You know I love music.  For some reason that I fail to understand, there exists a subset of artistic people - whether musical or otherwise - that have some kind of strange aversion to sport in general, and really love to make their disdain known. Fear not, I'm not one of those people whose interests are so limited. I enjoy all sorts of different stuff, and some of that stuff, well, that includes many forms of sport.  I happen to especially love baseball. I've written here about baseball before.  No, really, I have.  Last year, I ranked my favorite ballparks.  (Click here to read.) I love going to games.  I love watching games on television.  I love reading about baseball.  I love playing fantasy baseball.  It's fair to say that I have a deeper emotional connection to baseball than any other sport.  Why is that?

Part of that surely goes back to childhood.  I remember swinging plastic bats at plastic balls thrown by my grandfather and my father.  Playing catch with one's father is somewhat of a male American cliché, but it's cliché because it's true... I played catch with my dad for countless hours over many years. Baseball is a place where being left-handed is an advantage.

Consider this quote from the well-known 1989 motion picture Field of Dreams, said by a character played by James Earl Jones:

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. 

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.

Now, I am completely uninterested in nostalgia as a tool of patriotism, and there is no part of me that yearns for past times when people who looked like me were publicly executed with impunity.  Wait, that still happens, let me rephrase... there is no part of me that yeans for a past when the greatest baseball player of all time was not allowed to play in Major League Baseball. That said, despite how much the game has changed, the basic tenets remain.  To quote another baseball film, "It's a simple game... You throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."  I find that simplicity to be beautiful.

Despite the big picture simplicity, if you look closely, baseball has a certain level of complexity and is filled with infinite possibilities.  For example, there are nine (9!) ways that a batter can safely reach base.  Not all of them involve actually hitting the ball.  There are deep cat/mouse games between batters and pitchers. There are well-coordinated movements by the defenders for who backs up which base (I love watching catchers running down to back up first in their gear), for who the cut off man will be on a given play, whether a throw should even be cut in the first place, who covers second on a steal attempt, and the intricate dance of a run down play.

I don't quite remember what year it was when my parents decided to get cable, but I absolutely remember that TBS was one of the channels that we had.  The gentleman who owned that television channel also owned a baseball team, and did plenty of cross promotion with these holdings.  This meant that just about every evening, there was a baseball game on TV, and it was always the same team.  I watched a lot of games.  I became a supporter of this team.  The broadcasters who I listened to night after night - Skip Caray, Ernie Johnson, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton - they became my friends.  My favorite players were Murphy and Horner, Rafael Ramirez and Oberkfell and Hubbard... then Blauser and Andrés Thomas and Zane Smith... then Smoltz and Glavine and Avery and Gant and Justice and Pendleton. (As someone once said, at the end of the day, we support laundry.)  I watched so many games, that as an elementary school kid, I memorized the disclaimer that would be read on the air each game.  These days, I don't quite remember whether they would read it in the 3rd inning or the 4th inning, but I still remember every single word.  

This telecast is authorized under broadcasting rights granted by the Atlanta National League Baseball Club and is intended solely for the entertainment of our audience. Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or other use of the pictures, descriptions, or accounts of this game without the express written consent of the Atlanta National League Baseball Club is prohibited.

The Atlanta National League Baseball Club won the World Series this week, on Tuesday 2nd November. They are champions.  CHAMPIONS. The last time this happened was my senior year of high school.  This made me happy, albeit briefly.  I don't really do happy... but I freely admit that I am deeply emotionally connected to the Atlanta National League Baseball Club.  When I was young, they were horrid. They lost 106 games in 1988.  They very nearly lost 100 games again in 1989.  I watched the games anyway.  They unexpectedly won the pennant in 1991, going from last place to first place in a year, and lost a very exciting World Series in 7 Games to the Twins.  (I still haven't forgiven Hrbek.)  They were pretty good throughout all of the 90s, but only managed to win that one championship.  That is a championship I will never forget, in part because their opposition was a team from Ohio, but I think I'll remember this one for longer.

