July 13th, 2010

Sales Contest?

So today my boss Nick decided we would do an All-Star Game themed sales contest. It began simple, and ended up getting complicated fast. He split us in teams: Ted, Brian and Justin against Greg and myself. Greg went to LSU and we are the lone SEC boys in the office, so obviously we explain how we are superior on a daily basis. For the contest, each team totals their sales dollars for the day, then you get bonus fake dollars for…

1- having the winning team, we had the National League

2- guessing the winning pitcher, we took David Price (Vanderbilt), Tim Hudson (Auburn) and Brian Wilson (LSU) reminding again of our conference superiority.

3- guessing the MVP… who is a position player that was an SEC boy? none… so we found Brian McCann, an Alabama commitment that was drafted out of high school.

First of all, David Price is starting the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He was the same size when John Michael Capps and I used to square up against him in 10 year old All-Stars. Not sure if I ever got a real hit off him, but I did dominate him with some push bunts. The pitchers shined tonight as most all of them would come in slinging 99 mph heat. It was so impressive to see these pitchers dominate the ridiculous line-ups they were facing.

Keep in mind the National League hasn’t won the All-Star game in like 14 years or something crazy. With the game tied 1-1 late in the game, Brian McCann steps to the plate with the bases loaded, 2 outs. Brian rips a ball down the first base line and clears the bases with a 3 RBI double, pretty much clinching his MVP trophy if the NL hangs on. They do, and McCann takes home the crown.

Congratulations to our country’s past time, Nashville’s David Price, the National League and all of the other talents on the field tonight. The smiles showed what this game is all about… these men from all backgrounds and different teams were boys again tonight, and it made it even better when the good guys won.

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July 12th, 2010

Netherlands 0:1 Spain

What a glorious month of futbol that was. First, I really want to thank our sponsor:

I want to thank each of you gentlemen for participating in our little challenge. I want to congratulate Kyle Buffolino for taking his South Korea squad to the elimination round. After paypal fees Kyle was awarded $93.00.

After completely rigging the drawing and getting Spain, I have taken the crown. After a very long game, with struggling offenses, Andrés Iniesta put a strong right foot on a ball to beat the Dutch in the 118th minute. The San Francisco Italian Athletic Club went nuts and celebrated the Spanish victory. See you fools in 4 years in Brazil.

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June 8th, 2010

Mize World Cup Draw

The boys and I are getting excited about the World Cup, which takes place over the next month or so… I hosted to Inaugural Mize World Cup Draw to choose who we would be rooting for this year. Special guest Will Hamblen will be sure to draw some media attention to this event. And to clear things up before I get made fun of, the only scissors I could find were jagged edge scrap booking scissors.

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May 27th, 2010

Getting back home from home

The end of a great weekend visit was fast arriving, and I felt rushed. This had been a little bit longer of a trip home, getting back Friday night, rather than early Saturday morning like last time… and I sure could have used a little bit more time in Nashville. As I am literally walking up the stairs to pack for my Monday night flight back to SF, my phone buzzes and I have a new email. Frontier airlines states that my flight has been canceled and I have been booked on the next available flight out of Nashville at 3:20pm on Tuesday. As I think to myself that this can not be true, I also get a glimmer of excitement. After a 20 minute wait on the phone with Frontier Airlines, a lady finally tells me that there are “high winds in Denver” and that all flights have been pushed to tomorrow.

This is great. I can go eat with some friends at McDougal’s and just relax for another night. I don’t even have to get up early and fly back Tuesday. After a good morning and some time at the Ring’s office, watching their talented assistant do her work, we enjoyed some lunch. I could feel the burden of my flight looming in the near future and had that feeling again… Maybe there is a later flight back to San Francisco than this 3:20 flight? They tell me I am actually on standby on my flight, so I get bumped back to 6:30pm on Tuesday. This was awesome. I felt relaxed again as I had no worries of a flight for several more hours. After some good relaxing and a walk around Emily’s neighborhood, it was that time again.

I finally got to the airport a little bit before 6pm on Tuesday and I while I was checking in, I find out that I am on standby again. I have to go through security and talk to the workers at the gate to make sure I even have a seat. The lady isn’t that nice, but she gets me a seat. She tells me my bag is too big to carry on and it should have been taken at the counter where I should have been charged $25. She places a tag on my bag and tells me to place it at the end of the tunnel to the plane. To spite her, I take off the tag and carry my bag on as if nothing happened. The bag fit snug in the overhead.

So I am off. Set for Denver with a TV in the headrest in front of me. It teases me for a second and lets me watch, then asks for $6 to continue watching. The US Soccer game is on and the Suns Lakers game was about to start. I convinced myself to by it before the wheels went up. After sleeping through most of my purchased television time, I arrived in Denver where I grabbed a bite to eat. I needed to hustle because my layover was only 40 minutes. After woofing down some Panda Express, I moved quickly to my gate where I found an hour delay in front of me. This was beginning to feel unnaturally hard to return to SF.

I wait and finally board this plane at 9:15pst. This should get me in at right around midnight. That happens, and I take the tram to the BART Station that takes me back to the city. BART closed. I take the tram back to the terminal and get in a Taxi, which I figure would be about $20, no biggie. $45 and 30 minutes later, I am home. It is around 1am and I get in bed ready for the start to my week on a Wednesday morning.

Getting back home from home was not as easy as planned. Maybe going back home will be a little bit more enjoyable some day.

