thirty-nine and counting

Three guys from Utah are in the middle of their Great American Road Trip this week. They will pass through all 48 contiguous states in only five days. I also want to visit all the states but not the way these guys are doing it. In many cases, they are only driving across a state line, taking a picture of their GPS unit as proof, and turning around.

After I went to Alaska, I set a personal goal of visiting all 50 states. I want to do more than just drive through them. I want to see an historical location, a tourist attraction or the world's largest something. Last summer I knocked another four states off my to do list. I only have eleven to go.



This summer I may be able to tackle either Arkansas or Iowa. The decision depends on what type of fun destinations I can find on Roadside America or other tourism sites. And on gas prices.

This week "Good Morning America" is revealing their 7 Wonders of America. So far they've picked the National Mall and the ANWR. I wonder if the rest of the list will have obvious choices like the Grand Canyon or a quirky choice like the World's Largest Ball of Twine. I also wonder how many of the Wonders I will have visited or can still visit before I die.

At first the well-publicized list of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" didn't appeal to me. Too many of the locations were in far off corners of the globe that are well beyond my budget. Over the weekend I saw a book for sale at a Cracker Barrel that has now shot to the top of my wish list. "1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. and Canada Before You Die" is a lot more realistic for me. If author Patricia Schultz happens to be available for a podcast interview, I might be able to get a free review copy out of the deal. Hint, hint.

not a spoonerism

What makes a place one of your "regular" restaurants? Do you have to go there once a week? Once a month? Once a year? I thought about that question yesterday when my wife and I saw that our regular Fuddruckers had closed. I wonder what they did with all the wall decorations.



We drove by it yesterday on our way home from Grandma's birthday party in Fairfax County, Virginia. The restaurant was in Salem, about halfway between our house and Northern Virginia. My wife and I could each get a salad and split a burger or a chicken sandwich while taking a break from the eight-hour road trip. I'm pretty sure I had been to the Salem Fuddruckers more often than the one near my house in Knoxville, which is still open.

for peeps' sake

The amount of publicity that Marshmallow Peeps receive every Easter is mind boggling. Most of it seems to be fan-generated rather than coming from the company's press releases. As a lifelong Peeps lover myself, I can honestly say that I was a big fan before it was cool. For example, I once brought a package of purple Peeps to a glacier near Mt. McKinley in Alaska.



The Peeps will be featured tomorrow on CBS News Sunday Morning. Rita Braver's report will include a film I told you about in April 2007 and an artist that I told you about in March of last year.

Mary Constantine of the Knoxville News Sentinel posted a video showing how to use Peeps and chocolate chips to decorate a Peeps Sunflower Cake.

Meanwhile in Washington, the WMATA is using Peeps to get baseball fans to ride the Metro to the new Nationals Park.

Speaking of DC, the Washington Post got some tremendous entries in their second annual diorama contest. Out in Washington State, the readers of the Seattle Times created some great Peeps art.

When I showed my wife a cute picture of a Peeps costume for toddlers, she honestly asked if it came in my size.

When my daughter celebrates Easter tomorrow, she'll have a care package that my wife mailed to her. It contain some of the brand new Peeps Tulips.



A New Jersey columnist writes that he can't eat just one Peep. Can't say that I blame him.

sardines

There are a few random thoughts still in my notebook from Walt Disney World. I'll unload them here.

I noticed a lot of areas around the theme parks set aside for the Disney Vacation Club time share pitch. At each place, a lonely cast member stood by with brochures while a video screen played an infomercial. I'm thankful that they hadn't moved the sales presentations into the ride queues where they would alienate a captive audience. I'll bet that somebody suggested it in a meeting though.

While trying to find an easier way to get from the Magic Kingdom to Disney's Hollywood Studios, I saw a sign at the Transportation Center for buses headed to Shades of Green. Being unfamiliar with the concept, I asked a waiting lady what it meant. I was pleased to hear that it's a military hotel known as an Armed Forces Recreation Center.

The only flaw in an otherwise perfect vacation was the long wait for Disney Transport. One of the other people at our convention thought that higher gas prices may have forced Disney to cut back on the frequency of the buses that take guests from the hotel to the theme parks and back. While we waited for a bus to Epcot, we saw at least three buses going to the Magic Kingdom. The next day when we were going to the Magic Kingdom, we saw at least three buses going to Epcot. Each time we waited over half an hour for our bus. Once we got one, it was packed full of passengers.

the good, the bad and the ugly

While at Walt Disney World this weekend, my wife and I tried to visit some attractions we didn't see last year. We got home last night but the blog posts about the trip continue.

My wife was interested in the Test Track ride at Epcot. We saved a lot of time by using the single riders line. As long as you don't mind riding in separate cars, it's better than waiting in the long regular line. Because a light rain had started to fall, they made several announcements that the ride might have to close at any time. Since our line was moving fast, we didn't miss out.

When we went to the Magic Kingdom, I wanted to ride the Carousel of Progress, which was originally part of the 1964 World's Fair. The voice of the audio-animatronic father seemed familiar to me. It was Jean Shepherd, who I remember from childhood as a great storyteller on WOR-AM. Most people know his voice from "A Christmas Story." Last night my wife was complaining that the song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was stuck in her head. As much as I wanted to enjoy it, I had trouble keeping my eyes open during the show.

Two years ago I went on a face character photo safari. Instead of Disney princesses, this year I saw Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drizella. They seem to have a lot more fun teasing the guests than Cinderella ever could.

ori-palm-i

For Catholics, being at Walt Disney World on a Sunday used to mean going to Mass at the Polynesian Resort. The service was held in the outdoor luau venue. I went to Mass there on my first visit during high school and on my second visit when my family and I attended the press junket for the opening of Disney MGM Studios, which as of 2008 is known as Disney's Hollywood Studios. By the time my wife and I returned with the Kevin & Bean show in the 1990s, the Polynesian Resort Mass had been discontinued.

On our more recent trips to Orlando, we've gone to Mass at the National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe. Today was the second year in a row that my wife and I were there on Palm Sunday.



The woman sitting in front of me bent and tied her palm so that it resembled the PX symbol for Christ. The woman sitting next to me (she was from Michigan by the way) had a better angle to see the frond of the woman in front. My garrulous pew-mate then passed her palm frond up a row and asked the lady to please tie it the same way.

I was reminded of the palm artistry we used to see in Burbank every year on Palm Sunday. As the congregation gathered for the Spanish language Masses at St. Finbar Church some entrepreneurs would unfurl mats on the grass and sell palm fronds that had been woven into various religious shapes. My own kids were pretty good at making a cross from a frond or two.

A few moments of curiosity has revealed another subculture on the Internet that I never knew existed. There are enough websites about palm crafts to keep you busy until it's time to burn your palms for next Ash Wednesday.

have to make it up

Faced with the choice of using my Park Hopper pass to visit any of the Walt Disney World theme parks or going to a convention seminar with only a vague description in the brochure, the answer seemed simple, I was theme park bound. Then I bumped into Charna Halpern in the hallway. She said that her team would be running the 2:30 session. I knew that's where I had to be yesterday afternoon instead.

The highlight of last year's Children's Miracle Network convention was the workshop run by Charna and the group from improvOlympic. I remember being amazed at the difficulty some radio guys from other markets had with telling a story one word at a time. Joe Bill, who led our small group, arranged us in a circle and came up with a story title. We had to make up the story but we could each only say one word. The key is to listen to what's been said so far and when it gets to be your turn, the next word just comes to you. Sometimes the next word needs to be "the" or "and." Other times you get to use a more exciting noun, verb or adjective. That's where many of the deejays fell apart. They tried to overthink it, perhaps wanting to get a laugh with their word. They unsuccessfully tried to anticipate where the story was going and decided on their word before it was their turn. When their word didn't fit the story, they looked foolish and were frustrated by the game. In this exercise, the group is more important than the individual. Don't try to control it, let it control you.

