the empire state

About this time tomorrow, that's where I'll be. I'm leaving for cooperstown later today at about 6:30 in the morning. It's always a good time up there because as I stated in a previous blog post, they really don't have many modern accessories there. I plan on watching a lot of baseball, being outside a lot, and writing during the night. I'll be there from friday until about midday saturday. The schedule of teams that they play looks something like this:

Sunday-
1. West Jefferson Hills Wildcats v South San Francisco Fog
2. WJHW v North Carolina Confederates

Monday-
3. WJHW v Brookfield Bulldogs
4. WJHW v Ridgewood Rebels

Tuesday-
5. WJHW v Northwest Travelers
6. WJHW v Mudville Pilots

Wednesday-
7. WJHW v Hopedale Blue Raiders

So that's what it looks like. South San Fran should be a good team along with North Carolina. The rest of the teams appear(on paper) decently weak. It just sucks that they might start the tourney off 0-2. Other than that, I can't really complain. I'm going on vacation to the utopia of all things baseball.

Until next saturday,
mh

enjoy it while it lasts

I'm talking about the summer, of course. I don't really remember when I posted last, so I'll just give a brief rundown of last week. On wednesday, I know that for sure I went to skyview. To sum things up, I didn't complete any draws. That's the key to the game: getting there in big pots. I haven't won a big pot there in a ridiculous amount of time, but I'll probably keep trudging on. On thursday I went over to chris lee's for awhile and then went to make a few deposits. My days kind of run together and I want to say that this was the day that we went swimming in nayhouse's pool. On friday I went to my brother's game and they won the championship for the munhall tournament. They beat USC and the team celebrated by going to this diner near my house. It was a great time. Aside from being awoken halfway through my sleep, it was a good night. Saturday was a pretty good day at work and afterwards nayhouse and I decided to go out to ross park mall. The highlight of the trip was this store that sold these really comfortable bean bags that were about 3 times the size of a normal bean bag. After getting wendys, we went back to his house and kathleen and sarah met us back there. Bradburn joined in the fun a little later. The five of us watched some boondog movie for a little while until deciding to shoot pool. It was an enjoyable time. Work on sunday was anything but graceful. It just seems like an uphill struggle and I'm not sure I want to do it anymore. After work, my dad and I played the front nine of the SP 18 hole course. After the ninth hole, we looked at each other and saw the 10th teebox right to our left.
"I mean, it is just right there. Nobody is gonna stop us", I said.
"Didn't have to ask me twice. Let's see how far we can get," my dad said.
And so it was to be. We finished walking 18 holes in 3 minutes, 45 minutes, which has to be close to a record. I ended up shooting 97 which isn't that bad for me on 18 holes. When nayhouse, sarah, and kathleen got back from kennywood the four of us went to eatnpark and stole a menu and got ice cream. On monday, my brother, little bradburn, sammy and I shot videos with little bradburn's phone. They were all funny but the mexican crossing and the black preacher had to be the funniest of the batch. At 6 I went to my brother's game at some field in mt lebo that I had never seen before and watched them get absolutely dominated by this lebo team. Seriously, a lot of the runs that the other team scored were caused by one pretty big error(and a few minor mistakes after that), but all in all they were overmatched. I got a ride over to sarahs and met po and nayhouse there. After taking a tour of the property, we settled in to watch eurotrip. I never saw it before and gave it a B+ for comedy rating. Even though the whole hitler as a youth thing has been re-enacted a bunch of times, it just amuses me every time a new movie puts a scene in there like that. After that, we put in dazed and confused, but it didn't do so well in comparison to eurotrip. About a third of the way through the movie, we got up and played pool. Team baldwin lost game 1 but won game 2. In game 3 I forget what happened but we ended up making the 8 ball on ourselves to end the game. Such a sad way to go down. We played a little more until it was time to go. Nayhouse and I dropped off po and headed back towards home again.

In other news, I'm leaving for cooperstown in 2 days. On friday morning, I'm leaving for dreams park and won't be returning for a week. I'm excited to go becuase the amount of technology there is minimal and you really get to see what things looked like before televisions and computers. Nothing but the paper, baseball, and more baseball. And I'm going to be loving every minute of it.

