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Nine Inch Nails is giving away their newest album entitled “the slip”. If you are a fan or are interested in seeing what NIN is all about check out the slip. All you have to do is enter your valid email address and they will send you the link to download the album in any format you want. They have provided it in mp3, flac, flac hd, mp4a and uncompressed better than cd quality WAVE! Any format other than mp3 will require you to use bit torrent… legally.

Check em out!

Mike finally got his first win as a Beloit Snapper yesterday in an 11-3 win. The game started out rough for Mike, giving up 3 runs in the first, but he slammed the door shut after a lead off double in the second. Tarsi pitched 6 innings giving up 9 hits, 5 of which were in the first inning. Mike finished the game walking 3 and striking out 7. It’s so great to finally get that first win under his belt.

Since the first three games of the season mike has posted a much more tarsi like era of 3.38 over the last 5 games.

Link Round Up:

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Mike had another tough outing last night giving up five earned runs… which sound like they shouldn’t have been earned. Listening to the games on the web casts is very tough and somewhat decieving. I read all the time on different blogs about the Beloit Snappers and it seems that there is a clear trend. Poor defense.

At more than one point last night I heard the announcer for the Bees describe a ground ball going “under the glove” of Snapper infielders, plays that just should be made. The third inning of last night’s game was a rough one for Mike, allowing a couple singles and a walk, which didn’t help, but when you give a team extra outs, that is always going to hurt. A botched double play would have ended the inning only and stopped the Bee’s scoring at 2. It’s tough without watching any of the talent, but I am going to have to agree with Travis from Travis Twins Talk when he grades the defense as a F. Travis also graded the offense as a D+. Pitching can only do so much when they cannot rely on their defense to make plays. Bloop hits are one thing, but allowing fly balls to drop beside you, mis-playing a flyball, allowing a grounder under your glove, blowing perfect double play opportunities, it’s no wonder Travis also gives the Snappers starting pitching a D-.

Hopefully the Snappers can turn it around and get some of their players back to 100% health.

Mike Tarsi is taking the hill tonight against the Burlington Bees.  He is looking to extend his streak of great outings for the Beloit Snappers.  You can tune into the game by visiting the Minor League Baseball gameday audio site and finding today’s game in the list.  You will be asked to register for the site, but it’s very simple and straight forward and FREE!  Check back for the game’s results.

Amanda, Nick and I completed bike ny on sunday.  It was an overall great day, although we were thinking it was going to rain.  The day started off bright and early at 4:30am to get to a 5:10 train to Grand Central Terminal.  We got to the starting line with 30 minutes to spare.  The ride it self was fun, but there was a lot more standing around than I thought there would be.  2 places especially, waiting to get into grand central park and a random bridge.  Nick almost got taken out by some guy who thought he was skinnier than he was.

We were done with the ride and made it from staten island to gct to make a 5:00 train home.

There were a few things i would liked to have done if we thought to do them.  The first was put something cool on our helmets so that we were easily identified, so that I would have to keep looking around to find my riding partners.  We almost lost nick once when my chain fell off and he didn’t hear me yell to stop.  The second would have been to pack our own sandwiches.  The only real food other than my 2 power bars and a bagel for breakfast I ate was a burger on the ferry back to Manhattan.

Maybe Amanda can chime in here.

Mike Tarsi threw another complete game gem on Friday suffering another tough loss. The game was won in the bottom of the 8th inning when the loons scored 2 runs. The snappers have had a tough time scoring runs while the spaniard is on the mound. Mike’s last three starts have resulted in 3 complete game losses. Tarsi gave up a total of 4 earned runs in 22 innings, lowering his era from his first 3 starts(16.78) all the way down to 6.75, striking out 12, walking only 4 and allowing a total of 16 hits. Clearly he has returned to form.

As a side note, in my drunkenness last night, I have given mike a new nickname based on his “el gato” cat like reflexes, which stems from his stellar play on the bunt pop up in the 8th inning where he pounced off the mound and made a slick diving catch.

As a second side note: The snappers website is terrible at getting updated after games. Someone needs to get on that.

