Willington 2 Vs. Willimantic
On May 7, 2012, my team, Willington 2, played Willimantic for the second time this season. We didn’t start out like our last game against them; we allowed four runs in the first inning. Willimantic led off with a triple, and with a man on first, I committed an error, which allowed a run to score. Our defense allowed only four runs to score, as John made a diving stop to get the forceout at second; Joe made a great play at first to get the out at first. Clark got the final out with a strike-out. We were hoping to get some runs back against the pitcher but we didn’t. We didn’t allow any runs the next inning, keeping Willimantic to the same score. That same inning, I got up to bat with a man on third, hoping to get us our first run and my first RBI of the year. I was walked instead. The next batter was Larry, and he got a base hit between third and short, to give us our first run. Later, Larry stole second, and I stole third for my third stolen base of the season. After one of our batter’s was hit by a pitch, the bases were loaded. John hit one to the pitcher, and he threw him out at first ending the inning, leaving us down 4-1.
Once again, in the third inning we allowed no runs to keep the score 4-1, as Clark escaped the inning by striking out a batter with two men on. In the third, with the bases loaded I came up to bat. Previously in the inning, we had scored a run due to a ball that went past the catcher, making it 4-2. Once again the pitcher threw a ball past the catcher and this enabled a run to score. The ball got away from the catcher and another run came into score to tie the game. The ball rolled away from the catcher and onto the pitching mound, and another run almost scored but they held him at third. On the very next pitch, I hit a hard ground ball to the pitcher, but he threw it home and got the out. I was frustrated because I was robbed of my first base hit and RBI of the season. While on base I almost got picked off. On the third ball dealt to the batter after me, I thought it was ball four, so I started trotting towards second, when I realized it wasn’t ball four! Luckily, I dove back to first in time to beat the throw! That inning, I stole third again, and this lead to getting the bases loaded with two outs. On the third strike, the catcher dropped the ball and it rolled away. I forgot to run so the catcher tagged the plate to end the inning.
In the fourth inning, my team changed our pitcher, from Clark to John For the third inning in a row we allowed no runs. In the bottom of the inning, I came up to bat with men on second and third, two outs and a different pitcher. I took the very first pitch and hit the ball right back up the middle and into center field for a go ahead RBI single to give my team the 5-4 lead! In the fifth inning, their was a very scary moment. Willimantic got the bases loaded with two outs, and the count for the batter was three balls and two strikes! John; however, handled the pressure and threw a called strike three to end a huge Willimantic threat! We didn’t score any runs the next inning, but we earned the win when the game was called due to darkness. We were all exuberant about the win, but I was the most exuberant because I played one the best games I’ve ever played: I got on base every time, had two hits and the game-winning, go-ahead RBI single! Our next game is at Legion Field in Willimantic; if we play as well as we did last game, we have a very good chance of winning! 
Willington 1 vs Willington 2
On Wednesday, May 2nd, my team Willington 2 played Willington 1 for the second time in a row. We started out playing much better than in our previous meeting with this team, allowing just one run in the first inning and batting well. The next inning, I was the very first batter, and I hit the first pitch. The ball grounded right to shortstop, and I was thrown out at first. In the third inning, with two outs, the ball was hit to me in left field, but it dropped in front of me. I didn’t want to charge the ball to let it go by me. I felt bad because the other team scored five runs. In the next inning, our very first batter, Austin walked and that brought me up to bat. After swinging and missing, the pitcher pitched four straight balls to walk me. Later Austin and I both stole a base and the batter that was up walked to load the bases with no outs, which lead to a pitcher change. The new pitcher struck-out our next batter, but a passed ball allowed Austin to score our first run. I stole third on the past ball. After walking another batter, the bases were loaded again. The next batter hit the ball to third and he tagged the base, and threw it home, but I just barely beat the throw for our second run of the game.
In the fourth inning, we allowed four runs, but with the base full and no outs, our pitcher struck out three batters in a row. The next inning we got a man on third and two outs when I came up to bat, and I struck-out leaving him stranded at third. We allowed no runs the same inning. We never got up to bat because the game was called due to darkness. We lost 10-2. We did much better in batting. We had some errors on fielding but I think we did better. Our next game is at River Road against Willimantic, and I think we’ll do better, and I think we’ll get another win!
Willington 2 vs. Willington 1
On Saturday, April 28th, my baseball team, Willington 2 played the Willington 1 team, at River Road. In the first inning, my team allowed five runs, and had a few errors, to give our opponents a big lead. We tried to get some back but all of our batters struck out. We did much better the next inning, allowing just one run. I started the batting order off for the 2nd inning, and I was the first player to reach base as I got walked with a full count. Next up, Max struckout swinging, Jason hit the ball to the third basemen, and he threw it to second. Despite beating the throw, I was called out for some reason that I’m not sure of. In the third inning, Willington 1 scored three more runs, but we had some nice plays. Our outfielder John ran in and caught a shallow fly ball; a ball that was hit to our shortstop Jason, he flipped to me for the inning ending force-out at second.
