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Book 18 (of 52) – Gods Of Night

Gods Of Night - David Mack

Gods Of Night – David Mack

It has been at least 13 years since I’ve dipped my toe in to the expanded universe that are Star Trek novels.  Recently, the Kindle store had the Destiny trilogy on sale for a good price, so I figured I would try and jump back in and see how things were going.  This trilogy takes place after the events of Star Trek: Insurrection and the end of Star Trek: Voyager.  The Borg have declared war on the Federation, and its up to the Captains Picard, Riker, and Dax to figure out a way to stop them.

Author David Mack (no, not that David Mack) has put together a tale that covers 4 ships over hundreds of years and the mystery of how the NX Columbia, thought lost in the 22nd century, was found marooned on a planet well beyond its reach in the 24th century.  While Erzai Dax and the crew of the USS Aventine try to discover the secrets held within the old craft, William Riker leads the USS Titan to a mysterious world that may just tie in to that mystery.  Meanwhile, the Enterprise tries to keep ahead of the latest Borg invasion while trying to find out how they are getting to Federation space without being discovered.

One of the benefits of the Star Trek reboot is that the novels covering the Next Generation timeline are able to make permanent changes without worrying about the latest film and without hitting the giant reset button at the end of the novel.  So, Riker has his own command, Worf is back on the Enterprise as first officer, Data has been destroyed, and Picard and Dr. Crusher are married.  Similar to the Buffy novels I’ve read over the past few years, it is nice to slip back in to a universe that I enjoyed during my younger days.  This was a good re-introduction and I’m certainly looking forward to the rest of the trilogy to see where things go.

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#263 – Chris Snopek

snopek

Name: Chris Snopek

Rank: 263

Position: 3B

Years With White Sox: 1995-1998

Chris Snopek joined the White Sox organization in 1992 when he was drafted in the 6th round.  He worked his way up through the system and made his major league debut on July 31, 1995, going 2 for 3 in the White Sox 6-4 win over the Royals.  Snopek bounced up and down over the next 2 seasons and had already made the club as a backup infielder in spring training in 1997, when something horrible happened.

On March 21, 1997, in an exhibition contest against the Red Sox, third baseman Robin Ventura broke and dislocated his right ankle in an awkward slide into home.  Suddenly, Chis Snopek found himself as the starting third baseman, at least until Ventura returned sometime after the All Star break.  “We have to find out if Snopek can play,” GM Ron Schueler said at the time. “Our people really like him. This is the time to find out if they’re right.”  However, it took less than three weeks for manager Terry Bevington to begin playing Tony Phillips at third against right-handed pitchers, leaving Snopek to rot on the bench.

Snopek got back in the lineup when Phillips was traded and kept it until Ventura returned in late July, having hit .223 with five home runs and 35 runs batted in and committing 15 errors.  He was sent back to Triple A on August 8th.  “Every day he got a question about replacing Robin, and that was tough on him,” said Schueler. “He was trying to hit home runs like they expected Robin to hit and that frustration carried over to his defense.”

After the season, Snopek went to Venezuela to play winter ball and, hopefully, rediscover his stroke.  After hitting .380, he returned to the White Sox in spring training of 1998 hoping to get another crack at replacing a White Sox legend, this time shortstop Ozzie Guillen.  While he lost out to rookie Mike Caruso for the starting role, Snopek did make the team as a reserve and, despite struggling at the plate once again, he stayed with the big league club until August 31, when he was traded to the Red Sox for a minor leaguer.  “It was a total shock,” Snopek said. “But it’s an opportunity for me to go to Boston and show them what I can do.”

Snopek’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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Book 17 (of 52) – From Black Sox To Threepeats

From Black Sox to Threepeats - Ron Rapoport

From Black Sox to Threepeats – Ron Rapoport

Former Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport put together this collection of the best writing in the Chicago sports pages over the last century and more.  From the sole crosstown World Series between the White Sox and Cubs in 1906 through the White Sox World Series championship of 2005, this collection covers all of the highs and lows in Chicago sports from all of the local newspapers.  There were the over the top champions of the 1985 Bears, the thrills of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen bringing home 6 titles in the 90s, and the (mostly) heartbreak of the local baseball teams who usually come up just a little (or a whole heck of a lot) short.

Alongside the traditional stories detailing the local teams, there are also those columns fighting against the segregation that followed black players to spring training, the bombings of both Oklahoma City and the Twin Towers, the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and many other stories of local, national, and international scope.

Fans of the local sports teams will likely enjoy this book, and may have even read some of the stories when they originally appeared in the newspaper.  It gives a nice historical look at the best writing the papers had to offer, as well as the historical highs and lows of our favorite teams.

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Concert Flashback: Def Leppard

93defleppardA mere month after the Bon Jovi show, the group got back together and headed to the World Music Theatre to see Def Leppard and Ugly Kid Joe.  While I don’t remember anything about this, school would have been back in session, so Scott and I would have had to drive up from college for the weekend in order to attend this show.  While Def Leppard was certainly the draw, I would be lying if I said seeing Ugly Kid Joe wasn’t an added bonus.  Sadly, lead singer Whitfield Crane had other plans and managed to get himself arrested the night before in Columbus, Ohio after allegedly encouraging the crowd to attack the security guards.  Of course, we were not aware of this until we showed up to the World.

