Three Beautiful Things 10-09-20: Project, Rays in a Thriller, Heat in a Thriller BONUS A Limerick by Stu

 1. I have a project to work on for Debbie involving her cds. I'm going to be a little bit secretive about it in case it turns out that I can't actually do it (but I think I can). In order to work on this, I need an external cd/DVD drive and today my new Apple USB SuperDrive arrived in the mail. When I bought the MacBook Air, I also bought a USB converter cord, so I was able to test drive the USB SuperDrive with the replacement Nine Days Wonder cd, Left of Center, that just arrived a day or two ago. The drive works. I'm ready to get to work on this project. More on it on down the road.

2. Now that I've switched to YouTube TV, I can watch sports on TBS and ABC. I had a fun time watching the Tampa Bay Rays defeat the New York Yankees, 2-1, and advance to the American League Championship Series against Houston, in a game that featured some really wicked pitching. The Rays have a handful of pitchers who can throw over 95 mph and tonight they used four of them so that the Yankee hitters never saw the same pitcher twice. That approach runs hard against the traditional practice of expecting a starting pitcher to throw anywhere from five to seven innings -- and in the old days, pitch all nine. The Rays do other unorthodox things, most notably, put four players in the outfield from time to time on defense. 

The Rays are a raucous team, fun loving, hard playing, emotional. A tense rivalry has built over the past two or three years between the Rays and the Yankees. The way the Rays won tonight's game was especially sweet for them. Back on Sept. 1, fireballing Yankee reliever Aroldis Chapman fired a 101 mph fastball close to Mike Brosseau's head. Tonight, when they confronted each other in the bottom of the eighth inning, Brosseau kept fouling off pitches and taking balls, battling Chapman for ten pitches, a long at bat, and he dramatically powered that tenth pitch over the left field fence. It turned out to be the game winner. 

3. With the baseball game over, I switched over to Game 5 of the NBA Finals. I haven't watched a single moment of NBA basketball this season, but I'd read quite a bit about the great season the Heat's Jimmy Butler is having and how he has spearheaded the Heat's efforts against the Lakers in this championship series.

Jimmy Butler had a monster game tonight, scoring 35 points, dishing out 11 assists, and plucking 12 rebounds. Down the stretch, he was indomitable, making key shot after shot, driving hard to the iron and drawing fouls, and calmly burying all his free throws. 

Jimmy Butler had some help, of course, especially from the baby-faced assassin Duncan Robinson who let thirteen howitzers fly from beyond the 3 point arc and converted seven of them, scoring 26 points, many of them ruthless daggers. 

Butler and Robinson led the Heat to a 111-108 victory. 

Here's a limerick by Stu:

It connected both East and the West.  

Its construction, the ultimate test. 

Battling slides, bugs and heat, 

Those builders wouldn’t be beat. 

Its impact can’t be over stressed. 

 

Panama Canal 1913, water began filling the Culebra Cut connecting the two oceans.