This year's training session was completely different and just as worthwhile. There wasn't as much interaction on our part. Instead the actors from I.O. used improv games to show the important elements of telling a story. They told a Conducted Story that was heavy on facts and another that was nothing but descriptive details. Neither story was compelling. The third attempt was a nice balance of facts and details. Later they did a scene in two minutes and asked the audience to identify the essential and extraneous parts. They redid the scene in one minute and again in thirty seconds, each time paring the story down to its most important elements.

Because my appetite for watching improv is seemingly insatiable, my wife and I had planned to get over to the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island tonight like we did last year and the year before. We ended up having too much fun at the Magic Kingdom and at the recently re-named Disney's Hollywood Studios. As a result we didn't make it back out to Downtown Disney. However I did get to see some unexpected improv by a group of street performers dressed up in old-fashioned Hollywood costumes. Their characters were trying to be named the funniest person in Hollywood. They did an improv game I know as "185" although the number they used was 99. A director got nouns from the surrounding crowd and the comedians had to complete the joke that goes "99 (nouns) walk into a bar. The bartender says we can't serve 99 (nouns) in here and the 99 (nouns) say (punchline)." I picked up a trick from them that I may have to use some Tuesday night at an Einstein Simplified show. A couple of the Disney improvisers added a line by having the nouns ask "Why not?" and then having the bartender deliver the punchline. If I ever can afford to retire, I'll have to move someplace where I can watch improv everyday.

who doesn't?

When they said the Osmonds would be on stage tonight, they really meant it. By the end of their concert, the stage was completely packed with Osmonds, performing and otherwise. They were the headline entertainment at the Children's Miracle Awards, part of the Children's Miracle Network Celebration going on this week at Walt Disney World.



My wife and I wanted to see the performance but we wanted to skip the black-tie dinner that preceded it for two reasons. First, we didn't bring any formal wear with us to Florida. Second, the entrée was filet mignon on a Lenten Friday. Instead we went to Epcot to get fish for dinner. And by fish, I mean sushi at Tokyo Dining.



After dinner we tried to hurry back to the Coronado Springs Resort. Because it took us a long time to find a bus going from the hotel to Epcot before dinner, we thought it might be faster to make our return trip via Monorail from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom and then by bus back to the hotel. It wasn't. We worried that we might miss the Osmonds. Instead that fortunate mistake put us in the right place at the right time to have our pictures taken with Donny Osmond, who was crossing the hallway outside the ballroom about half an hour before showtime.



We used our ticket to the formal dinner to slip in to the back of the ballroom where we found a lone empty table just waiting for us. The award ceremony was almost over. Before long, the Osmonds (including Alan) came on and sang shortened versions of their hits. To mark their 50th anniversary in show business, the four original Osmond Brothers sang an old barbershop song about an auction. Donny & Marie came on to sing a medley of their most famous songs including "Little Bit Country / Rock and Roll," "Soldier of Love," "Paper Roses" and "Puppy Love." Marie stepped aside to let her brothers sing a medley. The only song of theirs that I recognized was "One Bad Apple." They had an odd song about horses and some loud pyrotechnics that took the crowd by surprise.

For their finale, the performing Osmonds brought on their two oldest brothers who are deaf. Jimmy was given the task of explaining how the performing Osmond Brothers got their start as a way to raise money for the education of the two deaf brothers. The serious mood was broken by a series of Wayne's corny jokes (wear two pair of pants when golfing in case you get a hole-in-one). Marie got choked up and got the crowd feeling the same way as she talked about what it must be like to be born deaf into a musical family. Then Donny invited all the other Osmonds in the audience to join them as they sang "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother." The two eldest signed as the others sang.

I had a chance to chat separately with Donny and Marie during my remote broadcast on Star 102.1 this morning. It's been about four and a half years since I last saw Donny at a Morning Show Bootcamp convention and about ten years since I booked him as a guest on KLOS. Every time I see him, Donny remembers me from when he would visit the Don & Mike show at WAVA. We were one of the first stations to play "Soldier of Love." One memorable morning we had Donny ride through DC in a limo while standing in the sunroof opening and shouting to passersby "I'm Donny Osmond, don't you wish you were me?"

those stories and Andy Rooney

Stan Brock gets his old timeslot back for one night this weekend. He used to be on "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" before Jim Fowler. Many comedians have parodied the way Stan and Jim would wrestle the anaconda while Marlin Perkins watched from a safe distance. If I ever get back to the St. Louis Zoo, I need to find their Marlin Perkins statue. The path to it was obscured by construction on my previous visit.