In the fourth and fifth innings, we allowed no runs and got on the board in the fifth. After a couple walks, the base were full, and the pitcher twice walked a batter with the base loaded. The pitcher got out of the jam, but we scored two runs. In the final inning, Willington 1 got the runs back, and we did not score, so we lost by a final score of 11-2. It was our first loss of the season, due to errors and not having our heads in the game. I also think that we were not swinging at good pitches. In my last two at-bats, I struck-out swinging, but I did make contact with the ball twice. We have a rematch with Willington 1 on Wenesday at River Road. Despite the big loss, I think we might have the upper hand, as the other team might be cocky, thinking it will be an easy win. If we come into the game with a good attitude, don’t make errors, play heads-up baseball, and swing the bat, I think we can win!
Giant-Size Super-Stars #1
It has been a few years ago since I got this comic from my Dad, and I’ve read a lot since then. If you’re a person that likes comics and collects them, and buy ones with cool covers, you just can’t over-look this one! This is the first and only comic of the series, and for some reason discontinued it after the first ish, and it was published in May, 1974. This comic feautered the Fantistic Four, and the Thing fought the Hulk in all-out action, that you will always remember once you read it! The main characters are the Thing, Human Torch, Hulk, Mister Fantastic, Medusa, and Tundra (who last appeared in Fantastic Four #133). This comic also, in the back, includes a gallery of the first foes the Fantastic Four ever faced. This comic is worth $100.00, in perfect condition (mine is worth $93.75), and I would hands down give it a 5-out-of-5 star rating. I abosolutley love this comic, and I highly recommend to anyone who likes comics!
My First Baseball Game in the Majors!
Yesterday, I played my first game in the Major league of the Willington baseball league. We were playing Willimantic, and I was excited to play my first game in the majors. In the first inning, with Clark pitching, we shut out the Willimantic team. Then my team came up to bat, and we had a five-run first, thanks to some singles. Our last run scored while I was batting when the ball went past the catcher and Josh E. came home to score. With a full count, I struck out to end the inning. The next inning, Willimantic got a run back, but we scored another in that same inning, thanks to Max’s RBI groundout. In Clark’s last inning pitching he shutout Willimantic, and we scored yet another run and in this inning I struck out swinging. Max took over pitching and gave up three runs to make it 7-4. I wasn’t worried at the time, because I figured we could get one or two runs back, but we didn’t, so I started to get worried.
In the last inning, we allowed three runs and that tied the game. Up till this inning, I was playing outfield, and I switched to Second base, one of my favorite positions. It was the last inning, so we had to get the lead. The inning started off with two consecutive walks. While I was up to bat, the pitcher threw a ball past the catcher, allowing two men to steal. I walked and that got the bases loaded. Then Brett came up to bat. He hit the ball right in my direction and I leaped over the ball to avoid getting hit. This single sent home the game-winning run, leading to an 8-7 walk-off victory on opening night and we were all exuberant! After the coach talked to us, we got to go home with the great feeling of victory and the wanting for a win against our in-town rivals, Willington 1! It was a great feeling to win my first game in the majors!
UConn Baseball versus Rutgers
On April 20, 2012, my dad and I went to a baseball game between UConn and Rutgers, in game two of a doubleheader. Uconn had given up a 7-1 lead in game one, but squeezed out a 9-8 victory. We got to the game in the top of the 1st inning, and when we got there it was already 2-0 Rutgers. However, after Billy Ferriter led off with a single, the Huskies got some more hits and tied the game with two RBI singles. The tie didn’t last too long as a Rutgers’s player hit a two-run homer to make it 4-2, and Rutgers scored another in the inning. Things only got worse when Rutgers scored two more in the 6th inning to make it a 7-2 lead. During the next inning, UConn started to rally.
After a lead-off single, a pinch-hitter, Stanley Paul hit an RBI double for UConn to start the rally. The next batter singled to send home Paul, and later L.J. Mazzili, the son of an old Yankee player, hit a double to send in another run. He then stole third, and later scored on a fly out by Ferriter, to leave UConn down by only one when the inning was over. The very next inning, a Husky player led off with a double, but two outs were made after. Stanley Paul hit a double allowing another runner to score, to tie the game up!
