It begins

It's finally time ...

The greatest night of baseball ... ever

Are you kidding me?

Seriously, are you kidding? Never in my life would I think to write that a day that the Braves lose one of the largest September playoff leads in MLB history would turn out to be the greatest day of baseball that I will probably ever witness in my life.

Starting with the NL, the Cardinals destroyed the worst team in the majors to put the pressure on the Braves. This worked. The Braves squandered two late leads, even blowing a lead in the 9^th with only one out to go. Atlanta ended up losing in 13 innings and definitely reminded me of when they lost the 18 inning thriller to the Astros in the 2005 NLDS.

So you have and absolute collapse in the NL and a very, very good game that went to extras. Even though the Braves lost, I looked past this and just said this was great for the game of baseball to have a game with playoff implications go to extra innings. This was because looking at the other scores, nothing was too interesting. At least at that point ....

Boston and Baltimore were in a rain delay for most of the night and the Rays were down 7-0 to the Yankees in the 8^th. Then the night started getting fun. The Rays somehow find a way to score 6 in the bottom half of the inning capped off by Longoria's three run shot.

At this point my remote control was getting tired wishing it was in a rain delay. Once the delay ends in Baltimore, the Red Sox were clinging to a one run lead trying to close it out. Then the Rays kept chopping away at the lead.

Bottom of the 9^th. 2 outs. 2 strikes. Dan Johnson up to the plate. Yes, the same Dan Johnson that was a former Husker. Yes, the same Dan Johnson that is in the greatest YouTube clip of all time. Yes, that Dan Johnson. That Dan Johnson ends up hitting a solo shot to send the games to extra.

Alternating pitches between the two games, I get fixated on watching Papelbon trying to close out the game with a one run lead. Just like the Dan Johnson drama, the Orioles are down to their last out. Two consecutive doubles later, the game is tied.

Flip back to the Rays game.

Fans start going absolutely crazy watching the scoreboard seeing that the Red Sox blew the lead.

Flip back to the Red Sox game.

A line drive to left is bobbled and the Orioles win the game in walk-off style. Their celebrate like they won the World Series and have something to actually cheer about in their town since Cal Ripken retired.

Flip back to the Rays game (only one still going at this point).

Fans find out that the Red Sox won and start going absolutely nuts. No more than three minutes later, Longoria steps up again and hits a walk off home run to send the Rays to the playoffs.

Let me reiterate. I never, ever thought I would say that a day where the Braves lost a game to make the playoffs and capped off the biggest collapse in franchise history would be my favorite day to watch baseball, but it absolutely was. It's one of those nights that I couldn't be more happy that I was waiting to launch our MLB playoff package on ESPN.com and was able to experience all of these amazing games.

This will go down as the greatest day in my baseball watching/consuming history. I really can't imagine how it gets better than this. Try to prove me wrong MLB ... I'm all for it.

The pride of Seward, Nebraska

This is a historic time for my hometown. I'm pretty sure, unofficially, of course, that Sam Koch has become the first person from Seward, Nebraska to score a point in the NFL. The Ravens ran a fake PAT and he just walked it in (click on the image to view the video).

Greg Welch is smiling somewhere right now ... you just know he is.

Damage assessment from Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene blew through New England, labeled as the storm of the century, and only our tree felt the damage. After preparing way too much for something that has been hyped up here for a few weeks, we have a few small branches on the ground and one large limb about six feet long.

We're glad that our house wasn't damaged, or flooded, but our large tree in the front yard shed some unnecessary weight. We're assuming our tree will call State Farm in the morning to see if it's covered, and if not, will be expecting a check from FEMA in the next 6-8 weeks.

2nd Annual Big Red Invitational

Hurricane Irene did all she could to disrupt the second year of the golf tournament, but 13 out of the 20 original participants braved the conditions and golfed through the rain for 18 holes.

However, 18 holes wasn't enough to decide a champion as Ben and I were tied with Will and Mukul at that point. We played the 1st hole again as a playoff (without Mukul, who went to hockey) and as we battled through the downpour and the darkness, we stood there staring at Will having a 3' putt to win it all ... and it rimmed out. Personally, I think he was just being nice to us and missed it on purpose. With that, we decided to call it a draw, and now Will and I can say we won the very tournament that we put on every year.