Until next time,
mh

summertime

School's out, the nights roll in
Man, just like a long lost friend
You ain't seen in a while
You can't help but smile.
-Kenny Chesney, "Summertime"

The days have been hot, and the nights just as stifling. It's that time of year again, and summer is starting to truly kick in. On friday, nayhouse and I went to the pirate game. Even amidst the impeccably humid night, it was a good game and the pirates came out as victors. To top it all off, nayhouse got to tell this little annoying kid to shut up after the nationals scored two runs. We met up with bradburn and his brother and walked across the clemente bridge to the T station with them. The three of us(minus little bradburn) went back to nayhouse's place and shot pool until about 130. Saturday at work was pretty good. For about an hour, ron's nephew came in and we got to hang out with him. I left at 5 and went straight to nayhouse's grad. party. A lot of people that I hadn't seen in a long time were there. Some of them included matt vu, chas hoffman, ben bradley, sarah, po, and kathleen. We played pool for a little bit and then shot some basketball. Around 8 most of the crowd had cleared and we started a big game of pool basketball. The spontaneity of the game made it one of the most enjoyable moments of the summer. There were indescribable scrambles, great shots, and plenty of injuries to speak of. All in all, it was a great night. I played a quick game of pool but left around 12 to go home. Work on sunday was alright I guess. Drew(not my brother) and I got this big list of things that we're supposed to do every day from now on. I suggested a little burning of the papers after work and he concurred. After that, I went to rachel's grad. party. It was a very enjoyable time that was encapsulated by myself(to the approval of mr. snyder) hitting on two random girls named leah and valerie. We also threw frisbee and then I played smashball with nate and my brother's friends. It was a good workout and I left there around 9 to go to nayhouse's again. Pool basketball activities were planned, but there were a few additions to the lineup from the night before. Returning from the night before were myself, nayhouse, bradburn(effectively named "short stick"), schleicher, kathleen, sarah, and po. It was a fun game, but not as great as the saturday night game. Either way, a chance to relax after a long day of work and running after a frisbee is a good oppurtunity. At about 12, I went to skyview. I was tired and made several stupid calls, but I made a few good bluffs on pots and was able to take down a big one when I hit my straight on the turn and joe's brother made two pair. I cashed out for a little less than a buyin up, and considered it a good night. On monday, I woke up around 12 to play tennis with nayhouse and kevin. I played pretty well and the sweltering heat didn't downgrade my play one bit. Afterwards, I took drew and matt b to snyder and they hit and I hit balls to them. I completed another day of long running by playing some soccer with a couple of people. Later, leigh, bradburn, and I went out to 43 and say it in an immaculate time of day. The sun was just descending on the horizon and it looked spectacular over the gently rolling hills of southern pittsburgh. Even while I was driving, my gaze was often fixated upon that falling sun on the western sky. We decided to end the trip by going to EnP and received a call just after we ordered from kristin that she wanted me to come and get her. I complied and we got back to see that I got a double order of french toast because their computer was screwed up. Nayhouse called at the end of the meal and said that po, sarah, and himself were going back to his house and we were welcome to come over. Before that, the four of us went down to leland while waiting for the return of nayhouse. I saw mr. balzer, my pony coach there.
Bradburn: "Dude, is that the guy that used to hit you batting practice with like five cigarettes in his mouth?"
Me: "Yeah man, he's awesome."
We went to nayhouse's and played pool for awhile before leigh and kristin became restless. They went up to leigh's house and got sparklers and we had a mini bonfire in the jewish guy's backyard. We managed to not burn his house down and the two of them left shortly thereafter. I drove bradburn home and grabbed my suit and prepared for a third straight day of pool basketball. This time it was a mt lebo v baldiwn showdown in myself and nayhouse versus sarah and po. The game ended in a draw and we sat around the pool for awhile telling random stories until leaving around 1230. We dropped off po and sarah and got going towards home. On the way home, we rolled down the windows and listened as the wind whipped past our hair. Life was all good. It was summertime again.

mh

funniest comments part 5

It's that time of year again. I decided to provide you with this before I leave for cooperstown in a week and a half. Enjoy.

