Sunday, August 29, 2010
Ballparks I have known and loved (Introduction)
Early this month, I traveled to Atlanta for the annual convention of the Society for American Baseball Research. I’ve been a member of SABR since 1984, but it wasn’t until six years later that I attended my first convention. What a gas! I haven’t missed a single one since that first experience in Cleveland in 1990 ... this year’s SABR40 meeting was my 21st in a row, and I’m already psyched for SABR41 in southern California next July and SABR42 in Minneapolis in 2012.
One of the features of the SABR convention is, of course, a group outing to the local ballpark. That’s one of the ways I’ve been able to add ballparks to my life list (term borrowed, of course, from birdwatching). With the addition of Turner Field at SABR40, my count of major league ballparks is now up to 43 strong.
Rather than drone on and on through the entire list in a single post, I’ll organize my review of the ballparks I’ve seen by MLB division. It’s doubly appropriate to begin in Atlanta’s division, the National League East. Not only is that the place for the most recent addition to my list, it’s also the division of my very first ballpark. Following the NL East, I plan to go to the other league and the other geographic extreme ... in other words, to the American League West. After that, I’ll alternate leagues and march across the country in each one, ending the review in the AL East.
Each division’s report will be organized alphabetically by its teams’ current location. While there won’t be a ranking per se, I’ll offer occasional observations of my experience at the ballpark—architecture, ambiance, food and drink, diversions, and such. I also expect to include pictures of some of the parks as well as links to boxscores of notable games I attended there (no, I won’t inflict every boxscore on you).
Stay tuned for my six-part tour of MLB ballparks, starting soon.
Monday, August 02, 2010
Ohhh Patty, really?
It’s been widely reported in the local media that the President is coming out this way on August 17 to campaign, and fill the campaign war chest of, for Senator Patty Murray. As a Democratic activist, I’m on the very long mailing list of potential invitees, ummm, contributors.
Following up on the email invitation sent last week, today I received a beefy envelope containing another request for my bucks. Unfortunately, the front of the envelope looks like this:
Yeah, I know everyone makes mistakes. But really, did nobody review the appearance of that envelope before giving the go-ahead to print it?
Pix from Netroots Nation
I am, it appears, a terrible photographer. At least, a terrible photographer with my new digital camera while indoors.
My usual photographic subject in the past has been landscape, but there was none of that to be seen at the Rio last month during Netroots Nation.
From the 50 or 60 (or more?) shots I tried to take in Las Vegas, I’ve selected six for this posting. I think you’ll see my point about bad photography.
We’ll start with the “rock star” I mentioned in my previous report from the scene at NN ... Elizabeth Warren. She was really difficult to photograph, because she was constantly and rapidly pacing back and forth across the stage. Next to her is my Dartmouth ‘72 classmate, Congressman Paul Hodes (D-NH-02). Paul is running for the Senate this year, trying to move that seat from the dark side to the Democrats. It was the first time we’d seen each other since graduating.
Instead of attending Nancy Pelosi’s session on Saturday morning, I joined a small group of Pacific Northwest bloggers for a sit-down with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. On the left below is a (I hate to say it) very unflattering picture of the Senator greeting Portlander Carla Axtman while DailyKos frontpager (and Seattlite) Joan McCarter beams. Across from that photo is, of course, Senator Al Franken (D-MN). I took that photo while attending a reception, featuring the Senator immediately after his closing keynote address, that was run by the Nevada Democratic Party.
Finally, another shot of Senator Franken at the reception, along with a picture of MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. He was attending the Franken reception. What I find interesting about O’Donnell’s presence is that there was never the slightest note taken of him at the meeting. He didn’t speak, didn’t participate in a panel. As far as I can tell, he may have been in Las Vegas only for the Franken reception.
Are you convinced as to my poor photographic skills? Believe me, these are the best of ‘em. Just imagine how bad the others were.
