tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60144082024-03-13T11:17:35.884-07:00A Thorn Among the RosesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger330125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-55978050317409815862023-11-28T10:59:00.000-08:002023-11-28T11:05:48.209-08:00Washington Nationals, Nationals ParkBy AgnosticPreachersKid (CC 4.0)SATURDAY, JULY 22: The Washington Nationals downed the San Francisco Giants, 10-1, at Nationals Park in Southeast Washington. Angela and I were there, lower deck, first base side. Josiah Gray pitched seven strong innings to record the win for the Nats, and shortstop C.J. Abrams contributed a home run.We made this trip mostly to cap off our Year of Live Baseball, toUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-82015251715262333102023-09-28T11:57:00.000-07:002023-09-28T11:57:01.240-07:00Brooks Robinson Baseball great Brooks Robinson passed away on September 26th, aged 86. He was at the heart of the Baltimore Orioles teams that I loved in the 1970s, a fixture at third base, a 16-time Gold Glove winner. He remained around the team even after retirement, and became a favorite adopted son of the city of Baltimore. Brooks's national profile went way up in after his MVP performance in the 1970 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-87951055628840751982023-04-25T12:24:00.000-07:002023-04-25T12:24:55.459-07:00The Captain Basketball Hall of Famer and two-time NBA Finals MVP Willis Reed died on March 21. The word "iconic" is overused, in my opinion. But it's hard to avoid it when talking about the 1970 New York Knicks, or Madison Square Garden, or "the Willis Reed Game." May 8, 1970 was the day of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Los Angeles at New York. The atmosphere was heavy with anxious speculation, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-50224319449094030942022-09-30T18:53:00.001-07:002022-09-30T18:53:57.014-07:00Charlotte Knights, Truist StadiumOur 2022 baseball quest has reached its end. The Nashville Sounds cruised to an easy 9-1 win over the Charlotte Knights, Friday, September 9. I guess a quest is not supposed to end with the Knights losing, but I am celebrating nonetheless. Whew! If it isn't obvious, Angela and I chose which games to attend based on scheduling needs, not baseball criteria. The outcome of this game might have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-61135548896024550152022-09-13T13:46:00.000-07:002022-09-13T13:46:43.047-07:00Asheville Tourists, McCormick FieldIn their final home game of 2022, the Asheville Tourists trounced the Bowling Green Hot Rods by a 16-6 score on Sunday evening, September 4. Gray skies and intermittent drizzles were not going to stop the game nor the postgame fireworks show. Angela and I were there along with our daughters Lily and Molly.Our love affair with Asheville and its environs continues. I grow fonder of this city every Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-37758081541167380382022-09-01T12:42:00.001-07:002022-09-01T12:42:09.965-07:00Gastonia Honey Hunters, Caromont Health StadiumSATURDAY, AUGUST 20: In Atlantic League of Professional Baseball action, the Gastonia Honey Hunters knocked off the visiting High Point Rockers, 11-5.Photo by JBJAs a repeat customer I feel qualified to say, ALPB baseball is a pretty good product. The Honey Hunters are strong this year; they will be competing in the championship playoffs in September. It seemed that every guy in their line-up is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-37612473914832074032022-08-22T20:44:00.000-07:002022-08-22T20:44:50.883-07:00Winston-Salem Dash, Truist FieldOn Sunday, August 14, the Winston-Salem Dash fell to the Bowling Green Hot Rods by a 4-2 score at their home grounds, Truist Stadium. Angela and I were in attendance along with my cousin Caskie, who made the trip down from her home in Danville, VA. We bumped into some other friends at the ballpark as well, and it was a beautiful day for watching a game, despite the disappointing result.Ange and IUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-16122105176265807492022-08-17T20:29:00.007-07:002022-08-17T20:36:54.838-07:00Down East Wood Ducks, Grainger Stadium, KinstonOn Saturday, August 6, on our way back to Raleigh after a family vacation at the beach, Angela and I visited Kinston to take in a game at Grainger Stadium. We watched as the home team, the Down East Wood Ducks, fell by a 3-0 score to the Fredericksburg