However, the situation changed when Rutgers scored a run in the last inning, making it 8-7. The Huskies came into the inning knowing they had to score and that’s what they did. With men on the corners, a Husky player hit the ball to the pitcher, but the ball bounced from his glove, and the throw wasn’t in time so UConn tied the game again! The game went to the 10th inning, and Rutgers didn’t score. UConn came up and with just one out; there were men on first and second. Then UConn’s player, Martin hit a single threw the right side, and Paul beat the throw at home to give UConn the walk-off win and a doubleheader sweep! I was glad they won, and it was fun to see a walk-off win because they are dramatic and team that wins ends up in a pig pile! I really enjoyed my first UConn baseball game!
Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini was born in Hungary in 1874. His poor family moved to Wisconsin but Harry (Enrich Weiss was his real name) ran away to Texas, but got the wrong train and went to Missouri at the age of twelve. After a few years of working odd jobs, he moved to New York City, and lived with his family, where he began to develop an interest in Magic. He became a messenger when he was a teenager, and later worked in a factory where he met a boy named Jake, and after reading a magic book that changed his life. They left the factory, started a magic show and they called themselves, the Modern Monarchs of Mystery.
They toured around dime museums and fairs in the Northwest, but Jake left after sometime, and Harry’s real brother Theo joined the act. The performed the usual magic tricks until they did the grand finale, the “Metamorphis”. It was trunk in which Theo would be put in in a bag, that was tied, and then the trunk was closed, and tied. A curtain was put around the trunk, and after Harry Houdini clapped his hands three times in a row, the curtain was taken down, and Theo was standing there and the trunk was still tied and locked! When it was opened, Harry was inside the bag which was tied! Theo was part of the act, until he was replaced by Bess, who he had met pursued and married.
In 1899, Harry Houdini got a manager, and his name was Martin Beck, a star maker. Instead of being paid $25 a week, he was being paid $60, and eventually $250 a week! Under Beck, he dropped his other tricks and focused on his handcuff escapes. Beck also taught Houdini that less is more, meaning fewer acts that are bigger and more exciting were better than more tricks that were smaller and the usual tricks. Houdini, however, got tired of Beck’s managing. He still went on the trip to Europe Beck had booked for him, even though he had quit Beck’s management earlier. In Europe he met Harry Day, who became his new manager.
Houdini became very famous in Europe. Before each show, he would escape from the best jail in the country to promote his show. His most famous jail escape was when he escaped from London Yard in seconds. His manager was walking out of the jail when he called for him to wait for he had already escaped. He also was made famous when he escaped from a Siberian Transport Cell. While in Europe, he became interested in straitjacket escapes, when a doctor invited him to see an insane asylum. He escaped a straitjacket, by dislocating his shoulder.
Harry was married to his wife Bess for 32 years, but they never had any children to their dismay. Houdini had four brothers, and he was very devoted to his mother. He was so devoted to her that he bought her Queen Victoria’s dress she never wore, because she died. This dress cost $150; that’s $3000 today! Later on, he joined the Society of American Magicians, and later was made its president until his death.
He tried to meet with other old magicians that he admired, on died two hours before they were to meet. Unlike in Europe where he escaped jails to promote his shows, he promoted his shows differently in America. He promoted them by jumping into rivers handcuffed or handcuffed in a box that was tied. Houdini was also interested in flying.
He became the first to successfully fly in Australia, but it was oddly the last time he ever flew.
Houdini later became famous for his water torture cell, where he hung upside down in and had to reach up and unlock his handcuffs on his feet and lift the top off. He became even more famous when he made an elephant disappear at Barnum’s circus, and he did it by having Jenny, the elephant walk in to a supersize ghost house. Houdini also added to his fame when he played in movies in which he actually did his escapes.
Houdini’s tricks became more difficult… and dangerous. He was once buried an alive and admitted he would never do it again. Rahman Bey, an Egyptian magician, proposed a challenge. The challenge was to stay underwater for more than 49 minutes, the amount he had stayed under for. Houdini did it for 1 hour, and 31 minutes!
Houdini quit the show business for a while after his mother died, whom he was devoted to. He tried to make contact with the spirit world, through mediums, who conducted séances, where the spirits were supposed to write directly on tablets. Houdini eventually revealed that all mediums where fake.
In 1926, on Halloween, he conducted a lecture on exposing spiritualism, when three students came to him after the lecture. They asked him that it was true that he could take three blows to the stomach and not be harmed and he said yes. He was going through his mail, so when one student asked if he could try it he absentmindedly said yes. The young, strong student, delivered three blows, and he didn’t have time to tithing his stomach muscles. He didn’t know it but this had blown his appendix. Disease set in and he died ten days later. He is dead but not forgotten. Ask someone what the most famous magician is and Harry Houdini still tops the list.
Happy Easter!
