Life In Pictures

I take pictures for myself and my family, and I like to share some of them online. And then they sit on my phone for months if not years. So today, I'm putting together a post showing some of the things I saw and did over the last few months.

I took my kids to a high school baseball game in the late spring, and Pedro Tulo noticed the ring of the guy sitting next to us. It turns out that he is a retired baseball scout who spent most of his career in the Detroit Tigers organization. This ring is from the team winning the American League in either 2006 or 2012. I ended up talking with him for much of the game but the conversation mostly focused on Northern Virginia high school baseball. He still likes going to games.

The Baseball Project is a band who sings songs about baseball. They have a song about Ted Williams. A song about how Dale Murphy should be in the Hall of Fame. The video below is part of a song about Harvey Haddix and perfect games from when I saw them in September. I should probably mention that two members of The Baseball Project are Peter Buck and Mike Mills. They were also in another band you may have heard of called R.E.M.

To various degrees, my kids are all obsessed with sports. So every once in a while, I try to mix in a little culture. Twice over the last few months, I was able to mix sports and culture. In June, I took The Moose to Round House Theatre to see a 2-man show titled "King James." The show takes place in Cleveland and has four quarters: LeBron James' rookie season, after LeBron leaves, when he returns, and when the Cavs win the NBA Championship. Yes, there's plenty of sports talk, but the show is really about the relationship/friendship of the two characters over this time. 

Then, last month, I took The Moose and Pedro Tulo to see a revival of Damn Yankees at Arena Stage. I had never seen the show before, but I really enjoyed it. I'm also a big fan of seeing theater in the round. The run of Damn Yankees ended in DC, but I think the plan is for the show to go to Broadway. Both shows were big hits for the kids. 

In early September, I saw Ben Schwartz (Parks & Recreation, The Afterparty, the voice of Sonic) & Friends do an improv show at the MGM National Harbor. I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. Highly recommend seeing the show if they are in your neighborhood. It's improv, so every show is completely different. For those who saw the show in the DC area, you may remember the "Attentive" song for years.

Oh, I definitely did not expect to see a Steelers' Crosby jersey at the show!

I went to a late-season Nationals-Pirates game with the lowest attendance I had ever seen at Nats Park. We also shared an elevator with the Nats mascot, Screech. I have some pictures of him posing with my kids, and um, this one of the mascot avoiding the paparazzi. Also not pictures is my kids getting pictures or autographs with Spencer Horwitz and Cam Devanney of the Pirates.

As a staff development activity, we did some painting. Even though my pumpkin doesn't look quite like the model, I'm very proud of my work. This could be worth thousands some day!

Try to guess which one is mine!

Pirates-Nationals Notes

Since I was in attendance, I thought I would share my observations from the Tuesday and Wednesday night games between the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates.

- While it would be nice for the Nationals to be successful one day, in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the easy access to tickets. For the third time over the past two seasons, I arrived at the stadium without tickets only to have someone give me two tickets. Not sell me tickets, give me tickets. On Wednesday night's game, I was given tickets in the first row of section 100L (center field not far from where Nate McLouth made the game-saving catch). The normal ticket price is $30 per ticket and we even had someone in this section taking orders and bringing food and drink directly to our seats.

- Speaking of servers, when my friend ordered a hot dog, our server told him a few minutes later that they were out of hot dogs and had to make them from scratch. Do the Nationals have cows somewhere in the stadium ready to become hot dogs? (Just writing this past sentence makes me want to consider becoming a vegetarian.)

- I'd like to thank the Nationals for showing both A. LaRoche and A. LaRoche on the scoreboard. That really helped to differentiate the two brothers.

- Speaking of the LaRoches, what set of brothers have the most assists and put-outs from one brother to another? Our initial thought was Cal Ripken to Billy Ripken, but the LaRoches have to be pretty close, right? Any thoughts?

- Craig Monroe & Christian Guzman had a warm exchange at center field before the game. I feel like you need to know this.

- Pirates third base coach Tony Beasley deserves a lot of credit for Pittsburgh's victory on Wednesday. He made a bold move waving Andy LaRoche home in the fourth and then holding Freddy Sanchez in the ninth. Both turned out to be excellent moves.

- Andy LaRoche should start paying me to attend all of his games. He had three hits on Wednesday and a 2-run homer on Tuesday.

- I haven't watched Jeff Karstens enough this season to know whether this is a pattern, but he looked really good against the Nats the first time through the line-up. The hitters caught up to him quickly during their second go-around.

