Le Tour de Baseball

In 1983 I went to my first major league baseball game and saw Tony Gwynn and the San Diego Padres. I've been hooked ever since. At some point as an adult I decided that I want to see a baseball game in every major league ballpark. So far I've seen: 
Padres at Jack Murphy
Rangers at The Ballpark in Arlington
Astros at Astrodome
Astros at Minute Maid
Cubs at Wrigley
White Sox at Comiskey
Giants at Candlestick
Devil Rays at Tropicana
Indians at the Jake
Reds at Great American
Brewers at Miller Park
Yankees - Old and New
Mets - Shea and Citi
Nationals at Nationals Park
Phillies at Citizens Bank Park
Orioles at Camden
Athletics at The Coliseum
Dodgers at Dodger Stadium
Red Sox at Fenway
Rockies at Coors Field


I bring this up because I've decided to use my sabbatical to complete my journey. Yes, sabbatical. At Rackspace we have a new benefit awarded after 7 years of service. A month (or two) paid time off to do something. Take a break. Stop thinking about work and refresh the batteries. So that's what I'm going to do. Drive across America to see the remaining teams. I've heard that it's not real until you set a date so here goes:
13 games
1 All Star game (KC)
45 Days
9300 miles
29 states

Depart		Arrive		Game Day	Team	Opponent
San Antonio	15-Jun	Phoenix	17-Jun	18-Jun	Diamondbacks	Mariners
Phoenix	19-Jun	San Diego	19-Jun	22-Jun	Padres	Mariners
San Diego	23-Jun	Los Angeles	23-Jun	24-Jun	Angles	Dodgers
Los Angeles	24-Jun	San Francisco	26-Jun	27-Jun	Giants	Dodgers
San Francisco	1-Jul	Seattle	3-Jul	4-Jul	Mariners	Orioles
Seattle	5-Jul	St Louis	7-Jul	8-Jul	Cardinals	Marlins
St Louis	9-Jul	Kansas City	9-Jul	10-Jul	All Star Game	AL v NL
Kansas City	9-Jul	Kansas City	9-Jul	13-Jul	Royals	White Sox
Kansas City	14-Jul	Minnesota	14-Jul	15-Jul	Twins	Athletics
Minnesota	16-Jul	Detroit	16-Jul	17-Jul	Tigers	Angels
Detroit	18-Jul	Toronto	18-Jul	24-Jul	Blue Jays	Athletics
Toronto	25-Jul	Pittsburgh	25-Jul	25-Jul	Pirates	Cubs
Pittsburgh	26-Jul	Atlanta	27-Jan	27-Jul	Braves	Phillies
Atlanta	28-Jul	Miami	29-Jul	29-Jul	Marlins	Padres
Miami	30-Jul	San Antonio	1-Aug

Innovation Games

Blog Post Disclaimer: Initial post is stream of thought and not edited for consumption.

I have spent the last couple of days in training called Innovation Games. As a Product Manager, I went into the class with high expectations associated with the word Innovation and low expectations that a class was going to teach me games that I could play with my customers to help me innovate my products.

Luke Hohmann, author of the book "Innovation Games, Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play, " taught the class based on his book and exceeded my expectations. The class was a great combination of theory and practice.

Context:
As a Product Manager in Rackspace's Cloud Integration group, we build software that accelerates the development of our Cloud Products. So our customers are internal development groups. As you might imagine our internal development groups compete with each other on some level. To that end, internal prioritization is one of our challenges.

Learned Solution:
With what I learned in the class I now know enough to select one of the twelve innovation games to run with my customers.

Right off the bat, I am going to plan a "Buy a Feature" session for all three of my products. I am excited about what I am going to learn and equally excited about what my customers are going to learn about what each other want.

Context:
As a curious person, I was fascinated to learn about the three archetypes, they have discovered in analyzing the data acquired by running theses games.  I look forward to see what happens with Collaborators, Kingpins and Sharks. Are there more archetypes?

Vegas Baby!

I know, I know, I know. What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas. For years, on our guys trip, that is the standard operating procedure we went by. The challenge with that SOP is that we go on a yearly guys trip and because, for the most part, we don't remember who was on what trip.