Thanks to those that came out, it was amazing we were able to get 18 (or 19) holes in before the hurricane blows away the state of Connecticut tomorrow morning.

Another weekend on the Cape

This last weekend we headed up to the Cape to spend a nice relaxing weekend doing nothing but lounging around at the beach and playing some putt-putt golf (which Scott amazing hit three consecutive hole-in-one's ... and still finished dead last).

As with tradition (well, this only being our second year going with the Connor's), we fired up a delicious surf and turf dinner. Christi and I brought up some beef that we brought back from Nebraska in June and we got some fresh scallops and crab meat from a local place only a few minutes away. Probably one of the best homemade dinners I've had in quite some time.

Awesome Prince Amukamara coverage sign

Just saw this when looking through the Nebraska media guide for the Big Ten media days. Very creative sign(s) that I figured I'd share.

It's only 33 days until the first game. That's not too early to get pumped up, right?

We've become elitists

A few weeks ago, Ben saw that there was a polo match in Newport, RI for only $10 per person. Basically, bring your own food/drinks and have a good time.

Since the match didn't start until later in the evening, we hung out on the cliff walk and at the beach for a little bit. After staring at some mansions that were about the size of my home town, it was time to go watch the horses.

Since none of us had ever been to a polo match before, we really didn't know what to expect ... besides what we've all seen from Pretty Woman, of course. We knew coming in that there would be some high class people (those drinking the pink champagne on ice) as well as those coming to mock it (kind of like we did for Harvard v. Yale a few years back). We decided to play it up somewhere in the middle.

Bringing a card table and chairs turned out to be a great idea, as well as having some sandwiches and adult beverages on ice. We probably spent more time socializing than actually watching the match (which Kenya won), but the experience was amazing and we'll definitely be back.

Click the pic above for pics, or click here.

Reverse psychology at its finest

Who doesn't think watching Tosh.0 for 30 minutes a week doesn't pay off?

Enjoy:

Building a raised garden: my step-by-step guide

I've strung together other how to guides on fish taping your wall and renovating your bath (when you have no clue what you're doing), so here's one more:

First, you need to start off with a massive dirt pile that your wife absolutely hates. Why? Because when you show the final before and after pics right next to each other, it looks that much better. Personally, the dirt you accumulate from building your own patio works best.

Secondly, you need to move the dirt around the yard. You must get creative ... very creative in where you try to put everything so you don't create another one that Christi your wife complains about in the future.

Next, go out and get a bunch of lumber. I chose pretreated 2x6's so that I don't have to worry about them rotting in the ground. However, pretreated lumber isn't that appealing on the eyes, so spend some money and stain it. I went with six 2x6x12's. I cut two of the boards in half and used them as the short sides so our garden is 12'x6'.

After borrowing Scott's milk crates and circular saw to cut the 4x4 (thanks again, by the way), I began building the bed upside down. I created the two ends first and then attached the 12' long sides.

Now this was the tough part. Christi and I had to carry the garden, fully assembled, from our garage to the back yard. When we went through the side fence, we had to turn it upright, and Christi could barely reach the top of it as we walked through. However, she pushed on as this is something she told me she wanted ever since I ripped up the yard to install a patio last year. When I built the patio, I bought a pickaxe that I thought I would never use again in my life. However, I dug out the 8" deep posts in about two minutes because I kept it around in the shed. You can use a shovel, but, man, this was so much easier.

Finally, we went out and bought all of the vegetables for the garden. Confused as to how this could cost so much more than just the price of lumber to construct the entire thing, I'm sure I'll be thankful later this summer as we're able to eat some fresh food whenever we want ... Stan included. When we had a garden in Omaha, we caught him all the time eating our tomatoes and jalepenos.

We also have some nice modern herb pots from C&B, so we are dedicating these to things that we'll want to easily pick whenever we're throwing a dinner together. Yes, the smaller one is a pot dedicated to growing mint for julep's on the 4th of July. We only have a month left, so hopefully we didn't plant these too late.

At the end of the day, I couldn't be happier as to how everything turned out. Making it even better? Having your wife even more pumped than you are. Now we just hope it survives without us when we head out in a week for my sister's wedding.