Thursday, December 08, 2005
Remember these golden classics
Bet you weren't expecting this at this late date! Courtesy of Mrs. Levi, we have some late additions to the pool of photographs of the 2004 trip. In Cleveland, here are Maura, Jim, Dan, and Dianne, and you may notice that Dan is eagerly showing off a Hostess Baseball:
And eight days before that, in St. Louis, standing in a location that doesn't exist anymore, here are The Flash, Trainman, Cap'n Slap, and Bicycle Repairman (in their not-so-secret identities as Tony, Jim, Levi, and Luke):
And eight days before that, in St. Louis, standing in a location that doesn't exist anymore, here are The Flash, Trainman, Cap'n Slap, and Bicycle Repairman (in their not-so-secret identities as Tony, Jim, Levi, and Luke):
Labels: brpa, cleveland, Dan Rivkin, dianne ketler, luke seemann, maura johnston, photos, road trip, st. louis, stacey shintani, tony becker
Sunday, August 22, 2004
"If anyone asks, you're two adults and two children."
First of all, yes, the trip is going as scheduled so far. Even though it's going to say this was posted by Jim, this is actually a collaborative post, more or less, because for the first time both of us are sitting next to the same computer. This may be how we do things for the rest of the trip, or maybe not -- we'll have to see. We're at Levi's parents' house in Carmi, Illinois, right now, using their computer, and we have to get up early to get on the road, but we wanted to get a little something down.
The car we ended up with from Hertz is a 2005 Chevrolet Impala. It has a CD player but no tape deck, so we're using Vince's iTrip, which is working okay so far. Everyone in the car seemed to enjoy Jim's baseball song playlist and Luke's baseball song-and-Red-Barber-recollection playlist. Now we're working our way through Jim's "Number Ones" playlist, which is every song he owns that hit #1 on the Billboard playlist. (Playing it was Levi's request; Jim probably would have chosen something with more radio station jingles.)
On to the games. Saturday's game at John O'Donnell Stadium in Davenport is the only minor-league game on the trip. That meant it was the only game at which we could walk up and get box seats and still get change from a $20 after buying two. We bought four, so we got change from a $40. We sat 10 rows up, right behind home, in front of a row of screaming children. (You know how you hear sometimes how great the laughter of children sounds? In reality, it's shrill.)
Levi tried both vegetarian food options at the ballpark. Neither the nachos nor the fries were particularly distinguished.
The mascots, on the other hand, were almost the Famous Chicken level. The Swing's actual mascot is a man in a monkey suit who, when he's wearing the monkey suit, is known as Clyde. Clyde has a sidekick, a 4'10" man in a green-and-yellow superhero costume, complete with cape, named, of course, Banana Man. He runs around, occasionally stopping to stand heroically with arms akimbo, and occasionally stopping to throw bananas into the crowd. No explanation is offered.
The game itself was a brisk affair. The Swing center and right fielders should possibly have been players of the game due to the following incident late in the game with the Swing up by 1: with the tying run at first, a ball was hit to the wall in center. We couldn't quite see if the Swing center fielder bobbled it or not, but whatever was going on out there, it eventually ended with the outfielders' arms upraised in the universal symbol of "where the hell is the ball," most commonly seen in the major leagues at Wrigley Field when a ball gets lost in the ivy. We, being cynical city folk, doubted their story, but the umpire bought it hook, line, and sinker, the hook being the tying run being sent back to third. You can guess what the line is -- the go-ahead run being stuck at second. The sinker: a 1-0 Swing win.
Distracting everyone late in the game was a rabbit that had somehow wandered onto the field. First he was out in left field minding his own business, but somehow in all the commotion, he ended up in foul territory near home. He would sit around for a few minutes, then scamper off about 30 feet. At one point, perhaps thinking he had been called in to pitch, he sat between home and the pitcher's mound between innings. The umpire appeared to be consulting his mental rule book, but surprisingly, the Midwest League doesn't seem to have an official policy on rabbits taking up residence in the infield, so he decided it was somebody else's problem and ignored the little guy. No, not Banana Man, the rabbit. Banana Man was clearly the umpire's problem.
Eventually, the rabbit took off for parts unknown. Meanwhile, it seems that whenever a rabbit gets loose on the field, Section 5 gets handed free Blue Bunny bomb pops, or whatever they're called now that you can't say "bomb." Perhaps Tom Ridge pops. Anyway, we got to enjoy our tri-color quiescently frozen confections for the last couple of innings, with no real explanation as to how we got them.