Nationals. We seem to be a bad luck charm for the Wood Ducks; we also watched them lose at Kannapolis and at the Mudcats.I noticed in our program Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-42523779497964689182022-08-04T21:32:00.018-07:002022-08-05T20:46:40.458-07:00Burlington Sock Puppets, Burlington Athletic StadiumFriday, July 29 saw the Burlington Sock Puppets prevail over the Bluefield Ridge Runners, 12-10. The game was marked by errors and passed balls and hit batsmen. It did seem like the guys remembered how to hit along about the 5th inning, so there were a few homers and even a couple of defensive gems, but they were outnumbered by sloppy plays. This was the longest game we've seen this season, over Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-79474485787112578852022-07-29T09:12:00.000-07:002022-07-29T09:12:58.061-07:00Greensboro Grasshoppers, First National Bank FieldOn Saturday night (July 23) the Greensboro Grasshoppers bested the Hickory Crawdads, 7-6, in a South Atlantic League tilt. It was a fun game to watch, featuring several lead changes and six home runs, two by Hoppers catcher Endy Rodriguez. Hickory had a relief pitcher (a righty) named John Matthews, with a conventional overhand delivery, but who occasionally dropped down to throw a sidearm Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-66703898892793032322022-07-15T13:20:00.000-07:002022-07-15T13:20:07.511-07:00High Point Rockers, Truist PointOn Sunday, July 3rd, the South Maryland Blue Crabs downed the High Point Rockers by a 4-2 score, behind a three-run homer by shortstop Alex Crosby. Out of six games Angela and I have seen this season, it's the first one when the visiting team won. This was also the first game we've seen this year where I looked over the team rosters and recognized a couple of names. These teams play in the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-82225811307989244522022-06-24T18:24:00.001-07:002022-06-28T12:55:38.103-07:00Fayetteville Woodpeckers, Segra StadiumThe Fayetteville Woodpeckers downed the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, 4-3, on Father's Day (Sunday, June 19) in Fayetteville. In contrast with Durham's rapid shuffling of pitchers the other night, Fayetteville's starting pitcher, Edinson Batista, threw six shutout innings.There were a couple of moments that told me we were watching a Class A game, not AAA. One was when a Kannapolis outfielder caughtUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-16077713587544473292022-06-23T13:32:00.013-07:002022-07-07T06:40:24.953-07:00Durham BullsAfter a thunderstorm passed through, delaying the first pitch for about an hour, the Durham Bulls trounced the Louisville Bats, 5-0, at Durham Bulls Athletic Park on Friday evening, June 17. My wife and I were joined by two of my daughters, one daughter's domestic partner, and my dad, in an early Father's Day celebration. The game was followed by a pretty great fireworks show. I never Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-47744209134254684642022-06-16T11:57:00.001-07:002022-06-16T11:57:11.157-07:00Kannapolis Cannon Ballers, Atrium Health BallparkThe Kannapolis Cannon Ballers held on to beat the Down East Wood Ducks, 2-1, in a Carolina League contest last Saturday night (June 11) with Angela and me in attendance. The home teams are now 3 and 0 in the games we have seen this season. The Ballers made it interesting as their 9th-inning reliever issued walks to the first two Woodies hitters, but stranded them to record the save. It wasn't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-7180874274112252162022-05-31T08:24:00.002-07:002022-05-31T08:24:26.114-07:00Hickory Crawdads, L.P. Frans Stadium, HickoryMay 28: The hometown Hickory Crawdads subdued the Winston-Salem Dash, 7-3, and we were there at L.P. Frans Stadium to bear witness.The standouts of the game, for bad reasons, were the Winston-Salem pitchers who walked in three runs. (Three different pitchers, two different innings.) Once as a kid I was in the stands in Philadelphia for a game when Pete Rose drew a bases-loaded walk to win it in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-44213014283543589482022-05-23T18:41:00.001-07:002022-05-23T18:46:52.042-07:00Carolina Mudcats, Five County Stadium, ZebulonOn May 21 my wife Angela and I were on hand to see the
Carolina Mudcats defeat the visiting Down East Wood Ducks, 2-1, in a Carolina
League contest. There were two rain delays but they got the full 8.5 innings
in.