After leaving show business, Brock settled in Knoxville and founded Remote Area Medical, an organization that brings doctors to people both in faraway places and right here at home. I have interviewed Stan a couple of times. Once for a "where are they now feature" on an oldies station and once for the public affairs show at my current job.

RAM sent me an email today announcing that Stan and the organization will be seen on "60 Minutes" this Sunday night. The newsmagazine brought their cameras to Knoxville in January to film a free clinic at Chilhowee Park. You might want to set your TiVo for 7:00 p.m. Sunday. Unless you're Bean. Then you would already have a Season Pass.

still have to go through Dallas

Nobody wants their frequent flyer miles to go to waste. Almost every week there are people searching the Internet who find my blog entries from 2005 about cashing in miles for unnecessary magazine subscriptions.

Last fall I realized that I finally had enough miles for a free trip. I tried to plan a trip to see my friend Bean in Seattle but there were no free tickets available on the date I could fly. I put it off and put it off until I was faced with the fact that my miles would expire at the end of February. The only way to save them was to have some activity on my account. Because I don't yet know when I can make the trip, I needed to do something other than book a flight.

I called American Airlines to explore my options. Fortunately, they had something that sounded great to me. I could extend the expiration date for the remainder of my miles by donating some of them to one of two charities. The Make-A-Wish Foundation does nice things for sick kids and would be a worthy recipient. However I chose to donate to the airline's own charity called Miles for Kids in Need. Instead of flying sick children off to their favorite theme park, my miles will help send a child to get needed medical treatment. Not as much fun for them but it made me feel better.

sales call agitates many

The guy on the phone said his name was Eddie Portland. He called me at home yesterday and claimed that my name had been drawn in a contest which I had no recollection of entering. Could he be telling the truth? I'm on the National Do Not Call Registry. He knew my name and phone number and mentioned what he thought was my annual income. I only wish he had been right about that amount.

Eddie said I had won one of four prizes: a choice between a Lincoln Navigator or $50,000; a cruise to the Bahamas for two; a $2,500 cashier's check or a 32-inch flat screen TV. Sounds good, right? To claim it, my wife and I would each have to bring two forms of I.D., preferably a driver's license and major credit card, to Gatlinburg this weekend. After attending a 90-minute presentation on a vacation resort, we would then have to pluck scratcher tickets out of a drum to see which prize we had won.

Feeling suspicious, I looked online. Others had posted about their experiences with the same company in other cities. I decided not to bother with it when I read about people who went to a presentation expecting to be there for only an hour and a half but were stuck for over three hours instead. Still more complained about the hard-sell techniques. I wish I could have found a post from someone who got their prize, didn't have to buy anything and was happy about the experience. No such luck.

carved in stone

Here's a couple of leftover photos from last month's road trip. A chapel in upstate New York bore the inscription "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people" from the Book of Isaiah. The usage must have been correct at the time but it's weird to see the word "house" preceded by "an." The current New American Bible translation of Isaiah 56:7 reads "a house."

We passed a cemetery in Connecticut that was having some repair work done to its stone gateway. I thought that the scaffolding gave new meaning to the inscription from 1 Corinthians 15:52, "The dead shall be raised."

places to go or people to see?

Wisconsin is the 39th state I've visited in my quest to get to all 50. Since I got back from Milwaukee, I've was planning to update my "states so far" map as soon as I could remember which website had the map making utility I last used in 2003. It had been that long since I crossed a border that was new to me. On our road trip in July, I added Ohio, Massachusetts and Rhode Island to my list.