After some interesting wandering on two-lane roads in Illinois, through Saturday night rodeo traffic, we spent a too-short night at the Country Inn and Suites in Galesburg. Bright and early Sunday, we got up and Levi spilled tea on his feet, which meant it was time to leave for St. Louis. We met up with hanger-on Tony for lunch before the game, and then met up with the various other hangers-on at the Stan Musial statue outside Busch Stadium. Inside, Jim met the final hanger-on of this busy hanger-on day, Jay, of "Jeopardy!" message board fame, who managed to get a seat right behind the main group.
Levi nearly used up a whole pencil filling in the boxes on the Cardinals' side of the scorecard today, after he finally figured out which side was supposed to be the Cardinals' side of the scorecard. He had to fill in box after box after box as the Cards scored run after run after run, as usual this season. Luke, in his Cubs shirt and cap, looked awestruck. Behind him, the fans wearing Cardinal red looked on with pity. Particularly noteworthy plays were Edgar Renteria's 13-pitch first-inning at-bat that ended in a 3-run homer; Larry Walker's grand slam; and, best of all (only best because the Cardinals were already leading by nearly a touchdown at this point), Reggie Sanders leaping high against the wall, coming down with his glove closed to cheers from the audience, and the scoreboard operator immediately putting up "HR RBI." The scoreboard operator was the only one in the stadium not fooled by Reggie's act -- well, we guess the umpires weren't fooled either; there was no joy in Gloveville, the ball had gone right out.
Immediately after the game, we found the ramp to I-64 East that hadn't been torn down for new Cardinals ballpark construction and hightailed it to Levi's hometown, Carmi, Illinois. At Levi's parents' house, we were visited by frequent baseballrelated.com commentator Toby, as well as Levi's grandparents (non-commentators).
The title quote for this post was said to Jim by the desk clerk at the Country Inn and Suites in Galesburg, explaining how he could qualify for the rate he was quoted on the AAA web site. No one asked.
All right, now we're going to bed, probably two hours later than we should have. See you in Detroit, assuming we can find an abandoned building that still has an Internet connection up and running.
sandor: When those buildings were abandoned, it was still callled DARPAnet, which means you're going to have to enter in your post using punchcards. I think they still sell blank ones down at the A&P.
Where are the links? I assumed Levi would gladly trade in sleep for the chance to hyperlink all possible words in this post. I was particularly looking forward to the interpretation of the words "Banana Man" as well as "Levi's grandparents."
You are playing the license plate game, right? Who's winning?
Congrats on keeping up your schedule. Keep the posts coming!
stacey: i think the lack of links was due to the late hour, combined with the fact that the internet connection at the stahl chalet is VERY slow. this is more than made up for by their amazing hospitality, though. i'm still full of delicious pasta, fresh fruit, and great company. the commute from carmi to chicago is a drag, though.
Luke, hanger-on: To flesh out the image of how this post came to be, I should note that Jim and Levi wrote together at the family computer in Levi's brother's room. Jim did the typing, employing his closed-captioning skills to take dictation from Levi, who reclined on a bean bag with a cigar and glass of port, pausing now and then to re-read that Sunday's Post-Dispatch story about the Cardinals and the clubhouse iPod.
I, meanwhile, dosed a few doors down in Levi's old bedroom, which I found impressively well-preserved. The Smithsonian should scoop it up for its exhibit on "Halcyon Childhoods of America: 1980-1989." Not surprisingly, the room betrays fascinations with Star Wars, classic rock and mullets. I could have stayed forever.
Jim: Yes, we will go back after the trip and add links, additional stuff we may have forgotten to write about, and especially photos. Or at least I will. Levi may choose to wash his hands of the whole thing, for all I know.
The car we ended up with from Hertz is a 2005 Chevrolet Impala. It has a CD player but no tape deck, so we're using Vince's iTrip, which is working okay so far. Everyone in the car seemed to enjoy Jim's baseball song playlist and Luke's baseball song-and-Red-Barber-recollection playlist. Now we're working our way through Jim's "Number Ones" playlist, which is every song he owns that hit #1 on the Billboard playlist. (Playing it was Levi's request; Jim probably would have chosen something with more radio station jingles.)