So, two members of local band Enuff Z’nuff were recruited to open the show with what I remember being an acoustic set.  To this day, I can’t name an Enuff Z’nuff song, so I can’t say that they made much of an impression.  The Internet tells me that they may have done a cover of the Beatles Revolution.

My main memory of the Def Leppard portion of the show is lead singer Joe Elliot trying to curry favor with the crowd by wearing a Chicago Bulls t-shirt.  Judging by the setlist posted on the Interwebs, it was a pretty solid show, with all of their big hits being covered, including their latest from the Last Action Hero soundtrack.  Given my fandom for the band at the time, I’m glad I got the chance to see them live.  And, all these years later, I would rather have the story of Ugly Kid Joe missing the show than having actually seen them.

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#264 – Ron Reed

Ron_ReedName: Ron Reed

Rank: 264

Position: P

Year With White Sox: 1984

After 18 seasons in the National League, Ron Reed moved to the American League for the first time when he was traded from the Phillies to the White Sox on December 5, 1983 for Jerry Koosman.  Reed was supposed to be a stabilizing factor at the back end of the bullpen as the White Sox looked to repeat as AL West champs.  The 41 year old Reed pitched well enough, but the White Sox fell apart, finishing 5th in their division.

Following spring training in 1985, Reed was released and he decided to retire.

Reed’s numbers in a White Sox uniform were: Continue reading →

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#265 – Ehren Wassermann

ehren_wassermann_2008_05_11Name: Ehren Wassermann

Rank: 265

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 2007-2008

Ehren Wassermann joined the White Sox organization when he signed as an amateur free agent on July 16, 2003.  He finally made his way to the big leagues during the lost season of 2007, making his major league debut on July 20 in a loss to the Red Sox after being called up to replace the injured Nick Masset.  Wasermann pitched well out of the bullpen for the disappointing 2007 squad, putting up a 2.74 ERA in 33 games.

While the White Sox bounced back into contention in 2008, Wassermann’s game fell apart.  His ERA jumped over 5 runs to 7.78 in 24 games.  This earned him a return trip to Triple A Charlotte, where he also spent the entire 2009 season.  Following that season, Wassermann was granted free agency, but he never pitched in the major leagues again.

Wassermann’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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Prolific Authors 2013

bookshelfWay back in December of 2011, I took our first look back at the authors I have read the most dating back to high school.  Since that time, I’ve read 34 books from 31 different authors.  I don’t think there is going to be much movement since then, but it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much in that time.  Once again, we will be limiting ourselves to the now 47 authors from whom I have read more than one book.

Author Name Current Total 2011 Total Difference
Nancy Holder 13 13 0
Christopher Golden 12 12 0

No change to these two, who owe their totals mostly to Buffy and Angel tie-in novels.

Greg Rucka 12 11 1
Stephen King 10 9 1

Both of these long time favorites increased their total by one book.  Rucka’s newest is due out next summer and is already pre-ordered.

Michael Jan Friedman 8 8 0
Brad Meltzer 8 7 1

Brad Meltzer pulls into a tie for the top 5 with another author of tie-in novels, mostly Star Trek: TNG and Lois & Clark. Continue reading →

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California Dreamin’

SanDiegoLast year, the new CIO at my company started a new program where the top point recipients from our internal employee recognition tool were rewarded with a trip to Disney World.  Last week, they announced this year’s winners will be heading to San Diego next spring and today, the list of winners was released.  Surprisingly, my name was on the list, so, come next April, I will be headed on an all-expense paid trip to SoCal for, well, something.  Details will be provided in January, so who knows what the itinerary will be or how much free time we will have to traverse one of my favorite cities in this country.

Of course, my first reaction after finding out about the trip was “I wonder if the Padres are in town.”  Sadly, the answer is no.  My second thought was that after a winter that is already hitting single digits, a trip to the warm embrace of California will be very welcome.

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Concert Flashback: Bon Jovi II

93bonjovi-2Less than 5 months since their last Chicago appearance, Bon Jovi returned to the area, this time at the World Music Theatre in beautiful Tinley Park.  This time they had Extreme on board as their opening act.  If I had to guess, I would say the guest list for this show included my sister, Scott, Tracie, Courtney, and, probably, Mike.  It was either this show or the next one where Mike managed to fall asleep between the openers and the main performers, while a Metallica song was blasting over the speakers.

Extreme opened up the show with a 12 song set, apparently, which were 10 more songs than anyone was looking to hear.  The strange thing was that they didn’t close out their set with their two hits, but rather wrapped them around a bunch of other songs nobody cares about to this day.  Eventually, the boys from New Jersey came out and, according to the Interwebs, played mostly the same set as their March appearance, although with 2 fewer songs, despite the additional $.25 in the ticket price.

Nothing particularly interesting sticks out about the show, other than the possible sleeping incident.  After seeing Bon Jovi twice in under 5 months, I haven’t seen them again in the 20 years since.