Seen today on a license plate at the back of a maroon/purplish Mazda Miata — top up for some reason! Miatas always catch my eye because my best friend drove one.
Pirates 12, Cardinals 11
I haven’t seen much good baseball from the Pirates at the games I’ve attended, and tonight’s game was no exception through 5 1/2 innings. I’d been in my seat for 2 hours. I was there by myself. The Bucs were down 8-3. I left.
Crap.
On my way to the car, the Cardinals added another run, 9-3. The Pirates scored once in the bottom of the seventh: 9-4 I’m listening in the car, and the Cards add another run in the top of the eighth (the scored in six consecutive innings): 10-4. Bottom of the eighth, Jason Bay cracks a two-run homer (his second of the night), 10-6.
I’m home by the time the bottom of the ninth starts, and I’m switching back and forth between “A Fistful of Dollars” and the what I figure will be the waning moments of the game. Wrong.
Nate McLouth smacks a three-run homer: 10-9. There’s just one out. Rivas singles. Doumit singles, and Rivas goes to third. Bay hits a slow grounder to short — potentially a double-play ball — but the Cardinal second-baseman bobbles the throw and can’t make the relay. Run scores. 10-10.
In the top of the 10th, Cardinal third-baseman Troy Glaus (he’s HUGE by the way) homers to deep left. 11-10.
In the bottom of the 10th, the miracle. Raul Chavez singles. Jason Michaels homers to left. 12-11. Game over.
I got a beach towel. And the Pirate mascot launched a rubber stress ball before the game started that I actually caught.
Pirates win! Pirates win! Pirates win! And I coulda been there!
Down to Earth
How about this song performed by Peter Gabriel? If you go to see “Wall-E,” you’ll need to plan to stay in your seat to listen to this song and watch the drawings go by on the screen during the credits … maybe worth the price of admission all by themselves!
Here’s a sample of the lyrics from the song:
“Did you think you’d escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You’re always afraid
Of the change
You’ve got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down ”
and then a little later …
“We’re coming down
Coming down to Earth
Like babies at birth
Coming down to Earth
We’re gonna find new priorities
These are extraordinary qualities “
Yanks visit the Pirates
As a baseball fan, I’m not crazy about Interleague play, but since its inception, I’ve been waiting for one team in particular to visit Pittsburgh — the New York Yankees.
They finally arrived this past week, with all the pomp you’d expect from what is arguably professional baseball’s most storied franchise. My son and I were in the stands for Wednesday’s game. It was a 10-0 drubbing of the Bucs. After seven innings, with the score 8-0, we left, which is something I rarely do.
Lots of other folks had been waiting a long time for a Yankees appears in the ‘burgh. In two days (the third game was rained out), more than 77,000 showed up. Even though PNC Park was packed on Wednesday, it was a quiet place. That might have been because the Pirates themselves showed little sign of life. But I think it’s more the nature of the fans.
PNC Park is a great place to watch a ballgame. Unfortunately, it’s also a great place to eat, wander around, people-watch and go to the bathroom. It always seems to me that the people at PNC are interested in just about anything but the baseball game. I’ll grant you, the crowd was probably more engaged during the Pirates 12-5 win on Tuesday night. But anytime I’m at PNC, I don’t feel like fans are paying much attention to the game.
Pittsburghers like to brag about what great fans they are, but I don’t see it. I don’t see it at Steelers games either, but that’s another story …
Meanwhile, I wonder how many Pirates fans realize what a true baseball treasure we have playing shortstop. Jack Wilson is old-school, hard-nosed and plays with joy. If you’re at the ballpark and bored with people-watching, spend some time watching how Wilson plays the game.
What the frack?
I missed the news that Battlestar Galactica is on hiatus until January, so last week’s arrival on a decimated Earth was the mid-season “cliffhanger.”
I just wish SciFi would have run some kind of commerical message telling us that this would be the last episode for a while. Apparently there will be at least one BSG movie made and aired before January, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few webisodes are posted to help fans bridge the gap.
Stay tuned …
BSG: Revelations
(Contains spoilers)
This is another light-speed episode. The four Cylons are revealed. Admiral Adama has a breakdown. The rebel Cylons led by Deanna almost destroy the humans. Lee Adama almost washes Saul Tighe out an airlock. The viper that brought Kara Thrace back from death suddenly comes to life and points the way to Earth. The Cylons and humans agree to go to earth together. President Adama turns the reins back to President Roslin. And Earth? Well, there’s nothing there but a burned-out, radioactive husk of a planet.
There are hints of things to come. Early in the episode Kara consoles Lee Adama by repeating something Leoben said to her about children being meant to replace their parents, and the only way for children to become greater than their parents is for the parents to die. There are several shots later in the episode of Hera and Nicholas (both children of cylon/human mating). Are we foreshadowing?
The disappointing condition of Earth leaves us wondering, “now what?” What are the Cylons and humans really meant to find if not Earth? Who destroyed Earth? With no common goal, will the Cylons and humans start warring with each other again? And, of course, where the heck is the fifth of The Five, and what can he or she add to all of this mess? Stay tuned boys and girls: If you miss a minute of these shows you’ve missed major plot changes!