On to the games. Saturday's game at John O'Donnell Stadium in Davenport is the only minor-league game on the trip. That meant it was the only game at which we could walk up and get box seats and still get change from a $20 after buying two. We bought four, so we got change from a $40. We sat 10 rows up, right behind home, in front of a row of screaming children. (You know how you hear sometimes how great the laughter of children sounds? In reality, it's shrill.)
Levi tried both vegetarian food options at the ballpark. Neither the nachos nor the fries were particularly distinguished.
The mascots, on the other hand, were almost the Famous Chicken level. The Swing's actual mascot is a man in a monkey suit who, when he's wearing the monkey suit, is known as Clyde. Clyde has a sidekick, a 4'10" man in a green-and-yellow superhero costume, complete with cape, named, of course, Banana Man. He runs around, occasionally stopping to stand heroically with arms akimbo, and occasionally stopping to throw bananas into the crowd. No explanation is offered.
The game itself was a brisk affair. The Swing center and right fielders should possibly have been players of the game due to the following incident late in the game with the Swing up by 1: with the tying run at first, a ball was hit to the wall in center. We couldn't quite see if the Swing center fielder bobbled it or not, but whatever was going on out there, it eventually ended with the outfielders' arms upraised in the universal symbol of "where the hell is the ball," most commonly seen in the major leagues at Wrigley Field when a ball gets lost in the ivy. We, being cynical city folk, doubted their story, but the umpire bought it hook, line, and sinker, the hook being the tying run being sent back to third. You can guess what the line is -- the go-ahead run being stuck at second. The sinker: a 1-0 Swing win.
Distracting everyone late in the game was a rabbit that had somehow wandered onto the field. First he was out in left field minding his own business, but somehow in all the commotion, he ended up in foul territory near home. He would sit around for a few minutes, then scamper off about 30 feet. At one point, perhaps thinking he had been called in to pitch, he sat between home and the pitcher's mound between innings. The umpire appeared to be consulting his mental rule book, but surprisingly, the Midwest League doesn't seem to have an official policy on rabbits taking up residence in the infield, so he decided it was somebody else's problem and ignored the little guy. No, not Banana Man, the rabbit. Banana Man was clearly the umpire's problem.
Eventually, the rabbit took off for parts unknown. Meanwhile, it seems that whenever a rabbit gets loose on the field, Section 5 gets handed free Blue Bunny bomb pops, or whatever they're called now that you can't say "bomb." Perhaps Tom Ridge pops. Anyway, we got to enjoy our tri-color quiescently frozen confections for the last couple of innings, with no real explanation as to how we got them.
After some interesting wandering on two-lane roads in Illinois, through Saturday night rodeo traffic, we spent a too-short night at the Country Inn and Suites in Galesburg. Bright and early Sunday, we got up and Levi spilled tea on his feet, which meant it was time to leave for St. Louis. We met up with hanger-on Tony for lunch before the game, and then met up with the various other hangers-on at the Stan Musial statue outside Busch Stadium. Inside, Jim met the final hanger-on of this busy hanger-on day, Jay, of "Jeopardy!" message board fame, who managed to get a seat right behind the main group.
Levi nearly used up a whole pencil filling in the boxes on the Cardinals' side of the scorecard today, after he finally figured out which side was supposed to be the Cardinals' side of the scorecard. He had to fill in box after box after box as the Cards scored run after run after run, as usual this season. Luke, in his Cubs shirt and cap, looked awestruck. Behind him, the fans wearing Cardinal red looked on with pity. Particularly noteworthy plays were Edgar Renteria's 13-pitch first-inning at-bat that ended in a 3-run homer; Larry Walker's grand slam; and, best of all (only best because the Cardinals were already leading by nearly a touchdown at this point), Reggie Sanders leaping high against the wall, coming down with his glove closed to cheers from the audience, and the scoreboard operator immediately putting up "HR RBI." The scoreboard operator was the only one in the stadium not fooled by Reggie's act -- well, we guess the umpires weren't fooled either; there was no joy in Gloveville, the ball had gone right out.
Immediately after the game, we found the ramp to I-64 East that hadn't been torn down for new Cardinals ballpark construction and hightailed it to Levi's hometown, Carmi, Illinois. At Levi's parents' house, we were visited by frequent baseballrelated.com commentator Toby, as well as Levi's grandparents (non-commentators).
The title quote for this post was said to Jim by the desk clerk at the Country Inn and Suites in Galesburg, explaining how he could qualify for the rate he was quoted on the AAA web site. No one asked.