Of course, part of that is recency bias. Part of it is how this team managed to win.  Their best player blew out his knee halfway through the season.  One of their other major contributors turned out to be a terrible human being and domestic abuser, and was away from the team for that reason. There were several other injuries.  Of all the teams that made the playoffs in baseball this year, Atlanta was near-unanimously declared to be the worst of them.  Strange things can happen in small sample sizes, however, and baseball is decidedly odd that way.  Of course, you can never really know how all of these professionals are as people, but this group of players comes across as eminently likeable, and they never quit.  I kind of like how the article I link to in the previous paragraph puts it:

Atlanta completed a mathematically improbable journey to Tuesday’s champagne bath. The NL East champs didn’t have a winning record until Aug. 6, and they had the lowest win total of any team to reach MLB’s postseason this year, including the Wild Card clubs. The Braves are just the eighth sub-90-win team to win a World Series in a non-shortened season.

Improbable.  But the improbable happens fairly often in baseball, in ever-changing ways.  That's probably another reason I love baseball so much.

 

Normally I schedule my blog post topics a few weeks out, and even write them as far in advance as I can... but that didn't work out recently.  My mental health issues - which I have written about before - are giving me quite the pummeling recently, and my ability to be focused and remotely organized is suffering.  Here are some current random thoughts.

•  I'm watching baseball tonight.  My favorite baseball team is in the National League Championship Series for the first time in a long time.  The last time they actually won a World Series was my senior year of high school.  Yes, I'm that old.  The responsibility for my love of just about every single possible sport belongs squarely to my late father, though, with the exception of Ohio State, I was never a fan of his favorite teams.  (This is a good thing, because he was a lifelong Browns fan, and that's a thing that brought him no small amount of anguish over the years.)  Baseball has a special place in my heart, and is my favorite sport to watch in person.\

• Not sleeping well is causing me to be in a near-constant state of exhaustion, which is surely leading me to an early death.  Last night, I turned in at a very reasonable hour, and actually fell asleep... only to wake up after a couple of hours.  By the time I managed to look at the clock, it was around 1:40, but my wife says she noticed me being awake and disturbed around 12:30.  I was awake most of the rest of the night, which was no good, because I had a morning online training session for my corporate job (indie rock does not pay the bills), and I kind of needed to be able to think clearly and focus for that.  No bueno.  If there is any bright side here, I managed to write a song between the hours of 3 and 4 in the morning, and I don't hate it yet.

• I might write a series of musings on love at some point, much like I did this year with a series on dreams.  I tend to develop a certain amount of affection for anyone with whom I have ever had a particularly meaning conversation, and for the people I have known the longest, that tends to run deeper.  Of course, there are people who one loves because one decides to, and people who one no longer loves because one decides not to, but for me, most of all that isn't very voluntary.  I've been thinking about this more recently because some of my classmates from way way back in my youth have been dealing with assorted types of life adversity, and one of the decent things about social media is the ability for us to know some of these things.  I've recently been feeling a mix of being heartbroken for them while also in awe of their resilient spirit and perseverance.   

Baseball is back.  It was back in Taiwan and Korea a few weeks ago, and in those places, you can actually go to the game in person, but hey... I'll take empty stadium baseball on TV.  I love baseball.  (What, you thought I was all about music all of the time?)   One of the things my wife and I like to do is go visit different ballparks and watch a game.  I like to get to the park very early - basically right when the gates open - so I can stroll around and look at the architecture.  If the teams are taking batting practice, I like to watch batting practice.  I enjoy the atmosphere of the park on game day.  

There are 9 ballparks currently in use where I have seen a game.  In reverse order, from least favorite to favorite, here are my ballpark rankings:

9.  Rogers Centre, Toronto
Let the record show that I love the city of Toronto.  We have made some good friends there.  We have had outstanding dim sum there. That said, of all of the ballparks I have personally visited for a game, this is my least favo(u)rite.  First, the things I like here... there is a retractable roof on what used to be called SkyDome, so games really shouldn't be rained out.  When the roof is open, there's a view of the CN Tower from the ballpark.  The concourses here are all kinds of spacious, there is plenty of room to walk around.  The drawbacks... well, they aren't playing the games on real grass, that's too bad.  Also, it's a big round dome... even when the roof is open you feel a little like you're indoors.  The stadium lacks character.  That said, we have always very much enjoyed our visits here.  We have been to a few games here, and since we've had multiple visits, we've tried different seats.  We've had seats directly behind home plate, back a few dozen rows... and we've had seats way up high, like these:

 

The Rogers Centre (that's how they spell it in Canada) seems to be easily accessible with public transportation, but we didn't get to the games that way.  We've always stayed in hotels less than two or three miles from the ballpark, and we always walk here.