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Funniest Comments Part 5
Edited by: Matt Hartman
Copyright 2006

Mark: and whenever that retard struck out.. we were fucked

Nayhouse: all hail the basketball hoop

Immekus: theres 3 rules at skyview, dont slowplay your big pairs, steal pots u think u can steal, and if theres 3 suited cards on the board and rates is in the hand, fold

Leigh: be like hey dumbass ask me out haha

Immekus: im sure she has some stds nowadays

Booter: but I'd be afraid he'd somehow reach through my computer and slap me

Tao: I had not been that excited about a hand in months and I screamed, "Thanks for calling with top pair dipshit!"

nichal10: way to show up friday
JuniorLegend224: om
nichal10: u fuckin bitch
JuniorLegend224: matts not home this is his mom
nichal10: o
JuniorLegend224 signed off at 5:42:51 PM.

Immekus: omg
Immekus: deer in my backyard
Immekus: gunna go fuck with them, afk

Mrhmrh102: dude did u hear
Ben: what
Mrhmrh102: nick got his license
Ben: yeah, i owe him 10 bucks

Nayhouse: cause im kinda hungry for some popcorn and skittles
Mrhmrh102: ok
Nayhouse: maybe i'll bring one of those giant eagle bags with me

Erin: hey guess who called me today lol
Mrhmrh102: who
Erin: mike nayhouse haha
Erin: he called the wrong erin
Mrhmrh102: hahahahahahaha
Mrhmrh102: omg
Mrhmrh102: what an idiot
Erin: it was so funny
Erin: he was like can i come over soon?

Mark: he freakin threw it at an ump
Mark: that's like.. immoral
Mark: not even darryl strawberry would do that

Immekus: im just like whatever exchange info and fuck urself

Dad: Next song right?
Me: Unless you want to hear “a man needs a maid”
Dad: We all know it’s true, but it’s still a bad song

Me: I can’t believe you just flicked a rubber band at me
Berman: I never said I was mature

Random guy: How much does that cost
Me: $1.49
Random guy: Geez, I hope they accept Visa.

Ben: how bout brennan is betting on the horse races on tv now, he calls in the bets

Bradburn: Desperate men do desperate things.

Nayhouse: bocan (the x) 10.43pm (now) : im gonna play bob marley, jammin, cause its about time and i think we all need to smoke one

Nayhouse: i plan to live my life in a clean place
Mrhmrh102: y
Nayhouse: just shows how much of a pussy i am

Bradburn: my mom just said
Bradburn: "Team America isn't very nice"

Immekus: are you black
toyncuen: why do u ask?
Immekus: cause you play like your a black man
Immekus: am i right?
toyncuen: no
Immekus: liar
toyncuen: are u black?Immekus: from the waist down
Immekus: if you catch my drift
Immekus: so i wasnt far off when i said ur black
Immekus: your actually a Mexican

Mark: so yea. if u want to come.. i dont care
Mark: he has no friends so the more the merrier

Nicole: By the end of the night, I’m gonna get hit with something
Nayhouse: Yeah, bradburn’s penis.

Nayhouse: Dude, I bet bradburn is like “I wish Melrose Place was still on.”

John: Nobody ever believes me when I’m drunk.

Nayhouse: i mean shes 4'11''...one drink and shes drunk as all hell prob

Mark: dude.
Mark: dont wanna waste your windshield on a whore.

mh

somewhere in between

"Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?"
-Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