All right, now we're going to bed, probably two hours later than we should have. See you in Detroit, assuming we can find an abandoned building that still has an Internet connection up and running.
Original comments...
sandor: When those buildings were abandoned, it was still callled DARPAnet, which means you're going to have to enter in your post using punchcards. I think they still sell blank ones down at the A&P.
Where are the links? I assumed Levi would gladly trade in sleep for the chance to hyperlink all possible words in this post. I was particularly looking forward to the interpretation of the words "Banana Man" as well as "Levi's grandparents."
You are playing the license plate game, right? Who's winning?
Congrats on keeping up your schedule. Keep the posts coming!
stacey: i think the lack of links was due to the late hour, combined with the fact that the internet connection at the stahl chalet is VERY slow. this is more than made up for by their amazing hospitality, though. i'm still full of delicious pasta, fresh fruit, and great company. the commute from carmi to chicago is a drag, though.
Luke, hanger-on: To flesh out the image of how this post came to be, I should note that Jim and Levi wrote together at the family computer in Levi's brother's room. Jim did the typing, employing his closed-captioning skills to take dictation from Levi, who reclined on a bean bag with a cigar and glass of port, pausing now and then to re-read that Sunday's Post-Dispatch story about the Cardinals and the clubhouse iPod.
I, meanwhile, dosed a few doors down in Levi's old bedroom, which I found impressively well-preserved. The Smithsonian should scoop it up for its exhibit on "Halcyon Childhoods of America: 1980-1989." Not surprisingly, the room betrays fascinations with Star Wars, classic rock and mullets. I could have stayed forever.
Jim: Yes, we will go back after the trip and add links, additional stuff we may have forgotten to write about, and especially photos. Or at least I will. Levi may choose to wash his hands of the whole thing, for all I know.
Labels: brpa, Cardinals, carmi, game report, jay temple, luke seemann, pirates, rabbit, road trip, stacey shintani, stahls, swing of the quad cities, tony becker, wisconsin timber rattlers
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The game that wasn't
Hanger-on Luke e-mailed earlier tonight to point out that the Red Sox were playing the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday night, and wondered why we didn't start the trip with this game. I think it's a moot point now, because the game is sold out and I don't particularly want to pay premium prices for a game, given all the other games we still have to buy tickets to (we're planning on getting tickets at the gate for 6 of the 11 games, and I owe Levi money for the Cardinals game...although he owes me money for the other four games). Also, I'm told that Levi and Stacey are planning a farewell dinner, or something like that, at their place on Friday night.
But it's a valid question. I think what happened is that I just didn't see back in January, on the graph I made of when various teams were at home, that the White Sox were going to be home this weekend. So when I originally came up with this itinerary, as depicted in this post, I started with the Cardinals game on Sunday. Then, soon afterwards, I realized that it was stupid to start an itinerary on Sunday when, I assumed, I could easily add a minor-league game on Saturday. It turned out I could, so I didn't have any reason to go back over the major league schedules. And then when I made my flight reservations, I added a day on either side of the trip itinerary, just in case of delays somewhere, and came up with arriving Chicago on Thursday and leaving Chicago on September 1st. Then I sat back, relaxed, and made hundreds of posts to this blog over the next five months. Honorary hanger-on Jason asked me about going to a minor-league game in the Chicago area on Friday night at one point, but I decided it would be too hard to make it out to a suburb in time for a game after people had gotten off work Friday evening. I don't think I even checked the schedules for any of the local teams until just now (to save you the trouble, only the Joliet Jackhammers are at home Friday night).
I don't know what my point is, except that I really need to get to bed now. (For those of you who have just stumbled across this blog, it's not quite as bad as it looks, because the time stamps on the posts are in Central time, but I'm running on Pacific time right now.)
But it's a valid question. I think what happened is that I just didn't see back in January, on the graph I made of when various teams were at home, that the White Sox were going to be home this weekend. So when I originally came up with this itinerary, as depicted in this post, I started with the Cardinals game on Sunday. Then, soon afterwards, I realized that it was stupid to start an itinerary on Sunday when, I assumed, I could easily add a minor-league game on Saturday. It turned out I could, so I didn't have any reason to go back over the major league schedules. And then when I made my flight reservations, I added a day on either side of the trip itinerary, just in case of delays somewhere, and came up with arriving Chicago on Thursday and leaving Chicago on September 1st. Then I sat back, relaxed, and made hundreds of posts to this blog over the next five months. Honorary hanger-on Jason asked me about going to a minor-league game in the Chicago area on Friday night at one point, but I decided it would be too hard to make it out to a suburb in time for a game after people had gotten off work Friday evening. I don't think I even checked the schedules for any of the local teams until just now (to save you the trouble, only the Joliet Jackhammers are at home Friday night).
