Baseball's century-plus long history is littered with feel-good stories of individuals fighting from relative obscurity, and late-inning heroics. But even as many times as I have risen from my seat (at home or at the park) in sheer adulation over a 9th inning comeback and shocking victory, I'm never truly prepared to see it happen. Today, it happened twice, and the deal was sealed off the bat of a man who has gone from being buried in the minor leagues just a week ago to overnight sensation in Oakland.

After splitting Friday and Saturday's games against Cleveland (with us in attendance), the A's got off to a slow start in today's contest, falling behind to the tune of 7-4 midway through the game. A home run by Eric Chavez closed the gap to 7-5, with the ninth inning awaiting, with 24,000 in attendance at Oakland hoping they wouldn't be sent home on Mothers' Day with back to back losses.

With 2 outs in the 9th, Chavez battled his way through an at bat, eventually poking a single into right field. Following him, Milton Bradley strode to the plate, representing what could be the tying run. Improbably, Milton lashed out at a two-strike pitch, launching the ball into the right-field seats, much to the fans' delight. Bradley, after standing in awe of his monstrous blast, trotted home and tied the game up, 7-7.

But the A's were not done. Not by a long shot.

Following Bradley, Dan Johnson singled, as did Bobby Crosby, setting up runners on 1st and 2nd. Cleveland, seeing the writing on the wall, switched relief pitchers, hoping Fernando Cabrera could accomplish what Joe Borowksi had not - actually close out the inning. But it was not to be.

Where a single would have won the game for the A's, the one time San Diego Padre AAA farmhand Jack Cust stepped up and just blasted a 1-0 offering over the left field wall, cinching the victory and setting off absolute bedlam in Oakland. The home run was his 6th in only 26 at bats since joining the A's less than 10 days ago, following a raft of injuries that had decimated the team's roster.

As his teammates spilled out of the dugout to greet him in a wild celebration at home plate, Cust grinned and looked like a guy "just happy to be here." In his post-game interview on Fox Sports, he glanced shyly at the ground, seemingly in awe of what he had just accomplished.

The A's had rallied back for five runs in the bottom of the 9th after two were out, to take a near-certain 7-5 loss and turn it into a 10-7 victory for the ages, featuring a pair of dramatic home runs. What a day to be an A's fan, what a day to be a baseball fan, and just... what a day. Amazing.

(Recaps: Associated Press | Athletics Nation)

Yesterday morning's question as to whether leading bloggers were losing their gusto hit a mark, especially concerning blog pioneer and Naked Conversations author Robert Scoble, who responded by saying he felt he was being pulled in too many different directions. (See: Am I getting "blog fatigue?")

While Jason Calacanis and Bonnie Wren remained dormant, Scoble explained to his readers the many tasks which are pulling him away. There's no question he's busy, but some readers didn't get it - openly questioning how much work it really is to maintain one of the world's preeminent blogs.

One wrote: "I’m sorry Robert but I just don’t get it. Tired of what? Commenting on stuff? Transcribing an opinion from your brain to a digital screen? Is that really that hard? Maybe there’s some element to commentary blogging that I’m missing, but it’s not like you’re having to create new material every week." and another piled on, saying, "How do you get fatigued from writing 2-3 tiny 3 paragraph articles per day with absolutely no fact checking or editorial review what so ever?"

Ouch. And I thought it was a friendly audience.

But amid the din, it seems many others are similarly working on fumes. Paul from BizTips adds his thoughts in a post titled "Fatigue", saying, "I wouldn’t say I have quite the same challenges in the same proportions as Scoble does but I do know how he feels. The last few weeks and months have been a bit nutty." Meanwhile, Mac Beach, who authored an excellent comment on this site, adds his own thoughts, saying that toiling away without much reward is eventually going to grow tiresome for anyone - that we shouldn't expect to blog in our PJs and pull down six-figure incomes for that alone. (See: Silicon Valley Blog: Are Leading Bloggers Getting Blog Fatigue?)

As for me, I feel a bit guilty that I got Robert on the defensive. He posts more often than I do, on more things. He rarely misses days. He attends more networking parties. He reads more feeds than I do, yet my observation made him feel even that wasn't enough. We all get tired due to demands on our time, whether they be blog-related, work related, hobby related, family related, church... you name it. What we need to do is come to some level of acceptance with ourselves as to what it is we will produce and whether we are meeting expectations, regardless of what demands we get from others. That way, the fatigue will feel worth it, or be lessened.

It's no secret that keeping a blog frequently updated and interesting is no easy task. For as many blogs are started each day, it's believed half as many are abandoned, according to Technorati. Of late, I've seen signs of fatigue from a number of high-profile bloggers who are taking blog vacations, begging for guest bloggers to take their normal place, or in some cases, the bloggers are choosing to keep us updated in other ways - preferring Twitter or other venues.

Three quick examples: Jason Calacanis, Robert Scoble and Bonnie Wren.

Jason first wrote earlier this week that he was to take a month off from blogging, and that he would provide updates on his Twitter page. A follow-on note said he was going to in fact take two full months off, to return in mid-July.

While not moving away from blogging altogether, Robert Scoble has seen recent signs of fatigue as well. When the blogosphere reacted in horror to death threats to Kathy Sierra in late March, Scoble shut his blog down for the better part of the week in solidarity. Since the hiatus, Scoble's gotten back to blogging, but made noise about how he thinks his time is better served linking to other good writers, more than himself. He says, "I’m really having a lot more fun reading other people’s blogs lately than writing my own."

While he may enjoy his own surfing of blogs and calling out favorites, that's not what made us read him in the first place - instead his own observations on the industry, specifically, Microsoft, were why he became a must read RSS feed and authority. His link blog is great, but if too much emphasis is put here, he'll be in the category of Matt Drudge, who relies on links to others instead of original reporting.

Outside of the tech sphere, it's also clear real life can also get in the way of great blogging. Bonnie Wren, a fantastic writer who loves her kids and her bulldog, similarly claimed fatigue by the end of April, saying "I’m having a hard time taking care of all my obligations lately and need to take a break for a bit."

In the meantime, Bonnie has posted old material to fill the dead air.

As more and more people start blogs, and set a pace, whether that be 3 posts a week, or 3 posts a day, we should be thinking about the endgame. There's no question that some day we'll be done. Blogs will change to something else. I don't think it's Twitter, but it's something. At some point, blogs will close down from their current format. People, even the geekiest of us, at times will have lives and will choose to live in the real world instead of the virtual world. But I find it especially interesting that those leading the curve on blogging are themselves finding trouble or frustration in keeping it going. I hope the fatigue doesn't gain further momentum.

As mentioned earlier in the week, my wife Kristine and I took a rare three-day weekend to visit Denver, Colorado, where I lived from ages 6 to 8, and attended both 1st and 2nd grade. While there, I had the amazing opportunity to visit the home where I had lived in 1983-85, and return to my elementary school where I had gone to 1st grade, sometimes walking in the snow on my way. We also drove up to Boulder to see the University of Colorado campus and the surrounding area.

Below are some of the photos from the trip. They are presented in thumbnail images. Click any of the photos to enlarge to full size.


Colorado features some beautiful wildflowers.
Here are some from the Denver LDS temple.


Pictures of our humble Littleton home,
20 years after we had left it behind.


A couple pictures of me at the home and school,
just to prove I was actually there.


In Boulder, there was great scenery,
but it was chilly, hence the jacket.

I'm not a huge fan of photos and don't usually plaster them all over the blog, but I wanted to share what we had. Now, all I have to do is go back in my files and find pictures of when I was at the same home as a kid for a true before and after.