All posts filed under: Baseball

Live Blogging Game 1 of the NLDS (#1)

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Okay.  I’ve been much too serious in recent posts here on More to Come…  So, to remedy that problem, let’s live blog Game 1 of the National League Division Series between our Washington Nationals and (Claire’s) Los Angeles Dodgers! Go Nats! I’ll be at tomorrow’s game in person, so it seemed appropriate to carry on a running conversation with readers online, just as if I were at the ballpark. I’ll post several times during the game. Thank God I missed 99% of FOX Sports 1 pre-game.  The basket of deplorables on that show (Pete Rose! A-Rod!) is just too much to bear.  But so FOX. 5:39 p.m. – First pitch strike from Max!  And we quickly have a strikeout! 5:41 p.m. – Well giving up that home run to Corey Seager didn’t take long.  (Only player who can give Trea Turner a run for his money on the “looks like he is 12 years old” scale.) Maybe Max got it out of his system early.  The gopher ball has been his problem all year long.  …

Meanwhile, Back at the Ballpark

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With travel and vacation, it has been a month since I was at Nationals Park for a baseball game.  Last night I made it back and realized how much I’d missed. When I left, the Nationals were pulling away to about an 8-game lead in the division over the Marlins and Mets.  Last evening, the Nats went into the opener of a series against the Colorado Rockies leading the Marlins by 8 games and the Mets by 10.  Even though they didn’t play outstanding ball in August, they played well enough to keep the margin in the division race. But when we left in early August, Anthony Rendon was just showing signs of coming out of a year-long slump and Bryce was still scuffling, with no real sign of playing like BRYCE!  And there was this youngster – Trea Turner – who was not playing everyday, but who was taking advantage of what playing time he got to make an impact. Well, four weeks is a long time to take your eye off the game, …

Rainbows, Moon Shots, and Wild Walk-Offs

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In the past eight days I’ve been to Nats Park three times.  And each game has been wacky and wonderful, in its own way. I wrote about the “Rainbow” game in the title last Sunday, when my friend Dolores McDonagh and I watched Tanner Roark (our #4 starter) pitch masterfully for eight shutout innings, and Stephen Drew (remember that name) come in and smash three doubles to contribute to the win.  So what does Drew do for an encore?  Immediately catches some sort of flu and is out of action for six straight days.  (But keep remembering that name.) I also took one of my older score books to the game last Saturday.  In looking through that book at the clinching game in 2012 (for the division title), and some other 2014 games, it brought back good memories of even-numbered years for this ball club.  A nice start to the week. On Wednesday, Andrew and I met at Nats Park after work to catch the Nats vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Since our Claire has …

Nats Rainbow

It’s a beautiful day for baseball

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(Editor’s Note:  Before I begin this post, I want to wish my sister Debbie Brown Crocker a wonderful 60th birthday today.  She’s the best.  Period.  Debbie has a wonderful spirit – just like our Mom – and holds the family together in ways large and small now that both our parents have passed away.  Have a great day, Debbie.  Love you – DJB.  Now, back to the regularly scheduled entry into the More to Come… online journal.) Just before the beginning of each Nationals baseball game, the announcer booms, “It’s a beautiful day for baseball.”  It doesn’t matter if it is 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity.  Or if you’ve just endured a 71 minute rain delay, as was the case last evening at the old ballpark.  Our Nats take the “any day at the ballpark is a great day” approach to life.  And hey, I’ll buy it. Last evening, our home field announcer may have even known what he was talking about.  After a severe thunderstorm (we had hail in Silver Spring), the air …

Jarosz and O'Donovan

Observations from the road: The celebrity sighting edition

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I have been on the road forever it seems.  So here are a few “Observations from the road…” posts which are – as always advertised – quirky and perhaps not ready for prime time.  You’ve been warned. Celebrity Stalking:  True story.  As I was walking through National Airport earlier this afternoon following a flight back from Chicago, I noticed two young ladies carrying cases for a guitar and mandolin.  I had been focused on getting something for a late lunch before rushing to the office, but my brain did engage to the point where I said to myself, “That sure looked like Aoife O’Donovan – and I bet that was Sarah Jarosz with her.” At this point you may be asking yourself, just who are Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz? Well, for music lovers who veer away from the Taylor Swift variety of music, they are two-thirds of one of the most terrific — yet widely unheralded — music groups today:  I’m With Her. (And no, they are not connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign.  …

Check Off Another One!

