(If you want to read it in order, start from the bottom.)

We have hit the home stretch. If I can just mince my words a bit and stop being so long-winded, this will be my final update on Comic Con weekend.

When we last left your heroes, they had just entered Hall H to watch Kevin Smith talk. Well, all of us except for Mike Lopez, who decided to leave the line at the last minute. He gambled and he lost. But we’ll get to him later.

Edson and I are pretty big Kevin Smith fans. We both listen to Smodcast, which is Smith’s podcast that he does with his buddy Scott Mosier. Ed has become one of the bigger Smodcast fans of all time, listening to episodes more than once and some probably more than twice.

Blake is also a big fan, but more so of Smith’s films. The rest of the crew knew his work, but weren’t huge fans. I was worried that both HJ and Tawni would be offended by Smith’s blue humor. I was wrong. I think they liked it best out of all of us. He’s really good live and a gem of a story teller.

A goofball dude proposed to his nerdy girlfriend at the beginning and during the Q & A there were some of the worst questions ever asked by humans in the world, but Kev gets his audience and rolls with the punches while making fun of them without them knowing. He told some new stories such as how he got Michael Parks from From Dusk Till Dawn to be in his new movie Red State. This story involved the police coming to his house and investigating a possible hostage situation.

He also talked about my least favorite of the Smodcast universe characters, Malcolm and how he drove with Malcolm from New York to Toronto in a Prom Bus. Malcolm went all out including buying tons and tons of pillows.

But the main story that everyone wanted to talk about was about how Southwest Airlines kicked him off a flight for being too fat. I couldn’t do that story justice even if I tried my hardest, so take a listen to it on his website.

While he was telling his story, I was thinking about my flight to San Diego on the same airline. I was sitting on the aisle and a large women wanted the window seat. I noticed that she piled the middle seat with all of her stuff as if to scare others away from choosing the seat between us. She was able to put on her belt fine, but I could tell that she was fairly uncomfortable. And yet, Kevin Smith was even bigger than her? Highly unlikely. Well, someone probably had an agenda for cherubic Kev.

After the event, Ed finally checked his cell phone and noticed that Mike texted him and within the text was his story about not getting back to the exhibit floor and also not getting into the Kevin Smith panel. We laughed and felt sad all at the same time.

We decided to call it a night at the Con and head out to the Gas Lamp to get some food before going back to the HoJo. The entire area was packed like crazy. I made sure that we would brave the crowds and suck it up. I heard two voices say that we could go back towards the HoJo and find some place to eat, but I wasn’t having it. I even made up a story and said that nothing was open back on that side of the town. I have no idea if that was true. But I wasn’t going home early like we did the previous night.

We ran right smack dab into Dick’s Last Resort, which is a spot that I frequent all the time with the F4W crew whenever we have our Memorial Day UFC get together in Las Vegas. The gist of the restaurant is that the waiters are rude to you and the atmosphere is unruly. If you’re there to have a quiet dinner, it’s not happening.

It was also not totally packed so we were in and sitting down quickly. Right as we were walking to our table, Ed was hit with a wadded up napkin and he turned around like he wanted to fight. Then I told him it was thrown by an Asian girl and he was fine. And then dinner turned into war.

Everyone was throwing up wadded paper across the entire restaurant. We had to join in and by the end of the night, we were the biggest target in the entire restaurant. Randy and I were seeing how far we could throw this wadded up paper. And also, HJ and Tawni were sitting in front of us, so we had some protection. Yes, they kept getting hit in the back of the head with shots that were supposed to be for us, but hey, sometimes you have to take it for the team.

I hit a poor guy right in the forehead even though I wasn’t throwing at him. He was just in the way. Randy tapped a poor girl on the top of her head on the other side of the restaurant and it didn’t even phase her. Whenever I didn’t have a target, I just threw it at the same girl in front of me who had her back toward me. I must’ve hit her about 15 times.

The waiter at Dick’s put paper hats on our heads with not-so-nice sayings on them. Dibs Highsmith’s was about his addiction to Hornswaggle porn. HJ’s said something about spitters being quitters. But I think Mike’s was the best. His said, “One of my balls is larger than the other two.”

It was during this time that Mike said the words that made everyone smile. Even though he was in a car for 17 hours of this 2 1/2 day trip, even though he stayed in a line for over four hours and then was locked out of the Kev Smith panel, and even though he stayed in one of the worst hotels of all time, my future brother-in-law said this:

This is in the top three of my favorite vacations of all-time.

My first thought was, “How could it be if we were only in town for a couple of days?” But then I remembered seeing how many photos he posed for with comic book and movie characters, how many times he was excited to see an exhibit, and just seeing how much he smiled while at the Con. I guess it could’ve been. Later, when I asked him what the other two vacations were, he didn’t really have an answer. So maybe this was number one?

I drove back with the crew and we made it back in fine time. HJ only drove for about an hour and a half of the trip and uttered, “I can’t see,” and a few times decided to take her eyes off the road to look at something we were looking at, but we made it home in one piece. That’s all that mattered.

