For Christ's sake!

For Christ's sake!



     It seems appropriate to talk about Greg the sports fan on this Opening Day of 2025 since this is the first one I have spent without him in the flesh since 1990. We started our tradition in that year of a dozen good freinds going out to the old ball game, sitting together, wolfing our dogs and sipping beers while having a great time. It has been an all-star event with the best of the best out at Dodger Stadium including Ed Carroll, Timo, Billy and Carolyn Hogan, Sheehys Greg, Ed and Lissy,  Creasons: Stephen, Christine, Paul, Sarah, Julia, Katya, Nick, Mike Sheehy, Richard Sheehy, Niall , Nancy, Walt, Steve and Stephanie McGraw, Anthony,  Kevin and Patrick Smith, Ceara, Dylan Matlock, Victor, Neo, and many more I might add. Most of these years we walked up hill or parked on roads in Elysian park watching our boys through thick and thin. The majority of these wonderful gatherings were brought about by a man named Bob Kanner who worked in the Dodgers ticket office and was an old pal from the CTO at UCLA in 1974. Timo brought beautiful steaks he cut himself and great fun was had and still does except the creep of father time now relegates us to TV viewing in my old shack in the hills. In a sort of final lunge at the tape, Greg came up here last year, despite great health problems and rooted the boys in for on final time. The title of this blog comes not from baseball but Greg's other sports passion: the UCLA Bruin football team. Despite a perennially mediocre team that has frustrated us many, many years Greg sat in his season seats and hoped for victory. One year as the Boys in Blue were taking their lumps against the hated Trojans, Greg spotted a USC reciever ten yards behind a Bruin defender even as we were hopelessly behind already. At that same moment a true Bruin fan in front of Greg spotted the same and bellowed "For Christ's Sake!!!" That wounded cry really seems to sum up following UCLA football. By the way,  SC QB Carson Palmer overthrew the wide open end but still managed to pile up hundreds of yards on the hapless fellows in Baby Blue winning 52-21. This year we will toast one helluva guy who can never be replaced.

10704-09-1990vs San Diego Padres4-2W51-52-4
10804-12-1991vs San Diego Padres2-4L51-53-4
10904-06-1992vs San Francisco Giants1-8L51-54-4
11004-13-1993vs St. Louis Cardinals7-9L51-55-4
11104-05-1994vs Florida Marlins4-3W52-55-4
11204-28-1995vs Atlanta Braves9-1W53-55-4
11304-08-1996vs Atlanta Braves1-0W54-55-4
11404-01-1997vs Philadelphia Phillies0-3L54-56-4
11504-07-1998vs Arizona Diamondbacks9-1W55-56-4
11604-05-1999vs Arizona Diamondbacks8-6W56-56-4
11704-14-2000vs Cincinnati Reds8-1W57-56-4
11804-02-2001vs Milwaukee Brewers1-0W58-56-4
11904-02-2002vs San Francisco Giants2-9L58-57-4
12004-07-2003vs Arizona Diamondbacks4-6L58-58-4
12104-05-2004vs San Diego Padres2-8L58-59-4
12204-12-2005vs San Francisco Giants9-8W59-59-4
12304-03-2006vs Atlanta Braves10-11L59-60-4
12404-09-2007vs Colorado Rockies3-6L59-61-4
12503-31-2008vs San Francisco Giants5-0W60-61-4
12604-13-2009vs San Francisco Giants11-1W61-61-4
12704-13-2010vs Arizona Diamondbacks9-5W62-61-4
12803-31-2011vs San Francisco Giants2-1W63-61-4
12904-10-2012vs Pittsburgh Pirates2-1W64-61-4
13004-01-2013vs San Francisco Giants4-0W65-61-4
13104-04-2014vs San Francisco Giants4-8L65-62-4
13204-06-2015vs San Diego Padres6-3W66-62-4
13304-12-2016vs Arizona Diamondbacks2-4L66-63-4
13404-03-2017vs San Diego Padres14-3W67-63-4
13503-29-2018vs San Francisco Giants0-1L67-64-4
13603-28-2019vs Arizona Diamondbacks12-5W68-64-4
13707-23-2020vs San Francisco Giants8-1W69-64-4
13804-09-2021vs Washington Nationals1-0W70-64-4
13904-14-2022vs Cincinnati Reds9-3W71-64-4
14003-30-2023vs Arizona Diamondbacks8-2W72-64-4
14103-28-2024vs St. Louis Cardinals7-1W73-64-4


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