Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Back to the ice

I did go to the hockey game last night. (I also used the internet connection on my cell phone to follow the Nats-Phillies play-by-play, and since I have a cheap-o basic service plan, I'm betting that call cost me more than a Diamond Club seat.)

Anyway, hockey. My true confession that I've gone over to the baseball side doesn't mean I don't like hockey.

There's 33 years of muscle memory here.

But here's what made my night. My all-time hockey hero...really, the only actual sports hero I ever had...was sitting a couple rows behind us. And he waved. And since the arena wasn't exactly sold out, there wasn't anybody else within 20 seats that he might have been waving to, so I think he might actually recognize me.

I think one of the big aspects of being a sports fan, any sport, is the chance to feel like you are seven years old again.

As the season winds down...

As the 2005 baseball season wound down and the hockey season (fresh off the strike year) began, I wrote this, tounge more or less in cheek:

And while hockey was away (seemingly indifferent, after all those years we had together!), a cute new sport moved in. I wasn't looking, but night after night it was there, mellow voices on the radio. On the weekends it offered sunny afternoons. I didn't realize it was serious until last month, when I woke up every morning needing to find out the games-back situation for the wild card race.

Maybe it's a fling, maybe it's the real deal. I have one more date tomorrow, then I guess I'll see about taking hockey back.

The Caps have a wicked new HD scoreboard. They have, in addition to the Alexanders, Nicklas Backstrom, Viktor Kozlov, and Michael Nylander. The rebuilding is done.

And I'm much more interested in seeing what my Nats will do to the Mets.

I've been investing a lot of time in pondering why this is. Last week, an old friend of mine joined us at the game Friday night, and I said it out loud: I like baseball better than hockey.

My buddy has known me for 25 years, though the marathon playoff losses and the hopeful training camps. He took me to one of the playoff games against Buffalo in '98; I'd just had knee surgery and wasn't quite mobile on my own.

He couldn't believe what I'd said. Baseball better than hockey?

Ok, I was pissed about the strike, but three years is a long time to hold a grudge.

Maybe baseball is just really more my speed?

Speed. Funny thing, that. I always said that hockey was exciting...which it is, of course...just look at the speed. Baseball, by contrast, is boring, I always thought. Nine guys standing in a field waiting for something to happen...it's a nice enough way to pass a summer afternoon, but so's a nap in a hammock.

Baseball people would tell me: there's a lot going on. It's just subtle.

This year, I think that clicked. It will be years, if ever, before I join the ranks of the expert fans, but at least I see now how much does go on during a game. It's exciting, it's tense, it's chess and psy ops. It's art and science.

(By the way, when I began typing, the Mets were up 5-0. The Nationals have come back, now it's 7-6. It's never over 'til it's over, but baseball seems much less certain that hockey. Drama and suspense, advantage baseball.)

This doesn't take anything away from hockey. It's a fine sport. And the Caps, as I said, have great potential this year.

I just won't care until after the final out on Sunday.

Sluggers

Actually, I'm not completely sure if Ryan Zimmerman is considered a slugger...this being baseball, I'm sure there's a numerical criterion somewhere, and I don't know what it is.

Frank Howard was a slugger, that I know.

[Few more pictures here.]

The last first pitch at RFK

Dick Bosman, who pitched the final game for the Senators on September 30, 1971, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the last Nationals game at RFK Stadium.

It was a good game. I have some more pictures (like Frank Howard talking to Ryan Zimmerman), some memories of RFK, some long-winded thoughts on baseball and history, and a rant about why I hate every city in the state of Pennsylvania.

I also have a sunburn that is really starting to hurt. Bad. My lips are blistered. I think tending to that might be a better use of my time this evening.

Motion sick

I've gone 38 years being able to read in a moving car (well, technically for the first five or so I was probably not really reading, just looking at pictures) with no trouble.

For some reason, that's no longer working.

I had to take Metro today, a nice long commute from my end of line to deepest Virginia. I read the paper, and had a dizzy, sick feeling for about an hour after.

I read a magazine on the way home, and I don't feel so good.

I guess I better quit while ahead, lest I get literally motion sick. I have two more Metro days, and I'd hate to be responsible for a system delay.

But man, having that time to read is the absolute only good thing about the stupid Metro. How am I going to kill those hours tomorrow?

So I'm a well-balanced nerd

Found via Owlish:

My favorite question was the one about having a periodic table.

Please. Just one?

I had to carefully arrange my new cubical so I could display the multiple artistic/comical/specialized periodic tables and still have room for the big one I use when I need an atomic weight.

Sort of like the first day of school

We just moved to a new office building.

It took me an extra 15 minutes to get home because I got lost in the parking garage.

Mom always liked you best

I am old enough that I should be way past sibling rivalry.

(Do you sense a but coming on?)

If my sister or I do something that irks our mother...like, say, fail to return a phone call...the other of us is likely to hear about it.

If our brother fails to return multiple phone calls, she makes excuses for him. And she doesn't get irked. She might get worried, but not mad.

Is it because he's the baby? Because he's the only boy? Because he looks just like Dad? (Although she gets irked at our father, too, so that can't be it.)

My sister and I have planned an anniversary party for our parents this weekend. It's small, low-key, but still, we did the work and all the boy needs to do is show up.

How much do you wanna bet that his showing up is the highlight of the party?

DOMS

I suppose, if I gardened every weekend, instead of trying to cram every bit of yard work into Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend, that yard work wouldn't hurt so freakin' much.