I have to first mention what a good book the kite runner is. I finished it about 2 weeks ago and it is the best(and only) book published in english by an afghan author. It's a must read. That quote alludes to a lot of things, but it's pretty self explanatory. These last few weeks have been more confusing than anything. I'm somewhere between closing the door on the past and opening the new one into the future. It's like I keep wanting to go back for one last glance even though nobody is still left there. Everyone has moved on to bigger and brighter things. I know I'll get there eventually, but I'm just somewhere in the middle right now. Yesterday, myself, ben, chris, brennan, and immekus went golfing at seven springs. We ended up getting in 9 and got a raincheck for the other 9. Afterwards, we convened at ben's house for cards with the addition of ieraci, gerner, king, conroy, and a few others. Holdem and side gaming left me about even, but coinflips got me up on the day. I won two in a row against gerner to put me on the plus side. I ended up chopping with nick and brennan, so coinflips helped to win me money in this instance. Next, steve and tom came over and we watched this dvd called the aristocrats. It was okay, as it focused mainly on the joke about the aristocrats. I slept, and woke up around 11. At about 1, I went to play soccer. Around three, I went and hit golf balls, then my dad and I went golfing at SP. I drove the ball well for the most part and hit good iron shots. My putting cost me and I shot a 48. At about 830, leigh and I left to go see the salvatores game at olympia field at mt. washington. That had been the infamous place where our sq. hill city team that was ranked #2 in the city lost to lincoln place in the first round of the '04 city playoffs. The salvatores team followed our lead and lost 11-8, although they fought hard. I dropped off leigh and popped over to nayhouses. After wendys and a little pool, I decided to call it a night. So that's that. I've typed more than my fair share for the night.

Until next time,
mh

tournament recap and the rest of the weekend

Friday was basically a do nothing day. I left for north versailles about 6, and got there at 630 only to find that the event was moved to skyview. Here's a quick rundown of how the night went:

7:00 PM- I'm playing in a 30 dollar satellite. In the second hand, I find aces, and it has been raised and reraised in front of me. I move allin and am called by pkt 10's. Flop is 10 6 2 to bury me.
7:04 PM- I'm in another satellite and on hand 3 I lose most of my chips when I flop a flush on a A 3 6 board only to watch my opponent with 45s hit a 7s to drown me(I had K2s so he was drawing to the one out)
7:15 PM- I took a long walk and am ready for the tournament that starts at 830.
830- Starting table doesn't look too tough.
845- I'm down to 16k after I missed a double gutted and a flush draw.
910- I'm under 5k after this pot: I have A10 and the flop is 10 6 4. I bet, a guy raises 3k more, and I move allin. He has about 5.5k less than me and we turn up and he shows 10 7. Turn is a 7, and the river doesn't help me.
930- I've chipped back up to about 10k when the table is broken. Thank god.
940- This table is tough. Joe, john the banker, and scholz are all here and all have decent sized chip stacks.
945- I pulled off a huge bluff against joe. On a J 6 4 board I get him to lay down J 10 after I move allin. I had an underpair to the board.
10- I have pkt 3's and the flop is 6 5 3. I bet, a guy raises, and I go allin. He calls and shows K6. Turn and river are blanks and I'm at about 35k.
1030- We're being moved again. I have about 60k in chips.
1035- New table looks kinda tough, kinda soft. Lee and scholz look like the tough players.
1040- And I'm out. Blinds were 1/2 and I had about 55k in front of me. A guy from first position raised to 12k. I looked down and found kings and moved allin. A guy two spots to my left immediatly says allin, and the original raiser folds. He has aces of course, and I'm crushed.