When did Grant start going?

Brad? Spring of 2006 and every year since.

When was the last time Jeff or Rick went?

How bad in Rick's snoring?

So I've decided to publish some stuff from our trip. If anyone objects please let me know.

Craig, Keith, Phil, Brad and Grant @ The Flamingo. Where else?

Friday

The rooms were so bad this time, that it has been decided, this was the last time at The Flamingo. Yes, we've heard that one before, but the rooms were REALLY bad this time. Please don't use the blacklight!

When did the pool get that cool? Met Jen and Cindy. Great times!

Dinner at the Belagio. Meh.

Mandalay Bay for Minus 5 Ice Bar. Very cool! Literally! Red Bull and Vodka was made to be drunk from an ice glass.

Lobby bar for dancing to a great 80s bad hair cover band.

Grant gets voted to redemption island because of a missed opportunity.

Saturday

Carnegie Deli at Mirage. Don't eat the egg salad. Pastrami all the way.

Jimmy Buffett block party at the Flamingo

Ranger game at Legasse Book at the Palazzo.

Bradley Burgers makes an appearance.

Switch at the Palazzo.

"Boom stick!" makes its debut. Much to the chagrin of the other black jack players in Vegas.

"B'Gack!" falls by the way side.

"Brakes!" stays in play.

Sunday

NFL Football at Mandalay Bay. The Lost Ticket of 2011.

Note to all: don't put $800 parlay ticket into gym shorts pocket. It will fall out.

Follow up note: If it happens talk to the supervisor. They have the data!

Grant makes his way off Redemption Island.

Not that it mattered anyway. Thank you to Detroit Lions for a pathetic finish.

And thank you to the trio of cigar smokers in our vicinity.

The Rio buffet is back in play. Great sashimi! And yes, Rio Brad is still there waiting tables. He looked so beat down when KD yelled, "Brad!" as if he'd be glad to see us.

Downtown: Golden Gate. Our second home.

Lots of good black jack and blue drinks. And the roulette supersystem.

And "Q" - he stands for quality and quantity. The second time we were solicited for drugs.

Dear Bob and Dan...

After a late night of gambling...is it g to hang back at the room gabbing?

Key to quick recovery on way home...airport oxygen bar and chair massage.

2011 is in the books!

La Clemenza de Tito

Last weekend I went to Prague. It's a magical city with a lot of history. One of the things on my list to see was the Estates Theater. It's famous for being the home of Mozart's Don Giovanni. I am hardly an opera buff. To be honest, my first opera was less than ideal. Actually, I found it quite boring. I wanted to go the Proms in London so I went to see Wagner's Gotterdammerung. It met all my preconceived notions about what an opera would be like. In fact, I only lasted for 2 of the 6 hour program. Granted, it was probably a little too heavy for my first opera and I thought it would be my last. But the show playing that night in Prague was an opera. Mozart's La Clemenza de Tito.

The Estates Theater is amazing. It's exactly what I expected. Opulently decorated. Intimate. It just oozed a sense of history. Everyone was dressed for the occasion and it felt like a proper night out. Granted, I was probably the only single guy in the place. And other than kids who were dragged along, probably the youngest person in the place. Regardless, I was looking forward to it.

My view from the second balcony center was perfect for taking it all in. Everything in its place. Very traditional setting except one thing - the stage. It was set up as a large white wall with a small opening with light shining through. You can see a picture of it in my web album. At first I thought there was some construction going on and it wasn't really the stage. Well I was wrong. It turns out this was a progressive interpretation of the opera. The scene opened up on this stage and when the white wall essentially the curtain was raised it revealed an equally stark white tunnel. Completely white with no decorations save a couple of dark diamond shapes in the center of the stage. The end of the tunnel was open and was about 6 feet high. The costumes weren't traditional either. They were dressed in very modern clothes. They were kind of costumes but overly so. In fact, a couple of the outfits probably wouldn't look out of place in a night club. Another interesting point is that two of the male characters were sung by women. Well of course I had to read the synopsis to try and understand what the program was about.

