Friday, April 18, 2014

Camp NaNoWriMo

If you're a sports trivia fan and see the title, you're asking yourself what that is. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, which is held every November (Don't worry. There will be sports trivia entries in this post). The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. I participated last year and achieved my word count and completion goals. There are two Camp NaNoWriMo months before the big one and they are in April and July. I'm participating in this month's writing challenge.

So far, this challenge is going like November's did. I fell behind early and am struggling to catch up. The word count is just short of 25,000. This is also the first project I started that has no title. I usually have the title before the writing begins. The story is a paranormal murder mystery, my first attempt with murder mysteries.

Sports Trivia

See? I told you there would be sports trivia. Let's catch up a little.

Congrats to the 2014 NBA Kings of the Cellar Champions, the 15-67 Milwaukee Bucks. They finished the season with a 1-9 record, losing three straight. The 1973 Philadelphia 76ers record of futility is safe for another year.

As a rule, I don't start the MLB Kings of the Cellar competition in baseball until May. However, assuming I can start and continue these posts, the 4-14 Arizona Diamondbacks would enjoy the beer in the cellar this week. After winning two in a row, the Diamondbacks lost six straight.

Today in 1914, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the New York Giants 9-6. The game went back and forth until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Brooklyn had a five run rally and went ahead to stay. John McGraw's Giants went to 0-3, tied for last place in the NL with the Boston Braves (Note: The 0-3 Braves went on to win the World Series that year). Wilbert Robinson's Dodger's went to 3-0. A couple of notable stats, LP Christy Mathewson went to 0-1 for the Giants and Casey Stengel batted 0-4 for the Dodgers.

Today in 1947, solo homeruns by Roy Cullenbine and Pat Mullin were all the Detroit Tigers needed to beat the Cleveland Indians 2-0. WP Virgil Trucks struck out five and went to 1-0.

Today in 1972, RBI singles by Mickey Rivers and WP Nolan Ryan were all the California Angels needed to beat the Minnesota Twins 2-0. Ryan allowed only four hits, struck out 10, and went to 1-0.

Today in 1993, a five run first inning and a six run fourth inning weren't enough for the Atlanta Braves to hold off the San Francisco Giants. They were tied 11-11 and went to extra innings. At the bottom of the 11th inning, Matt Williams hit a solo homerun to win the game for the Giants.

If you want to see the box scores for these and other games, visit BaseballReference.com.

Other Stuff

So why the huge dropoff in blog entries? I've been writing and editing my e-books and have had less time to dedicate here. When I did a "Today in" entry, it took at least two hours to complete, as did some of the other type of trivia entries. Of course, there was a lot more detail than in today's entry. Does this mean it's time to close up shop here? The answer is a resounding no. There is some good trivia here and I still enjoy writing this blog.

If time allows, I'll start doing traditional entries again. However, in case this is how things are going to be, I tried something new in this post with the "Today in" entries. They didn't take nearly as long, which may do the trick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Have a great day!!!