Shaq vs. Albert: Homerun Derby Continued…

Shaq vs. Albert: Homerun Derby Continued…
08/14/09

I caught Albert’s first (fake) homerun ball.

I guess they wanted to film some B-Roll before the real deal went down. We didn’t know. Shaq and Pujols both came out to great fanfare. Shaq had a round, then Albert was up. First ball off the bat came two rows behind me.

Bounce.

Bounce.

Snag.

There it was, under the bleachers behind me. It was my years of Spoons playing finally realized. I have very fast hands.

But then after Albert had done the deed. 11 times. They announced that those didn’t count and they were going to re-do the entrance, the fanfare and the whole first round.

So, like I said I caught a homerun from José Alberto, but it didn’t count.

Who cares.

Here’s the promo from ABC about the show:

That was a fun experience last night. Free. Saw two genuine sport superstars. Was literally in Homerun ally, with balls right over my head at least 22 times. Shack took off his shoes and batting gloves and handed them out to people right next to me. Albert, Shaq and AJ Pujols all, as they say in Field of Dreams, “had a catch,” about 20 yards away from us.

By the way this is probably no surprise, but AJ Pujols is incredible. Better arm, hand eye coordination and composure in front of cameras than any ~seven year old I have ever seen. Trust me, I worked for 6 years at a little league concession stand, and I’ve seen a lot of seven year olds playing ball. This kid is awesome.

The whole event was set up so that Shaq had a fighting chance. So while Albert had to hit over the regulation fence, Shaq only had to hit over a fence about 100 to 150 yards out. Round 1 Pujols had the standard 10 outs, while Shaq had 15, Round two was a 7 to 10 out matchup and the final round was a 3 to 5 out split.

I won’t tell you who won or how many homeruns were hit, you’ll have to watch Shaq Vs. on ABC in mid August for that, but I will say that this could be a really fun show to watch. Other contestants include Serena Williams, Ben Roethlisberger, Michael Phelps and more.

Hint. Hint: The show might prove that not all amazing athletes can be good at every sport.

Shaq vs. Albert: Homerun Derby

Shaq vs. Albert: Homerun Derby
08/13/09

My sister got me tickets to this for tonight. Shaq vs Albert Pujols in a Homerun Derby.

I think its for this new TV Show Shaq has.

I’m leaving now, but I’ll let you know all about it tomorrow.

Fun work

Martin Luther King Tribute
06/1/10

I wanted to attempt this style  in February, and being Black History Month I chose the Rev. as my muse.

His face is made up of the words of his epic Lincoln Memorial “I have a dream…” speech.

Take a look. I am having it framed as I type.

Smoking Goat Branding
04/1/10

I like beer.

Beer high in flavor, alcohol and price. I brew at home, but wouldn’t consider myself very good at this point. I’m working on it.

We have friends in Louisiana who I would consider really good. I designed some branding for their forthcoming brewery down there.

The Smoking Goat will hopefully be amazing, especially if I get some good beer out of the deal.

Have a look. Then drink a beer and have a look again. Continue this process until the logo looks awesome.

New Poster
02/4/10

This is a poster I made for my buddy Dustin.

A classic quote from him as we drove by Effingham, IL’s infamous and huge cross.

I thought it would look good in his new apartment.

Sheltered Perceptions
01/6/10

I recently got the chance to work on a project for the Humane Society. Given the fact that every time I walk into an animal shelter I have to be talked down from taking home every animal in the place, I was happy to help in anyway I could.

With the majority of pet buying in the United States coming from breeders, mall pet shops and unfortunately mills, animal shelters (specifically the Humane Society) are left overflowing with pets that need loving homes. They are running into a perception problem however, and many misconceptions about shelter pets are accepted as fact, and often repeated as such.

To get past this, we decided to take the problem head on, and address the most common misconceptions individually.

Here is where we landed:

Lauren and Dan sit’n in a tree…
01/5/10

My good friend Lauren is getting married in July, and though I am extremely jealous of her fiance Dan (don’t tell my wife), I made their save the date cards.

I use VistaPrint to print these types of things. Though the quality suffers, and the rumor is that they are destroying local community printers nationwide, for the price they can’t be beat. Check them out next time you want to customize your own holiday card or invitation.

Here’s how Lauren’s STDs turned out: