let's go to the Mets

The Mets are having another good season (despite today's nationally televised loss). I'm no fair weather fan. I've stuck with the Mets during the bad seasons too. They were my hometown team when I was growing up in New York. After moving to Virginia, I went on a few baseball road trips to see the Mets in Philadelphia, Chicago and at Shea Stadium. I remember going to a baseball game at Candlestick Park with my friend Bean but I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't recall if the Giants were playing the Mets that day. I'm also embarrassed to admit that since moving to Knoxville I haven't gone to see the Mets play in nearby Atlanta. At least I went to see the Mets last year while I was in DC and of course I went to several Mets vs. Dodgers games when I lived in Burbank.

I didn't bring a camera on my trip to Milwaukee the other day. Mine is broken and I had already returned the camera I borrowed from my daughter for our family road trip the week before. Fortunately the other Mets fan on the trip, brought his camera and was willing to share the photos from his MySpace page. Here's T the R.O.P and me in front of the Hank Aaron statue:



The picture of Bernie's Dugout gave me an idea. It would be interesting if the Brewers had two identical Bernie Brewer mascots at each game. One would only be visible in Bernie's Dugout when the Brewers are at bat. The other would only be visible in the stands or near the field when the visitors are at bat. If they timed it right, it would look like Bernie could travel really fast from the field back to his perch, similar to the way Mickey Mouse gets around in "Fantasmic." Any of the other teams' mascots can feel free to use my idea too.



On the drive from Knoxville to the Nashville airport, T and I listened to a sports radio host talking about how the Florida Marlins and their stadium are so pathetic. T had heard about a great solution. The Marlins should be moved to Portland (home of the Triple-A Beavers) and transferred to the American League West. It would create a natural rivalry with the Seattle Mariners and even out the number of teams at 15 per league. Moving the Pittsburgh Pirates from the NL Central to the NL East would then leave all the divisions neatly arranged with 5 teams each. For the idea to work, there would always be one team per league with the day off except during interleague play.

national pastimes

Baseball and gambling don't mix. Just ask Pete Rose. Because of him, I used to think that baseball avoided even the most remote hint of gambling similar to the way a college with a religious affiliation might refuse to accept lottery scholarship money. As we entered Miller Park today for the Mets vs. Brewers game, we were handed a "Baseball Bingo" card from the Potawatomi Casino. The 25 squares on the bingo card had the scorecard designations for various offensive and defensive plays. Fans can win prizes if their card matches enough of the plays that occur in the game. I also noticed a small Wisconsin Lottery logo painted on top of both dugouts. This reminded me of something I saw during my recent road trip. At one supermarket I saw a Missouri Lottery machine selling St. Louis Cardinals themed lottery tickets.



Baseball has gambling controversies in its past and steroid controversies in its present. Somebody might want to mention that to the Brewers. Their costumed mascot looks ordinary enough in person but not in the animated version that appears on the scoreboard. At the start of each game, a computerized Bernie Brewer slugs long balls and shows off his unnaturally buff physique. I know he's just a cartoon but he still looks like he's been getting binary injections in his digitally generated rear end. Based on the number of t-shirts I saw, Bernie is nowhere near as popular as the famous Klement's Racing Sausages.

caught up in the Internet

This morning at 3:00 a.m Central Time, several people from Wisconsin ended up at my site after searching for information about a Frank Murphy who beat somebody up in the third grade. Of course I never delivered a smackdown in the third or any other grade. My son tells me that there is a scene in the movie "I, Robot" that may have prompted the flurry of web activity. I should watch it one of these days.



A list of predictions from 1900 has been making the rounds on the Internet this past week. Some of the items seem too accurate to be true. I expected to find a debunking of the list at Snopes.com but did not.

Another site making the news is GreatTurtleRace.com. It tracks leatherback sea turtles as they swim to the Galapagos Islands to lay their eggs.

As I read more about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, I stumbled across a cartoon that moved me. It shows the mascots of other Virginia universities consoling the Virginia Tech Hokie. A larger version of the drawing can be found at LansingCartoons.com. When seen side by side with the other mascots, it is apparent that my alma mater needs to update theirs.