Day 2 – 7/24: Part 2

I’m writing this off 9 1/2 hours of sleep in two days, after a 7 hour drive home, shooting hoops with the kids, and watching an intense episode of Friday Night Lights. So I apologize if this post comes across like a mad man is writing it. I’m tired and wired at the same time, if that makes any sense.

I wanted to wrap up the Con events on Saturday so that Blake “Dibs” Highsmith can look back at this post just in case he forgets anything about his weekend. If you don’t know the “Dibs” story, scroll down to the bottom of this long-winded story. It still cracks me up just thinking about it.

I last left this story after Tawni happily won the SummerSlam tickets and I sadly won the watch. Hea Jin made us take a photo and told me to give real emotion, hence the sadness in my eyes.

I alluded to something in my previous post about Young Randall waiting in line for a very long time and not getting to see the Green Lantern trailer. That experience influenced our next decision. We wanted very badly to see Kevin Smith’s Q&A session in Hall H, but also expected it to be one of the more popular panels at the Con. Kev’s been doing it for years.

To make sure we got in, we decided to make our way towards standing in line for cherubic Kev about 3 1/2 hours early. I’m not sure that I’ve ever stood in line for anything that long, but hey, it was cherubic Kev. We were all already pretty tired and the line didn’t move much so it became a game of solitaire.

We goofed on each other, told jokes, and did anything to just pass the time, but I made sure that we stayed pessimistic. Blake and HJ were very confident that we were getting in. I just didn’t want to jinx it. Anytime they put the carriage before the horse, I shot them down. I wasn’t going to let Dibs Mel Gibson me out of my experience.

We heard a story that made the rounds concerning a possible delay and maybe even cancellation of the rest of the panels in Hall H. The original story was that someone stabbed another in the eye with a pen. My first thought was, “Who does that?” And then I remembered where I was. Actually, that kind of fight sounds pretty normal at a nerd-a-palooza.

I tried to play this out in my head. I guessed that it was a Harry Potter fan who spotted a fake Voldemort and he pointed his fake wand to use the avedra kedavra killing curse on him. When it didn’t work, he decided to do the next best thing and that was stab Voldemort in the eye with his pen. I mean, he is the boy who lived right?

Well, it seems that I wasn’t all that far off. According to a few different posted stories, there was an argument over seating at Hall H. And a guy in a Harry Potter shirt stabbed another guy near the eye with either a pen or a protractor. I think the stabber wanted the stabee’s seat. And in my world, the stabee was really Voldemort in disguise.

The worry was that they were going to cancel the on goings in Hall H for the rest of the evening and our time in line would be wasted. As it turned out, they didn’t cancel any of the panels. But they did delay them for 45 minutes. At this point, we’d already been waiting in line for over 3 1/2 hours, so what’s another 45 minutes right?

(I nearly forgot about the highlight of being in line. I told Blake that I could get him on my shoulders as if to put him in a fireman’s carry or airplane spin. HJ then said that she could pick Blake up. I don’t remember if I dared her first or if she just wanted to put her arms around Blake’s voluptuous belly. For better story telling, I think she wanted to put her arms freely around Blake without any influence on my part. Low and behold, HJ puts a backward bear hug on Blake and lifts him a foot off the ground. I was impressed. But I was also sure that I could get him on my shoulders even more so than before.)

But we still had to get inside! Mike Lopez was just about tired of waiting and about 10 minutes before the line started moving and we were on our way to the front, he decided that he wanted to continue to walk the exhibit hall and miss cherubic Kev. We tried to tell him that since he waited as long as he did, he should just stick around. But then Dibs Highsmith told him the exhibit hall didn’t close until 9PM (it was almost 8PM at the time). That sold Mike on leaving.

Well, we got in. But Mike didn’t get in the exhibit hall. We didn’t find this out until after seeing cherubic Kev, but I guess Dibs Highsmith was wrong. The exhibit hall was already closed before Mike could go back in. So after waiting in line for over 4 hours to see cherubic Kev and then leaving to go back to the exhibit hall and finding out it was closed, Mike had one chance and he went for it.

According to his telling of the story, he raced back to our line and spotted us going inside Hall H. He says that he shouted out my sister’s name, but she didn’t hear him. She was probably too happy to simply be moving inside the building we waited outside in a line to get into. After not getting her attention, he made a run for it. He ducked under whatever they used to mark off the area. As he tried to catch us, he was run off by the security guards who didn’t believe his story that he was with us. I guess they didn’t want another stabbing by a guy wearing a Harry Potter shirt. Then again, Mike wasn’t wearing a Harry Potter shirt. Maybe they didn’t like Mexican guys.

Whatever it was, Mike had to figure out how to do something on his own while we hung out with cherubic Kev and some of the biggest nerds I’ve ever seen in my life.

Ok, I’m tired and ready to pass out so I’ll have to finish off the post with cherubic Kev and throwing wadded up napkins at people at Dick’s Last Resort. To be completed tomorrow…

All the photos from the weekend are on my Facebook Page.

Day 2 – 7/24: Part 1

Oh Comic Con. I’m not even sure where to start, but I might as well start from the beginning.

