping Silts-The songtitles were very interesting

A Tony the Tiger Poster Book

Very Interesting

These were my buys for the day:

Bought a bunch of these Dandy's. These are English graphic novels from the 80's

And a couple of Beanos': English graphic comics from the 80's

From Upper Left going clockwise: Moby:Southside single, Oh Say Can You Sing:Music by Major League  Baseball Players, Good Morning Vietnam Soundtrack, In the Air Tonight: Virgin Records Greatest Hits

The HBO Do You Believe in Miracles DVD

From Left: Best Baseball Writing 2005, Over Time By Frank Deford, Champions:The Story of the 2006  New York Yankees

Two Doonesbury books flanked by Japan Inc, a graphic novel about the rise of the Japanese economy in the 80's

Outland and One Last Little Peak: Bloom County

The biggest find of the day for me was this:

Lone Star J.R. by Johnny Rutherford as it was signed by the auto racing legend (below)

And they always have great volunteers to help:

She was so nice

Apple Store-Union Square, 7:15am, 9-21-12

I went down by the Apple Store at Union Square in San Francisco to see the scene. There were I guess about 600 people or so in line waiting to get the new IPhone 5. The line stretched one city block:

Part of the line waiting to get their new phone as it stretched down Stockton St. for a full block

Apple Employees looking at the crowd from the store.

By the time I got there to take a look all of the tents had been put away and the public trash bins were filled:

And there had to be a first in line to receive a ticket to get into the store and that was Charlie Hufnagel who had been in line since 10:00am on Monday (about 93 hours). Charlie was being paid $1,500 to stand in line. He did not need the new IPhone but had picked up the gig through Task Rabbit which is an online service for people willing to pay someone to do an assortment of odd jobs:

Charlie Hufnagel, the first in line for the new IPhone

A ticket to buy the new IPhone

Bronco Billy's Pizza

The front of Bronco Billy's Pizza

This is a first for me as all the pics shot on this blog are from my IPhone. I finally decided to get one a while back and it has taken me a while to figure out everything about it (I know I am slow), but hopefully the pics are decent.

A while ago I went to a pizza joint called Bronco Billy's in Fremont. Never had been there and walked in and I liked the vibe of the place:

The bar area at Bronco Billy's

The inside of Bronco Billy's

When I go to a place, I always look around to see what they have up and on the walls. The more original the better. Bronco Billy's has western stuff on the walls, but it is pretty cool:

Love the old western movie posters on the wall

And ode to the Civil War

I love this movie

And in Bronco Billy's something is always staring at you while you eat:

That is a big fish

But again if the food isn't good then the place sucks and the food is good:

Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza

Pepperoni Pizza

Garlic Bread with real garlic

Hot wings

One thing I really liked was that they had a real salad bar and not just lettuce and tomato only like most pizza places:

Bronco Billy's salad bar

And finally it is one place that I can pick up one of my favorite free newspapers about the local high school sports scene "SportStars":