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May 9th, 2010

Quick little photo update…

Ok, I forgot this site existed. I have been bad at staying updated with blogging, and then when I think about all the things I could say, it stresses me out so I don’t do it. I decided if I just do a quick update with photos, that would take care of the past few weeks, and I could try to stay current from here.

First of all, Ginger Mize is the best mom on either side of the Mississippi, or should I say Lake Nashville? Sorry I could not be there to celebrate this day with you, but hopefully you understand via phone calls that you are incredible and I would be lost without you. You do so many things for Rob, Dad, and me without the thanks and praise you deserve, and that’s only because we could never thank you enough. Love you too much to type and can’t wait to see you next week!

Let’s start off with a trip to the A’s game. After work on the 21st of April, I headed to Oakland with two co-workers for the Yankees vs. A’s game. Oakland is only about a 20-30 minute drive from San Francisco for those who didn’t know…

Then the St. Louis Cardinals came to town, and I had to go watch Albert Pujols take batting practice. That guy destroys baseballs.

Kyle and Hunter Arnold decided to get a little West Coast when they came to visit Hunter Palmer in Orange, CA for a Tuesday through Thursday and then the three of them came to see me in SF Friday through Sunday. They got the grand tour of the ballpark during a Friday night game against the Rockies and then saw the city from the seats of a Mini Cooper convertible on Saturday. I am blessed to have friends that will come across the country to spend a weekend with me.

This past weekend I was wondering through the city. If you wanted, you could find a cultural event to attend any day of the year in SF. This Saturday was Taiwan day? and I walked up on the celebration in Union Square. I caught the tail end of the SF Mayor giving a speech. He is a famous face in the city and is serving his second term as the Mayor. Anyhoo, I snagged the man and took a quick picture with him… should have fixed his tie.

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April 10th, 2010

Opening [long] Day

What a day! Yesterday started early with an 8:00 meeting including the whole sales staff. Our Senior VP told us how we had set our goals to an unreachable level this year, and every department had actually surpassed those goals. It was a day of celebration from start to finish.

Everyone dressed up nice in suits and dresses, and we were given opening day pins and flowers to put on our jackets. Our Ticket Sales team met after to have a toast and drink a mimosa after all of these long days and hours we had put in. You could tell this day was going to be fun.

Fans started pouring in 3 hours before the first pitch, and I began to realize how much passion these people have for their Giants, especially their 3-0 Giants. It was a special day, as the players entered the field from an opening in the center field wall, walking through smoke and fireworks, it was kind of magical. They announce every player, and you can feel the fans release excitement that they have been holding in since last fall. A huge American flag is stretched for the the singing of the National Anthem. Not a bad view…

It gets better. It was announced that a “Bay Area Sports Legend” would be throwing out the first pitch. People had their guesses, and most were probably right, but it was not your normal scene. Jerry Rice was announced to throw, then as a bonus, Steve Young came out to catch the pitch. After Jerry threw it, he ran a post route on the infield, and the two connected like they did for the 49ers.

The Giants got behind early, on a shaky start by Jonathan Sanchez, but you could feel that these guys weren’t done. Edger Renteria, who came into the game hitting a mythical .727, came up in the 9th, down 4-2 and blasted a 2 run, game-tying home run. The place went nuts! Most of the staff was watching from the field club, but starting in the 9th inning, I would walk out into the Lexus tunnel and get a better view for the Giants half of the inning.

Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, with the stadium sounding like a European Futbol crowd, Aaron Rowand singles on a slow ground ball in the hole, and Juan Uribe scores the winning run. I mean the place just erupted. And now the Giants are the only undefeated team in Major League Baseball at 4-0, someone is lining the cards up right for me. An incredible ending to a very special, long Opening Day. I guess I’ll do it again Saturday.

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April 8th, 2010

My New Spot

This week has been nuts. Opening Day is tomorrow here in San Francisco. Monday through Wednesday the Giants beat the Astros all 3 times, creating some serious buzz to an already highly anticipated season. As my phone is usually calling out, I had a number of inbound calls this week, giving me my best week yet. All the build up, everything we have worked for since I got here in January, is going to make sense tomorrow. The Giants host the Braves for our Opening Day at 1:35 PST.

While I have had several late nights at the office this week, I have also had some of my favorite nights since I arrived in SF. I haven’t really exercised much since I got here. I walk a lot, so that has kept me trim, but I have not put shorts and tennis shoes on hardly at all. Tuesday, I had this weird desire to go get a basketball and check out this park that is two blocks up the hill from me.

I have seen George Sterling Memorial Park as I walk by, but it is on the very top of the hill, so I really never knew what was up there. As I approached, the sun was setting, and this place has one of the most beautiful, unique views that I have seen in the whole city. From the basketball court, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge, all of the North Bay, the financial district, and last night I even saw the lights at The Coliseum, where the A’s play across the bay. It confused my brain when I saw that it wasn’t crowded.

There was a 13 year old boy up there and I asked him if he wanted to play HORSE. I played PIG to make it easier on him. In the middle of our game, a guy came up and asked to join, I said sure. Derrick, on business from NYC had randomly seen this park and wandered up to it. The little boy left, as he could obviously not hang on my court, and Derrick and I played 1 on 1. We exchanged numbers and actually met up again and played round two tonight. I am 1-1 in my 2010 basketball season.

Look closely, that’s the Golden Gate through the fence there.

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