I was very confused as to how the Con worked. I understood that there would be an exhibit hall with a ton of booths. That’s how the UFC Expo was, how every card convention I’ve been to, and even the infamous Cow Palace wrestling and MMA convention that Edson and I went to a few years ago.

But what I didn’t get is the panels. You had to wait in line to see certain discussions and events and some of those lines were so long that it was possible that you wouldn’t get in, especially if your name was Young Randall. But once you got in a panel, you could stay there all day long if need be. And we wanted to see Kevin Smith later in the day.

One of the first big panels was one that focused on the new Green Lantern film and the new Harry Potter movie. Let me step back a bit. Young Randall decided that he wanted his friends to wear the rainbow coalition of Green Lantern shirts to this Con. And he also wanted us to wear matching power rings. He’s that big of a Green Lantern fan. Even though no on else really is, we just wanted to make Young Randall happy so we obliged.

Tawni and Mike were going to dress up in Wolverine themed costumes, but they were never able to put it together. We all wanted to see Mike as the Mexican Wolverine.

Randy decided that he wanted to attend the panel that was going to show the Green Lantern trailer and he went to stand in line about an hour and a half early. Even though Hea Jin told us that they were close to the front of the line, reality set in and they didn’t get close and missed out on the panel. We learned an early lesson. Stand in line early and suck it up, especially if we wanted to see the cherubic Kevin Smith.

We split up to go to different panels. I went to check out a TV writing one which was entertaining, but not what I thought it’d be. The rest of the crew went to see the new Street Fighter game and then one on Hasbro Toys. We then decided that we would just walk the exhibit floor. Panels weren’t really for us.

Remember my story about Adult Entertainer Kayden Kross from yesterday? Well, there’s an update. When I thought I saw her but couldn’t muster up the confidence to really ask her if it was her, I tweeted this out:

Thought I saw @kayden_kross in the Gas Lamp, but @HoachX wouldn’t ask her if her name was Kayden. I was too smitten. #comiccon

Low and beyond, she answered me. Here’s what she said:

I was looking for people to get in trouble with you should have said hi

So it was her. I wasn’t looking to get into trouble. I just wanted a hug.

There were many people signing autographs and we got to see a whole bunch of them. I hate asking for autographs in general because I think it’s silly for an adult to ask another adult to sign their name for them, but I had to make an exception. Mick Foley was there signing autographs for his newly penned comic book. I didn’t want to read the book or even get his autograph, but I did want to ask him a couple of questions. So I decided to get in line with the rest of the Con peeps and get his autograph so I could chat with him.

It was a quick conversation, but I found out that his new book comes out October 1. He asked me if I was going to get it and I told him that I have them all, so that will more than likely happen. And then I asked him if Paul Heyman was going to come into TNA (where he wrestles) and he said he didn’t know, but that Paul was possibly at the Con and I should ask him. Sadly, I never found Paul.

I went looking for another wrestling related person. My sister said she saw former WWE Diva Maria Kanelis and it was time to find Miss Maria. I just wanted to take a picture of her. We went up and down the aisles. My sister said that she saw her in one area, or maybe it was another area, but assuredly it was on a corner, and maybe it was over here or there. Heartbreakingly, we never found her.

But I did find Thelma from Good Times, Roger from What’s Happening, and Patrick Duffy. I think Thelma thought I was checking her out because I kept screwing up on trying to take the photo. I think she even waved at me later in the day when we passed her by. She probably thought, “That’s the guy who took 5 photos of me.” I did, but it’s because 4 of them didn’t come out. I wished Jimmie Walker was there, so I could tell him that I call my son JJ partly because of his character on Good Times. And also that I call myself Kid “Dyn-o-mite” after him. Ok, I don’t really call myself that last one.

I also shook hands with the guy who played Voodoo on Friday Night Lights. He was only in a handful of episodes, but I thought his character was really strong and told him so. I didn’t want to tell him that I also knew him from a Burger King commercial.

I told Ed that I saw that Natalie Portman was going to be signing as well and he made sure that we learned a little bit about what he had to do to secure some time with Miss Portman. It turned out that there was actually a lot of work to be able to get her autograph and Edson didn’t want to spend a lot of time memorizing some trivia about a trailer, and thus, we decided that we’d just grab my camera, walk near where she would be, and shoot a few photos.

When it was time to head over to see Natalie, Ed was a little slow on the trigger. I kept asking him why he was walking so slow and finding ways to be interrupted on our search for Natalie and he admitted that he was nervous. We finally saw her and he was smitten and said that if we left the Con right after that moment, it would’ve been fine with him. He was fulfilled.

Earlier in the day, we walked over to the Mattel booth and they were giving away SummerSlam tickets. A few of us were given raffle tickets for free and we just had to be back by the time of the raffle and had a good shot at winning prizes, including the tickets, which were a pretty expensive prize considering we didn’t have to pay for the raffle tickets.