It turned out to be an interesting story and one that I could follow along because they actually had a screen with the English and Czech translations of the Italian that it's sung in. I know it sounds crazy but I actually enjoyed the opera. I really found it entertaining and not only did I not fall asleep. I stayed for the whole show and had a smile on my face at the end. It was definitely an enjoyable experience. And the good news for me is that I will probably pull a Costanza and end on a high note. =)

Le Tour 2007

I was going back through a few of my posts and one thing that struck me was how many posts I've made about sport. The Tour, rugby, basketball...I love sports. Good ol' American sports and new sports as well. One of the things I appreciate about living in London is the exposure to new kinds of sport. Both good and bad.

Le Tour is one of my new favorites. I don't know that I am a cycling fan per se but definitely Le Tour. The reason is simple - sportsmanship.

The evidence is bountiful...Stage 18 - Sandy Casar won. He won after a running into a dog crossing the course. After hitting the dog he took a nasty spill, I mean nasty spill that landed him splat against the road. He got up on his bike and received treatment while riding. No complaining, no whining - just focus. One mission to get back into it. The fact that he stayed with the lead group was impressive enough. The fact that he won the stage is amazing.

Also in the same lead group, a rider had a mechanical error with 20K left. The other three riders slowed to allow him to work through it and get back to the ride.
Vinokourov - one of the pre-race favorites - out. Tested positive for doping. No questions asked - gone from the race.

Rasmussen - at the time the holder of the yellow jersey. Sacked by his team. He didn't test positive but it came out that he wasn't truthful about his whereabouts a few months prior on a trip to Mexico. I'm sure we don't know all of the details but the team felt that was enough to force him out.

All of the doping seems to continuously be an issue with the racing. But is it an issue? The fact that there is such a no tolerant policy seems to be evidence that it's not an issue. You cheat - you're out. There's no lingering doubt. You're out. The majority want to do right. Now I'm not naive and I know there are still shades of gray within all this. But they WANT to do right. Sportsmanship is a huge part of this sport. And for that. I am now a cycling fan.

All of that doesn't even begin to describe the excitement of the Peloton catching up to the lead group and the sprint to the finish of the stage. This is exciting stuff! This is sport!

On top of all that, one more thing has pulled it all together for me - my mom. She's not a huge sports fan, but this year she started watching The Tour because she thought I was racing in it. When I told her I was volunteering she misunderstood my role. Maybe it was my participation in the MS 150 a couple of years ago? Maybe cause it started in London this year? Regardless, she started watching. And she was hooked. She was so hooked that she knows what a Peloton is. And she appreciated the excitement of it. Throughout the course of the three weeks we regularly shared stories of the last couple of stages. I have to admit that was very fulfilling for me. I will never forget our first Tour together. Even though I'm in London, thousands of miles away, we were able to share in the sport. I will never forget that and hope it's the start of more to come. We're hooked.

I've been a fan of sport the majority of my life. As most fans of sport, I've wondered what sport if any I would have been good at. What I enjoyed the most. I think it might have been cycling. Throughout high school I rode my bike. I rode BMX street freestyle. I even tried my hand at BMX racing. I never pushed it too hard but if I had to do it over, I would have. If I had the opportunity to do it over, I would have tried cycling. I suppose I still can. =)

Grocery Shopping in London

Today I went to my local Sainsbury's to do my weekly shopping. Run of the mill stuff...grey...rainy...the usual London way. Should have been non eventful but something happened on the way out. I couldn't leave. Nor could anyone else.

On my way out, I noticed a bit of a crowd at one exit to the market. They were all standing around with a perplexed look on their face. No one was terribly excited, they were all just milling about. Almost as if there were some big celebrity in their midst and they were waiting to get a glimpse. I'm not the stars truck type so I just kept walking to my exit. As I made my way, a couple of Metro Police made their way in. Still nothing unusual at this point so I kept on walking. As I made it to the entry way to drop off my cart, I started to realize something was going on. The automatic double door was closed and there were about 15 people standing outside trying to get in. Okay, now this is not right. People standing around inside and people standing around outside? What's going on???

