Manic Monday

Here’s an odd question: What’s your favorite day of the week? Most people would probably either say Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I’d tend to agree. Friday for me is somewhat poisoned because you have to trudge through the long work day that is Friday, so for me Saturday is the most liberating day sandwiched between joys of a Friday night and knowing the next day is not a work day (whereas Sunday is poisoned, etc.) I like finding unappreciated value in things, though, and I think weekday nights can be very productive: get your workouts in, get your social sports in, do your running: After all, about 70% of our week is comprised of weekdays, and we still have to survive through these days, so why not make the most out of them?

Weeknights, especially in the summer, are a GREAT time to go outside and enjoy the sunset while running around, for example, or playing tennis, or at an outdoor swimming pool, or ANYTHING. Almost everywhere in the United States, the months from June to August give you daylight until 8PM, so plenty of time after work to indulge in any of your fancies, maybe take in a baseball game, take in a show at the Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles), join in a pickup soccer game, stroll around in an outdoor mall, have dinner at a café in the outdoor seating. It just feels like there’s so many possibilities in the summer whereas in the winter the days end at 5PM, there’s a lot of drudgery, there’s rain, so those are the weeknights spent at home studying or working and waiting for summer to fool around/ go out and play. The main idea, though, is, don’t just be a zombie on Monday-Friday and hope that the weekend brings joy, get out and do things you enjoy on M-F, even if work, life, prison (well, maybe not prison) gets in the way.

For example, Monday-Thursday are all great days to play dodgeball! I find that playing dodgeball after a long day of work affords a plethora of de-stressing opportunities, nothing like pretending like someone’s face is your boss’s and chucking a ball at a high velocity directly at their face. Very healthy, in my opinion, and you can’t get the same effect on weekends when you’re not as stressed!

For fantasy baseball, Tristan Cockcroft of ESPN did a wonderful article on why Sunday is the best day for “streaming pitchers,” which has to go into consideration for the list of factors involved in streaming pitchers (see my previous article on this topic). Basically, there are more day games  on Sundays, which favors pitchers not only because the sunlight can shield their pitches (I think) but also because hitters just got done playing the previous night and are still a little out of wack, their bodies are not used to getting up early and playing earlier in the day, whereas a starting pitcher has been preparing for the start for 5 days. Makes a difference, as with the “get-away games” on Wednesday and Thursday, although there’s not as much of them. It makes sense, as I’ve played like a zombie a bunch of times in dodgeball at noon on Sunday because my body’s used to being in a routine of sitting at work all day until 5PM, not running around and having balls thrown at it early in the afternoon.  So if you’re like me in a league where you have to decide to get pitchers for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, the preferable choice is probably Sunday. (still adhere to the more prevailing factors like home park factors, quality of pitcher, etc.)

 

The following are a list of days of the week in Japanese

 

 

月曜日 = Monday

火曜日= Tuesday

水曜日= Wednesday

木曜日= Thursday

金曜日= Friday

土曜日= Saturday

日曜日 = Sunday

 

Fantasize on,

 

Robert Yan