 

8. Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Let the record show that I do NOT love the city of Cincinnati.  Too many one way streets.  Public transportation isn't great.  Parking isn't the easiest to find, and it costs more than I enjoy paying.  Ok, that aside, maybe the park is nice?  Well, it has character... it's outdoors and a grass field.  The sight lines are ok, there aren't any bad seats... but I don't like the way the lower level has a long slope, it just feels strange to me compared to the other ballparks I've been to.  The way the architecture is done here, the higher decks feel quite far from the field.  Also, the food options here weren't great the last time I visited.  The Ohio River is quite lovely out there in right field, however.

 

 

7. Comerica Park, Detroit
The Tigers play here. You can't miss that when you come to Comerica Park, as there is a massive statue of a tiger out front.  There are other statues of other tigers pretty much everywhere.  After a bit in the park, I kind of got the feeling that they might have overdone this motif a little.  I mean, I guess I understand it... after all, there are some other large felines across the street, so maybe folks get confused.  I found it very easy to drive here and very easy to park, and those are positive things in my book.  Now, it's been many years since I've visited, but the thing I remember most about the concessions was the abundance of Little Caesar's pizza, which makes sense, as the ball club and the pizza company are owned by the same people.  

 

 

A brief comment on the Tigers fans.  This is an old franchise.  The Internet tells me it was founded in 1894. Some baseball legends have played for this franchise, although some of them were not particularly decent human beings.  (Looking at you, Tyrus.)  A proud and storied franchise, but they suffered many years of being quite terrible at baseball.  When I visited Comerica Park, the Tigers were coming out of a long period of being awful, but nobody knew that quite yet.  (These pictures are from 2006, and they happened to win the pennant that year.)  I remember sitting behind an elderly gentleman at the game... he had a spiral bound score book... it was clearly meant for the entire season.  He had been a season ticket holder for decades.  Now, maybe it had something to do with where I had chosen to sit, but I remember that the fans near me were particularly knowledgeable on this day, and since they were Tigers fans, they were clearly long-suffering as well.  They weren't quite a friendly as the fans in Toronto, because of course nobody is a friendly as Canadians, but I enjoyed their company.

 

6. Nationals Park, Washington D.C.
Other than Sean Doolittle, I don't have very much affection for the Nationals, as they play in the same division as my favorite baseball team. The park is ok though.  It's very easy to reach via public transportation.  If memory serves, it's right at the end of one of the city's subway lines.  You leave the station, and then it's just a brief stroll to the park.  Much like many of the more modern ballparks, there does not appear to be a seat with a bad view here. You can get a half-smoke at the ballpark, which you should do when you go to Washington.

 

5. Miller Park, Milwaukee
The people of Wisconsin are different.  I had never seen tailgating at any baseball stadium until visiting here, the land of beer, sausage, and cheese.  Yes, folks come out early to the game and hang out in the parking lot drinking and grilling.  One drawback to this ballpark is its location.  It's not really close to anything interesting in the city.  It's not easily accessible by foot or by public transportation.  Other than that, it's a lovely experience.  I had my first (and only) experience with Spotted Cow here. I don't remember exactly what we ate, but I am certain it was some type of sausage... I mean, it's Wisconsin.  Miller Park features a retractable roof, and we had the opportunity to see it in action.  It was a somewhat humid and sunny day when we got to the ballpark, and even with the roof open, I had the odd feeling of being indoors for some reason.  A weather system was going to move through, so during the game, the roof closed.  After the rain moved away, they opened the roof again, and we could see the clear night sky.  

 

4. Coors Field, Denver
When you watch baseball on television, folks always comment on how spacious the field is here.  Due to the altitude, the baseball travels farther in Denver when it is hit, so the fences are farther away from the plate than in the other ballparks.  You geometry experts out there can explain this better than me, but this results in a larger area of play.  Indeed, when we got to the park, I could see that the playing field is vast, easily larger than any I've ever seen.

 

In the first picture, look at the upper deck of seats.  Do you see what appears to be a purple line near the top?  Every seat in the rows there is painted purple (whereas the other seats in the park are green) to indicate one mile above sea level at that location.  The park is a thing of beauty, quite comfortable, very friendly staff, and it appears there are good sight lines no matter where you are.