I don't know what my point is, except that I really need to get to bed now. (For those of you who have just stumbled across this blog, it's not quite as bad as it looks, because the time stamps on the posts are in Central time, but I'm running on Pacific time right now.)
Labels: brpa, luke seemann, planning, red sox, road trip, white sox
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Last chance
I'm going to order tickets for game 2 of our trip tomorrow, once I know whether my brother is joining us. That's the game in St. Louis on August 22nd versus the Pirates.
So it's your last chance, potential hangers-on. We've got a group of 9 so far (Me, Jim, Stacey, Luke, my parents, Tony, Geoff Goldman and his fiancee). Want to join us?
Luke: Is our group big enough to get a group rate and get welcomed on the DiamondVision? Maybe the nine of us can be waiting out on the field when the Cu^^Cardinals come out to start the game!
Luke: Oh, and I sure hope Matt Morris is pitching that day and does as well as he is doing today. Hee-hee!
Luke: Umm, nevermind. I expect that by the time of our trip I'll be rooting for the Cards to keep the Pirates out of the wild-card race.
So it's your last chance, potential hangers-on. We've got a group of 9 so far (Me, Jim, Stacey, Luke, my parents, Tony, Geoff Goldman and his fiancee). Want to join us?
Original comments...
Luke: Is our group big enough to get a group rate and get welcomed on the DiamondVision? Maybe the nine of us can be waiting out on the field when the Cu^^Cardinals come out to start the game!
Luke: Oh, and I sure hope Matt Morris is pitching that day and does as well as he is doing today. Hee-hee!
Luke: Umm, nevermind. I expect that by the time of our trip I'll be rooting for the Cards to keep the Pirates out of the wild-card race.
Labels: brpa, geoff goldman, luke seemann, planning, road trip, stacey shintani, stahls
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
Luke had a good thought about Johnny Damon: maybe he's about to re-form the House of David traveling team. That would make this the best season in seventy-five years or so.
Other Opening Day notes, from someone who was stuck at work and couldn't have watched the Cardinals anyway:
1) The Detroit Tigers are above .500 for the first time since April 8, 2001. And, as Stacey noticed that Ron Santo won the attendance game on the Cubs broadcast on WGN, so is Ron, although the drought has probably been longer.
2) The Astros are in last place. But so are the Cardinals. Maybe it's best that, as Wittgenstein used to suggest whenever his favorite team lost a big game, we should just pass over that in silence.
3) Johnny Damon's hair is still the story of the day. If I had a newspaper, the headline today would be "Opening Day features thrillings comebacks." But the subhead would be "Johnny Damon's hair, beard have no comment on Jimy Williams's decision to pitch to Bonds."
4) Even Bush and Cheney throwing out pitches couldn't ruin Opening Day. It's good to know there's something in the world they can't destroy. I suppose I should keep quiet about that, or else next year they'll try harder.
Other Opening Day notes, from someone who was stuck at work and couldn't have watched the Cardinals anyway:
1) The Detroit Tigers are above .500 for the first time since April 8, 2001. And, as Stacey noticed that Ron Santo won the attendance game on the Cubs broadcast on WGN, so is Ron, although the drought has probably been longer.
2) The Astros are in last place. But so are the Cardinals. Maybe it's best that, as Wittgenstein used to suggest whenever his favorite team lost a big game, we should just pass over that in silence.
3) Johnny Damon's hair is still the story of the day. If I had a newspaper, the headline today would be "Opening Day features thrillings comebacks." But the subhead would be "Johnny Damon's hair, beard have no comment on Jimy Williams's decision to pitch to Bonds."
4) Even Bush and Cheney throwing out pitches couldn't ruin Opening Day. It's good to know there's something in the world they can't destroy. I suppose I should keep quiet about that, or else next year they'll try harder.
