A few months ago, I wrote about being nominated in the Best Blog category of the Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH 2023. I explained at the time that I thought you should vote for Sue of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents or Virginia of Breathing Space. Sue and Virginia finished second and third respectively. As a tangent, Sue is going through some personal "things," so please support her if you can. In addition, Virginia recently published a book called Nothing. Everything. that I'm looking forward to reading. Go check it out!
Back to the post. When I wrote about being nominated, I included this statement about one of my fellow nominees Uncle Bob's Magic Cabinet or UBMC not to be confused with UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center:
This nomination actually bothers me. This is a website promoting a mother and daughter's podcast about magic and mythology. There are no posts on the website. A nomination in the podcast category would be appropriate but not in the blog category.
UBMC ended up winning in this category which boggles my mind because IT'S NOT A F!&%ING BLOG! It's a website for the podcast. There are no posts. Pittsburgh City Paperinterviewed the mother-daughter duo who also won in the Best Podcast category. There's no mention of a blog or writing in the article. You know why? Again, it's because IT'S NOT A BLOG!
Look, I know some people might have an issue with my nomination since I don't live in Pittsburgh anymore. That's fair. I would counter that I've been part of the Pittsburgh Bloggers Facebook group for years, contribute to the Ya Jagoff website, and often write about Pittsburgh topics, most notably Pittsburgh sports teams. However, Sean's Ramblings would be eligible as a blog because this site is a blog.
Okay, I'm done thinking about this. Maybe the City Paper can screen its nominees a little more next year.
Welcome to my second annual post where I see what National Football League teams use their social media accounts (specifically Twitter) to share a Shana Tova, or Happy New Year, messages for Rosh Hashanah. Last year, 4 NFL teams (the Lions, Jets, Ravens, and Buccaneers) posted a message. With Rosh Hashanah being on a Sunday, I gave the teams a little bit of a pass since the teams' social media departments were probably busy with games. This year, Rosh Hashanah started on Friday evening. Plenty of opportunities for teams to post a message on Friday or Saturday. Let's see the results:
9 this year which is a nice improvement from last year. I really like Chicago having a bear getting honey from a beehive. Well done! I also want to give partial credit to the Carolina Panthers and Buffalo Bills. I mean, if you're celebrating Rosh Hashanah without Bojangles or a wing-eating contest, you're doing it wrong!
If we're making a menu of traditional Rosh Hashanah foods, apples and honey are at the top of the list. Then, you must have a round challah. From there, if you're hosting a dinner, you can have a chicken, beef, or fish main course and maybe some vegetables like carrots or mashed potatoes and a kugel as sides. Finally, finish your meal with some type of cake or apple pie. Why do I mention this? While I really appreciate grocery stores wishing shoppers a Happy New Year, it seems like some just promote any or all Kosher products even if they don't have anything to do with Rosh Hashanah.
This is from Giant:
This is from Safeway:
Again, I don't want to discourage grocery stores from mentioning Rosh Hashanah and acknowledging the holiday. Just leave matzo ball soup and gefilte fish out of it!
Back in May, I received a random voicemail on my home phone. Yes, I still have a home phone, but that's not the point of the post. The guy gave his name and phone number and said that he had some baseball questions for me. While I had no idea who this person was, I called my mom to see if she knew this gentleman since they share the same area code. I thought that maybe my mom had a conversation with a neighbor or friend and somehow the fact that I am a baseball fan came up. When I talked to my mom, she didn't know this person and thought it was a scam. Still, while random and unusual, I didn't think this was a scam. Then, before I called back, I had a revelation.
(Not sure if this video fits with my "revelation," but I like it.)
I share a first and last name with a fairly prominent individual in the online sports, and in particular, baseball community. We definitely don't share a household name, but the other Sean runs websites visited by many sports fans looking for historic information and data. There have been several times over the years where people contacted me thinking that I'm him. Generally, it's as a Facebook friend request. So before I called the guy (let's call him Greg) back, I figured out that he thought I was the other Sean and randomly found my home number thinking I was him.
Greg is probably in his 70s or 80s and is a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan. Apparently, his relative came across some negatives of old Boston Braves players including Babe Ruth. He was trying to contact the other Sean to try to identify some of the players in the pictures. We had a nice conversation about baseball, Fenway Park, and more, and it concluded with me trying to be the middleman between Sean and him.
I contacted Sean and gave him Greg's contact information. Sean replied and indicated that one of his customer service folks would reach out to him. After two weeks of not hearing anything, I contacted Sean again, but he replied that he never heard back from Greg. I tried Greg again asking if he was able to connect with Sean and his company. I also wrote that I would love to see some of the pictures if he didn't mind sending them. This is what he sent:
Now I'm not a baseball historian, and I don't play one on the internet. However, I clearly recognize this picture as Johnny Damon who played on the Boston Red Sox (and not the Boston Braves) from 2002-2005. Greg and I have not had any additional correspondence.
UPDATE!
Several hours after this post went live, I received an email from someone at the sports website "referenced" above. It turns out that Greg did contact them and provided several photos though not negatives and not all Boston Braves players either. The website was able to identify two photos of Jimmie Foxx, one of Lefty Grove, and one of Mel Ott and Wally Berger together. There was no additional contact from Greg after the website wrote back with the IDs.
My brother and his family got a kitten named Lucy at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, their dog constantly chased Lucy whenever they were together, so Lucy really didn’t have the freedom to roam around the house whenever and wherever. Because of this, not long after we had to say goodbye to Ziggy, they asked if we wanted to take Lucy. Between some vacations and work needing to be done at the house, we delayed a decision until late August when we said we would take her. On Monday, we brought Lucy home.
For the first 4-5 hours at our home, Lucy stayed in the basement. While she found her litter box, ate food, and drank water, Lucy didn’t really let us near her. I get it. She’s in a brand new place, and three loud boys will make anyone want to hide! With everyone in bed and me sitting on the couch watching TV, she ventured to the main level of the house and even upstairs. I worked from home on Tuesday to get some bonding time with Lucy. She did more exploration and started being comfortable around me. I mean, I have some scratches on my hand and arm (she made me bleed my own blood), but she purred and seemed happy to be around me.
(The next two videos are not suitable for work or kids.)
She's starting to get into a routine. She sleeps/hides under one of the living room couches when the kids are home in the evening. They are loud, and she doesn't seem to want to deal with all three. The big adjustment for us is going from Ziggy, an older cat who slept a lot including on or next to me to Lucy, a kitten who has incredible energy. She's basically Roy Kent. She's everywhere.
I’ll admit that I’m stealing this post directly from Heidi. She regularly writes “Housekeeping” posts where she highlights activities and events from the previous month and previews the next month. So this represents my highlights from August.
* August started with me visiting my mom in South Florida. It seems like the summer weather there consists of extremely hot and humid temperatures and/or torrential thunderstorms. That’s the weather Every Single Day!
* The Moose and Pedro Tulo went to an overnight camp for three weeks. They both had an amazing time and wanted us to sign them up to go for seven weeks next summer. Three weeks is plenty. I’m so happy that they were happy at camp. It’s such a great experience for them to be at a place they enjoy, meeting new people, and trying new things.
* You would think with Luigi at home, it would be much easier with just one kid. Nope. He can be a handful just on his own.
* Saw “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Kennedy Center. Might have been the most I’ve laughed in years.
* If you didn’t see them earlier, please check out my posts about seeing Pink and my Dad Camp week activities. Those were both big events in August.
* The Moose started middle school. He was nervous about going to a new school and navigating his way around the building, but he seems to be doing okay so far. One quick story. On the first day of school, a girl in a few of his classes had Ohio State stickers all over her water bottle. He wanted to wear his Ohio State T-shirt the next day in an apparent attempt to show that they had something in common, so I washed the shirt for him. The Moose wore the shirt the next day, but she wasn't there.
* Seems like good starts to the school year for Pedro Tulo and Luigi too as they began 4th and 1st grades. Luigi has the same 1st grade teacher as his brothers. She's the best, so we're very happy about this.
That's about it for August. I participated in a few fantasy football drafts and made some big trades in the fantasy baseball league I've been in for over 30 years. I've also made a goal to write at least 8 separate blog posts, so please visit often to see if I accomplish my goal!
I wrote about Dad Camp last year, so I wanted to share what we did this year along with some pictures.
Monday: Costco, Library, Swimming Pool
Not the most exciting start to Dad Camp, but there was a purpose to these activities. A local library has a summer reading program where you can earn Washington Nationals tickets. We visited the library specifically to pick up the voucher and then went to Costco where the kids were super excited that I bought a case of Prime, a new hydration drink.
I had big plans to take the kids to a Nats game on Tuesday or Wednesday, but the tickets were only available for September games.
Tuesday: Renwick Gallery, White House
I wrote last year that I try to expose my kids to art and culture when I can, so we visited the Renwick Gallery, part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Unlike most Smithsonian museums, this one isn't on the Mall and is smaller and more intimate than its contemporaries. The kids' favorite was Janet Echelman's 1.8 Renwick, and they also really enjoyed Alicia Eggert's This Present Moment, andBisa Butler's Don't Tread on Me, God Damn, Let's Go! - The Harlem Hellfightersamong others.
When we finished at the Renwick, we walked by the White House
Wednesday: Visited My Brother's Family
We got the cousins together and went to a very cool park with a ninja course and baseball fields where we played a heated game of kickball
Thursday: Frisbee Golf, Meet The Teacher Day
On the 5th or 6th hole of the frisbee golf course, Luigi had a meltdown over not going first or not getting to use the new disc or something. Who knows? These tantrums happen sometimes but not generally in public. Fortunately, I don't think anyone else noticed.
The Moose is starting middle school, so this was the first time he met his teachers. We walked from classroom to classroom trying to replicate his schedule which changes every other day. Big adjustment for him, but every other 7th grader is in the exact same position.
Friday: Luray Caverns, Route 11 Potato Chips
This was the big trip of the week. Luray Caverns is just cool. So many stalactites and stalagmites. Nature at its best.
(I don't think the ladder is natural.)
And after lunch, we visited the Route 11 Potato Chips factory. It's not that big, but they gave very generous samples and watching them make the chips was fun.
Of course, my kids talked much more about the chip factory than the natural wonder millions of years in the making.
Saturday: Loudoun United Soccer Game
They still haven't offered me the job of being the official team blogger, so I'm not going to expand on the game or anything else associated with the game.
It's going to take some work next year to top Dad Camp 2023!
As I was out running an errand on Wednesday, I checked my email and received the following message from Google:
Subject: OnlyFans.com now has access to The Moose's Google Account
Message: The Moose signed in to OnlyFans.com with their Google Account. OnlyFans.com now has access to some of The Moose's Google Account data, including:
* See your primary Google Account email address
* See your personal info, including any personal info you've made publicly available
* Associate you with your personal info on Google.
OnlyFans is a "subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections." While that sounds innocent enough, there's a lot of X-rated material on this site. Certainly not appropriate for a 12 year old!
I instantly emailed my son as soon as I received the message.
The subject of the email was "What are you doing," and in my mind I sounded like Dwight from The Office.
Me: Why is onlyfans.com attached to your Gmail account.
The Moose: That's weird.
Me: What are you clicking on that you would attach to your email/Google account?
The Moose: I have no idea.
I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt since I really don't believe that he was searching for X-rated content. I really think he's too innocent for this. I mean, he wanted to order a "Grilled Cheese" salad for dinner last night off the "grown up" menu, and I had to tell him that it was a Grilled CHICKEN sandwich. Plus, he was in the same room as his younger brothers at the time he was online.
I checked his browser history and did see onlyfans.com listed. I don't know why or how he even heard of it. My theory is that he was searching for some fantasy football draft advice and came across someone who was offering suggestions on their paid OnlyFans site. Just before that, he was looking at some information about a musician, and maybe he visited OnlyFans because the artist has a page. I really hope one of these two theories are accurate!
