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50,000 Miles

Dallas Braden Perfect Game

Tampa Bay Rays (22-9)											Oakland Athletics (17-15)
	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG			AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
J Bartlett SS	3	0	0	0	0	0	.248	.316	.347		C Pennington SS	5	1	1	0	0	0	.269	.358	.417
C Crawford LF	3	0	0	0	0	1	.308	.371	.513		D Barton 1B	5	2	3	0	0	0	.296	.418	.417
B Zobrist 2B	3	0	0	0	0	0	.259	.331	.353		R Sweeney RF	4	0	2	1	0	1	.304	.354	.400
E Longoria 3B	3	0	0	0	0	1	.325	.396	.581		K Kouzmanoff 3B	4	1	2	1	0	2	.275	.310	.367
C Pena 1B	3	0	0	0	0	0	.183	.302	.358		E Chavez DH	3	0	1	0	1	1	.239	.293	.318
B Upton CF	3	0	0	0	0	2	.225	.306	.396		A Rosales 2B	3	0	1	0	1	1	.273	.323	.386
W Aybar DH	3	0	0	0	0	2	.273	.289	.455		E Patterson LF	4	0	0	0	0	2	.200	.238	.400
D Navarro C	3	0	0	0	0	0	.150	.250	.200		L Powell C	4	0	2	1	0	1	.143	.308	.190
G Kapler RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	.220	.304	.317		R Davis CF	4	0	0	0	0	1	.227	.274	.282
Totals	27	0	0	0	0	6					Totals	36	4	12	3	2	9
BATTING											BATTING
Team LOB: 0											2B: A Rosales (4, J Shields); L Powell (1, A Sonnanstine)
											RBI: L Powell (1), K Kouzmanoff (18), R Sweeney (19)
FIELDING											2-out RBI: L Powell, R Sweeney
E: D Navarro (2, throw)											Team LOB: 10
	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC	ERA			IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC	ERA
J Shields (L, 4-1)	6	11	4	3	1	6	0	108	3.33		D Braden (W, 4-2)	9	0	0	0	0	6	0	109	3.33
D Wheeler	1	0	0	0	1	3	0	19	1.86		Totals	9	0	0	0	0	6	0	109
A Sonnanstine	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	13	2.51
Totals	8	12	4	3	2	9	0	140

Dallas Braden, the pitcher, was drafted in the 24th round of the 2004 amateur draft. He has an average fastball (high 80's/low 90's), a solid changeup and a curveball he mixes in for good effect. What he lacks in overpowering stuff he makes up for with his unbridled competitiveness and his ability to keep hitters off balance. Braden advanced through the Athletics' minor league system and made his Major League debut on April 24, 2007 against the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched six innings, allowed one run and picked up the win. It would be his only win of the season as he finished 1-8 with a 6.72 ERA in 20 games, 14 of which were starts. Over the last two seasons Braden's walks and hits allowed steadily declined and his ERA followed. In 2009 he finished 8-9 with a 3.89 ERA in 22 starts as the team's Opening Day starter. Still just 26 years old, Braden has already worked his way into a leadership role on a very young team.

Dallas Braden, the person, is a product of Stockton, California, area code 209. His mother died of skin cancer when he was in high school and he lived mostly with his grandmother. It was a difficult youth -- gangs and poverty taking their toll -- and Braden credits baseball, his mother and grandmother for keeping him on the straight and narrow. Braden remains very active in the Stockton community raising money and serving food to the underprivileged on Thanksgiving. For his start today he rented out Section 209 in hopes of getting Stockton residents to come to the game.

On this Mother's Day -- and Braden 209 Day at the Coliseum -- Dallas Braden was perfect. 27 up, 27 down. Only the 19th perfect game in the history of Major League Baseball. Standing by the dugout to greet him after the celebration was his grandmother.

Bracket 2010 Recap

Well it wasn't the worst bracket in the world since busted brackets was an epidemic this year but it was still pretty terrible. Duke and Michigan State made the Final Four while I had them losing in the Sweet 16. Butler made the Championship Game while I had them losing in the first round. West Virginia salvaged what dignity my bracket had left by beating Kentucky. The bright side of having your bracket busted early is that you no longer have to worry about winning and can just relax and root for more upsets.

Bracket results in previous years:

Ten Most Anticipated Movies of 2010

It's been a slow start to the year in movies so I figured I would try and jump start my enthusiasm with another list. These are my ten most anticipated movies to be released theatrically in the calendar year 2010.

1. INCEPTION (July 16)
Christopher Nolan's follow-up to The Dark Knight described as a "contemporary science fiction thriller set within the architecture of the mind." Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Marion Cotillard star in the ambitious project which was filmed in four continents and six countries.

(Trailers)

2. CLASH OF THE TITANS (April 2)
This is the kind of fantasy spectacle I will never grow tired of. Swords and sandals, gods and monsters. I like that Sam Worthington has a buzz cut in ancient Greece and no one cares.

(Trailers)

3. TRON LEGACY (December 17)
Sam Flynn, son of legendary video game designer Kevin Flynn, is pulled into the same cyber universe as his father. Olivia Wilde is there because she is clearly a program meticulously crafted line by line.

(Trailers)

4. THE WAY BACK (Fall)
Tells the factually inspired story of a group of soldiers who escaped a Siberian gulag during World War II. This is director Peter Weir's first movie since my favorite movie of the last decade, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, in 2003.

5. THE BEAVER (The Fall)
It's good to have Mel back. Mel Gibson plays a clinically depressed toy company CEO who can only communicate through a beaver hand puppet.

6. BURLESQUE (November 24)
Christina Aguilera and Kristen Bell play rival burlesque dancers. I'm sure there's more to it than that but it's not necessary.

7. IRON MAN 2 (May 7)
The first one worked best when everyone got out of Robert Downey Jr.'s way, so that's what I'm looking forward to here. Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard which is good. Scarlett Johansson is added which is bad.

(Trailers)

8. THE LAST AIRBENDER (July 1)
M. Night Shyamalan's adaptation of Nickelodeon's Emmy-winning animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Shyamalan handling already existing material might be the best thing going for it.

(Trailers)

9. PIRANHA 3D (August 27)
Is there any movie more tailor-made for 3D than one about flying killer fish? Yes, but I'm sure it's still very much worthwhile. Elisabeth Shue, Jerry O'Connell, Adam Scott and a bevy of nameless, faceless kids struggle to survive an outbreak of piranhas during Spring Break. Christopher Lloyd plays the local piranha expert.

(Very, very low quality YouTube bootleg trailer)

10. WALL STREET 2: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS (September 24)
Gordon Gekko is back. But he forgot to cure his bonitis!

(Trailers)