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My goodness, it has been a busy week of travel! Attend the Main Street Now 2016 conference on Monday and Tuesday in Milwaukee and get energized by all the work going on in downtowns across the country – check. Stop by and visit the amazing Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory Domes in Milwaukee – check. Catch a bad head cold and endure a 4 1/2 hour flight from Chicago to San Francisco – unplanned, but check. Have lunch in Carmel with one of the elder statesmen of preservation – the indefatigable Knox Mellon and his wife Carlotta – check. Celebrate the beginning of the construction phase of our work at Cooper-Molera historic site with more than 100 people from the city staff, California State Parks, our local stakeholders, and our development partners in Monterey – check. Over a wonderful dinner celebration in Monterey, talk baseball with the wife of one of our partners at Cooper- Molera, who has the perfect marriage…she’s a Red Sox fan and her husband is a Giants fan…so on the west coast …

Observations from the Road (Or the “While I Was Out of the Country” Edition)

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It turns out that the world continued while I was on sabbatical for six weeks.  We returned on Monday afternoon and caught up with chores on Tuesday, while simultaneously trying to keep our Italian buzz alive.  Pacci’s Pizzeria here in Silver Spring and Takoma Park’s Dolci Gelati Cafe certainly helped in that regard! In checking the news here in the states, I also discovered a few things that caught my eye. Baseball season has begun – When I left the country, spring training was underway.  As we returned, our Washington Nationals were jumping off to a 12-4 start and are currently in first place in the National League East.  I know, I know:  it is early.  I also know they have feasted on the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.  But a win in April is as good as a win in September, and if they expect to do anything this year, the Nats will need to feast on the teams in their division who aren’t very good.  I have tickets for Sunday afternoon’s game, and …

My Own Personal Spring Training

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As I post this, the clock on Spring Training Countdown (motto:  Winter Bad. Baseball Good.) reads:  4 days, 7 hours, 37 minutes, 7 seconds.  It is clear I don’t have much time to get in shape for the season! My own personal spring training generally consists of reading a new baseball book and re-watching Bull Durham (best baseball movie ever).  However, our tape/CD player is broken (I know, we’re old school), and so I had to improvise and instead read two baseball books.  It is tough duty, but sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get into shape. I began with 2015’s Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-year Losing Streak by Pittsburgh writer Travis Sawchik. This is a terrific book about how the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates, stumbling along in a 20-year losing streak (remember Sid Bream and Barry Bonds and Skip Carey’s classic 1992 “They may have to hospitalize Sid Bream” call) turned around their fortune as a baseball club.  The Pirates did it using big-data …

Observations from Home (The It Is Still the Christmas Season Edition)

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If it is the Christmas season, it means that the Browns are likely to have a new family photo taken by our friend John Thorne. (Blog interruption:  For those who may be wondering about the use of Christmas language after New Year’s Day, just think of the 12 Days of Christmas.  That’s how we celebrate at the Brown home.) I’ve written before about the fact that we wouldn’t have family photos if not for John.  Thankfully, he showed up at church on December 20th and asked if we would like a family picture.  All four of us were there, and it was also Andrew and Claire’s 23rd birthday.  A perfect day to capture the family for 2015! John used two settings, with two different cameras.  At the top you see us in the church yard, while the photo below shows the Washington National Cathedral in the background. What a wonderful gift for the Christmas season.  Thank you John! Speaking of getting the family together:  I’ve been hinting over the past couple of months that I’d …