NY Blog, travel day

So I get to Monterrey’s airport pretty early (1015 for a 1235 flight) since the flight will be pretty much empty checking and security goes so quickly. Enough time to grab breakfast and sit around for a while tweeting with friends.

Boarding & everything goes quickly. We get one of those small ass planes, the kind that has 1 seat on one side and two on the othe and about 18 rows; I have no problem with that, the thing is they area made for short people, not that I’m tall (5-11.785, dang so close to 6 feet) and I hit my head when I stand totally upright.

A quick hour and 20 minutes later we touch down in Houston. Holy crap IAH is a huuuuge airport, I walk like 10 minutes at full speed only to get to immigration. A long line awaits, and by long I mean long and slow enough to get me nervous that I may miss my connection or that I won’t be able to get my bag and pass customs and drop it off to get onto the plane. It’s about 1:20 and I gotta board the plane to Newark at 3:05, time keeps passing and the line is moving sloooooow, about half way they open another couple of booths which helps out a ton. Finally at about 2:25 I make it past immigration and I’m off to the races.

I get my bag, go though customs and drop It off. Quick bathroom stop and we’re off to the races to make it to the gate and hopefully get something to eat. At 3:10 I’m near the gate and all I could get my hands on was a coke and some cheetos. Junk food that saved me for the 3 hour flight from Houston to Jersey. As soon as I get to the gate they annouce boarding for rows 22 to 30 -I’m on 28 so its time.
Flight goes without a hitch. I love Continental on long flights as, even in coach, we get a individual screens. I got to catch a Big Bang Theory show and some games

Also got to see Hall Pass on the iPad and a couple of CSI Las Vegas episodes, also read a little. Gotta love the iPad for long boring trips. So after 3 hours we touch down at Newark about 20 minutes before schedule so we had to wait on the runway for the gate to clear. Another long walk to get to baggage claim, thankfully my bag got here.

I was going to catch a cab but the line was like 50 group long so I took a 15 dollar bus trip right to Times Square. Holy shit didn’t remember how amazing this place is. Seriously, Manhattan is beautiful. Form the skyline right before the Lincoln Tunnel to getting onto 42nd street from 9th avenue. Made the short walk down to 33rd and 7th to the Pennsilvania Hotel which is right in front of Madison Square Garden. The hotel lobby is pretty nice, checked in and got up to the 11th floor. The floor halls are pretty old and the rooms are old and small. The one thing I love is the bathroom, it just screams NY.

After resting a couple of minutes I went out to catch something to eat at about 10pm. For the first time ever I had White Castle to eat, for anyone who has seen Harold and Kumar you know this is the holy grail. Damn it didn’t dissapoint, had 4 sliders (small burgers that are amazing! 4 seems a lot but they are sooo small). Walked around the hotel area a bit, got some ice cream and headed back to the room.
Up at the room it was time to unpack and iron out clothes and then catch SportsCenter and wind down as it had been a long day.

Hoping tomorrow kicks off what should be an amazing week in New York, but for now…

Mr Khakbaz checking out!

Mets season over?

MLB Opening day

Long time no blogging, not really any specific topics I’ve been interested in writing but that is about to change. We are on the eve of Major League Baseball’s opening day, this is a national (well international since I’m in Mexico) holiday for us baseball fans.

It’s hard to explain why baseball is so great. I have a lot of friends who just despise baseball and I could rant all day on many of the beautiful aspects of the game they don’t get but we I’ll leave that for another day. I’ve some topics I’d like to touch on. We’ve got expectations for this season, playoff picks, MLB.tv and other random stuff

First off, lets talk about expectations for this season. 

• I expect tons of hitting, more so than last season. Temperatures will be hot so that definitely helps the ball travel, pitching won’t be so dominating and some teams just have a brutal lineup that makes any pitcher cringe when looking at the box score.
• All “expert” analysis goes out the window after the first pitch tomorrow. Baseball is so full of surprise performances (José Bautista and 40+ HRs anyone?), injuries always come into play, off field issues also have a huge part on on-field performances. At the end of the day usually the teams with the most talent come out on top, that is until we get a team red hot at the right time of year… looking at you San Francisco Giants.
• Looking for the Atlanta Braves to have a huge season. They’ve got the talent, lets see how the new manager holds it all together.
• I expect huge things from John Lester of the Boston Red Sox.
• Adrian Gonzalez will have a monster season and get the publicity, money and success he deserves. As a Padre fan I was sad to see him go. but at the same time excited as he deserves to take his talents (a LeBron quote for a guy who is as far, class-wise, from #6 as possible) to a huge market. Hope he makes it big, his home will always be in SoCal.
• Jeter will continue to decline in every stat yet the Yankees won’t notice that.
• Mets and Dodgers will keep spending money like crazy and get absolutely nothing in return.
• I expect the Giants to run away with the NL West (again, this saddens me as a Padre fan). I think Pablo Sandoval will be great this season. Lincecum could get have another Cy Young season (the kid is still only 26). Hope Wilson is back pretty quick, beard and all.
• St. Louis is a huge question mark. Their pitching is very suspect and with the Pujols’ contract stuff we could have an off year for them.
• The NL Central is up for grabs between the Cards, Reds and (wait for it) Cubs…
• I think the Braves will run away in the East, the Phillies won’t have the pitching and with Utley out they rely on Mr 200 K Ryan Howard to carry the load.
• Texas will have another great season, will they make it to the WS like in 2010? I doubt it.
• The AL Central is up for grabs.
• For another year no one will show up at Marlins games, and fill up Tropicana only for Yanks and Sox games. Florida is not a place for baseball.

Playoff picks
NL West: SF Giants
NL Central: St Louis Cardinals.
NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Wildcard: Chicago Cubs

AL West: Texas Rangers
AL Central: Minn. Twins
AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Wildcard: Tampa Bay Rays

MLB.tv
I’m no spokesperson for any product, but this is a great investment if you are a baseball fan. For 120 bucks you get every game in HD quality in a long list of devices. Really a great thing to get, not much more to say about it but this is my 3rd year buying it and have never been disappointed. 

Random

• I hope we get a great season with lots of surprises to, like every year, prove that this is the most beautiful and unpredictable sport there is.
• Hope my Padres put up a fight and make it fun for us fans. I see them finishing 2nd in the West.
• I’ll constantly blog on baseball, there is so much to write about it.
• Hope I can fly out to Boston to watch my Padres in June take on the Red Sox. Wearing my Adrian Gonzalez jersey will make it so much better.
• Side note, I hope the NFL labor dispute gets worked out so we get a full 16 game (stop with the 18 game crap)

As the great Ernesto Jerez would say:
“No se diga más, solo PLAY BALL!”