Ick

Over the weekend we went to see the annual Fourth of July game at Nationals Park. The 11:05 am start time is still a nice novelty. I really love going to the ballpark so early in the morning, walking around, still, sometimes, feeling like I'm waking up. This year the Nationals hosted the Pirates which would have been much better had McCutchen still been a Pirates player; but at least the long weekend brought with it the news that he'd signed a minor league deal with the Braves. The way the Braves season is going, he'll be called up soon to replace someone with an injury. I hope so. 

The weather this year was, I hope, a once in a lifetime event! Man was it hot and humid; reaching before noontime about 100 degrees. It was brutal. Ick! Our seats were in the shade and we actually had a decent breeze for much of the game, but we still felt like we were inside of a hairdryer. The Pirates quickly made it clear they were not going to lose. After the 7th evening was excused ourselves; it was just too much to stay the whole game. It was a good choice as we were back home in about 15 or so minutes and finished the game on the TV in an air conditioned room. Below is first pitch. We sit too far away to take anything sort of meaningful and this is zoomed in more than 3x, so...

The highlights of the game were: 1) Konnor Griffin's first inning delayed steal of home. Never seen that before! 2) James Wood leading off the bottom of the first with a home run. 3) A Pirates reliever taking the bullpen car from the bullpen to the dugout. Excellent. 

Card Talk!

I found ten dollars in someone's yard. It was kind of flaccid because of the dew on the grass. So I let it dry over the course of the day. What to do with that money? I could get a coffee and some doughnuts, but I'm trying to eat less crap.  So, speaking of crap, I decided to tick another one off my Last Topps Cards of Hall of Famers and started shopping around for the 1972 (ick) Hoyt Wilhelm. I figure I could use that $10 to offset the pain of buying another card from this set (Bill Mazeroski was also a 1972).

I started shopping around and was disappointed to see sales in the $20s or higher. Any card from 1972 shouldn't worth more than maybe a nickle. I found a decent looking card and, for shits and giggles, put in a max bid of $19.72. I didn't win and I'm grateful. I put a card on my watchlist and within 48 hours had an offer from the seller for something around $11 with reasonable shipping.

Fine. 

And then there were five.

Thanks for stopping by.