Brian Mortensen's blog - featuring thoughts on multimedia journalism, PA announcing, sports, travel, cars, pizza, photography and videography, and just about anything else that pops into my head!

St. Louis trips and half-marathons

Posted: April 12th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: PA Announcing, travel | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »

I’ve been to St. Louis twice this past week – once to PA announce the Mizzou/Illinois baseball game at Busch Stadium (which I get to below), then today I ran the St. Louis half marathon. The 1/2 mar. went well, I finished in 2:06:40, my slowest of the 3 I’ve run by about 10-15 seconds (off of the Hawaii race last year) but I felt much better during/after this race than I did in Hawaii. I’m guessing when I slowed down and stopped at various water tables – that’s probably what really killed my time. That, and my pace really fell off in the last 3 miles too, and I attribute that to just a general lack of recent long-distance runs, along with the majority of those last 3 miles going at a slight incline. I’m perfectly fine with that time – I ran the whole way, didn’t stop to walk like some people did nearby, and of course being in a big race with a big crowd really made it fun. Again, I had a great time – if I know i’ll be within 500 miles of St. Louis next year, I’d love to run it again. The huge crowd and huge race numbers just really help keep you going. That was a big problem for me in Hawaii last year – yes, it IS Hawaii and it’s beautiful, but there were times in the race where I was the only person on the road. It got very lonely and tough to keep up a good speed. In Hawaii, there was almost no crowd support until the end, so while my time was better by about 10-15 seconds, I’ll take today’s finish and enjoy it a lot more. The goody bag was better (nice t-shirt, good discounts and coupons) and some great post-race entertainment with free beer, food, and good crowd. I didn’t get a chance to see some of my Mizzou classmates running, but I did see Jen Reeves waiting to join the race at the marathon relay entry! I managed to pull over and and say hello while running. At the start, I also saw Max Reiss waving and jumping around trying to get my attention as he cheered on his girlfriend, which was pretty funny. Overall I’m psyched. Only makes me want to do more half marathons again – which, as long as I can get some nice long runs in again, should be very doable.

On a side note, I was mildly amused by how many more people in the crowd and in the race were wearing Illini stuff than Mizzou stuff. I don’t know what to make of it – perhaps people who cheer for Illinois are healthier than Mizzou? – but regardless I kept thinking of this (skip to about 4:10 for what I really mean). Then, when going past Busch Stadium, I put this on repeat on my iPod for kicks & giggles…

Earlier in the week I went to Busch Stadium to do the PA for the Mizzou/Illinois baseball game. Like last year, it was a blast – except I think the game was far better this year than last year. Last year’s blowout 19-6 win over SLU was a joke – boring, sloppy game, poorly pitched, poorly defended by both teams. This year, Mizzou overcame 4 errors to beat the Illini and while the stat sheet shows 4 errors for Missouri and 1 for Illinois, it seemed the Illini shortstop Josh Parr gave Missouri a chance to win by bobbling numerous balls at short and letting Mizzou get several infield singles, which either led to runs or continued Tiger rallies. I was blown away by how good Eric Garcia played at 2b – while he left with 2 errors, he made 2 tremendous stops late in the game on sharp grounders hit up the middle – and quickly stepped up to throw to 1st in time to retire the Illini batter. Overall, the game entertained the fans – several lead changes, a couple of rallies for each team, and the teams using wood bats really made for a fun game. As was the case last year, we did essentially just lineups, batters, pitching/defensive changes, and 7th inning stretch intro. But, the Cardinals people did ask me to do a read for a U.S. Cellular promotion, which was cool. If I can parlay this into another big gig, that’d be awesome (cough cough Mizzou football/basketball) but I’m not getting my hopes up at all – especially with May 20th-July 31st blocked off for living in Palm Springs.

April showers in baseball

Posted: April 5th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: PA Announcing | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

How’s it going, folks? Mizzou baseball has been in full swing, but not having a great season so far with a 15-11 record. The Tigers sit in last place in the Big 12 so far with a 2-4 record in conference. They’ve got a ton of freshmen, so the learning curve appears to be pretty high so far for them, while the bullpen has been very weak outside of closer Jeff Emens. I’ve been really impressed with 2 freshmen so far this year – 2b Eric Garcia, and outfielder Dane Opel. Opel is hitting a sterling .529 in conference, while Garcia made a huge impact in non-conference play – especially against Purdue where he homered twice. Garcia has struggled so far though in Big 12 play, hitting just .077. Hopefully he can keep the 2b job because I think he’s got some tremendous talent, and has shown himself to be a really solid defensive infielder too with just 2 errors in 19 games. Meanwhile, senior 1b Aaron Senne has been fantastic – .426/.464/.577 averages with 8 homers and 31 RBI. The Tigers teem with young talent on the mound too, as very-highly-touted freshman Eric Anderson has a 3.94 ERA with 24 Ks in 32 innings. He seems to have great stuff and just needs experience. The rest of the pitching staff has been average – lefty junior college transfer Jeff Scardino appears to have a solid hold on midweek starts while righty Nick Tepesch has been a bulldog on Saturdays, taking the ball every game and going deep, but he’s given up a lot of hits and homers. He’s got good stuff, and has kept his walks down, but still has a high WHIP – I’m curious to see where his season goes – he pitched 6 innings of shutout ball against North Dakota but  has struggled in Big 12 play. I’m not sure this team can make the NCAA tournament this year – I just don’t see it with the inconsistency and inexperience on this team coupled with the always-challenging Big 12 schedule. Certainly I’d love to see it happen, but a .500 finish for this team would be a success in my opinion.

On the PA announcing side, it’s gone pretty well. The athletics department asked me to PA the games at Busch Stadium against Illinois  in St. Louis and Kauffman Stadium against Kansas, so I’m pumped for the chance! I PA’d at Busch last year when Missouri played St. Louis University, and it was pretty wild. The sound system was incredibly powerful, which wasn’t too much of a surprise – what did surprise me was how strong the echo was throughout the stadium. It really emphasized to me how enormous a building it is compared to Taylor Stadium. Hopefully, the crowd will be better this year than it was last year, when it only drew about 1,500 people. I’m not sure how well Illinois baseball fans travel, but it’ll be fun regardless – and hopefully a better game than last year’s blowout win over SLU. As for Kauffman, that’s gonna be awesome – especially for an “exhibition” Border War baseball game. I’ll do my best to document it and get as many pictures and videos as possible!

My lowly Mets get started today too against the Florida Marlins – all I can hope for this season is a .500 finish. They’re going to stink this year!