There are plenty of beverage options here, though the most abundant are Coors products, which shouldn't surprise anyone.  There are plenty of great food options in this park as well.  I can't comment on how easily one can reach this park via public transportation, because we headed to see a game here immediately after getting off the airplane... we rented a car, drove straight to downtown Denver, parked, and strolled a mile or so down to the park.  (Parking was abundant and cheap, but that might have been because we arrived somewhat early.)

 

3. Citi Field, New York (Queens)
I am no fan of the Mets, who inhabit this place, but I very much love this ballpark.  First, it is incredibly easy to get here.  The ballpark is right next to a subway station, on line 7, more or less across the street from the tennis complex where the US Open is played every year, and quite close to the place where the alien crashed through the globe thing in the first Men In Black film.  The park is ten or eleven years old still very much has that new ballpark feel.  The Jackie Robinson Rotunda entrance is a glorious way to introduce yourself to City Field, and the abundance of brick brings some elegance.  

For both of my visits here, I sat at club level.  It's elevated, but the architecture of the stadium is such that there are seats on that higher level that have you closer to the action than lower level seats in many other ballparks.  (Looking at you, Cincinnati.)  I was amazed how clearly we could hear the ball pop in the catcher's mitt from the club level seats, just below where the broadcasters are located.  Another great thing about club level is that tickets there get you access to some restaurants and bars that are not accessible for every ticket holder.  These areas have comfortable seating, specialty drinks, good food, and delightful air conditioning... oh, and there are monitors everywhere, so you won't miss any of the game action.  If I blindfolded you and dropped you off in this area, you would have no idea you were at a ballpark.

Also, Shake Shack.  Yes, I know that this is a chain now, and they're expanding everywhere, but that wasn't always the case.  My first Shake Shack experience was here, and I very very much dig.  Also, you can get one of David Chang's delicious Momofuku fried chicken sandwiches, and you will not regret it. Really the only drawback is the proximity to La Guardia, so you hear planes overhead pretty much all of the time.  That's a small price to pay for a great game day experience. 

 

2. Marlins Park, Miami
I have been to Paris (the one in France) twelve times... maybe thirteen, I have lost count.  I have been to Florida (the one in the United States) exactly once, and it was to go to Opening Night at Marlins Park a few years ago.  If you are into baseball, you're probably thinking that nobody goes to games here.  Yes, that's pretty much true, and for me, that's part of the charm of Marlins Park.  We went on Opening Night, and the game wasn't sold out.  If you're not going to sell out on Opening Night, you're probably never going to sell out.

It's really a shame that people don't go to games here, because this is a beautiful park.  As typical with modern baseball venues, there does not appear to be a seat here with poor sight lines.  The park and its surroundings have a ton of pastel and bright colors, and you can see they're really leaning into being located in Miami.  Just about everything inside the park is labelled in two languages, as you would expect for a stadium in a multilingual city.

What a unique place.  When we visited, they still had the home run sculpture, which many people found to be "hideous", but I thought it was a quirky, interesting large piece of bric-a-brac.  Well, the new ownership didn't like it, so it's gone.  The park also used to have fish tanks behind home plate that contained live fish, but I'm not sure if they are still there.  From the outside, Marlins Park looks sleek and futuristic, perhaps like a spaceship parked in the neighborhood.  Marlins Park also has a retractable roof, which is necessary to combat the high heat and humidity of South Florida (as well as the pop-up thundershowers).

 

If you can figure out how to navigate the bus system in this town, you can probably get to this park easily.  That wasn't the case for us, we had some transportation adventures in the city, but managed to get to the park eventually.  The food options here are solid, and it's Miami, so there is plenty of Cuban fare in the park.  Whenever it is safe for us to travel again, I strongly recommend taking a brief baseball vacation here.  Tickets are cheap because demand is low.  In future baseball seasons, check the schedule for when your favorite team is playing in Miami, and head on down there to see them.  You won't regret it.

 

1. PNC Park, Pittsburgh
When you visit Pittsburgh to see a game, I recommend that you stay in a hotel downtown, within a few miles of PNC Park.  On game days, many of the streets in the immediate vicinity of the park get closed to vehicular traffic, and become pedestrian-only means of ingress to the stadium. Walk across the Allegheny on the majestic Roberto Clemente Bridge,  and pause when you get to his statue to take in the atmosphere of game day. 

