Kensington Blues

Sad to see Jamie Moyer suffer a possible career-ending injury at the tender age of 47.

In all seriousness, Gramps will be missed. I was at his historic complete game shutout win over the Braves this year. That’s a picture I took of the scoreboard from our seats in Section 143. It was electrifying. Felt like a perfect game. Would’ve been, too, were it not for Troy Glaus!

Helen and I have seen more than our fair share of Moyer starts. Turns out our season ticket package lines up with some of our diciest starters, whether it’s Moyer or Eaton or Blanton or Kendrick. We just seem to get the guy who’ll either be lights out or out of the game by the fourth inning. Since Jamie came over from Seattle, I can’t think of a pitcher who leaves me with a bigger grin on my face than Jamie, through all his ups and downs.

It’s easy to forget the times he got pasted by the opposing nine when he gives up a long fly ball to Evan Longoria, only to have it land in Pat Burrell’s glove, followed by Moyer sticking his tongue out at the Tampa Bay dugout. Drawing a walk earlier this season against Johan Santana to load the bases, setting up another amazing Victorino grand slam. Watching him dismantle a young stud like Jason Heyward is exactly what makes him so special. It’s been a treat to see him have success this late in his career.

When we reached the All Star Break I wasn’t sure if the Phils wouldn’t give him another shot, but I don’t think anyone will take that risk now. Ride off into the sunset, old fella. You’ve had an amazing career. We’ll never forget you digging up the pitching rubber in ’08. That was a veteran move, just the sort of thing we brought you here for in the first place.

Then again, reading this great post over at Finger Food makes you wonder if the crafty lefty doesn’t have a plan after all.

Who should the Phillies blame for their hitting woes: Milt Thompson, the hitting coach, or Mick Billmeyer for getting caught stealing signs?

I think I’ve finally settled on my ideal WordPress theme. I love the fonts, even if the main header is wonky on article pages. I got people who have insight into fixing stuff like that. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Roz.) I’m also gonna totally cop the follow suite from the bottom of Eric Smith’s blog shortly and plant it right over there atop the right rail. Should be pretty sweet actually.

I’m debating a few other features. Feel free to sound off on them if the spirit moves you.

• Should I bother adding a blogroll of any kind? I know they’re really just there to generate reciprocal links and that very few people actually click on them. I’m sure that likelihood decreases tremendously when put on a separate page, even if that page is clearly labeled and in the top nav that hovers over the right rail. Thoughts?
• Tag cloud. They’ve always horrified me. I just added one called “What I’m Talking About,” which seemed pretty cool until it barfed up pretty much every tag I’ve ever used. I checked to see if I could limit the number of tags with the out of the box WordPress widget. No dice. Do I have any recourse?
• Archives. I’m not pretentious enough to think that anyone really trawls through the back pages here and I really hate that they’re broken out monthly by default. I wish they could be organized by years just for the sake of elegance. Is it worth the hassle?
• Various and sundry widgets just clutter up the place, right? I’m over having my Twitter feed post in the right rail. The follow suite will take care of that mess. I like the Flickr integration, but feel like that could go in the follow suite as well. Is there a Last.fm widget anywhere in the wide world that generates album art thumbnails from your scrobbles without totally stinking up the joint? I have yet to find one and I’ve looked high and low.
• Last, but not least: what do you think of Kensington Blues? I chose the name because I live in the Kensington neighborhood and am a fan of the late great Jack Rose. But sometimes I ask myself if it’s too impersonal for a blog that’s really just about beer, babies, and baseball for the most part. Feel free to offer suggestions on such things as personal branding if you are so moved.

By the way, I snagged this theme from Woo Themes and it was totally free. I’m as shocked as you are. Thanks, Internet!

A co-worker said that it was “depressing” that I was already talking about looking forward to the Phillies next season. I told him that once upon a time I’d have felt that way in April!

Times certainly have changed for the Phillies. Watching the media circus around their acquisitions of Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay were the sort of spellbinding moves Philadelphia teams simply don’t make. We’ve historically been perma-sellers, unloading superstars like Charles Barkley and Curt Schilling and getting nothing in return. We’re the sort of town where teams move into a rebuilding year that lasts a decade or more. In short, the Phillies are spoiling us by being so competitive!

I don’t know if the Phillies can make the playoffs this year, but I like that they’re trying to piece together a top-notch rotation that will be here for the next several years. I still think they could make a strong run at the playoffs this year. They’ve shown they can do it in the past and if a team like the Rockies can go on a tear and snag the wild card the way they did in 2007, then why not us?

Make it exciting, Rube. Show us you’ve got what it takes to pull together a team for the ages without Pat Gillick looking over your shoulder. I won’t even mention that you’re working with your old boss Ed down in Houston. It shows that you have the desire and will to build a championship team and that’s what this city wants as much as the championships themselves. Go get Roy Oswalt for the 2010 run and see where we end up.

My bro Mark sure has a way with words, huh?

When he’s not running things at his day job or blogging up a storm at his Tumblr powerhouse, Yvynyl, he and I are usually shooting the breeze over instant messenger. Recently our conversation turned to the sorry state of this blog, which has more or less subsisted in a state of neglect since I started blogging way back in the aughts. Tragic, I know.

As usual, I blamed my WordPress theme. He told me I didn’t have a format problem, but that I had a content problem. He was right. For a guy who’s churning content to drive activity of one sort or another to earn his daily bread, I do an awful job of keeping up with the little things. Doesn’t take much, really, especially not now when a simple picture or a link and brief commentary pass for blogging.

How times have changed. Hopefully I’m on the good foot now. Tell me what you think of the new theme!