Another August 2025 Random Ramblings

I received an email a few months ago from my health insurance company about getting a "Move Kit" and participating in an exercise program. The Move Kit basically consists of a generic version of a FitBit that I wear on my wrist. It syncs up with my phone and tracks my steps. The key part of this program is that it is free, so I signed up. While I've tracked steps on my phone for years, it only works when I actually have my phone in my pocket. Since I don't carry my phone when I referee soccer games, I always wondered how many steps I take during these games. Over the weekend, I finally got the chance to try it. While I'm not completely sure of the accuracy of the device on my wrist, in three 70-minute games (one as a center referee and two as an assistant referee on the sidelines) including walking to and from my car and the restroom, I took about 15,000 steps in less than 6 hours. 

Debbie Gibson has a book coming out in a few weeks. (I've written about her before.) While I'm not willing to buy it (yet?), I put it on hold at my local library.

After four years as the Dining for Dollars chair for my kids' elementary school PTA, I'm finally out! My job was to contact restaurants to set up events where a portion of the sales would go to the PTA. It wasn't a very difficult job, but it took up more time than I wanted in coordinating dates with the restaurants, the board, getting flyers made, etc. I told the PTA president at the end of last school year that I was done but would stick around if they couldn't find anyone new. I sold it as being a great position for someone who wanted to ease into getting involved but not ready for a leadership position. Someone took the role and has ideas for the school year. More importantly, I'm out!

Well, I was due. After nearly 20 years, I received a summons for jury duty. I wrote about my very limited experience years ago near the start of my blog. Might be some new blog content later this fall! (Though not nearly as good as the TV show.)

The Moose last played organized baseball in the fall of his 6th grade year. As someone who throws with his left hand, it was at this level where he could no longer play infield positions other than 1st base. He wasn't great at first, so he mostly played outfield. Although he had/has a good arm, I'm not sure if he pitched that season. Anyway, it was at this level, where you could clearly see a distinction between players. The good players were really good. There were a few kids who hit home runs and pitchers who could really throw. I don't think The Moose had more than 1-2 hits that season (though he had a good eye and walked a lot). I mention this because he just started high school last week and announced that he wants to play on the high school team this spring. As a pitcher. Not exactly sure how this is going to go, but I wish him luck.

Hill I'm Willing To Die On: Baseball Edition

For much of baseball history, there was the National League and the American League. They were completely separate entities with the winners of each league facing each other in the World Series. Otherwise, teams from each league would never meet during the regular season. There were separate league presidents, and umpires were employed by either the AL or NL. Limited interleague games started in the mid-90s with each team playing teams from the other league for a handful of games, but the percentage of interleague games during the season was still fairly small. Now, although there are still separate leagues, there are no league presidents, umpires are employed by Major League Baseball, and every team plays against each other each season. For the 2024 season, each team played 46 interleague games. That's a substantial number. So why are there still separate awards (MVP, CY Young, etc.) for each league?  The hill I'm willing to die on today is that there should be one baseball award winner. Period. 

Instead of Shohei Ohtani being the National League MVP and Aaron Judge being the American League MVP, there should only be one like in every other American sport. (The MVP debate this season would be unreal!) Look at the NBA for the 2023-2024 season. Nikola Jokic won MVP while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second and Luka Doncic finished third in the voting. All three play in the Western conference. If this was baseball, Giannis Antetokounmpo would have been the Eastern Conference MVP which seems a little ridiculous. 

In football, Lamar Jackson easily won the NFL MVP last season. Would Dallas Cowboys fans really celebrate Dak Prescott being the NFC MVP? The answer is probably not. Let’s stop this two MVP and two Rookie of the Year award nonsense in baseball and just have one award winner for the entire sport.

Please click here to see more of my extremely sporadic Hills I'm Willing To Die On series.

Potomac League

While I don't remember how I learned about it, I took the boys to several Potomac League baseball games in Tysons last summer. They had a great time. It's an intimate experience watching collegiate baseball players play, and you're so close that you can clearly see and hear all of the action.

We've attended two games so far this season, and in the first game, all three boys got league T-shirts, Pedro Tulo (10) participated in an on-field dizzy bat race, and The Moose (13) and Luigi (6) competed in a between-inning bocce ball contest where they rolled a ball from near the pitcher's mound to get the ball closest to home plate. (Luigi defeated his brother and two other older kids.) I think my kids are well-known among the league since they are the only kids approaching players for autographs after the game.

Despite going to games the last two summers, I didn't really know much about the league. So I sent some questions to the league, and intern Ella was nice enough to respond. 

1. When did the Potomac League begin?

The Potomac League had its first season last summer in 2023, previously it was known as NVCL. 

2. How does the league find players to participate? Is there someone that recruits local high school graduates now playing in college?

Players are knowledgeable about the league due to many reasons. Capital One Park is the home field for Marymount University, and all of the coaches in the league are high school coaches in the area. These players are all primarily from the Northern Virginia area, and players recruit college teammates, and coaches recruit former players.

3. How are the teams selected? Is there a draft?

Yes, players are selected by a draft that is held in the middle of spring.

4. It seems like each team plays about 5 days a week. Do some of the players have other jobs or internships during the summer?

Yes, some players do have jobs while playing in the league. We try to plan our schedule so that teams play at different times during the week, which in turn helps those who have internships or jobs be able to work a bit later during the week if they are in the 6:45 game.

5, For you personally, how did you get involved with the league? Has it been everything you hoped it would be?

I found out about the league through my Athletic Communications Director at Marymount University. We are lucky enough that Capital One Park is our home field and I was able to apply for the internship last year. I loved it so much, I decided to come back for a second year. We have a great group of players, a wonderful fan base & a strong leadership committee that makes showing up everyday easy!

