A Penguin in the Orchard

Summer’s Here

The dark months are over, folks. I’m sitting in front of the TV with regular season baseball on ESPN. I couldn’t be happier.

The Cardinals open at home tomorrow afternoon. I’d love to take the day off work, hop on the bike and make the 4-hour drive to St. Louis. I haven’t been to Busch since Mark McGwire’s 70 home run season. On that day, I saw him hit numbers 39 and 40 - in early July. Busch was my summer home during the three summers I lived in St. Louis. I went to more than 90 games in that period. For most of those games, I sat in the $4.00 left-field bleacher seats - the home of the true baseball fans.

While I love Iowa City, I do miss being that close to a major league ballpark. Before St. Louis, we lived in Baltimore and Arlington, TX. In both cities, we voted for the bond issues on the new ballparks, then moved before they were built. Memorial Stadium in Baltimore was smack in the middle of a neighborhood on 33rd St. It was the lifeblood of the neighborhood, but was a terrible place to get in and out of on game day. Arlington Stadium was only three blocks from our apartment - easily within walking distance. My daughter went to her first game there, at three months old.

“He struck him out there. It might have been a slider. Something off-speed.”

“Yeah, that was a cutter. You can see the rotation in the replay.”

“Jammed him and that foul will go out of play.”

“Broken bat bloop - Glanville - gets there.”

“One for three with a double and a run scored.”

“There’s that changeup I’ve been talking about. Look at that. He’s been throwing 94, 95 and he comes back with that 80 mile an hour changeup.”

That’s the language I love - talkin’ baseball.