There were only about 30 people who showed up with their tickets and our chances to win something all of a sudden looked pretty good. Mike gave me his ticket so I had two shots at the tickets. Ed lost his ticket and my sister still had hers. I won a spinner watch with one of my tickets and still had a shot to win the SummerSlam tickets. They went through a handful of numbers and no one had claimed the tickets. All of a sudden, they called a number that was right in my ballpark. And guess who won? Yep, my sister.

In three weeks, she and Mike will get to come back to So. Cal for the weekend and go to WWE Axxess and SummerSlam. Tawni and I took a picture on someone’s camera where she’s smiling with her gift in hand and I’m making a sad face with mine. I’m actually glad she won them rather than me because with only two tickets, I couldn’t choose between which child to take to the show.

I’m going to cap part one here and finish writing part two in a day or so. We were only done with half the day and still had to see Kevin Smith and ended up at Dick’s Last Resort to cap the night. By the end of the evening, one of us said that it was one of their favorite vacations of all time. Oh ya, there was also a stabbing.

I’m posting all the photos from the weekend on my Facebook Page.

Day 1 – 7/23

Several months ago I decided to tag along with some friends to the Comic Con, or as I’ve deemed it, Nerd-a-palooza. I’m not into much of what the Con is all about, like the comic books, toys, sci-fi movies and the like, but I wanted to experience the largeness of the event. Earlier this year, I went to the UFC Expo, but it’s still in its infancy and even though it was busy, I imagine that the Comic Con, being 41 years old and all, will be 10 times bigger. It just seems like something that’d be cool to check out once in your life.

I was going to work during the afternoon and fly out in the evening on Friday, but since my buddy Blake was at the Con a few days early, I decided to fly out early to hang with him. I hadn’t seen him since last year when WrestleMania was in Houston.

A couple weeks ago, he asked me if I’d mind if we went out to some aircraft carrier museum. Since the guy was picking me up at the airport and we had some time to kill, I said sure.

Blake is a Bay Area kid who migrated out to Texas to be with his wife and they have raised their family out there. But the guy misses the Bay Area. As we pulled up at the museum which sits on the water, he looked at me and said, “I miss the smell of the ocean, believe it or not.”

He also mentioned that he wanted to walk near the ocean. It was the most romantic date I’d been on in a long time. Even though we were there for over 3 1/2 hours, Blake could’ve spend twice the amount of time there.

Every time he saw a new aircraft, he wanted to jump in the cockpit and had me take some pictures. As we approached the T-2 Buckeye, he started to take out his camera and said, “Oh, you know what you’re going to do.” It meant that he was jumping into the cockpit and I was snapping photos.

Part of the reason that I flew into San Diego on the front end of the trip was because it was a very short trip and I didn’t feel like doing the long drive twice in three days. Even though Hea Jin assured me it would only take them 6 or 7 hours to drive to San Diego, I decided to fly out and then drive back with them.

(By the way, because of traffic and Hea Jin getting lost on the way to lunch, it took them 10 hours.)

The rest of the crew which included my sister, Mike, Edson, and Randy, finally got in just before 7PM and we decided to saunter over to our hotel. Earlier in the day, Blake let me know his disdain for Hea Jin’s hotel choice. To be fair, Hea Jin was just looking for whatever was cheap so that we didn’t have to worry about too much about expenses. Blake was upset by her choice of the Howard Johnson Inn and told me that he wasn’t going to let HJ’s bad hotel choice ruin his vacation.

Except he didn’t quite say it like that. He said it in a very mean spirited way, but because he never says anything harsh or mean spirited, it cracked me up. I won’t repeat it here so as to not sully his crystal clean reputation, but let’s just say that HJ isn’t going to (Mel Gibson) up his experience. For the one time in his life, you could call him Mel Gibson Highsmith. Don’t worry, it wasn’t derogatory about HJ. It was derogatory about the hotel.

We made our way over to the Gas Lamp and tried to find somewhere to eat. It was rabidly packed. There were Comic Con nerds aplenty, but there was also some Grade A San Diego blue chip talent out.

We ate at a restaurant called La Puerta and it was pretty decent Mexican dining. I was in the mood to just hang out and explore the area, but my peeps were tired, and our time in the Gas Lamp area wasn’t very long. I’m not sure we’ll make it back tomorrow night because Blake, Randy, and Edson specifically want to catch a special viewing of the Kevin Smith/Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan vehicle, Cop Out. Not like it’s already on video or anything. So we may go do that in the evening.

Do I want to spend over three hours with the cherubic Kevin Smith or hang out in the Gas Lamp area with the blue chippers? I think I’m getting overruled on this one.

There were three other things that happened that were pretty cool.

1. Mike noticed a few people making a big deal out of something while we were walking back to the parking garage. That big deal was none other than Sodapop Curtis, aka Rob Lowe smoking a cigar and walking down the street. He’s insanely skinny, but looks exactly like he does on TV and looked to be just under 6 foot tall.

2. Also as we were leaving, I noticed a very pretty girl who I recognized to be Adult Entertainer, Kayden Kross. I follow Kayden’s brilliance on Twitter and remembered that she mentioned she was going to be at the Comic Con. I was pretty sure it was her and tried to goad Edson into asking her if her name was Kayden. He thought it wasn’t her because she didn’t have porn star boobs. I begged and pleaded that he go ask her because I was too smitten, but he didn’t. And she walked away. I was sad.