Labels: johnny damon, luke seemann, ron santo
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Future hanger-on Luke Seemann pointed out a photo in the Chicago Tribune yesterday, taken at the Tokyo Dome at the Yankees/Devil Rays game. Luke characterizes it as the best sign ever. I think I might have to agree. It said, "Hi, Derek. I hope you achieve more and more!"
You gotta have wa.
You gotta have wa.
Labels: devil rays, japan, luke seemann, yankees
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Hanger-on Luke wanted to make sure I had explored all possible rental car options, including in-town locations of the various rental car agencies, especially the Enterprise location on Sheridan Road that's fairly close to Levi and Stacey's place.
Yes, I did, and the problems are that, as far as I can tell, Enterprise's "unlimited mileage" is only good in the five states nearest Chicago; various others, including Dollar, Thrifty, and National, prohibit taking their cars into Canada (and they don't seem to have any convenient city locations in Chicago anyway); and, believe it or not, Hertz and Avis are more expensive at their in-town locations than at O'Hare...but less expensive than Midway. Seriously, someone needs to investigate the Midway rental car situation.
Luke also wondered about perhaps picking up the car on the 20th and dropping it off on the 31st to possibly save some money. Also as far as I can tell, there wouldn't be much price difference between that and the current plan of picking it up on the 19th and dropping it off on the 1st.
And, importantly for me, by getting the car on the 19th, I'll get a chance to spend the day of the 20th at the Illinois Railway Museum, which I've never been to before and which is supposed to be a very nice place. (Yes, a non-baseball activity. I'm sorry, but I like trains, too.) And then on the 31st I can go play pinball at one of the semi-secret locations in the suburbs where Stern puts their new pinball machines out for testing, to see if they need to do any last-minute tweaks. Or Levi and Stacey can go buy stuff at Ikea in Schaumburg. Whatever.
In conclusion, I think we're getting a pretty good rate from Hertz, considering how many miles we're going to be putting on one of their cars.
(P.S.: If Southwest really was charging negative $100 for Burbank-to-Chicago round trips, I would be there for breakfast and baseball tomorrow morning, and maybe every morning. But no such luck.)
mr. troll: Yes, we're all sorry that you like trains, too.
Jim: Shame on you, leaving this comment on the date of Amtrak's 33rd anniversary.
Yes, I did, and the problems are that, as far as I can tell, Enterprise's "unlimited mileage" is only good in the five states nearest Chicago; various others, including Dollar, Thrifty, and National, prohibit taking their cars into Canada (and they don't seem to have any convenient city locations in Chicago anyway); and, believe it or not, Hertz and Avis are more expensive at their in-town locations than at O'Hare...but less expensive than Midway. Seriously, someone needs to investigate the Midway rental car situation.
Luke also wondered about perhaps picking up the car on the 20th and dropping it off on the 31st to possibly save some money. Also as far as I can tell, there wouldn't be much price difference between that and the current plan of picking it up on the 19th and dropping it off on the 1st.
And, importantly for me, by getting the car on the 19th, I'll get a chance to spend the day of the 20th at the Illinois Railway Museum, which I've never been to before and which is supposed to be a very nice place. (Yes, a non-baseball activity. I'm sorry, but I like trains, too.) And then on the 31st I can go play pinball at one of the semi-secret locations in the suburbs where Stern puts their new pinball machines out for testing, to see if they need to do any last-minute tweaks. Or Levi and Stacey can go buy stuff at Ikea in Schaumburg. Whatever.
In conclusion, I think we're getting a pretty good rate from Hertz, considering how many miles we're going to be putting on one of their cars.
(P.S.: If Southwest really was charging negative $100 for Burbank-to-Chicago round trips, I would be there for breakfast and baseball tomorrow morning, and maybe every morning. But no such luck.)
Original comments...
mr. troll: Yes, we're all sorry that you like trains, too.
Jim: Shame on you, leaving this comment on the date of Amtrak's 33rd anniversary.
Labels: brpa, luke seemann, planning, road trip
Friday, March 05, 2004
The Motor City, etc.
I don't think AAA would approve of staying in a hotel that has chunks of plaster all over the floor and pigeons roosting inside. But maybe I'm wrong. Their 2004 Tourbooks come out in April, so I'll pick up the one for Michigan when I have the Triptik made and see how many "diamonds" they give the ol' Book Cadillac.
While we're on the subject of Detroit, just the other night, I watched an HBO documentary called "A City on Fire: The Story of the '68 Detroit Tigers." The part about the World Series might make Levi depressed and morose, but I enjoyed it. Our next baseball trip after this one needs to involve time travel.
