Greetings from Nationals Park
We’re scoreless here at NGP’s office outing to the Braves @ Nats game. The Nat’s mascot, Screech, just blew his beak in our Cubs blanket, so I had to kick his ass. Regardless, Go Nats!
Category: Sports
Once Again, ‘Next Year’ is Here!
So I did a little pre-season Facebook trash talking with my friend Heather, a die-hard Yahnkee fan, in advance of last weekends visit to the new Yankee Stadium by the Cubs. I should never talk trash, because it never works for me, and I apologize to the Cubs for the fact that my doing so led them to drop both games, the 2nd by a painful margin. But having won their division two years in a row, and with all predictions that they’ll do it again, the Cubs are actually a solid prediction for success this year. Heather pointed out to me that The New York times predicts the Cubs to defeat the Yankees in this year’s World Series. But I shouldn’t say that, or I’ll blow it for them.
Still, it’s hard. There are probably fewer teams that take more crap than the Cubs. Their 100-year championship drought is the biggest monkey on the back of any team in baseball (so screw you Indians and your measly 60-years!). Last year’s pre-election SNL special is a good example, watch this debate bit and keep an eye out for Cub-fan Bill Murray’s question. Or this headline from this weeks copy of The Onion, Cubs To Continue Tradition Of Playing Baseball. Ouch!
Well, as I sit here at home, Cub flag flying outside in the dark, watching the Cubs winning 3-0 in their season opener against the Astros, I invite all detractors to just keep it coming. I had very high hopes for last year. Now I’m thinking, maybe this year. And failing that, I’ll repeat baseball’s timeless refrain, ‘Wait until next year!’.
Update: Cubs win their season opener, 4-2.
Game Ball
While digging among our sports gear to find my daughter a frisbee, I found a baseball that took me back in time, 31 years and 5 days, to a Thursday night little league game, when I was 11, at which it was given to me.
I was no stand-out as a little leaguer. I had my moments in the outfield, catching a pop-up here and there. But my greatest defensive contribution was probably my effective chatter (hey-batta-batta, schWING!), while on offense my Eddie Gaedel size strike zone put me on base with a walk much more often than my bat ever did.
But on this particular Thursday night, I had a fine sports moment. My team, the Orioles, had a one run lead going into the final inning. There were two outs and the Phillies had a runner on third. The batter hit a fast grounder that might have been an easy game-ender, had it not got past our first basemen. But it did, and it instead rolled to me in right field (the traditional position for the most skilled little leaguers, naturally).
It would have been understandable to hear a few sighs from our meager crowd of parents, looking at the prospect of extra innings should the runner on third score and tie the game (were there more runners on base? I don’t remember, let’s say there were and two runs would have meant a loss). The play was at home, and I made the throw to our catcher ‘Tank’, and it somehow got there in time and on target. The runner was out at home, game over, Orioles win 11-10.
In the dugout, the coach asked the team, “Who gets the game ball?”, to which they responded in unison, “Casey!”. In recent years I’ve re-discovered a love of baseball that I haven’t had since those days as a little leaguer. From my five or six years of little league baseball, there are only a few such memories. This was one of the best.
Work Day Memorial Jog
It had been a little over four hours since Colleen and I had said our farewells at the bus stop this morning, but it felt like an eternity. But her class had a field trip to the FDR Memorial and she asked if I would come meet them. What Dad could refuse? So I jogged/walked (let’s call them intervals) the couple of miles from my office building, around the tidal basin, past the Jefferson Memorial, and to the FDR Memorial. I didn’t see her right away, and walked the whole memorial without finding her, but then I spotted my girl walking with friends on their way to eat their lunches. Our fortuitous reunion at the FDR Memorial got me through the day.
I took some pictures on the way (a good excuse to stop and catch some badly needed breath). On the return trip, I was able to make a quick, but long awaited visit to the World War II Memorial.Greetings from Nationals Park, take 3
It’s our third Nats game this week, but more importantly our second Cubs game of the season. We’re hoping to see the Cubs take the series in today’s rubber game. Stay tuned.
Update: DAMN! Cubs lost, 2-0. It was a sad game, but still a good day out at the ballpark.