3. We went to the CVS store across the street from our hotel to buy some water and whatever else we wanted to drink in the morning before heading over to the Con. As we walked into the store, someone yelled something that I didn’t entirely understand. The sound came behind us from the parking lot. Edson figured out what was yelled.

“(I got) Dibs on the stripes!” was screamed out.

Yep, Blake was wearing stripes.

I’m posting all the photos from the weekend on my Facebook Page.

(Ever since I heard that my dad’s best friend Mick was sick and probably not going to overcome his illness, I thought about the song I embedded above. It’s a song by the group Hootie & The Blowfish. Their big run was already over by the time this song came out so I doubt many have heard it. If you want, click on play above and listen to it while you read this.)

Sometimes you meet people who you don’t spend a whole helluva lot of time with, yet you’ll remember them forever. My dad’s friend Mick was like that for me. I can remember small pockets of my life when he was around. It was like he would pop in every five years and when I’d see him, it was like he was never away. And it was probably time for him to pop in again, except, on July 2, 2010, he passed away.

I know that my dad and Mick had a close friendship when Mick was around, but a more casual one when he wasn’t. After talking to my dad today, he just expected Mick to pop in, much like I did.

From what I was able to gather, Mick wasn’t taking care of his health and was diagnosed with diabetes. He didn’t seem to take it all that seriously until he had to and it might’ve been too late. His brother Frank said that in his opinion, Mick never got over the loss of his wife several years ago and was depressed and lonely.

And I’ve learned that written words are not the same
As when you take the time to say it
And let the clouds release the rain

It seems that in his last years he lost touch with a lot of people on and off. It wasn’t just my dad. He recently wrote my dad a letter and sent it to him. The letter tried to relay some of the things he was dealing with. But he didn’t leave a return address or phone number. Maybe it was just his way of saying goodbye.

My memories of Mick are mostly of fun and games, goofiness and silliness. But they are still there after all these years.

I remember that he brought over an old school pro wrestling board game. You had to flip cards or roll dice to find out what happened to your wrestler. I had baseball board games that were similar, so I understood. Every wrestler had their own card. But Mick decided to make up his own wrestlers and wrote his own cards. My favorite wrestler that he created was called “Weakling Boy”. I’m not sure what was funnier; the fact that he actually named his own created wrestler that, or how hard he was laughing when I saw his created card.

My dad always reminds me that Mick gave himself his own nickname – Mick “The Mouse” Garcia. I think he added it to a photo or made his own baseball card and made sure to include his nickname.

He used to throw up a side bicep pose, but would push up the excess skin on the other side of his bicep to make his bicep look bigger. The only reason I remember that is because of a story that my dad told me one time when Mick started to lift weights. He was working out regularly and was pretty happy with the kind of shape he was getting into. Someone on his wife’s side decided to play a prank on him. They called him and told him that they noticed his workout prowess and wanted him to be on the cover of their weight lifting magazine.

Now think about this for a second. Mick might’ve been getting in decent shape, but the workout magazines have these huge steroided monsters on the covers. Even if he did think he was getting into pretty good shape, he had to know it was a prank. I don’t remember if he bit hook, line, and sinker, but I do remember that he bit on it.

He was also the kind of sports fan that I was. He could remember players, stats, and facts that not many people care about. He was the same way with music and movies. He’d always bring up these obscure actors or ball players who I’d never heard of and it was like he was talking about an old friend or someone he knew. They came up right out of thin air.

And I wish my dreams alone would bring back my old friend.
But, yesterday’s just something I can’t mend.

I saw him a lot when my dad played in the inaugural Men’s Senior Baseball League in San Jose. It was an over 30 league and it was a pretty big deal as former pro players were involved. My dad coached one team and by the luck of the draw, he got the first pick of the draft. Did he pick one of the ex-pro ball players with that pick? Nope. The first pick in the inaugural Men’s Senior Baseball League was none other than Mick “The Mouse” Garcia.

Mick used to pitch and when they were younger, he was the number one pitcher to my dad’s number two. But once they got older and into high school, my dad became the ace. From what I’ve heard, Mick just didn’t have confidence on the mound and that was his downfall. But it didn’t stop him from loving pitching and screwing around with new pitches. He showed me his infamous pinkie ball and his middle finger ball. And when he’d show me his new pitches, it wasn’t just by throwing them. He had to go into his stretch while holding on invisible runners. And then he’d over-exaggerate his leg kick and throw me his new inventions. Did they do anything? Not really. But they cracked me up because he’d be laughing after he threw them.

Yet, even through all the fun and games, there’s one moment I remember best and it’s probably because it was a pretty important moment for me in my young sports career. I keep hearkening back to this moment when thinking about Mick. I was 12-years old and playing little league. It was my last year of majors and I was finally able to pitch. I had secretly wanted to pitch since I started playing, but I knew that I just didn’t throw hard enough. But now that I could, I was finally going to get my chance.

