Play That Fiddle Hard!

For those of you that are completely out of the loop, Autin Butler will be Austin Nikolich as of May 23, 2009.

I have been very fortunate in my life but I can say in confidence that I am the luckiest guy alive right now.

We will be going to Grand Cayman for our honeymoon. Yes, I am going back after having a close encounter with a tornado during my first trip down there. It is an amazing place and I am very glad we are taking a full 9 days to enjoy it.

We have officially started our planning of the big event, and a little over a week ago a few of us went to scout out a band that we had heard about. We went to a place down close to Eastern Parkway called Check's Cafe to see a couple play. Having never seen them before I have to say a certain image popped into my head. ==>

I couldn't resist. Just teasing.

However, they surprised me. They were very good. They played a lot of country music which really fit the place. They did show they could play a lot of different styles so that was very promising. Seriously, that woman rocked the sawed-off fiddle like she was Charlie Daniels. Unreal. Like many who had seen them before us, I would recommend seeing them.

It was a fun night! We have so much to do and a hell of a lot of time left to get it done. Although 3 of my groomsmen have no idea they are groomsmen yet...I'm getting to it!

If anyone has been to Grand Cayman and has a list of places to go, please send them to me. I would love the input. I went so long ago that I can't remember much more than the food and the snorkeling.

We are staying in a condo on Seven Mile Beach. Very nice! We are counting the days already.

Thank you to everyone who has given us well wishes!

I Don't Need No Rockin' Chair...

I remember back in the day I came to expect it.

5th inning...I'm leading off...and in comes the south-paw. Ok, it was not really all that dramatic but I couldn't help but snicker a little.

Let me set this up for you. This can only happen in summer ball.

We are getting KILLED. 7-0 and it shouldn't have been that close. We are in last place and we are playing the #1 team in the league. I have to admit, I was having a great game. I was 2-2 and we only had 3 total hits. They pulled the right-hander with a shut out, and they opted for the lefty. WHY?!?!

I am playing in my second game, and we are futily flailing at the ball like we are swatting at gnats. I am in the worst shape of my life and I can guarantee that. Why the hell would you go out of your way to get me out? AND FAIL!!! Despite the coach's honest efforts I finished off the game at 4-4. I hit a double and drove in the first RBI of my young season. We lost 7-2.

There haven't been a ton of other highlights for us so far...once I learn some names and we win a few I will get more in depth.

It was nice to know I could still hit against guys that train to get as good as they are. I spent the last 9 months getting fat and lazy, got up one day and decided to torture the kids a little more.

Last year I figured it was time to stop. I was not having fun anymore. Two straight years of laboring through the season on bum legs and a bad back. However, I have proven it's not in the cards for me to stop just yet. I will only get a few weeks with the team this year but I will tell you now the door is open for next year.

Game #3...Despite a stomach bug (I hadn't eaten a full meal in a week) I managed to drag my body out onto the field in Florence, KY. I was robbed of hit in the 4th but that's the closest thing to productive I got. I had to take myself off the field and was DH for most of the game. We won the game 2-0...which is amazing because we got two hits off a kid who threw 70 mph. Both runs were on wild pitches. I was 0-3 bringing my average to .444.

Double Header on Thursday, July 10. First pitch is at 6:30pm.

Suprize! I'm Back...

I got off the phone with my buddy of over 10 years wondering if I was making a huge mistake. I mean I may be only 26 but I am not in shape, and I am going up against guys who will never be in better shape than they are now. Am I stupid or am I just a glutton for punishment?

It's true, after a valiant attempt at retirement I have returned to Baseball and the Louisville Stallions. Last night the Stallions put up a hell of a fight, but lost to the Orangemen 7-2. I didn't play particularly well other than one decent play in the field, but will be back to try again very soon. The Stallions have fallen on hard times with the loss of a couple key players to other teams and injury/illness. However, this team has character, and I believe we can make a solid push at the end of the season.

Another story came out of this game. Brandon White has agreed to be my best man at the wedding. This makes me very happy because honestly I can't imagine anyone else doing it. It was very a very big night despite going 0-2 with a walk.

My batting average as a Stallion went from .500 for two consecutive years to barely over .300 last year. I have not it a Homerun in two years. Keep in mind it's summer ball. You don't see many curveballs in the summer.

Being lazy really takes its toll! I have none of my strength I had back in the day and I almost got a cramp in my leg after one swing. Considering my recent history of injured hamstrings, I take that as a bad omen. You want to know a point in your life where maybe you should just let it go? I had thrown out all of my baseball stuff, and a couple days ago I had to ask my fiancee to help me out by buying a jock. Let that sink in a minute...I am supposed to be a grown up, I'm getting married, and I just asked my fiancee for a JOCKSTRAP so I could go play ball with my friends. It's a good thing she loves me. I will be keeping all of you posted on how things are going with the team as well as myself. This may be a very temporary thing...may not be. But if you want to see me play, better come out and watch soon. It will not likely last.

George Carlin: "F*ck Mickey Mouse"

After the sudden passing of George Carlin, I started to think back to when I used to watch/listen to his acts. It’s a natural thing, especially with Carlin because he always talked about the fear of death. He made sure we knew we were all going to go at some point, and that how we were going to go would haunt us until the final day. Thanks George!

His thoughts on death lead me down another road. He also talked about the use of language in our society. According to George Carlin, people no longer die in our society. They pass on. They go to a better place. They rest in peace. He inspired thought, which is something you can rarely say about today’s comedians. Everything is about fart jokes and slap-stick comedy now. George Carlin would at least mix in a little philosophy…with his fart jokes and slap-stick comedy.

I didn’t agree with a lot of what he said, but one thing I could agree with him on is the prominence of “soft words”. We have replaced a lot of our language with words and phrases that make us feel better about the world around us. In the words of Carlin, we are bullshitting ourselves.

He used examples like the phrase, “Today, I am 40 years young!”

“Your getting old”, he would say.

He is absolutely right about this. Our culture is trying so hard not to deal with the harsh realities in life. So much so that we are changing our language to make ourselves feel better. But when does it stop. It didn’t stop at language. Now we have started to regulate television to the point where even the Disney channel has to watch themselves.

Remember Monday Night Football with Terrell Owens and the Desperate House Wife? They went after the television station because they depicted the stereotype that African-American males are attracted to white women! Had nothing to do with the girl taking the towel off (nothing was seen anyway). I still can’t understand that.

Carlin mocked this sort of censorship. Everyone remembers “7 Words You Can’t Say on Television” right? He is told what he can’t say, and he runs out to his next show and repeats them. Just so everyone in the crowd new what the rules were.

My problem with this soft language is that it absolutely does bullshit the general public. People need to know that life can be brutal. Too many people are walking around our cities and have no idea what the world has in store for them. They just choose not to think about it. Most people vote Republican or Democrat based on who their families vote for. They don’t know policies, and they never found the point in educating themselves on how the world works. If you ask a normal person, “Hey, what do you think about George Bush?” A majority of people will say, “Oh…he’s an idiot.” Whenever I ask them why they think that, I usually get a response like, “He just is.” They know there is a war but they can’t tell you why it is being fought. They can tell you that the political system sucks, but they can’t tell you why. They say the economy sucks, but they don’t know how it works.

They don’t want to know.

George Carlin will be missed in the comedy world. Much like Lewis Black, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby he was a comic who made you think. He made fun of the establishment, and made us laugh along with him.