Now that I know what W.B. Mason does, I want them. Check out this old commercial

Matt, Nick and I are gearing up for this year’s BIKE NY tour this Sunday, May 4.  Matt and I are really excited and Nick has been asking “how many days ’til Bike NY” for 3 weeks now so I gather he’s riled up for it as well.

I was in Dave’s Cycle in Cos Cob, (Greenwich) CT about a month and a half ago when a pamphlet for Bike NY stood out.  I’m pumped about the city closing down roads for traffic-free cruising and enjoying Central Park in the height of Spring while Matt is really looking forward to riding along the East River and the spectacular sights while riding up and down the Verrazano-Narrows bridge into Staten Island.  But who are we kidding - being the amateur riders that we are, we were both drawn mainly because NYC is flat as hell and our [mildly] out of shape physiques could more than handle the 42 mile tour. 

We’ll take the train in, bikes in hand, to GCT and then ride 4 miles to Battery Park for the starting line with 40,000 other riders.  After finishing the tour, we’ll ride 3 last miles to the Staten Island Ferry to bring us back to Manhattan so we can ride back to GCT.  By late afternoon, Matt and Nick’s Giants (http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/) and my Diamondback (http://www.diamondback.com/) will have clocked over 50 miles.  (I’m a little nervous after just seeing myself type that.)

So if you’re in the area, head over to FDR Drive to catch us in action, or check back when Matt posts pictures of our ride.  To see what we’re getting ourselves into, you can look at pictures from last year’s tour at <http://www.bikenewyork.org/rides/fbbt/photo_gallery.html>  Good luck to us and the other riders!

“I think here or Toledo would be the same. I just need to get another day of at-bats,” Granderson said. “Timing-wise at the plate, the results weren’t necessarily the best (last night), but the lefty (Beloit’s Michael Tarsi) had good stuff going.” - Curtis Granderson

Google adsense is a cool product, but not when it does this on your website. This is a blog for my family and friends…

Thanks Google

Mike Tarsi seemed to be back on top of his game tonight as he pitched 8 innings against the whitecaps allowing only 2 unearned runs. Tarsi had been in a funk his first couple starts and with this game should drop his astronomical 16 era down to around 8. Great job tars.

Tonight happened to be a rehab game for Detroit Tigers star center fielder Curtis Granderson. Granderson led off the bottom of the first with a strikeout. I can’t tell you how proud that makes me as an older brother to see my little brother strike out an accomplished major league player still in his prime twice. The only runs of the game came in the 3rd inning on a strange set of plays. There was a single and an error at second when the runner slid into the shortstop causing him to drop the ball. Granderson who wouldn’t have gotten to bat with a runner in scoring position hit a triple past the first basemen. The next batter hit a sac fly to center to score granderson to make it a 2-0 game.

Granderson wound up 1 for 4 with a triple and 2 strike outs.

Mike Tarsi finished up the game from that point on retiring 17 out of the next 19 batters. Tarsi’s velocity was on point tonight. While his fastball topped out around 90, he was spot on with his offspeed stuff. At one point he threw a 63mph changeup… that is a difference of 27mph! I want to be the first to congratulate him on an excellent pitching effort.

Sometimes even the flight of an angel hits turbulence. ~Astrid Alauda

MJT

I attended the New York International Auto Show a few weeks ago with Amanda, Justin and Danielle, Marsh and Maggie.  It was a good time as usual.  I’m not sure if it is quite as fun as it used to be, but the cars are still cool.  Maybe it will be more fun when I can buy one of the cool cars i see (cough ZR1 cough)

Check out the images in my NYAS 08′ gallery here:

Justin, if you don’t like my pictures… Eat me.

This has to be one of the coolest things I have seen in a while.

You know you love it!

Watch the video here:

http://www.zootoo.com/zootootv/v/shelter04daws2

Check out the Daws Profile here:

http://www.zootoo.com/shelters/zip06801_danburyanimalwelfaresociety2

Super Dog made an appearance at the Danbury Animal Welfare Society this morning to support the shelter in an attempt to sway the president of ZooToo into picking the best shelter on the list for the shelter makeover contest over at zootoo.com.  The turnout was impressive and so were the free MINI cupcakes.