On Thursday, we entered Holy week, in which we celebrate Jesus’s passion, death, and ressurection. On Thursday, we celebrate the Last Supper, the Passover meal in which he ate his last meal on earth with his Disciples. This also the night in which Jesus is betrayed by Judas, and before that, goes to pray in the garden before his capture. There is also is a sadness to the day, because this is the day that Peter denys Jesus three times. On Friday, which is Good Friday, Jesus dies on the cross. It is called Good Friday because Jesus died for us to clean us of our sins and so we could go to Heaven and enjoy eternal life. Later in the day, Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross, and laid in a tomb. On Saturday, we endure the waiting of Jesus’s ressurection, in which the Disciples and Mary, the mother of Jesus, hid from the soldiers, but with grief over the death of Jesus.
On Sunday, Easter Sunday, Jesus rises from the dead, and the news is discovered when three women come to visit Jesus’s tomb. To their dismay, the stone in front of the tomb has been rolled away and it is empty. As they mourn this fact an angel appears to them, and tells them that Jesus has risen. They soon tell the Disciples, and Jesus stayed on Earth for 4o more days, before his Accension into Heaven, which is not celebrated in Holy Week. This is what Easter is really about; Jesus’s death on the cross for us to be free from sins and so we could enjoy eternal life, and the joy of his Ressurection. That’s what Easter is all about.
My First Ever Whale Hockey Game!
Last Sunday, my dad, Mr. Wearne, my friend Alex, and I went to my first ever Connecticut Whale Hockey game. We drove to their house, and then jumped into their car, and we drove to Hartford. The Whale was playing the Providence Bruins. The first period was uneventful, because here were no goals, but there was plenty of action, because each team had some great chances to score. In the second period, the Bruins got the lead, when they won the faceoff, and a Bruins player received the puck and shot it past everyone, including the goalie. Whale had some great chances to score, but never did, and the Bruins kept the slim lead going into the final period.
It was very cool because our seats were right above where the players came out, so Alex and I could reach down and high-five them as they went past. It was also different from UConn games, because there was a scoreboard on the ceiling, and I thought it was very cool that you could watch the game on it. I was worried that Whale wouldn’t tie it up, but only 37 seconds into the period, Whale tied it up with a beautiful goal. A Whale player skated up with the puck, and got a shot off while fighting with a defenseman that went past the goalie and in the net. However, a Bruins player redirected a shot into the top left corner to give the Bruins the lead. But once again the Whale tied it up when a player sent a pass straight in front of the net to Kris Newbury who bombed it into the net to send it to overtime.
Overtime was not very eventful at first, because each team had very little shots. I was hoping that no one would score, because I wanted to see a shootout. However, with twenty seconds left, the Bruins made their up ice, and made a shot that went wide, but rolled to a Bruins player who made a shot that the goalie saved, but the rebound rolled to a player who made a shot that bounced over the goalie’s pad a slid over the goal line with 2.1 seconds remaining in overtime! Argh!
Even so, I enjoyed seeing my first ever whale game, and we went back to my friend’s house, and Alex and I went downstairs in the garage to play two Whale vs. UConn hockey games, since we were wearing the jerseys, and we each won one!
Danu Concert
On St. Patricks Day, 2012, my family and I went to Jorgenson Theater on the UConn campus to see an Irish band called Danu. There were five band members, and the instruments that were played were an accordion, guitar, fiddle, flute, and some sort of really cool drum. The girl member mostly sang, even though she played the flute. During the first half of the show, the band played songs that they had designated for the show. The songs with vocals were sung mostly in Galic, the Irish language. In between songs, a band member would tell about the song and usually tell a joke. Toward the end of the first half of the show, between one of the songs, the musicians said that depending on where you were in Ireland, the crowd would have different whoops or cheers to encourage the musicians. They then asked what our call was to encourage the UConn teams. For about one or two seconds, there was an awkward silence, and then I heard a voice shout “UConn!”, and the crowd responded “Huskies!”, like it had been practiced many times! The voice ended up being my dad! He got to do it a couple more times because the musicians thought it was a really cool call and got a kick out of it!
During the intermission, we found out that my cousins Christine and Catherine, and Christine’s boyfriend J.C. were there. They didn’t know that it was my dad that began the Husky call. It was also nice because my dad and I got to talk to J.C. during the break. During the second half, the band sang their favorite Irish songs and they were all very fun. After one of the songs, all the musicians ecept the drummer left the stage. Then, the drummer did the longest drum roll and solo that I had ever seen. The solo was the most amazing part of the show! After this, the band came back on, playing a few more songs before leaving the stage. Danu came back on stage because they received a standing ovation. After the show, the band came out in the lobby to sign autographs. We each got all the musicians autographs. It was a great show and it was a nice ending to St. Patrick’s Day!