Some Odds and Ends, and Another Red Head Story

Thanks to those that commented on my last blog post, although whoever referenced South Park needs to find more productive ways to spend their evenings than watching that horrible show.

I especially like the person who asked why this blog got relegated to "difficult to find" status on the new website. The problem is that where we had three spots on the right panel of the old website for things like this, on the new website we only have two. Granted, you can click the arrow to the right and get my blog link there as well, but that's too much work. Apparently someone has decided that the link to our facebook page is more important than my blog. I beg to differ. It is my stated mission to get my blog link back on the main page, where you don't have to click around on arrows or other links to get here. We'll see how that goes.

One baseball link for you today: I'm not a Minnesota Twins fan necessarily, but you hate to see a headline like this in Spring Training regarding one of your better pitchers: Joe Nathan May Need Tommy John Surgery. Ouch!

Now, as promised, here's my Red Head Story for today (read yesterday's posts for why I'm on a red head kick):

When I was working for the enemy (AKA, the Dayton Dragons), I would often go out and give speeches about the team or organization. In a shameless plug, I'm doing the same for the Silver Hawks, so if you are interested, click here for the information on the Speakers Bureau.

Anyhow, one day I was invited to speak at an after-school daycare facility. I assumed I would be speaking to children in middle school whose parents worked and couldn't be home when their kids got out of school. As it turned out, the "after-school" part of the facility was misleading, because I was basically speaking to 4- and 5-year-olds, who certainly were not yet in first grade. In case you were curious, 4- and 5-year-olds do not care about baseball broadcasters at all.

I finish my speech (most of them didn't pay attention) and open up the forum for questions (what was I thinking?). After getting the usual questions from kids about the mascot and what food he eats, one little girl with red hair who had been quiet the whole day raised her hand. When I called on her, she very shyly asked, "Is it true that red-heads will be extinct in 20 years?"

After regaining my composure, I promised the little girl that red heads were here to stay, and that whoever told her that (turns out it was an older sibling), was just being mean and trying to scare her.

Website, Field, and Why I'm the First To Go

First things first: If you go to http://www.silverhawks.com/, you'll notice a new look. Minor League Baseball has redesigned their pages, but all the important information is still there. Not a whole lot has changed other than the design, but it may take you a minute or two to find things. A link to this blog can still be found under the multimedia tab at the top of the page.

Secondly, here is today's picture of the field. Two things to notice:
1) No Snow
2) Joel Reinebold cutting the grass. It's nice to seem him actually working after sleeping in the office all winter

Thirdly, I teased this in an earlier post, but here's the story behind the weird title to this post. Nick Devlin was an intern for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He's now the broadcaster for the Burlington Bees. He's also blogging, (I'll link to his blog on the right side of this page as well).

Anyhow, Nick had a post about other Midwest League bloggers, and included mine. I appreciate the love, but let's take a look to see what he wrote about me:

"Owen Serey's the South Bend radio guy, and an all-around likable young man. When I was interning with Quad Cities last year, I made it a habit to sit in with each opposing broadcaster when they came to town. Usually I'd listen for an inning, ask a few questions during commercial breaks, thank them for their time, and head out. Owen was among those who seemed most concerned that I learn something while I sat in with him, though. Not in an overbearing way, either. It just seemed like he really cared. Now, maybe it's because he's a really nice guy, or maybe it's because he has red hair and will therefore be the first to go in any apocalyptic scenario, but it made for a very positive experience overall, and it makes me like his blog a lot." (emphasis added by me)

While I appreciate the compliments about the blog, and I do like to make sure people actually learn something from me when they sit with me for an inning or two, what's with the line about how red heads are the first to go in the Apocalypse? Did I miss that memo or something? Why does everyone feel the need to take shots at the red-headed guy?

We have a staff meeting later this afternoon, so this is probably my last post for today. I'll have another red-head related post tomorrow for you....and probably a mention or two about baseball as well.