Thanks to Ella for answering my questions. Since my kids are still young enough for free admission, it only cost me $10 to attend a game ($5 for a ticket and $5 for parking). Great deal. While this isn't the major leagues and I prefer a grass field to a turf one, the games are competitive and fun to watch. If you're in the DC/Northern Virginia area, check out a game.

More information about the Potomac League is available on their website.

Random Ramblings: March 2024

* Six-year-old Luigi is playing baseball for the first time this spring. While he is using his brothers' old helmet and bat, he got a brand new glove as well as a cup. He is completely fascinated by wearing a cup and keeps calling it his "penis cup." Fortunately, he is only using this name in the house.

* Based on the Pittsburgh Steelers off-season acquisitions, I planned a blog post about the team's 2024 soundtrack. The post was going to start with two Wilson Pickett songs in honor of the Steelers quarterback combination of Russell Wilson and Kenny Pickett. Of course, the Steelers traded Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles making the entire post moot. I guess I need the Steelers to hire retired quarterback Philip Rivers as a member of the coaching staff or organization and sign wide receiver Phillip Dorsett from the Denver Broncos so that I can created a new playlist featuring this song:

* I haven't mentioned Lucy very much since we got her in September. She constantly wakes us up around 5:00 AM but waited until around 6:00 the first few days after we moved the clocks forward. That ended. We're back to her waking us up at 5:00 again.

* I'm really happy for the Duquesne men's basketball team winning the Atlantic-10 tournament and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1977. The team hasn't been very good for most of my lifetime, so the Duquesne fans and graduates deserve to celebrate.

* Fun fact: Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot's son Robbie Dambrot plays for the Loudoun United soccer team.

* There is now a hawk living on our street. Oh, it's not Dominique Wilkins. I don't know when the hawk moved in, but our neighbor noticed him/her on Saturday. I'm now completely fascinated by this and really want to get some pictures and videos. This is my second attempt which isn't terrible. 

* The best view of the hawk would probably be from my kids' bedroom per the picture above of Lucy looking out the window. With the nice weather recently, the cherry blossoms have started to bloom almost earlier than ever blocking any possible view of the nest. This is clearly a first-world problem since the cherry blossoms on my street are beautiful and don't last more than two weeks. 

The Random Phone Call

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 Umpiring Debut

The Moose had his last regular season baseball game of the fall season, and there was only one umpire. As one of the few non-coaching parents at the field minutes before first pitch, I volunteered / was volunteered to serve as the field umpire. The only complication was that I was with five year old Luigi. After making sure he was happy with paper and crayons and a few of The Moose's teammates' mothers fine with keeping an eye on him, I agreed to help. 

Although I have worked as a soccer referee for decades and have watched baseball since I was younger than Luigi, being an umpire was a brand new experience. The biggest challenge was that I had no idea where to stand. The home plate umpire told me to stand on the first base line with no runners on base. This way I could see if the runner was safe or out for a close play at first. Then, I should move to close to second base with a runner on first and at the edge of the dirt between the shortstop and third base with a runner on second. Of course, I then had no idea where to go with a runner on third (or second and third). 

My entire goal was not to make a mistake and make sure Luigi was okay. In the first inning, one of The Moose's teammates beat out an infield single by a few steps. I signaled safe with no objections or complaints by any players, coaches, or parents. Later, I called out the same teammate attempting to steal third base. I was in a good position (I think), and it certainly helped that he was tagged out and wasn't close to touching the base on the slide. Meanwhile, Luigi was content on the bleachers, though I panicked at one point when I looked over and didn't see him. It turned out that he ran to get a foul ball and gave it to the coach before returning to his crayons. At the end of a half inning, I checked on him, and he said that he needed to use the bathroom. Of course he did! There was only one porta potty and a short line, and he said that he couldn't wait, so I took him over to a wooded area. He thought going to the bathroom outside was the funniest thing ever. After he was done (including cleaning his hands), I returned to the field though after the game had already resumed. At the end of the inning, I switched with another parent to sit with Luigi.

A few notes:

* The lead umpire told me that I had the authority to call the infield fly rule if the situation presented itself. Later in the game, I completely forgot if the infield fly rule applies if there are runners on second and third. (It does not.) Fortunately, a pop up did not occur.

* The Moose asked me after the game why I stood there with my hands behind my back. I told him it was because I didn't know what to do with them, and it didn't feel right keeping them in my pockets.

* The Moose's team won 18-8 (and it wasn't that close) with 33 stolen bases. I should mention that "stolen bases" include anytime there was a wild pitch or passed ball, which happened a lot in this game. 

Playoffs start soon. If asked, I would definitely help out as a field umpire again. I'll pass on calling balls and strikes though.

Hit Stick

This is the hit stick.

Yes, this looks like a prop that could have been used on the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway, but it’s actually for baseball and softball.  

The Moose recently had his first baseball practice of the spring season and although I'm not coaching, I offered to help. The coaches divided the kids into different groups and assigned me to the hitting station. My job was to hold the hit stick as 4th and 5th graders whacked away. Here's a picture of someone using the hit stick in action.

Looks like a good activity, right? It can help kids practice making contact. While this activity may be great for the kids, I'm convinced that the hit stick was made by the devil! I held the stick for at least 30 minutes through easily 200+ swings. When I finished, my hands were shaking, my fingers were swollen, and there was (and still is) an ugly blister on my left hand. The hit stick thing is the worst. Of course, in writing this blog post, I did a little research and discovered the video below. While there is unintentional comedy of this guy saying "big stick" and "shaft" in front of his daughter (I think like a 14 year old sometimes), the suggestion of wearing a glove is huge. And something I wished I knew BEFORE holding the hit stick!

Fortunately, Skye is helping my blister heel.