It actually contained some content relevant to our National Anthem discussion: Mickey Lolich complaining about how long it took Jose Feliciano to get through "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning of Game 5, and several other interviewees, including Ernie Harwell, talking about all the complaints received about this unique take on the anthem. It sounded fine to me, although they didn't play the whole thing uninterrupted in the documentary, so I couldn't tell exactly how long it went on for.
The birth of this blog prodded a couple of people to put their names into consideration as official hangers-on. Luke wants to go to Davenport and St. Louis, and Maura wants to join us in Pittsburgh in addition to Philadelphia, so I certainly hope she enjoys the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I have updated the itinerary with details of their attendance.
While we're on the subject of Detroit, just the other night, I watched an HBO documentary called "A City on Fire: The Story of the '68 Detroit Tigers." The part about the World Series might make Levi depressed and morose, but I enjoyed it. Our next baseball trip after this one needs to involve time travel.
It actually contained some content relevant to our National Anthem discussion: Mickey Lolich complaining about how long it took Jose Feliciano to get through "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning of Game 5, and several other interviewees, including Ernie Harwell, talking about all the complaints received about this unique take on the anthem. It sounded fine to me, although they didn't play the whole thing uninterrupted in the documentary, so I couldn't tell exactly how long it went on for.
The birth of this blog prodded a couple of people to put their names into consideration as official hangers-on. Luke wants to go to Davenport and St. Louis, and Maura wants to join us in Pittsburgh in addition to Philadelphia, so I certainly hope she enjoys the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I have updated the itinerary with details of their attendance.
Labels: detroit, jose feliciano, luke seemann, maura johnston, mickey lolich, national anthem, tigers, world series
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
We have a blog
Three years ago, friends of ours named Luke and Sandy went on a baseball road trip and kept a joint blog about it. So I figured we should either rip them off, or pay homage to them, depending on whether or not Luke and Sandy are going to be reading this.
This is actually the replacement for some "manual" blogging I had been doing about this trip on my own web site, so I've copied all those entries over to here. The advantages are that Levi can easily make entries here as well, and we can both make entries from anywhere...including while we're on the trip, if we can beg, borrow, or steal a computer capable of connecting to the Internet at some point.
It has also been rumored that Luke may be joining us for the first portion of our road trip. I hope he can make it, even if I disagree in part with his opinions on National Anthem etiquette. While I will happily sing along to an instrumental version (especially if it's being played live by an organist), I will remain silent if someone is out on the field performing, because I actually want to listen to their performance. But I do agree that the cheering shouldn't start until the end of the song, no matter how good the singer is at hitting the high note.
Therefore, in case they do instrumental versions of "O Canada" in Toronto and/or Montreal, I want to be sure I have the lyrics down.
On another note, my mother tells me that my cousin is getting married in Connecticut in July. Depending on the exact wedding plans (and the exact wedding location), I may attempt to come up with a scheme to visit New York for a day, a city which is a noticeable gap on the road trip itinerary. The Yankees will be in town that weekend, right before the All-Star break, playing my hometown Devil Rays.
This is actually the replacement for some "manual" blogging I had been doing about this trip on my own web site, so I've copied all those entries over to here. The advantages are that Levi can easily make entries here as well, and we can both make entries from anywhere...including while we're on the trip, if we can beg, borrow, or steal a computer capable of connecting to the Internet at some point.
It has also been rumored that Luke may be joining us for the first portion of our road trip. I hope he can make it, even if I disagree in part with his opinions on National Anthem etiquette. While I will happily sing along to an instrumental version (especially if it's being played live by an organist), I will remain silent if someone is out on the field performing, because I actually want to listen to their performance. But I do agree that the cheering shouldn't start until the end of the song, no matter how good the singer is at hitting the high note.
Therefore, in case they do instrumental versions of "O Canada" in Toronto and/or Montreal, I want to be sure I have the lyrics down.
On another note, my mother tells me that my cousin is getting married in Connecticut in July. Depending on the exact wedding plans (and the exact wedding location), I may attempt to come up with a scheme to visit New York for a day, a city which is a noticeable gap on the road trip itinerary. The Yankees will be in town that weekend, right before the All-Star break, playing my hometown Devil Rays.
Labels: admin, brpa, devil rays, luke seemann, national anthem, planning, road trip, sandy weisz, yankees
