AaronGleeman.com

-- Ice Cube, "It was a good day"

Amazingly, my worst fears about yesterday did not come true. I went to the oral part of my language final and got myself a solid, underachiever's 80/100. After I was done, my teacher looked at me and said, and I quote, "You don't deserve this, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Just do better on the written final next week."

To which I said, as I was running out the door, "Okay..."

Then I was on my way to "Mass Media Ethics," which is a class that was interesting occasionally, but, more often than not, very boring to me.

And to make matters worse, it always took the teaching assistants like three weeks to grade our papers and give them back to us. There were 3 major papers in the class, the last of which was turned in way back on April 24th - and they still hadn't given us our grades on it yet. The third paper was/is worth 15% of the total grade for the course, which meant I had no clue how I was doing in the class heading into yesterday's final, which counted for 25% of the class.

Here is what I did know:

Paper #1 - 40/50 (80%, B-minus)

Midterm - 74/100 (74%, C)

Paper #2 - 50/50 (100%, A+)

TOTAL - 164/200 (82%, B-minus)

Yes, you're reading that right, I got 50/50 on my second paper. The subject? LeBron James. Seriously.

I'm telling you all right now, if I were allowed to write about sports for every assignment in school, I would graduate Summa Cum Laude.

Those three things that I did have grades for cover "only" 50% of the total grade, with the other 50% being the 3rd paper, the final and "attendance and participation" - all of which I had no clue what % I would get.

Which meant, as of yesterday at about 12:30, I was right on the border of "doing well" and "I think I might fail this class."

If I got my 3rd paper back and I got, say, a D on it, that would mean I had a C heading into the final. And that means if I did poorly on the final, I was in real danger of flunking the class (anything lower than a C-minus means the credits don't count for the major).

So I arrive at the class and sit down and the professor comes in and says, "when you turn in your final, we will give you back your last paper."

Is there any possible reason why the TAs couldn't have graded the third papers by Tuesday (our last meeting before the final) and given them back to us BEFORE the final exam? It's not like it would have changed how I did on the test, but I'd have felt a lot better knowing where I stood in the class before it was actually over.

So now, as I am sitting there waiting to take a test that counts for 1/4 of my entire grade, I keep thinking that I have no idea if I am about to get an A in this class or am about to flunk it. It's really a pretty unsettling feeling to have. Plus, I wasn't feeling very confident in my ability to get a decent grade on the final.

And then the TAs handed out the final. 9 essay questions. I flipped through them all before I started and realized I was going to be able to answer at least 7 of them well and the other 2 at least reasonably okay. In my world, that counts as good news.

I actually breezed through the final and was one of the first 15 or 20 people to finish it. I went up to the front of the room, handed it in and grabbed my 3rd paper. I didn't look at it until I got out of the room and, when I finally glanced at it, I saw...

58.5/60 - A+

"Today was a good day."

I am pretty sure I have a solid "B" in the class now, which is like an A+ for an underachiever like myself. Gotta keep that GPA hovering around 3.0, right?

I want to thank everyone who sent me an email yesterday, wishing me luck and all that good stuff. By my count I got 41 emails that basically said nothing other than "good luck" and "keep up the good work" or something similar. Sometimes it's tough keeping up with my ever-growing email mailbox, but I will always have time for the type of emails I got yesterday. Thank you all.

Yesterday was a good day and today has the potential to be one too. My dad is coming over here this morning to help me move out of the dorm, I am going home to see my dog (and my mom, I guess) and the Twins play the Red Sox tonight, in what has to be considered the greatest pitching matchup in Aaron's Baseball Blog history:

Johan "The Official Pitcher of Aaron's Baseball Blog" Santana versus Pedro "The Official Right Arm of God" Martinez.

I have been clamoring for Santana to get some starts for what seems like years now and he finally gets a chance and it is against one of the best hitting teams in baseball and one of the best pitchers of all-time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. Well, maybe a little bit...

I think Santana will probably be on a fairly low pitch-count, this being his first start of the year and all. Kyle Lohse pitched a complete-game shutout against the D-Rays last night, so the bullpen is rested and ready. My prediction for Johan?

5 IP

6 H

2 ER

7 K

3 BB

Boston is a team that is very patient, so I wouldn't be surprised if he struggles with his control a little bit and got up to whatever pitch-count he will be on fairly quickly.

If we aren't completely exhausted from moving all my crap back home, I might have to talk my dad into taking me to the game. After all, how many times do you get the chance to see your two favorite pitchers go against one another?

Finally...

I saw this beauty in the Star Tribune the other day:

"Second baseman Luis Rivas was out of the lineup Tuesday after Gardenhire learned Rivas has been suffering from flu-like symptoms for six days. Rivas threw up in the dugout in Boston."

I was chatting with Craig Burley of the Batter's Box last night and I relayed the Rivas information to him, to which he replied:

"Was he watching video of himself hitting?"

[Rimshot]

Today's picks:

Los Angeles (Brown) -150 over Montreal (Vargas)

San Francisco (Foppert) +155 over Atlanta (Maddux)

Detroit (Bernero) +125 over Tampa Bay (Parque)

Minnesota (Santana) +230 over Boston (Martinez)