Showing posts with label Bryce Eldridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bryce Eldridge. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Weekend Update

Ah, the weekend. It's what everyone is working for. Sometimes you're busy with lots of activities. Sometimes you can relax and unwind. Maybe sleep in. The sleeping in part never happens for me. On Saturday morning, I woke up a little after 3:00 thanks to hearing Lucy throw up. After cleaning it up with a carpet stain removal, I went back to sleep...only for Lucy to again wake me up at 5:00 because she wanted food. I love this cat, but she is so annoying. And as I’m typing this she is scratching the couch.

Okay, enough about Lucy. Let’s get to some good stuff.

The big highlight of the weekend was taking my boys to a card show. My dad took my brother and me to card shows regularly when I was in middle school, and I actually sold cards several times at the Eastland Mall Super Flea in North Versailles, PA. I love the atmosphere of card shows. For sports cards (since I skip over tables with Pokémon and non-sports cards), many people love to talk about certain cards or teams or players. At this particular card show, I learned why a guy who grew up in Northern Virginia is a Bills fan. I bought myself a $1 Bryce Eldridge card since I saw him play at Madison High School in Northern Virginia, and I hope he has a long and successful baseball career. This led to a discussion about ultimate frisbee with a father and his teenage son who plays ultimate frisbee with some guys from Madison HS. And I bought a Konnor Griffin card because why not.


The Moose bought several cards that might be valuable in the future, but for the most part, they bought cards of players they like or cool cards. For example, Pedro Tulo bought himself a Detroit Pistons Rodney Stuckey card since it included part of his jersey. While it’s a neat card, I doubt there’s a huge resale market for Rodney Stuckey cards. We did not consider getting a Lamine Yamal card for $15K or a Victor Wembanyama card for $8K. Someone else was trying to sell a signed drumstick by Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. One guy I met named Nicholas creates his own cards via Near Mint Customs. While we talked about the absurdity of Enes Kantor declaring for the WNBA draft (he was selling some of these cards that he made), I really liked his "What If" series (though Russell Wilson should have been in an Orioles or Rockies jersey since those MLB teams drafted him).


I went out to a really nice dinner the other night and mentioned that I’m seeing the Foo Fighters on Monday night. (Future blog post?) When asked who was the opening acts, I replied Queens of the Stone Age and practically had to whisper Mannequin Pussy. At a quiet, fancy restaurant, not quite the environment to say that name loudly! Actually, this was probably a missed opportunity to say the band name loudly!

Wegmans is discontinuing its mac and cheese boxes. I don’t know why. The grocery chain should really inform me of any actions taken. Anyway, did I buy 10 boxes for 26 cents each? Absolutely. I figure that I might make a box or two and I can donate the rest at an upcoming food drive.


When I was in 5th or 6th grade, my dad put a pair of red sweatpants in the washer with whites. All of my whites turned pink. At that point, I decided it was time to do my own laundry. With The Moose about to start his sophomore year in high school, he should have at least done some of his laundry years ago. Still, he did his first load of Sunday.

When the kids were away at camp, we ran the dishwasher twice a week at the most. Now that they’re home again, we’re back to running the dishwasher every day or two. So many cups get used by them!

It’s Dad Camp week, so more about that to follow.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

James Madison-Oakton Playoff Baseball

The Moose arrived home from elementary school recently and said that he wanted to attend a high school baseball game later that evening. We had nothing scheduled, so I took my three boys to a quick fast-food dinner and then their first high school baseball game. Guys night out!

This was a regional semifinal game between James Madison High School (21-4) and Oakton High School (16-8) located less than 1.5 miles away from each other. The place was packed since it was a playoff game between two rival schools. The limited bleachers at James Madison HS were full when we arrived, so we watched the game standing against the fence where the third base line met left field. Well, I watched the game as the kids played various football and baseball games with some of The Moose's friends in the huge grassy area adjacent to the field. 

I should probably mention that one of the attractions of the game was James Madison pitcher/first baseman Bryce Eldridge. In separate mock MLB drafts over the last few weeks, Keith Law of The Athletic projects the Baltimore Orioles to select Eldridge #17 overall while Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com (who apparently used to play basketball with my brother) has him going to the San Diego Padres at #25. It definitely appears that Eldridge will go in the first round, so seeing someone play before they are potentially a star was intriguing. Of course, it turns out that Eldridge didn't pitch in the game, and Oakton elected to intentionally walk him for all four plate appearances. More on this momentarily.


In preparation of writing this blog post, I searched online for a recap of the game. Some type of news article or a blog post. I came up with absolutely nothing except for this recap from the GameChanger app, which is clearly auto-generated. I guess I'll give a mini summary of the game. Tied 1-1 after 5 innings, Oakton scored 5 runs in the top of the 6th. While I might be wrong on the specifics, I believe that Oakton retired the first Madison batter in the bottom of the 6th before intentionally walking Eldridge. This makes no sense to me. Yes, Eldridge is the best player on the field, but the worst-case scenario is that he hits a solo home run. Maybe you think there's a 75% chance that he'll get on base, but that's still a 25% chance that he gets out. Of course, Eldridge came around to score and Madison ended up putting up 4 runs after a series of hits and errors. Then, down 6-5 in the bottom of the 7th (the last inning), Madison scored two runs including the walk-off hit batter which GameChanger described in great detail with multiple quotes from managers and players. A little local journalism would have been nice.



The highlight for the kids was the chance to meet Eldridge after the game. He stuck around on the field and was gracious in signing autographs for kids while he probably would have preferred celebrating the win with his teammates, family, and friends. I'm now definitely rooting for him, and my kids are too.



Once again, I show that I'm terrible at writing blog posts titles. There are probably countless options better than the one here.