Greetings from Nationals Park, again!
We’re here with Jay and Carolyn, and the Cubs are up 5-0 in the top of the 2nd. We’re hoping the predicted thunderstorms don’t arrive. Thanks TJ for the tickets!
Update: The Cubs won, 7-0, and the rain started coming down hard only after the game was over. Thank you weather gods, for allowing the ‘W’ flag to fly at Nationals Park for the first time.
Greetings from Nationals Park
Jennifer and I have joined my office mates for our first visit to Washington’s new ballpark, Nationals Park. This is the kickoff for what will be a big week of baseball, as we’ll be coming back twice this weekend to see two of the three games when our Cubs come to town. But tonight, we’ll ‘root, root, root’ for the home team Nats.
Update: The home team lost, but the park is beautiful, and getting in and out via Metro was a breeze.Update 2: Thanks to ESPN mobile, we were able to watch the Cubs earn their 10,000th win in an exciting extra inning finish. They are only the second franchise in Major League Baseball to reach this milestone. We can’t wait to watch them get wins # 10,002 – 10,004 this weekend in DC (sorry Nats).
Greetings from the Potomac Nationals!
A Friday night in April, hot dog, peanuts, beer, ladies night… it’s baseball time in the Carolina League, and we’re watching the Potomac Nationals beating the Kinston Indians here at Pfitzner Stadium in Prince William County, Virgina.
The Other ‘Casey’ in Baseball
When thinking ‘Casey’ and ‘Baseball’, it would not be unexpected for most people to think of the slugger for Mudville from the famous poem, Casey at the Bat. But there is another Casey in baseball, whose words are better known and are sung at most games, but whose identity has been lost in the unknown verses. She shares my daughter’s name, Katie Casey. Here’s how it goes:
Katie Casey was baseball mad, Had the fever and had it bad; Just to root for the home town crew, ev’ry sou, Katie blew
On a Saturday, her young beau
Called to see if she’d like to go,
To see a show but Miss Katie said, “No,
I’ll tell you what you can do”:CHORUS:
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and Crackerjack,
I don’t care if I never get back,Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame
For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,
At the old ball game.Katie Casey saw all the games,
Knew the players by their first names;
Told the umpire he was wrong,
all along, good and strongWhen the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey knew just what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:
Listen to the oldest known recording of ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ recorded by Edward Meeker in 1908.
The song, Take Me Out to the Ball Game, was written and first became a hit in 1908, which happens to be the last time that the Cubs won the World Series. In 2008, we’re bringing Katie Casey back, and the Casey’s will help see the Cubs bring their own poetic ending to their 100-year championship drought. And though they lost a heartbreaker 4-3 in today’s opener with the Brewers, we don’t fret. This will be our year.
I am currently re-living the 1908 baseball season, and the Cubs last World Championship, with the help of the book, Crazy ’08 which I am enjoying greatly and highly recommend.
“I Am Legend” and The Cubs
So here we are, just three days from baseball season (good god, what has become of me), and I’m watching my new DVD “I Am Legend” for the second time. As a teen I worked in movie theaters, and in college I worked as a movie theater projectionist, and so I got in the habit of seeing movies that I like multiple times. I guess that may explain why I enjoy collecting DVD, particularly for the special features they offer, as well as for the minor details that are easily missed in the first viewing of any movie.
So tonight I’m watching “I Am Legend” for the second time, and it begins with the sound of a sports radio program where the hosts are discussing the coming baseball season, and they predict a Chicago Cubs vs. New York Yankees World Series. And of course, I’m not spoiling anything to let you know that shortly after every person on the planet either dies or turns into a vampire that preys on the few remaining survivors. They don’t say how many Chicago Cubs survive, or if the Vampires continue to play baseball (only night games?), but it rather looks like a prediction of a Cubs World Series win is in fact a portent of the end of the world.
So the season starts on Monday. And it’s been 100 years since the Cubs last win, which provides a very poetic opportunity to end the drought, don’t you think? Let’s just hope the end of the world Vampire virus doesn’t strike until AFTER the Cubs end their century long series drought.