I've written various Celebrities in Pittsburgh Gear posts since 2010, and today marks the first time I've ever referenced the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in one of them. On Saturday afternoon, professional golfer John Daly published the following tweet:
On the surface, this appears to be completely random. John Daly has two major championship titles with seemingly no connection to Pittsburgh and particularly the Riverhounds, the city's soccer team in the USL Championship division, a tier below Major League Soccer. However, Daly is apparently friends with Riverhounds owner Tuffy Shallenberger. Doing some internet detective work, I found this Facebook post for Suzy's Simply Delicious in Mount Pleasant, PA with a message thanking the dessert place for the unbelievable cake for the John Daly golf outing and celebrating the birthdays of Tuffy Shallenberger and his son Dylan.
Tuffy responded to the tweet with a "Love ya, brother" message and a fist bump emoji. Oh, the Riverhounds defeated Hartford Athletic 2-0.
On Sunday afternoon, I started hearing reports about the high potential for severe thunderstorms with an outside chance of a tornado on Monday afternoon and evening. This was very concerning since I had tickets to see Pink at Nationals Park at that exact time. The weather reports didn't change throughout Monday. Dangerous storms. Destructive winds. Torrential rain. Frequent lightning. I'm on an email list from someone at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Center for Weather and Climate Prediction. He sends emails for possible snow storms, and Monday was the first time I ever received a message from him during the summer. As the afternoon progressed, the federal government announced that offices were closing at 3:00. Meanwhile, this is the message Nationals Park posted on social media.
With no further announcements, we decided to try to get near Nats Park before the storm arrived. We figured we could shelter in place in the underground parking garage or at a restaurant. Not ideal, but for a rain or shine event (and expensive tickets) and no updates, we figured we had to get close to the venue. While walking from the garage to the stadium, the downpour began. We were able to duck into a Cava restaurant about a block from the stadium and hunkered down for dinner. After about 30-45 in the restaurant and the rain stopped (and still no update from Nats Park), we entered the stadium. The concourses were packed since the stadium wasn't allowing people to their seats yet. We heard someone mention that Grouplove, the opening act, announced on social media that they weren't playing due to weather conditions. Again, no notice of this or anything else in the stadium or online. Finally, people were able to get to their seats, and a DJ named KidCutUp did his DJ thing (he was actually really good) before Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo played a shortened set.
As you can see from the videos in this post, there was definitely heavy rain throughout the night. I mean, it certainly seemed like the performers and most people in the audience were getting soaked. I don't actually know. Amazingly, our seats were under an overhang keeping us completely dry.
This is a very long introduction to the fact that Pink is awesome. The show is completely unlike anything I've seen before. It's a major artist playing her hits while essentially incorporating Cirque de Soleil into the act. What's amazing is that Pink still sings her songs while jumping and bouncing all over (and above) the stage. If you have a chance to see Pink live, I highly recommend that you go.
A few notes from the concert:
This was the first concert since seeing Christina Aguillera in 2000 where there were more women than men. No lines for the men's bathroom!
Speaking of bathrooms, during my first year at the Celebrate Fairfax festival, I ran into Neil Giraldo in the bathroom. I said hey as I was leaving, and he replied hey as he entered. We didn't see each other this year.
Lots of people wore pink to the concert. I don't remember many people wearing green when I saw Green Day.
My only disappointment with the show (besides the lack of communication by Nats Park) was that Pink didn't perform U + Ur Hand. Such a good song.
Finally, while the weather wasn't as bad as predicted, don't tell that to the owner of this car in my neighborhood.
It's been several years since we did a thorough cleaning of boxes. With the older two boys away at camp, we decided to dig into some boxes which have been sitting in our storage closet for years. The best find was a gift card for $100 that we received when Pedro Tulo was born in 2014, and although the expiration date on the card expired, the funds did not, so I called the company and received a brand new card in the mail. We donated toys that my kids have outgrown and have seen better days but may still be useful for preschool-aged kids. We threw away and recycled a lot of stuff.
As you can tell from the title of this post, I found many folders filled with college papers and tax returns. While I'm not sure how long you're supposed to keep tax returns (it seems like the answer is only 3 years), I have some dating back to my childhood. Why do I have tax returns from when I was only 10? It's not like I was working at Hills or Kmart. Anyway, all tax returns from the 20th century and the 2000s are now gone. Fun fact: I made $1,877 working as a soccer referee in 2005 or 2006. That was definitely before kids when I had a lot more time and was physically able to work multiple games on both days of a weekend. I haven't come close to making this amount in a year since then. I also found this W-2 tax statement proving that I worked at Blockbuster.