A piece of mail that arrived today has me wondering if I can add one more state this year. I got a statement from American Airlines. The good news is that I have enough AAdvantage miles to get a free flight. The bad news is that all my miles will expire on December 15 under their new policy. I don't have any vacation time available but I usually get one weekend a month off from work. Rather than let the miles go to waste, maybe I could fly someplace on a Friday, explore it on a Saturday and fly home on a Sunday. But where? It appears that all of American's flights from Knoxville go through Dallas or Chicago. It would make sense to pick a destination for which the layover is on the way. Or I could just go someplace I've already been and visit friends or family.

turn the whole thing upside down

It's hot. It's been hot and will continue to be hot for several more days. The weather is ideal for visiting your favorite ice cream stand. While we were in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, we visited one of the more famous American ice cream stands, although technically it's a frozen custard stand. Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard is known for their "concretes," which is what my son ordered. The stand is along historic Route 66, like the sign says. You might have seen Ted Drewe's last year on "Feasting on Asphalt." Where do you like to get your ice cream or custard?

get'cha head in the game

The legendary Bob & Ray once used Herkimer as a comedy trigger word on an old Wally Ballou bit that I had on an LP. I was reminded of the recording when I saw the word on a sign at a travel plaza along the New York State Thruway recently. Sure enough, I was in Herkimer County. The rest stop had a Starbucks counter where my wife could get some caffeine. While I waited for her, another family came in. One of the teenagers in the group wore a t-shirt with the words Knoxville and Tennessee across the back. The shirt also said "Caught in a Brainstorm." It took me a couple of minutes to remember that I was in Herkimer, not Knoxville. The shirt was a souvenir from something called Destination ImagiNation. When I asked the family members about the shirt, the mom told me that the teenager had attended the Global Finals in Knoxville with his school's improv group.

Terry Morrow had an interview with Zac Efron in his column on Friday. It turns out that Zac too has traveled to Knoxville with his school's improv team. I assume he was here for a previous Destination ImagiNation. Thanks to the Internet, it only took me a second to verify my theory.

chasing waterfalls

The road trip that my family and I planned would have us pass through Buffalo on I-90. This would probably be the one and only time I would be that close to Niagara Falls, which is about 20 miles from Buffalo. How could we not go? We had driven farther out of our way to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine when we passed through Kansas five years ago.



After a long day of driving, we finally reached New York State late at night and found a cheap motel. The next morning we drove into the City of Niagara Falls and saw lots of campaign signs for somebody named "Babe" Rotella. At that hour it wasn't too hard to find a parking spot near the Red Coach Inn. I wonder if this Red Coach is related to a place my parents used to take us when we were kids. On family birthdays we often went to the Red Coach at the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers for a lobster dinner. Our parking space was also near a tethered balloon ride and a building that looked like a totem.



Seeing the falls was fantastic. A rainbow was visible near Horseshoe Falls and over the Maid of the Mist. Our time was tight or we would have bought ponchos and sandals to wear down to the Hurricane Deck. One of the members of our little group spotted the people wearing ponchos and mistook them for Hare Krishna. I won't say who because I value my marriage.



The next morning we woke up in a motel in Worcester, Massachusetts. We flipped on the TV and saw that Dave Price from The Early Show was reporting live from Niagara Falls. Too bad he wasn't there a day earlier.

drop and give me twenty

Morning radio personalities from all over the United States (and often a few from England and Australia) will be traveling to Chicago tomorrow for the annual Morning Show Boot Camp convention. I was fortunate enough to be sent there by my various employers each year between 1999 and 2003. The last two of those years I had negotiated to have the registration fee and travel expenses included in my contract, a tactic I recommend to any deejays who might be reading this. Three of the five Boot Camps I attended were in New Orleans. The other two were in Las Vegas and Atlanta.

The New Orleans gatherings were a lot of fun. Obviously I was there pre-Katrina. I hope to return someday with my wife. I always felt a little guilty telling her about the delicious Bananas Foster I ate at Brennan's or the about time I went to an incredible six or seven course chef's choice dinner with Billy Bush at Emeril's. I remember that one of the courses was quail. Billy was still in radio at the time. The rest of the evening deserves its own chapter in my memoirs, if I ever write them.

