Astros Lose to Athletics

The Astros played the Athletics on Friday. Despite awesome pitching, we let the game slip away with too many errors and not enough batting support, resulting in a 4-10 loss. All told, we had 6 errors fielding and our batters had 16 strikeouts at the plate. Still, I was proud of our three pitchers, which is why they are my three Astros Stars of the Game (special mention to Dillon who had a nice game behind the plate as well):

• Seth (3 IP, 7 SO)
• Connor (3 IP, 5 SO)
• Joe (1 IP, 3 SO)

Our next game is Tuesday against the undefeated Cardinals. Hopefully we can get our bats going again. Updated team statistics are shown in the upper right (click image to enlarge).

New PartnerShip Blog

It's been a while since I posted anything here regarding work. So, one cool new thing that I recently introduced at work was a new, The Partnership Connection Blog (ship.partnership.com/blog) using our HubSpot marketing platform. As a blogging platform, HubSpot is not the greatest tool, but it has some other integration features that make up for it. Any ways, I have been "seeding" the blog with a dozen or so posts to build a foundation of content, and to begin establishing credibility with the major search engines (e.g., Google, Bing, etc.). Going forward, me and my team will be using the PartnerShip blog for inbound marketing - posting relevant content with "key words" that will help drive inbound traffic from the major search engines, and providing some measurable "call-to-actions" where we can capture information about businesses that are interested in our shipping programs and services. The blog is just one small component of an overall "brand & web 2.0" project me and my team have been working on the past couple months. We will formally "kickoff" the new brand with a couple of all-employee in two weeks where I will provide some brand training and where we will introduce some of the new brand deliverables, such as new exhibit materials, new brand collateral, and a preview to the new partnership.com website (which is about 3 months away from being implemented).

Abby & Jen's Chinese Music Video (我的宝贝)

Abby and a friend/classmate had to make a music video this weekend for their Chinese language class. They posted it to YouTube and showed it in class yesterday. I guess it was a hit (in a cheesy sort of way). Here it is ...

Irish Dance Nationals 2012 Poster

The O'Hare School of Irish Dance Ohio recently created a new poster/advertisement to wish good luck to all of the girls that will be attending the 2012 North American Irish Dance Championships in July. That, of course, includes Abby. Practice hard girls - and good luck!

Astros Win in Second Game

The Astros won their second game last night against the Orioles (a rival team we must play four times this year - we play all the other teams in the league three times). Connor "The Comet" made his pitching debut and pitched phenomenally, giving up only 1 hit and 1 run over three innings of work. He also had two strikeouts and two assisted outs. But the Astros were still down 0-1 after three innings when "Astro Boy" Seth took over. Seth pitched the middle of the game and gave up only 2 hits and 2 runs while striking out 8 batters in his three innings. Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" made his debut as a closer in the last inning to earn the save. The final score was 9-6. The Astro Stars of the Game were:

• Connor (3 great innings of work; nice pickoff play at first)
• Seth (3 innings to get the win; 8 strikeouts; and 4 RBI)
• Matt (2 runs scored; 4 assists; 1 putout)

(special mentions to Dillon, who called a great game behind the plate; and to Andrew, for his gutsy relief appearance that allowed me to save our other pitcher's arm for the next game)

Updated team statistics are in the upper right (click to enlarge). Overall, I was proud of the entire team. They played more relaxed, and it really showed.

Astros Season Opening Game

In the Astros debut (and my debut as head coach), the Astros played a tough game against the Reds, but lost 10-14 in the end. There were a few season-opening jitters all the way around, and a number of mental errors (including some from the coach). We had some great fielding plays, but our throws need to be more accurate; and our hitters were a little tight at the plate. However, considering it was really the first time we had all of our players on the field at the same time, we showed lots of potential, and I was proud of my team. It was also just good to get the first one out of the way. The Astros Stars of the Game were:

• Madison (4 putouts and awesome defensive)
• Joe (a solid, 3-inning starting pitching performance)
• Dillon (two hits and a couple RBI)

Shown to the upper-right are the team statistics after Game 1 (click the picture to enlarge). The short video clip below is of Andrew "Freddie Ballgame" ... although I hope to share video highlights of all my players throughout the season. Next up: Orioles on Sunday.

Astros Picture Day

Today was picture day for the Astros baseball team. Here is a quick picture I snapped of Andrew with my mobile phone. Today was supposed to also be our season opening game - and my managerial debut - but, unfortunately the MYBA closed all fields today due to "poor field conditions." This was a joke, because it hadn't rained since the morning, and it was 70 degrees and partially sunny this afternoon/evening. Plus, many of the fields in the area were perfectly fine - obviously the league was being lazy since maybe only one or two of the fields were bad. I was really excited to see how our team performed, but I guess I will have to wait until our next game on Friday (weather-permitting).

The smaller photo to the right is our team picture (minus two players and coaching staff). In the front row is (L to R) Freddie Ballgame, The Kid, Pokey, The Comet, Iron Boy, and Big Mac. In the back row is (L to R) The Mad Hitter, The Bambino, Astro Boy, and Double-Play. Not pictured is Joltin' Joe and Charlie Hustle; and of course me, Sparky.