My dad was the coach and every once in a while, when Mick was around, Mick would help him out. My dad always tells the story that Mick was the reason he became a pitcher. Mick stuck up for him when they were younger and told their coach that my dad could pitch. My dad feared that he was going to be cut from the team and he eventually made it.

When I finally got the word from my dad that I would pitch in my last year of majors, I was ecstatic. I would walk around my house, practicing my pitching motion and remember telling Mick more than once that I was finally going to be able to pitch. When I told him the second time, I remember thinking, “Wait, he already knows, why did I just tell him again?” But he just nodded and said, “Yeah, I heard, that’s great.”

Eventually, pitching became my favorite thing to do in baseball even after I hurt my shoulder which hindered my ability to throw more than a few innings. And when you can’t throw when you used to be able to throw; guess what? You want to throw worse than ever.

For whatever reason, I still remember being so excited to finally pitch, and Mick is in that memory.

I almost forgot. He also introduced my parents to each other. And for that reason, I’ll forever be indebted.

Now my tears fall down for you.

Michael Edward Garcia was born on November 7, 1954 and passed away on July 2, 2010.

- Stone Cold Steve Austin started his fourth WWE title reign by defeating the Undertaker.

- Napster was four weeks old.

- The Apple iBook had been released just seven days prior.

- And, the most important one to me, Brian Gonzales was born.

He came into this world smiling, and hasn’t really stopped.

Happy 11th Birthday to the Bri-guy. I’m not quite sure who I’d be without him. I’m just happy that I get to be his dad.

I put this video together for him last year. The music was his choice.

But for now, you can watch this year’s video.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to riot.

People have faint memories of earlier in the season and maybe Crystal peaked too early, but I’m amazed at all the Lee DeWyze love. This is the same dude who slept-walked throughout the first half of the season. This is the same Lee DeWyze who still has issues answering questions without stuttering, looking down and perspiring heavily. I think he’s done really well in the last two weeks, but has he jumped ahead of Crystal in my book? No. I’ll take consistently good week after week, mature, polished, and someone with a bit of a rebellious streak in her over someone who has no idea how he got here.

The Hot List (based on last week’s performances)

1. Crystal Bowersox
2. Lee DeWyze

The Departed

1. Young Lacey Brown
2. Young Paige Miles
3. Young Didi Benami
4. Young Andrew Garcia
5. Young Katie Stevens
6. Young Tim Urban
7. Young Creepy Girl
8. Young Aaron Kelly
9. Young Michael Lynche
10. Young Casey James

Don’t forget that Lionel Richie will give me his thoughts tonight, like always on the final Tuesday night show.

Ryno says it’s Simon’s last week of shows. I’m already sad.

Lee looks scared out of his mind already. He may hyperventilate. Bowersox looks focused and excited.

There are three stages tonight.
1. Their favorite song they performed this season.
2. A track chosen by executive producer Simon Fuller.
3. Their first single if they win.

Stage 1

Crystal won the coin toss and she makes Lee go first. He’s singing The Boxer. This is the song he performed on the week that I missed the show. I can see why he picked it as it is a great way to start the show. But, his performance is pretty sleepy here. He needs to drink some coffee or something. Randall says it was a great way to start off the night, but he wants Lee to pick it up. Ellen says she couldn’t be prouder than if she birthed him herself. Kara says he has to punch harder. Simon says he expects more passion and excitement. Lionel says that it could’ve been outrageous, should’ve been outrageous, but was just outrageously decent.

Crystal is performing Me And Bobby McGee. The woman understands what night this is and gives an energetic, and slightly wild performance near the end. Good stuff. Randall thought it was dope. Ellen says it was stunning. Kara says she has fire in her belly tonight. Simon says she’s back on her best. Lionel says he knew Bobby McGee and she wasn’t as outrageous as Crystal was tonight.

Stage 2

Simon Fuller chose Everybody Hurts for Lee. I actually think this is really good. He gave it his own spin and it was solid. The only thing that I didn’t like is that he had to sing above the choir in the background and was nearly drowned out. Randall says it was better than the first and he could feel his passion. Ellen says he pulled back and didn’t go for it. Kara says it wasn’t a perfect vocal, but he told a story. Simon says it was a brilliant choice of song, but he’s nervous. Lionel says that he liked it so much that they should’ve changed the name of the song to Everybody Outrageously Hurts.

Fuller chose Black Velvet for Crystal. Hmmm. It seems like we’ve heard this so many times over the years. She started at the top of the stairs, which might’ve been a mistake because as she walked down, she kept looking down so that she didn’t trip. Once she was on even ground, it was pretty fierce. Randall says Mama Sox is in it to win it. Ellen says it was fantastic. Kara says she wants it and you can tell. Simon says he’s almost allergic to the song because he’s heard it so many times, but she absolutely nailed it. Lionel says that he has three words for her – out-ra-geous.