So I put my cart in the queue and make my way down the exit. It's locked. Strange.

At this point, I start to feel guilty. Obviously, not that I had done anything wrong but because I was trying to think how to get out.

Next to the cart drop off point, there is a Starbucks. Your run of the mill, American channel that is part of the grocery store. It has a separate door that at this point wasn't locked. So as I make my way to the door to get out, a security guard stops me and says I can't leave. Nor can anyone else.

I ask why and he just says that no one can leave.

Again, I ask why and he says that no one can leave.

No one can leave? What is this? How can you tell me that I can't leave?

It's a grocery store? What the hell is going on?

For a minute he walks away, with the door still unlocked and I plan my getaway. I gather up my bags and make for the door. Unfortunately, there were so many people in front of me that by the time I got a chance to get out, he was back.

I'm sorry you can't leave. No one can leave.

No explanation other than the fact that we're stuck. At this point a couple of other Rackers asked me what's going on. They were just as curious as what's going on. I had no explanation of course. So we stood around for a couple of minutes. Then the doors opened. People could leave and come in. We then went about our day.

But really? How can this happen. How can you forbid people from leaving? As it turns out

the police were evidently looking for someone but were so clueless as how to find them that they closed the store. No one could enter or exit. Fortunately they must have found them and then opened the doors. So this leaves me wondering does that ever happen in the States? What kind of place am I living in? In my previous 36 and a half years I have never experienced such a thing. 6 months in London and I am given the privilege. In the grand scheme of things it was only a couple of minutes. But for those couple of minutes I really started to wonder about how great this city is.

London Flora

Today I did something I've never done before - I watched a marathon. The Flora London Marathon 2007. I've run a marathon before but I've never been on the sideline. I expected to be bummed that I couldn't run. I was right. What I didn't expect was to have as much as fun as I did. I surely didn't expect it to be the party it was. I started out watching around the 20 KM point on the Tower Bridge. Watching the runners cross the bridge, oh how cool that must feel! I was early enough to catch the runners. Now when I say runners, I mean runners.vThey are FAST. Wow. I have no idea how the human body can run that fast for that long. So after the runners went by, everyone else started to make their way over the bridge. Now I've heard that some people dress up for this but I had no idea how many people did. In no particular order there was...2 Elvis, Superman, Spiderman, Batman AND Robin, 4 Fred Flinstones (1 even had a cardboard cutout that resembled Fred's foot powered wagon. That was clever), Several fairies, sunflowers, the Leicester Rugby Club Tiger Mascot, and several miscellaneous crazy costumes. As crazy as all the was, it didn't prepare me for the guy running in a thong. Yes, I know, I probably shouldn't share that but I had to see it, you only have to visualize it. =)

Like always, there is a smattering of wheelchair racers. But what I didn't expect to see was a double leg amputee who was running on specialized prosthetics. I am still amazed and completely inspired. I think that's really what does it for me. Inspiration. Marathons are full of amazing stories, characters, people from all walks of life, different levels of fitness. Most are just regular folks who have lives. Lives full of full time responsibilities, jobs, kids you know, life. But for some reason they run. They run a lot. In order to run 26.2 miles you have to train. That is one thing all marathoners have in common. You can't just decide to run a marathon. Something has to inspire you. Inspire you enough to run 20-30 miles a week for months in preparation of the big day.

Well done runners, well done.

Now in regards to London. I have only ever been involved with three other marathons, Dallas White Rock, Austin Motorola, and San Antonio. They all have their good parts and bad parts. But London in truly world class. I never would have stopped to think about the logistics of a marathon if I wouldn't have seen genius in action. The London Marathon is truly genius. In spite of the tens of thousands of people along the route and in spite of the fact that London is truly a big city, it was easy getting around on the route. I was able to watch from the 12 mile mark, walk over the bridge and find a nice walk from mile 22 to the finish. Absolutely remarkable.

For the entire walk from 22 to the finish, it was a party. There were several live bands around the course. People were every where walking around with a cold pint or a pitcher of Pimm's and lemonade. The afternoon was very sunny and warm.

Well done, London, well done.