In 2000, I spent a night on Bourbon Street with Kevin Ryder from KROQ, New Orleans-based comedian Tim Coston (who also acted as our Big Easy tour guide), Tim Harrod from The Onion and Aisha Tyler, who was not yet well known. They had all appeared on a convention panel about comedy earlier that day with my then-boss, Tamara Rawitt.

This year's Boot Camp attendees will be treated to a session called "Truth in Comedy," led by Charna Halpern. I wish I could be there for it but at least I got to participate in a very similar session Charna did at the Children Miracle Network convention in April. I'm happy for all the deejays who will be able to see the close connection between radio and improv.

test results

No one scored 100% on the photo quiz I posted a week ago. Some of you came very close however. You were asked to identify five of the landmarks (with city and state) that my family visited on our 3,000 mile road trip. The correct answers are:

1) Gateway Arch, St. Louis, Missouri
I like the way the photo on the left has an optical illusion quality.



2) World's Largest Rubber Stamp, Cleveland, Ohio
Its official name is just "Free Stamp." Here's a different angle featuring one of the GuitarMania public art displays. If you look closely at last week's photo, you can see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the background.



3) Niagara Falls State Park, Niagara Falls, New York
More about our visit to Niagara Falls later this week.



4) The Big Duck, Flanders, New York
I remember two things about the Big Duck from childhood. Seeing it meant we were getting close to Grandma's house and we could always smell the adjacent duck farm before we saw it.



5) Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
As seen in the movie "National Treasure," except that the filmmakers used the replica of the Hall at Knott's Berry Farm.

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.

stadia mania

Several sports facilities have passed before my eyes in the last two weeks. During our vacation road trip we drove past LP Field, Busch Stadium, Edward Jones Dome, Jacobs Field, Cleveland Browns Stadium, Fenway Park, Shea Stadium, Citizens Bank Park, Lincoln Financial Field, Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium.

Before heading to Miller Park yesterday, I saw a little bit of "The Today Show." By coincidence, they had a feature about going to a baseball game. Tiki Barber would try to enjoy a game at Fenway for less than $50. Although Tiki advised viewers to buy a $12 bleacher seat, the camera plainly showed him sitting in an expensive seat near the dugout. His budget also did not include the bottled water that could be seen tucked under his arm. I wonder if things are more expensive in Boston than Milwaukee. A 20 ounce bottle of Aquafina cost me $3.50 at Miller Park. I saw many amazing desserts available in the Club level. Bernie Brewer would be a lot thicker around the middle if he ate those sweets. And if he were real, of course.



I was pleasantly surprised by the sweet treat offered by Midwest Airlines as we flew in and out of Milwaukee. Warm chocolate chip cookies are served on every flight. The airline claims that they are baked on board. They looked too perfect for that. I suspect they are at least partially cooked on the ground. I heard some people worrying that the cookies might be a casualty if Midwest is acquired by AirTran.

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.

schlemeel, schlemazel

Baseball purists often say that low-scoring pitchers' duels are the best games to watch. Maybe I would agree if a New York Mets pitcher had ever thrown a no-hitter in the 45 year history of the team. I like to see the Mets score lots of runs to win. Tonight the Mets beat the Brewers in a very enjoyable 13 run game. The convertible roof at Miller Park was open on a perfect night for baseball. We saw home runs, fielding errors, bunts and more. I'm in Milwaukee on a baseball field trip with a fellow Mets fan who works at another station in the cluster. The company that owns both of our radio stations is headquartered here. We were able to get two tickets in the company's block of seats on the club level for tonight's game and for the rubber game of the series tomorrow afternoon. That section of the stadium features a waitstaff and a menu of food options. The fans sitting right behind us had a five dollar bet on the outcome of the Klement's Sausage Race. One of the Brewer fans was convinced that "the hot dog was due" but sadly for him that's not how it turned out. The Mets gave up three runs in the first inning on a massive Prince Fielder home run but came back to score four right away in the next inning. The Brewers took the lead again but the Mets responded and stayed on top. My traveling companion plans to be a sports broadcaster someday. He recorded some video of himself at the game tonight and will eventually post it on his MySpace page. I hope he got some good footage of the irate fans yelling at him for wearing his Mets gear.