Stage 3

Lee is singing Beautiful Day, which will be his first single. Can you really release this song again? Ouch. It starts out rough. I think Lee’s a little too light in the ass to pull this off, but he tried. Randall says it started off rough, but he finished it off well. Ellen says she’s so proud of him. Kara says he was swallowed up in the song a bit. Simon says he wishes the best for him. Lionel says that it’s always a beautiful day when he’s so outrageous.

She’s singing Up To The Mountain. This has Kara DioGuardi written all over it. It didn’t seem perfect for Crystal early on, but it had all these perfectly planned high spots for her to hit some powerful notes, and she hit them all. Wow. Randall says it was one of the greatest performances at the perfect time. Ellen says she’s in a league of her own. Kara says she blossomed. In probably the smartest move I’ve ever seen on American Idol, Crystal thanked Simon before he could give his final critique. She’s blowing Lee out now. Simon says it was by far the best performance and song of the night. Lionel says that since Simon is leaving, he’ll gladly and outrageously accept his spot as the new judge.

If America isn’t deaf, Crystal wins this thing. Heck, if Lee wins, we riot.

And to end the show tonight, the manly Will Young sings Leave Right Now. And I saw my creepy little girl!

Instead, I thought about how “long in the tooth” this show feels. I watched another “long in the tooth” show finale the other day. I have been hit or miss with Survivor for the entire existence of the show. If I can get into the characters early on, I’m in. If I can’t, I’m out.

There are two things that have helped this show of late. The first is high definition. Much like sports, this show is must-see in HD. The second thing is that they throw some familiar faces on the show from time to time. This past season was the villains and the heroes. Everyone on it was on the show at one point before, thus it was very easy to get into the characters. You felt like you knew them.

That’s part of the issue with this American Idol. The characters have very little personality and no one has the kind of story that you simply want to root for. The creepy girl was eliminated so now you know no one is going to be bitten on the neck and have their blood sucked dry.

The familiar characters are Ryan and the judges. Last year, Kara was added. This year, Paula was left out and Ellen was added to the mix. We’re not too sure about this foursome of judges. And next year, Simon’s gone. So not only will we have 12 new folks, we’ll have a new judging crew.

Basically, I’m saying that next year, we’re in trouble unless they do American Idol All-Stars! Bring back anyone who wasn’t able to make the top three of their season (or aren’t huge recording stars like Daughtry) and have them all make it to Hollywood and go from there. Then we lessen the Simon blow. They’ve already had tryouts for next season you say? Well, they weren’t forward thinking enough.

The Hot List (based on last last week’s performances)

1. Crystal Bowersox – Why does Simon think she’s not the front runner?
2. Lee DeWyze – The general Lee
4. Casey James – Poof pow, be gone

The Departed

1. Young Lacey Brown
2. Young Paige Miles
3. Young Didi Benami
4. Young Andrew Garcia
5. Young Katie Stevens
6. Young Tim Urban
7. Young Creepy Girl
8. Young Aaron Kelly
9. Young Michael Lynche

Casey James is up first and is singing Ok, It’s Alright With Me by Eric Hutchinson. This is a very likable song. He seems to be struggling with singing it though. I’m not sure it was that huge, winning, bottom two kind of song though. Randall says it was safe and easy. Ellen says she wishes he would’ve brought it. Kara says the song wasn’t well known enough. Simon says the song choice is a salad rather than the main course. He also called it a dud song choice.

Crystal Bowersox is singing Come To My Window by Melissa Etheridge. It’s definitely right in her wheelhouse. She brought the harmonica attachment for her guitar and it seemed to get in her way. I think the mic was also a bit too tall. I didn’t like it that much, but the crowd definitely got into it. Randall says he didn’t love the arrangement, but he did like her vocal. Ellen says Melissa would’ve been proud of her. Kara says she liked her vocal as well, but thought she was a bit lost in the arrangement. Simon says she’s never compromised herself as an artist and he has a lot of respect for her for that.

Lee DeWyze is singing Simple Man. He says when he understands a song, he can sing it better. Well, if something describes Lee, simple man is it. The aw shucks is killing me. Dude, you’re in the final three of American Idol! And don’t say he’s being cool. He’s just way scared. I loved the performance, though the vocals left a bit to be desired. He tried to do a Springsteen impersonation with the over doing of the emotion. The judges love the impersonation for some reason. Randall says it was a great song choice. Ellen says when they met him, he was a baby lamb, but now he’s a jaguar. Kara says round one goes to Lee. Simon says the song choice was on the money.

Kara and Randy chose Daughters by John Mayer for Casey’s second song. Now how is poor Casey supposed to understand this song, other than he’s going to be charming the pants off a lot of daughters very shortly? This was weird. For the first half, he tried to sing it like John Mayer. About halfway, he seemed to just throw that idea out of the window and wail on the song for whatever reason, and then closed it like he was Mayer again. Randy says this song fit him like a glove. Ellen says mothers, daughters, and sons will vote for him after this one. Kara says he changed it up, but not too much. Simon says it was a lazy arrangement and he didn’t get a really big vocal moment and lacked a wow factor.

