Phoenix.BloggersPub

The Suns looked pretty bad throughout the first three quarters of the game against the Indiana Pacers.  Fortunately, the Pacers slacked off a bit and Phoenix was able to run away with the victory, 103-92.

Led by Steve Nash’s 25 points and 11 assists, the Phoenix Suns rallied for their 4th straight victory.  Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion supported the cause w/ 23 and 22 points, respectively. Stoudemire also pulled down 18 rebounds for the suddenly streaking Phoenix team (yes, again).  If Phoenix can reach 12 in a row, they’ll join the Mavs as one of only a handful of teams to have won 12 games in a row 3 times in the same season… The teams that have done it in the past have won championships, so it will be interesting to see how it turns out if both the Suns and Mavs do it.

The Suns comeback started late in the 3rd quarter, as the Suns - without Nash in the lineup - rallied to come within 6 points at the end of the 3rd.  The game continued to sway in the 4th quarter w/ the Pacers struggling mightily - hitting only 5 baskets in the first 10 minutes of the 4th quarter.

The win gets the Suns one step closer to sweeping the Eastern Conference on the road this season.

I’m excited for tonight’s game.  I don’t know what to expect from the Pacers.  They can be really good or really bad.  Jermaine O’Neal can come out and be a non-factor because of the Suns’ defense or he can come out and beat the Suns single-handedly.
Keys to the game?  I really don’t know.  To […]

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes(Turn and face the strain)Ch-ch-ChangesDon’t want to be a richer manCh-ch-ch-ch-Changes(Turn and face the strain)Ch-ch-Changes
Thanks to the trade deadline that expired hours ago, changes rippled through the NHL as teams parted with players, made deals, and surprised few. Fans were left wondering if their $200 investment in their hero’s jersey will stay current because […]

The Cubita Spanish Market Selection “Robusto” was pretty good looking so I picked one up even though I’d never heard of Cubita.

There is always a lull in Tempe after a game against UofA, so here’s a few links to keep you entertained while your boss is in that meeting.
* Insomniac’s Lounge has it’s nominees for the proposed Cheerleader Hall Of Fame. Why yes, of course Courtney Simpson is in it.
* My boy Newspaper Hack over at […]

It’s always a pleasant surprise to swing into a record store and find something new that you never even knew existed. That was the case yesterday, when I found Josh Ritter’s Live at the Record Exchange EP at Stinkweeds.
I’ve been pretty wrapped up with all things Ritter since I finally wisened up and became attached […]

The last time I saw Heino was at Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne, Sunday October 2 2005. You haven’t been reading long if you don’t know that Heino is my best mate.

It fell to Heino to drive me from the last house I lived in at Footscray to the airport to fly off to a different life in the USA. I know how I felt that day, Sunday November 17th 2002. I think I know how he felt; we hugged but, being blokes, not much was said. Not much needed to be said. We’ve been mates for a third of a century and I certainly hoped that wasn’t the last time I saw him.

I’ve been back to Australia four times since then. It’s been my pleasure to stay at his house but it’s always been understood that, given how well I know Melbourne, I go to the places I want to revisit pretty much on my own. That said, we always visit whichever computer market is open the first weekend, be it at Camberwell or Collingwood. Heino and his family always make me feel welcome and it’s become the long standing joke that Petaluma Pacific Suites (not the real name) are always open to me.

This time around he’s coming here to Phoenix! It’s taken some orchestrating mainly because, even though the United Airlines Mileage Plus website says that I can book flights for someone other than myself using my points I’ve found that hard to believe. The website also doesn’t make it at all clear, when booking the flight, that it really is for someone else. Indeed, the first time I tried, the site errored out with the complaint that Heino wasn’t me. Well gee guys, I know that - why did you think I entered a different passenger name? The site told me that if I did nothing the booking would expire in 48 hours so I waited 72 and tried again.

It failed again but with a different error message and instructions to dial a 1-800 number. So I dialled it. Half an hour or so later I was put through to India. I fear she had more trouble with my accent than I did with hers and in fifteen minutes it was all sorted. How utterly expected that her first action was to debit my frequent flyer account with the appropriate number of points! That debit happened even before charging my credit card with the minor taxes United won’t pick up! (and they are minor - seventy five bucks for a return flight from Melbourne to Phoenix is minor indeed!)

So, on September 21 of this year I have the distinct pleasure of greeting my best mate in a Phoenix Airport and saying ‘Welcome to America, you old bastard!’. What’s odder is to think I’ll be doing that as a US citizen greeting an Australian friend to my new country. If you’d told me, five years ago, that I’d be doing that I’d have said you had rocks in your head!

Of course the poor bastard doesn’t get to visit Phoenix without meeting Vern[^] and LaMont[^] and Guy[^]. Everyone has to pay a price!

Yesterday Lynn and I attempted the Circumference Trail at Squaw Peak (Piestewa Peak).

The last time I was at the supermarket I noticed that Hersey’s has started making gourmet chocolate.

We managed to extract the FanFest pics from the memory card of our busted camera, so you’ll find those at the bottom of the page. However, perhaps the weirdest thing was the photo Chris took of me with Brandon Webb, which appears to show…well, let’s just take a look, shall we? [click to enlarge]

Now, note that Tony Peña, on the left of the shot, is not in any way affected. Whatever the cause, it is only myself and our Cy Young winner who are subject to it. And let’s just say, seems most unlikely to be your humble author who’s emitting any kind of divine glow: a pic of me alone, taken less than five minutes later with the same camera, was perfectly fine. But, hey, we thought: it’s probably just a temporary glitch, a freak combination of circumstances which affected only that image.

And then we looked at the next photo…

Again, Peña is fine; even the person standing directly behind me is untouched by whatever the cause was. But both Webb and I appear almost to have been erased from the picture. I should stress these are exactly as the photos appear, without any retouching or alteration. The original print and negatives are on file in SnakePit Towers, and available for investigation, should the Vatican require them. It gets creepier. Guess what was the subject of the final picture, taken by our digital camera, before its inexplicable total seizure?

Yep. Brandon Webb. [And you thought only a Randy Johnson scowl could destroy photographic equipment at 50 paces. ] Realizing that, in addition to what happened when we turned our lens on Arizona’s ace, set the hairs on the back of our neck tingling. Maybe it was the choir of ominously-chanting monks, who had apparently materialized out of nowhere, and were holding a vigil outside our window. Or the line of pilgrims, there to worship at the holy shrine of St. Brandon of Ashland. Or the sale on Ebay, of a game-worn Eric Byrnes jersey, where the grass stains mysteriously form the shape of Webb pitching a one-hitter against the Cardinals.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: you need three miracles to be proclaimed a saint, and so far, Webb has only got two. I’d certainly class his first start - seven innings of three-hit shutout ball, against the Mets in Shea Stadium - as a miracle. And then there’s him winning the Cy Young in 2006; an undeniably deserving choice, sure, but with the lowest win tally by a starter over a full season in the history of the award, and the highest ERA by the NL winner since 1970? Truly, the voters were touched by the hand of…well, someone. Of course, leading the Diamondbacks to the 2007 World Series would be the third miracle, especially if he did so with Arizona’s returned Prodigal Son alongside him in the rotation. Do that, and there would surely be no longer any doubt about it, even among the most sceptical.

More Fan Fest Fhotos

Out with the old…
The last traces of the purple and teal

Chad writes his way to the ballpark

How the mighty are fallen:
Get your $5 autographed baseballs

Yes…it was a good day!