After that, I went over bens and went up a little bit playing side games. On Saturday, work was boring. I went out with bradburn and his family to max and ermas for his birthday after work. It was an enjoyable time. Afterwards, leigh, carly, bradburn, and I drove out to washington, PA, then stopped at EnP. Something bad happened there, and we won't elaborate any further than that. I wish there would have been something that I could have done, but it clearly wouldn't have mattered nor would it have been my place to intervene. So for once, I kept my mouth shut. Today, work was kinda exciting. Naturally, it was not in a good way. We were cutting glass, and when I went to put it back, it shattered into a thousand pieces. I have about five cuts on my hands that were bleeding pretty profusely for awhile there. After work, I went down to leland to play soccer and help cook burgers for the baldwin tournament. My brother's team was playing at 8, and I'm glad that I stayed for it. They were playing Munhall/West Homestead, and they were talking a big game the whole time. My brother's team was leading 10-6 going into the bottom of the seventh. To that time, it had been a spirited game. It reminded me how good a good baseball game is. People pay hundreds, sometimes thousands for games such as the world series and the all star game and they usually see players playing half heartedly(well at least in the latter). If there were five games that I could pick to go back and play in/watch again, none of them would be professional games. Anyways, the other team started smashing the ball in the bottom half of the inning and ended up tying it up. With two outs, the kid for their team that had been shouting and saying things during the game came up to the plate. On the first pitch, he drove it off the right field fence to win the game. A few things suprised me about this game: First, I was shocked that the other team's coach or the umpire wasn't telling his players to stop making blatantly negative remarks about our team. This wasn't like them shouting "you're a slouch". It went more like "F*ck you and your mother, I f*cked her last night anyways." Second, I didn't think I could get excited about baseball anymore. Well, I've been watching the pirates too long because this was definitely worth seeing again. I went to skyview at about 11 pm and got into the 3/6 game. I ended up going down about 1/3 a buyin there before I switched to the 1/2 game.
"Matt, jou have been running bad lately?"
I was jolted out of trance and looked up at doc.
"Yeah doc, a little bit."
"It's part of zee game. It happens to us zall."
Some people just know. Doc is one of those people. He could just see it in my eyes, or maybe the way I was furiously counting and recounting my chips. I didn't see a hand for about 2 hours, and finally I glanced down to see aces. I got 5 callers and the flop was 5 6 9. It's not the worst flop ever, but it's not great with that multitude of players. I bet half the pot and got two callers. Turn was a Q, and I bet a little more. The first gentleman folded, and the other guy said allin after thinking for awhile. I went into the tank and resigned myself to watching him flip over two pair. He showed 7h8h for a made straight.
"Zee, you really are running bad," doc said.
I managed a weak smile as I showed him aces and calmly walked to the door. I just can't get out of this slump. For about 3 months, I've been running terrible at the tables. I haven't booked a really great session in a long, long time. I've never gone through a funk like this. I either take a horrid beat or run into a really bad situation. When I was winning, I felt like I was in control. I was twelve years old again and I was giving the other players the old high heat on a pitcher's count. Now, I'm getting hit around like crazy. There's nothing that I can do to stop them from running me down one way or another. It's really frustrating to know that extenuating circumstances prevent you from achieving success. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Good night,
mh

it's about that time

On Monday, I had to work at 9am, which really sucked because I hate getting up early. I got out of there though at 1 and more or less chilled for the rest of the day. Tuesday was the fourth, and I went over my aunt's house for awhile. The fireworks downtown were great, but I still think caste had them beat. I got home in time to watch the fireworks from boston, and it's something that I'll definitely have to try to get to someday. Yesterday, I did a variety of activities before heading to skyview. In the cash game, I broke dead even. I played shane heads up and went up 1 buyin on him. Today, I played tennis with kevin and nayhouse, then went to bethanne's party. It was interesting to say the least, and I met quite a few people. I also got the chance to see some old friends, which is always nice.

I kept the summary brief because I'm really not in much of a typing mood tonight. My energy is fixated on tomorrow, where I will be playing(for free) in a winner take all, WSOP buyin tournament. If I win, I will obviously take the cash option. It's a juicy tournament and a huge oppurtunity, but I expect the competition to be fierce. As the title suggests, I believe that now is the time that something big is about to happen. Tomorrow and the rest of this weekend could change a lot of things for me. I've prepared for this tournament like no other. I even re-read skylansky's thoughts on advanced strategy for tournaments, and it made me aware of a lot of things that I had been overlooking during tournament play. Tomorrow though, I only have one strategy in mind: Get first, or anything else is a disappointment. At this point, a good showing means nothing. Over the last week I've rediscovered the key to having success in anything is to fail at it many times. You just can't give up on things whenever obstacles are hurdled at you. To have a vision, a goal, and to work hard at achieving that goal are crucial ingredients in success. You have to have an absolute goal in mind and have a certain amount of volition to achieve that. So that is that. All in all, it's a simple thing. Do or do not. Ready?

mh