The Swelling of the Ranks and Sharing Cy Young

As has been published many times over, our brigade has been in the process of moving out here to Afghanistan for almost a month now. Getting here early as I did, the influx of soldiers has started to make itself obvious. Where you could at one time just walk up to the mess hall without waiting in a sizeable line, you now have to wait in a line that might be a quarter mile long. It moves fast enough, but had me wondering if we were waiting in line for food or Rolling Stones tickets. I can’t tell you how cool the latter would have been, but I don’t think the Stones play Kandahar. Even still, aside from waiting in lines and busses jam packed with people, everything else remains nearly the same here. It’s still hot, still sunny and by some freak happenstance, I have a cold.

Some of the “issues” I have mentioned in these pages before are beginning to find solutions; I have wanted to go back to school and stay in better touch with home via some sort of internet service. It seems that in the near future we’ll have an answer for that one through the expensive wonder that is satellite internet. It’ll cost some capital to start, but should pay for itself in the long run. Being able to better keep in contact and start classes will be a major weight off my shoulders.

In a similar tune, more permanent barracks are going up for us, so we may move out to more proper quarters in a little while. What was an open area a few weeks ago is now covered with work tents, and a small, but growing city of portable housing units. When we may take advantage of these units I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Either way, we’ve done what we can to make the tents work for now. There is also talk of putting a party together to approach the Canadian’s about perhaps a MICO hockey team for next season. I have made it known that me and my nearly 2-point per game average in regular season and playoffs will reluctantly accept the captaincy.

I found I also missed another no-hitter by a player on one of my teams. I missed the no hitters of Clay Bucholtz and Jon Lester at Fenway in the past two seasons, but did catch Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter with the Red Sox at Baltimore (1999 or 2000?). Jonathan Sanchez, who was in the doghouse when I left home, threw a no-no in his return to the rotation. Really, how good is the Giants pitching? Not since the days of Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux in the early 1990’s have two pitchers done what Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are doing this season. Then on top of that the guy who throws a no-hitter is neither one of them, nor Cy Young winners Randy Johnson and Barry Zito? That and somehow the Giants are in the top 5 in hitting in the National League. Who saw that coming, or the emergence of Pablo Sandoval? Unbelieveable.

Matt Cain is finally coming into his own and getting some run support. He’s always been an excellent pitcher with bad luck. This season it appears his luck has changed. If they keep it up could there possibly be talk of the first shared teammate Cy Young? Last time I checked they were both 10-2 with ERA’s flirting with the low 2’s. I’d like to see one of them with an ERA under 2, but not since the early days of Pedro Martinez with the Red Sox has that been a more common occurrence, for it’s a true mark of the elite pitchers. Could the Giants make the playoffs this year on the backs of dual 20-game winners? For you hockey fans, that’s like having two 50-goal scorers on your team. You might have one score in the 50’s and one hit 40, but never both in that same elite, upper echelon. I think they’re both under 25, too. I guess we’ll wait and see.

Due to the wonder that is the NHL schedule, I have found out that each set of mid-tour leave dates I have asked for coincides with a Sharks’ home stand. Outstanding. Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Until next time,

-DM