 

If you don't happen to stay downtown and get yourself to the game under your own power, no worries, despite the pedestrian-only streets in the neighborhood, it's a friendly place to drive and park as well.  Once you get to PNC Park, you'll notice that there are great views of the field from everywhere.  I've been to enough games here that I've sat close behind home plate, I've sat in the highest level, I've sat halfway up on the first base side behind the dugout, and a few other places.  The views of downtown Pittsburgh and the action on the field are great from just about everywhere.

 

 

 

As far as keeping yourself hydrated and fed, well, on many of my visits there was a particularly LOUD vendor who you could hear from several sections away shouting "LEMONADE!"... I hope he's alive and well.  In a nod to the Eastern European immigrants in the area, you can find tasty pierogi at a few of the concession stands.  There is a pierogi race once a game between innings, similar to the sausage race in Milwaukee and the president race in Washington.  You can also get a fantastic Pittsburgh staple, a Primanti Brothers sandwich, and wash it down with an ice cold Iron City. (Yes, it's an expanding chain now, and there is even a franchise near me, but I refuse to go.  A visit to Primanti Brothers is one of the things that makes visiting Pittsburgh special for me, and I don't want to spoil it.)

***

That's it.  That's my list.  There are some other ballparks that I have walked around (Petco Park in San Diego), or driven by on the highway (Fenway Park in Boston), or strolled by with friends (Wrigley Field in Chicago).  Currently on the list of places I wish to go visit for baseball:  Target Field in Minneapolis, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (which will be accompanied by a trip here), T-Mobile Park in Seattle, and Oracle Park in San Francisco.

 

An interview with a musician in back-to-back weeks!  What's with this craziness?  Glad you asked.  The song that TINO and I collaborated on is available tomorrow, Tuesday 14th July, on all streaming services. I figured this would be a good time for all of us to get to know him better.  First, and you might have already guessed this, but "TINO" is a nickname and stage name.  His "government name" is Valentino Halton.  (I need to remind myself of this, as I misprinted his last name as "Hamilton" in the liner notes for the compact disc version of Anxious Inventions & Fictions.  He's chill though, so he has forgiven me.)

TINO recently released an EP called Past Due.  It's solid, you should definitely check it out.  You'll probably enjoy the groove on the track "95 Tribe", which is about the baseball club in TINO's hometown of Cleveland.  (He's a Dayton fella now, but is originally from Cleveland.)  I happen to personally enjoy this track very much, partially because of the excellent groove and lyrics, but also because I remember the World Series that year quite fondly, it being my senior year in high school, and my favorite team being involved.  My favorite team is the National League club, by the way.  Just to remind everyone, the World Series lasted six games that year.  In Game Six, there was only one run scored.  This was it.   Do you remember how that game ended?  I do, but let's refresh everyone's memory.  This is the last out.  TINO managed not to mention Carlos Baerga in "95 Tribe", but it's ok.  My personal favorite from the EP is "Gov't", which also has a fantastic groove.  

Strangely enough, all of the previous interview subjects in this series are women, so I'm breaking new ground with this one.  Interview with this gifted gentleman after the photo.

 

1.  Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set and genre.

I’m a high energy performer who is at home over uptempo production. My music ranges from deeply personal to ubiquitous in theme. There’s something for everyone, but not in a generic and vague way. 

 

2.  I remember meeting you because first, I saw you perform with Sidekick Complex, and second, I would see you at the indie rock shows, and that's my genre.  Then I checked out a couple of your solo sets.  At some point if/when we can all go to shows again, I imagine there are folks who go to the rock shows who also enjoy hip hop, but don't know much about that music community in our town.  Maybe it works the other way as well.  How do you think we can cross-promote so the music community has fewer silos?

I think it’s as easy as “Hey, I like your music. Want to play this show with me?” That’s how I got my first shows and I construct a lot of bills I put together in a similar fashion. I try to attract fans that enjoy a wide spectrum of music and not just one genre so variety is welcome. 

 

3.  What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money?

Mobb Deep, Infamy. I bought it to score a movie I made in high school 

 

4.  What is your creative process like?

For me it always starts with a beat. I hear something, fall in love, and I start writing. It could be production someone sends me, a song I heard on the radio, or even a moment during another artists live performance. I don’t use everything I write. 50% of what I do will never see the light of day or I’m not good enough yet to flush the idea out. 