- There seems to be a lot of discussion from Nationals fans to fire manager Manny Acta. Personally, I don't think it is his fault that the team is so bad. As of a few days ago, the bullpen was on pace to have the worst ERA in the history of baseball. The team's defense is also the worst in the majors. My solution: rehire Jim Bowden as General Manager and then re-fire him the next day.

- The Nationals never announced the attendance at either game.

- Adam LaRoche is clutch in the 9th and 10th innings. He did next to nothing offensively in either game but on Tuesday, he hit a huge two-run double to give the Pirates a 7-5 lead in the 10th. On Wednesday, he was at-bat for the fateful wild pitch that scored the winning run. Coincidence? I say no. He is Mr. Clutch except for the first 8 innings!

- During Tuesday night's game, it would have been helpful to let us know that the Pirates were resting nearly the entire bullpen. Instead, we continually questioned why Sean Burnett and Tom Gorzelanny pitched so much when Matt Capps, John Grabow and Jesse Chavez were all available. This was especially the case after Burnett threw a wild pitch allowing the Nats to tie the game in the 9th.

- I would like to point out the jerk who sat two seats down from me on Wednesday night. He and his friend arrived in the fourth inning and talked loudly during the rest of the game. I'm all for going to a game and talking with your friends. That's part of the baseball game experience. However, he rarely talked about baseball and shifted to topics from naming all the French words he could to something about hanging out with drug dealers at a party. Plus, he also broke out his laptop for a few minutes.

- I wasn't a big fan of the old Screech mascot, but finally got used to him. When the team introduced the new gastric bypass Screech, I wasn't impressed. However, the person inside the costume changed my opinion. I'd share more but I worry what I reveal could be viewed as offensive, when it was really funny.

Overall, it was nice to see so many fellow Pirates fans at the stadium. While I don't recall seeing any Steelers clothing (though I did see one Terrible Towel), there was a handful of Crosby and Malkin jerseys and shirts.

Follow Up on Steely McBeam

Apparently, the nickname Ryan “Steely” McBean has been catching on for the Steelers’ rookie defensive end out of Oklahoma State as I have received scores of hits today from people searching “Steely McBean” on Google. Of course, there is a slight possibility people are just typing the name of the new Steelers’ mascot incorrectly.

I’ve thought about starting an online petition (if there isn’t one already) to stop the existence of Mr. McBeam. However, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, the addition of a new Steelers mascot, while silly and unnecessary, is not really a big deal. If the purpose of the mascot is to get the home team fired up at games, that’s not going to happen. In reality, while you can name the Pirate Parrot or San Diego Chicken, how many people know NFL mascots? Therefore, if the purpose is to have the mascot visit schools or attend community functions to benefit non-profit organizations, then I’m completely OK with the mascot.

The only recent mascot experience I have to compare with Steely McBeam is the debut of Screech for the Washington Nationals. Screech is an ugly part-owl, part-eagle that needs to lose a few pounds. In my mind, Screech is useless. With that written, I attended a Pirates-Nationals game earlier in the season and sat next to a father with his son who could not have been older than four. When Screech came to the section, the kid was thrilled and gave Screech a huge hug. I just hope that kids don’t get too attached to McBeam.

Pittsburgh Steelers Mascot

Are there ever cases when a mascot debuts and is universally loved? I generally think the opposite occurs as people seem to dislike or ridicule new mascots (see Screech of the Washington Nationals). It seems that the best mascots have earned their reputations through years of service and familiarity (see the Phillie Phanatic and Big Red of Western Kentucky University).

The reason I am writing this is because the Pittsburgh Steelers displayed their new mascot on Friday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the team. Dan already gave his take about the unnamed mascot, calling him a Demento (Pennsylvania Senator) Bob Casey Junior. Other commenters wrote that he has a smaller chin than Bill Cowher and looks like Pittsburgh TV announcer Ken Rice or “the priest who made me sit in his lap last week.”

Personally, I don’t think I like the stereotype that all steelworkers go to work unshaven and wearing yellow flannel shirts and goulashes! In all seriousness, the Steelers really don’t need a mascot. Is the mascot going to go from section to section to get fans excited? No. The fans will start yelling at the mascot for getting in the way of game (like I did when the Washington Capitals mascot made me miss a Penguins goal this season). If the team feels like they MUST have a mascot, just borrow the Pirate Parrot.

Interested in naming the mascot (my suggestion is "Unnecessary"); you can click here for KDKA's website.