Kara and Randy are in the music business and have been very successful. Ellen is a TV star and stand-up comedian. So does it make sense that Kara and Randy together choose a song for Casey while Ellen gets to choose one all by herself for Crystal? Couldn’t Ellen have teamed up with one of the music stalwarts? Ellen chose Maybe I’m Amazed. I think his performance made Crystal look younger. There was much Steven Tyler-like screeching during this performance. I liked her confidence on stage. She looked comfy without the guitar. Not sure that I loved the vocals, but it was strong. Randall says another one is in it to win it. Ellen says she couldn’t have asked for more. Kara says she showed parts of her voice that she hasn’t shown before. Simon says she proved that she’s got soul.

Simon chose Hallelujah for Lee. Simon thinks Lee will do it differently than the twenty times we’ve heard it before on American Idol. Ok, I’m actually inspired to buy an American Idol performance from this season. And with this song, I think Lee’s the favorite next week. It took him all year long, but he’s ahead of Crystal in my next hot list because of this one. This is his money performance. Randall says it was unbelievable. I think Lee’s going to cry. Ellen says it was stunning. Kara says Lee is what the show is all about. Simon says that Lee is a great person.

Because of the power of the Internet, the performance is already up. I hope it doesn’t get taken down.

Now, if we don’t get Lee vs. Crystal next week, America is truly tone def. Let’s get it done America! Considering it’s been such a terrible season, we could have a mighty showdown in the finale.

The Hot List (based on last last week’s performances)

1. Crystal Bowersox – Simon’s picking on her. I’m not sure why, but he is.
2. Lee DeWyze – I didn’t think he was great last week, but it was the first time all year that I thought he could win it.
3. Michael Lynche – For whatever reason, the judges loved Lee, overshadowing Big Mike’s great performance last week.
4. Casey James – Hey Casey, Big Brother starts taping in the summer. Make sure you send in your resume.

The Departed

1. Young Lacey Brown
2. Young Paige Miles
3. Young Didi Benami
4. Young Andrew Garcia
5. Young Katie Stevens
6. Young Tim Urban
7. Young Creepy Girl
8. Young Aaron Kelly

Tonight, the crew sing songs from the movies. And Jamie Foxx is the mentor. I thought he mentored earlier this year, but it was last year. And no, I didn’t mix him up with Usher.

Jamie is giving the crew shirts that say ARTIST on the front, or CONTESTANT, based on how well they do. This coming from a guy whose most famous song features the hook, “Blame it on the al-al-al-al-al-al-cohol”? I’m kidding. I’m a fan.

Lee DeWyze is singing Kiss From A Rose. I think he faked it through much of the song. He didn’t hit all that many notes and just tried to David Cook his way through it. I didn’t like it. Randall says he didn’t do anything with the song. Ellen says he sang it so well and she loved it. Kara says he had some problems with it, but he’s still great. Simon says it was verging on karaoke. I wonder if Jamie makes him switch shirts?

Michael Lynche is singing Will You Be There. Jeez. Now I’m scared. I hated it. I don’t think this song is really all that coverable. It’s a very quirky Michael Jackson song and works in a very childish and playful way. Big Mike doesn’t represent that and it’s just weird. Randall says he didn’t love it and it was just alright. Ellen says it was a bit predictable. Kara says she wanted a moment and didn’t get one. Simon says he gave it his all and meant it, at the very least.

Now we get to the oddball duets that we had last year. The first duet is between Lee and Crystal. I’m not sure they’re even judged on these. They perform Falling Slowly. I had to fast forward because I was slowly falling asleep. Randall says it was a great song and it was unbelievable. I guess they do get judged. Ellen says they’re the new Captain and Tennille. Kara says it was one of the best moments of the season. Simon says it was a fantastic song. Eh, I don’t like the duets. Are Big Mike and Casey going to sing into each others’ eyes?

Casey James is up next with Mrs. Robinson. He’s clean shaven. I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing that I noticed. And the dude’s wearing a soul patch. Eh, his voice is just grating now to me and I think it’s because he should’ve been gone last week. It sounded like he was singing in vibrato the whole time. Randall says he sounded cool and laid back. Ellen says she likes that he came back and changed it up. Kara says it was a good choice. Simon says he didn’t think the song and performance had the substance required and it was lazy.

Crystal Bowersox is hitting clean-up for the solo spots. She’s singing Kenny Loggins’ I’m Alright. I’m not sure I liked her gear, especially the black boots with the showing of the leg, but she had the strongest performance of the night by far, and it wasn’t even near her strongest. But she definitely chose the best song for her style. Randall says she’s an artist and she switched it up. Ellen says she improved on the Kenny Loggins version. Kara says the same thing. Somewhere Kenny is like, “Hey, take that back!” Simon says she’s back in the game. Earth to Simon, she’s been leading the competition from wire to wire buddy.

Big Mike and Casey are performing Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman for their duet. Randall says Casey played the guitar, Mike brought the vocals. Ellen says that yes, she has loved a woman. Kara says the duets were incredible. Simon says the duets were a million times better than the solos.

Well, if Casey doesn’t go home, Mike’s going home, so let’s just hope that Casey goes home. For the second week in a row, he’s my pick to leave right tomorrow.