 

5.  What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences?

Michael Jackson for his showmanship, Prince for his musicianship, Lauryn Hill for her spirit, Amy Winehouse for her ability to channel her pain, Kanye/OutKast for re-popularizing music that wasn’t gangster rap, and Drake for his ability to sum up a lot of these qualities in one hip hop artist. 

 

6.  If you could change anything about the music industry, what would it be?

I would hope a focus would be placed back on full bodies of work instead of collections of singles. I miss the cohesive journey music used to be about. 

 

7,  How do you intend to keep growing as an artist?

As long as I’m willing to admit there is still room for improvement in my art and I don’t get content with where I’m at I don’t believe I can stop growing as an artist. 

 

8,  I know you've done a ton of studio work over the last couple of years.  If you don't want to give too much away here, that's fine, but what can we expect from TINO in the near future?

The pandemic has afforded me the opportunity to tweak and refine my next work as well as slate some releases before it. I will say my next full length will be the best version of my work to date.

***

Personally, I strongly believe in the album as an art form, and am disappointed at the general listening habits of folks today.  I agree with TINO on this 100%.  Having TINO in the studio for "Anecdote" was a very educational experience for me, as he has a skill set that I do not have, and I was able to learn from his preparation and his approach.  The man is serious about his craft, and it shows in his results.  I linked to his website above, but you can also find TINO on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Please check out "Anecdote" tomorrow on Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, Deezer, or wherever you stream music, and also please check out TINO's work on these platforms.

 

Let’s veer away from the topic of music for just a moment.  I’d like to briefly talk about one of my other interests, baseball… but first, some history. 

I suppose I love baseball because my dad loved baseball at some point.  As he got older, he stopped watching baseball in favor of golf for some reason, but I remember watching many games with him as a child.  Something about the cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and hitter appealed to me… I liked that unlike most other sports in this country, there is no clock… I imagine that like a million other boys and girls, I played catch with my dad whilst pretending to be one of the pitchers I would see on TV. 

Speaking of TV… this particular device greatly increased my love of the game.  The closest Major League Baseball franchise to where I grew up is the Cincinnati Reds… and of course, going to school, just about all of the other kids were Reds fans.  Not me. See, we had cable, and just about every day during baseball season, the Atlanta Braves were on our cable, because their owner also owned his own TV station. I watched the games just about every night… clearly, when the Braves were on the West Coast, I couldn’t watch the games that were past my bedtime… but I watched just about all of the home games.  Now, this was in the 80s when the Braves were awful. Awful teams, hideous uniforms, but I loved them anyway. I remember watching Dale Murphy (he used to be my favorite), Bob Horner, Kent Oberkfell, Rafael Ramirez, Ozzie Virgil, Zane Smith, Rick Mahler, Bruce Benedict, Glen Hubbard, Deion James… so many mediocre players, but I didn’t know it at the time. 

Ok, enough of the past, let’s talk about NOW.  I am still a Braves fan, and although I like to travel and see baseball games, I don’t think I’ll be seeing them at home anymore.  See, they moved out of town a couple of years ago, and their new ballpark is way out in the suburbs in a very high-traffic area without public transportation, which makes it very inconvenient for someone to fly in to catch a game.  That’s ok, the last couple of times my wife and I went to see the Braves, they were in Toronto or Milwaukee or elsewhere. 

Currently, the Barves (sic) are 18-20, and sit 4 games out of first place.  The offense is pretty good. Some of the young starting pitchers are pretty good.  The bullpen is a dumpster fire, and the front office didn’t do anything in the offseason to improve it.  The lack of quality relief pitching has cost them several games this year already. It’s a long season, but I think I’m already running out of patience. 

Some positive things about the baseball season… Mike Trout is fantastic.  This is something that you already know if you watch baseball, but I love to see him play.  Back over in the friendly NL, I love watching Acuña hit...I love watching Albies hit, but I wish he would be a bit more selective at the plate… I love watching Freeman hit...I very much love watching Christian Yelich hit. 

This past weekend, I was able to cross another ballpark off the “baseball parks I’ve seen a game in” list… it was Coors Field in Denver.  It isn’t my favorite park, but it is a very nice place to catch a game (even if that game happens to be between the Padres and Rockies as ours was), and I recommend stopping by if you have the chance.