Harry Potter, Leonid Meteor Shower, and Ryan Leaf

by Geoff Young on Nov 19, 2001

  • Caught the Harry Potter movie Friday night. I was expecting to be let down, given all the hype, but it actually was pretty entertaining. Almost as entertaining as the news footage of people burning their Harry Potter books (I wonder how much they paid for those books?). Actually, they weren’t burning them; apparently these folks couldn’t procure a fire permit so they had to resort to tearing the books to pieces by hand and throwing the remains in the trash. I’m a bit troubled that they chose to throw away perfectly good paper rather than recycle but what are you gonna do.
  • Hope you had a chance to catch some of the Leonid meteor shower that graced the Western United States early Sunday morning. Thanks to a power outage from about 12:45 to 1:30 AM, we got a pretty good view from our backyard. Saw about 30-35 meteors in about an hour and a half. It’s difficult to feel any sense of self-importance after watching a display like that.
  • A bit closer to home, former Padre outfielder Ruben Rivera has been claimed off waivers by the Giants. Rivera played for Cincinnati last year.
  • This has nothing to do with baseball, but former Charger Ryan Leaf got his ass handed to him on a platter courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles. My favorite quote from Leaf: “A lot of things went wrong, but I can definitely learn from them.” Let’s see, he might learn that he’s, um, not an NFL quarterback? I don’t actively root against too many pro athletes — Hideki Irabu, Bobby Chouinard — but Leaf is definitely one guy I enjoy watching self-destruct. Can’t wait to see how his screaming-at-reporters routine goes over in Dallas.
  • Speaking of Chouinard, I’ve been reading Bill James’ revised Historical Abstract and after learning about the antics of one Terry Larkin I’ve decided to lay off our modern-day gunslinger a bit. Seems Larkin actually shot his wife. Didn’t kill her, though. Charming man.
  • I’ve also discovered my new favorite baseball name in James’ book: Oyster Burns. Is that great, or what?

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