On to the college papers. Did you ever want my thoughts on Secretary of State Warren Christopher from a 1997 paper? How about a 1995 paper titled "The Unification of Germany and Its Economic Consequences?" I was quite generous with the margins and font size of this paper about NAFTA. Really needed to make sure I had enough pages!
Just one more item to share. While I wrote about being a summer intern for Congressman Mike Doyle, here is a letter of recommendation from him. Can I still use this or is there an expiration date?
There are many times when you watch an awards show like the Oscars or Emmys and everyone knows who is going to win in a particular category. Some nominees may hold a glimmer of hope that they might win, but they know this is unlikely and truly are honored just being nominated. That's me in the Pittsburgh City Paper's Best of PGH 2023 in the Best Blog category. I really am honored to be nominated since I know that I won't win and don't deserve to win.
I wasn't familiar with this site until I saw the list of nominees. Derrick and Daniel lead a paranormal investigation and research team and write and share videos of their experiences at different sites around Western Pennsylvania.
Simply put, Sue runs an important website. She's a great writer who shares experiences and stories of Pittsburgh's LGBTQ community and also spotlights horrific violent incidents particularly against transgender individuals. She's won several awards for her blog since its founding in 2005 and deserves all of them and more.
Hey, that's me! This blog has and always will be all over the place. I write about Pittsburgh sports, followed by a post about running a 5K with my kids, or the battle over stairs in my neighborhood. For every "serious" post about current events, there are many more that might make you question why you're reading about how I saved money at Kohl's or if you really needed to see a picture Ed Sheeran meeting Cameron Heyward.
This nomination actually bothers me. This is a website promoting a mother and daughter's podcast about magic and mythology. There are no posts on the website. A nomination in the podcast category would be appropriate but not in the blog category.
You can't have a conversation about this history of Pittsburgh blogs without including Virginia Montanez. As PittGirl, she wrote the hugely influential Burgh Blog and That's Church, and there was huge speculation about the identity of the author (probably mostly from former Pittsburgh mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who was last seen in Dark Knight Rises). Virginia now writes Breathing Space under her own name, and I look forward to receiving emails with her posts each week.
This should be the place where I tell you to go to the Best Blog category under People and Places and vote for Sean's Ramblings. If you want to vote for me, fine. However, you really should vote for Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents or Breathing Space. The quality and importance of both sites is remarkable. Sue and Virginia are such great writers and deserve to win.
Voting runs from now until July 30th.
(Based on the last 10 seconds or so, this video is NSFW)
Welcome to my annual-ish Pittsburgh Pirates draft recap. While my recaps are usually light-hearted and intended to be funny, I'm going to start with an actual baseball opinion.
1st Round: Paul Skenes - P, LSU
I love this pick. If you want to win in the playoffs and get to the World Series, you need to have an elite pitcher or two. Let's look at the top pitchers for the last five World Series champions.
2022: Houston Astros - Justin Verlander (future Hall of Famer); Framber Valdez (now a 2-time All-Star in only his 6th season)
2021: Atlanta Braves - Charlie Morton (2x All-Star); Max Fried (finished top 5 for the Cy Young in 2020 and 2022).
2020: Los Angeles Dodgers - Clayton Kershaw (future Hall of Famer); Walker Buehler (2-time All-Star); Julio Urias (Finished top 7 for Cy Young in 2021 and 2022)
2019: Washington Nationals - Max Scherzer (future Hall of Famer); Stephen Strasburg (4-time All-Star)
2018: Boston Red Sox - Chris Sale (7-time All-Star); David Price (5-time All-Star, Cy Young award winner)
You have three first-ballot Hall of Famers in this group and several others that would fall into the Hall of Really Good. While the 2021 Braves may not have had an "elite" starter, Morton and Fried are both really, really good, and Morton (7-5 record with a 3.60 ERA in 18 career playoff games) might have more playoff pitching experience than any active player.