In 1990 Steve Bryant announced his wish to relocate his
Southern League franchise from Columbus, Georgia to Raleigh. We learned,
however, that organized baseball has a territorial Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-8932361757354089872022-01-07T09:24:00.001-08:002022-01-07T09:24:22.145-08:00CareyI enjoyed this profile. The fact that the subject was briefly Joni Mitchell's lover, and figures in a couple of Mitchell's best songs, is not the most interesting thing about him. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-24518858641940379872021-07-28T11:33:00.000-07:002021-07-28T11:33:53.583-07:00Adventures in medicine without a license By Henry Vandyke Carter - Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body, Plate 833, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=541692You say neuroma, I say fibroma, let's call the whole thing off.(I stumbled on a blog post by a hiker talking about his foot pain, which might offer some clues about MY foot pain. I might just need a shoe with a wider toe box...)The linked Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-60654226775895136442021-02-01T20:07:00.003-08:002021-02-17T07:41:26.487-08:00Crossing"What river have you crossed most often in your life thus far?" A blogger I follow posed this question the other day, and it generated many comments and some interesting discussion.I'm drawn to rivers. They connote time, dissolution, and renewal in resonant ways; there are several rivers that occupy a large space in my memory. I have family connections to the New River, where some of my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-29114435883475817732020-12-31T13:31:00.000-08:002020-12-31T13:31:48.892-08:00Wes Unseld
Wes Unseld had no flair, and what made him a great basketball player defies easy description. I grew up in the D.C. suburbs, so Wes's Washington Bullets were my team, and I saw Wes play several times at the old Capital Centre. But it was Julius Erving of Philadelphia whose poster I had on my wall. Wes Unseld had no posters or highlight reels to his name.Burly and immenselyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-26302547952935975342020-03-02T21:04:00.001-08:002020-03-03T15:22:19.349-08:00New Holland
What is a staunchly conservative Dutch Reformed Church doing in the tiny, remote Eastern N.C, community of Pantego?
Well, it turns out that 25 Dutch families settled in Beaufort and Hyde Counties, beginning in the 1910s, displaced by WW1 and finding the marshy area around the Inner Banks to their liking. What's an activity the Dutch are known for? Draining wetlands. After Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-59116651399565174672020-02-17T13:22:00.000-08:002020-02-17T13:22:50.203-08:00Desire PathYou've no doubt noticed the paths that form on a college campus, or in a park, or other grassy place with a lot of pedestrian traffic -- the paths that weren't laid out by any landscape designer, but are created by the footfalls of actual people finding the best ways to get to where they need to go.
The term for these unplanned user-created trails is desire paths. It can also refer Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-50938039893692442202020-02-12T10:42:00.000-08:002020-02-12T10:42:24.767-08:00TranscribingA potentially fun, fairly easy, and potentially benevolent activity: being a volunteer online transciber for the Smithsonian Institution. More details here:
https://transcription.si.edu/browse?filter=owner:1Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-36432093905732924732020-01-31T11:47:00.001-08:002020-01-31T11:47:38.479-08:00founding fathersTyping the title of this post sent me on a mental tangent: We took my father out for dinner for his birthday last week, my brother and I and our wives. Dad is a rare specimen, a type that political reporters constantly seek and rarely actually find: a well-informed, judicious, thoughtful political independent: a swing voter. And Dad despises Donald Trump, which is something our party Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6014408.post-45933891740473445262020-01-03T12:01:00.000-08:002020-01-03T12:01:34.938-08:00Bounty Huntinghttps://www.vox.com/2020/1/3/21035114/bounty-hunter-money-income-job
I once met the guy who at the time was pastor of a church in Robbinsville, North Carolina. Upon moving there, he found the locals to be distinctly standoffish and suspicious. Eventually someone explained to him that the people who founded the town included several bounty hunters, whose occupation made them aloof andUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0