K’s All Around, From DC to GU, Text-Only Instagram

STRIKEOUT CENTRAL

Wednesday’s series opener against Burlington was nothing shy of a pitcher’s duel. Bees starter Sean Murphy struck out 13 batters, a new career high, and TinCaps starter Cody Hebner fanned seven in a losing effort. A three-run homer surrendered by Hebner with two out in the fifth proved to be the difference as Fort Wayne lost 3-1.

From today’s game notes:

•  Shortstop Jace Peterson has now reached base in seven of the last eight games, after going 2-4 on Wednesday night. The 18 runs that Peterson has scored in 20 games leads the Midwest League. Burlington’s Dusty Robinson is second with 15.
•  Front End Ferocity: Starter Frank Garces ranks second in the league among starting pitchers with a .128 batting average against him. Rotation-mate Adys Portillo ranks third, with opposing batters hitting .132 during his time on the hill. After last night’s seven-strikeout performance, Cody Hebner ranks fourth in the MWL with 23 strikeouts.

In today’s TinCaps Report Podcast, hear the highlights from Wednesday’s game, and post-game reaction from Hebner and Fort Wayne catcher Matt Colantonio:

SOMETHING HEAVY

Georgetown student Darryl Robinson wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post about his experience of going from the Washington, D.C. public school system to one of the nation’s most elite colleges:

“I did what I’d been taught growing up in school: memorize and regurgitate information. Other Georgetown freshmen from better schools had been trained to form original, concise thoughts within a breath, to focus less on remembering every piece of information, word for word, and more on forming independent ideas. I was not. I could memorize and recite facts and figures, but I didn’t know how to think for myself. Now, in an attempt to think deeper, I sometimes overthink myself into silence.”

He writes about his struggle to catch up with students who had gone to boarding school and top private schools from around the country, and how even though he was one of the brightest in his class in the District, that he had a lot of work to do to get where he wanted to be as a Hoya:

“I can now lead discussions in class and have led calculus and biology study groups. I’m getting mostly A’s and B’s. This dedication leaves me little free time to go out on the weekend or visit home. My grandmother calls me daily to check up on me and offers moral support. My social life isn’t as exciting as I hoped it would be because I’m spending so much time studying. But all my extra effort has paid off: I’ve gone from floundering to finally making it at Georgetown.”

After reading that piece, I felt a strong connection to Darryl and wanted to see him do well. His writing is worth taking 15 minutes of your day to read.

SOMETHING LIGHT

If you’re on Facebook or Twitter, you’ve no doubt seen your collection of bad amateur photography thanks to every cellphone now having a camera. In fact the proprietor of this blog has contributed some bad photos along the way and shared them with you, but he fully acknowledges that they are of poor quality.

However, with photo sharing services like Instagram, many around the world are led to believe that their photo skills are first-rate, and thus every picture they take must be shared on their social network of choice. Let it be known, that should not be the case.

That is why when I came upon the Text-Only Instagram Twitter feed, I had a good laugh this morning. It takes the absurdity of crappy photos, and turns them into text, increasing the hilarity factor by at least 16.7%.

Low horizon. A single pigeon mid-flight.

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Text-Only Instagram (@textinstagram) April 25, 2012

Portrait of a dandelion with a suspiciously shallow depth of field for a cell phone

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Text-Only Instagram (@textinstagram) April 26, 2012

Airplane wing as viewed from two seats back

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Text-Only Instagram (@textinstagram) April 26, 2012

Note to self: never take a picture again.

MUSICAL GUEST

Let’s re-live 1999′s greatest hit…”Someday” by Sugar Ray!

If you’d like to get in touch, you can reach me at Couzens@TinCaps.com or on Twitter @MikeCouzens.