The point I'm trying to make is that the Pirates need to have an ace. A #1 starter. A guy who can intimidate and shut down opponents. These guys aren't available very often, and the Pirates won't or can't trade for one (like the Dodgers did in 2021 for Scherzer) or sign one as a free agent (like Verlander to the Mets this season or wherever Shohei Ohtani may end up next season). Skenes could be that guy. His college stats are insane. The Pirates have to hope that his stuff translates to the majors and that Mitch Keller continues to pitch like he has the first half of the 2023 season. This could be an outstanding 1-2 combination!
Okay, that's enough "serious" baseball opinions. Now back to my usual draft recap where you'll read things you won't find anywhere else.
6th Round: Hunter Furtado - P, University of Alabama
He's like a bird, he'll only fly away.
3rd Round: Garret Forrester, 3B, Oregon State University
He could be the perfect spokesperson for Subaru. (Alternative draft recap idea: Run, Forrester, Run!)
Perfect pick for Pittsburgh. The crowd will go crazy anytime Mueth gets a strikeout. MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUETH
SEC Pitchers
Through the first 8 rounds, the Pirates drafted pitchers from LSU (Skenes), Vanderbilt (Patrick Reilly), Alabama (Furtado), Georgia (Jaden Woods), and Kentucky (Austin Strickland). It looked like the Pirates front office was trying to do the impossible. Draft pitchers from every SEC team! Unfortunately, the Pirates failed to draft anyone from any other SEC school on the third and final day of the draft. Both Magdiel Cotto (Alabama) and Garrett McMillan (Kentucky) pitched for SEC schools, but not Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi, Arkansas, etc.
19th Round: Tyler Kennedy - P, Florida Southwestern State College
I'm so impressed by Kennedy. He had a successful NHL career (including winning the Stanley Cup on the Penguins in 2008-2009), got his picture taken with Taylor Swift, and now is good enough to get drafted by the Pirates. Amazing!
2nd Round: Mitch Jebb - SS, Michigan State University
With the success of Mitch Keller this season, it makes perfect sense for the Pirates to draft another Mitch. I'm a little surprised the team didn't draft a dozen players named Mitch this year.
15th Round: John Lopez - C, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy
The MLB draft tracker on MLB.com is fantastic except for one thing. Under birthplace, the website shows Lopez and anyone else born in Puerto Rico as PR. The birthplace for Skenes, Jebb, etc. are all listed as USA. Last time I checked, Puerto Rico is part of the United States, so why not the USA for Lopez too?
18th Round: Kalae Harrison - SS, NC State University
Back in the 80s, the Pirates had a AAA team in Honolulu, the Hawaii Islanders. I can't imagine the logistics involved. The Pirates couldn't have just called up a AAA reliever for a weekend series in Philadelphia. It would take way too long for the player to arrive. The Pirates had to be sure the AAA player was going to stick around for some time. I mention this because maybe the Pirates organization feels bad for abandoning baseball in Hawaii. The perfect way to make it up to the Aloha state is to draft a player from Hawaii. Done!
20th Round: Peyton Stumbo - P, University of Nevada
Cut that meat! Cut that meat!
Let's Go Bucs!
Please click here to read previous Pirates, Steelers, and Penguins draft picks over the last decade. Enjoy!
In the long and storied history of Sean's Ramblings, I've had a series about celebrities in Pittsburgh gear and Pittsburgh athletes with world-renowned athletes (or PAWRA). I write this because this particular blog post doesn't quite fit either category. On Saturday, Ed Sheeran performed at Acrisure Stadium. Based on Sheeran's love of Heinz ketchup, they really should have used the stadium's previous name of Heinz Field just for one night.
Anyway, at some point on Saturday, Steelers' Cameron Heyward and his wife Allie met Sheeran. The Heywards presented Sheeran with a special Steelers helmet featuring a Sheeran concert picture on one side. It's pretty cool.
A little disappointing there's no picture of ketchup on the helmet though.
Photos from Cam Heyward's Instagram page. The final picture includes Jim Sacco, the Vice President of Operations and Stadium Management at Acrisure Stadium.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
Any questions, comments or links? Contact me at seanramblings[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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