Rare Films, Rarely Seen

Yogi Berra trading training tips with a feline friend in a commercial
for Puss 'n Boots cat food (available here, starting at 1:05).

Last week I saw "Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame," presented by Dave Filipi, director of film/video at the Wexner Center for the Arts.  This is the ninth year that Filipi has collected video transfers of films from the archives of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the second year he has shown them at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).

Once in a Blue Luna

José Contreras (who is 40 in Cuban years) brings it for the Phils

Another trip to Wrigley, another excruciating performance by the Cubs bullpen. But I can say that I was there. I was a witness. I saw the unbelievable. Yes, Hector Luna hit a pinch-hit grand slam.

So what, you say, Hector Luna has hit 13 home runs in his nine-year career. So what, you say, that's what pinch hitters are for. So what, you say, the Cubs bullpen is so bad that it's lucky it didn't somehow give up a five-run home run. All true. But watching a futility infielder hit the second pitch he had seen all year—the second pitch he had seen since 2010—over the ivy (giving him as many RBIs with that one swing as he had had in the last four seasons combined), to give the win to the indefatigable middle reliever José Contreras, makes an aging fan believe that anything is possible.

Mr. Mayor and Mr. Met

As a New Yorker, and as a Mets fan, I could not help but smile at this picture, taken at the press announcement that the 2013 all-star game will be held at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.

Photo Credit: Spencer T Tucker

Cultured Traveler

Julius Shulman photographed Fire Station No. 28,
644 Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles,
(which I did not see but drove past heading for the freeway)
for the Historic American Buildings Survey, or HABS.

Back home, I am catching up on some newspapers published while Melvin and I were in Los Angeles.  The "Cultured Traveler" column in the April 22 New York Times was written by Sam Lubell, one of the authors of Julius Shulman Los Angeles: The Birth of a Modern Metropolis, published a year ago.  Several of Shulman's architectural photographs are iconic and he helped popularize mid-century modernism, especially residences in Southern California.

Lubell highlights four L.A. structures Shulman (1910-2009) photographed that contemporary travelers can visit.  I didn't tour the interiors of any of them, but I saw three of the four (more or less), and a good deal more architecture on our recent trip.

3 x 2 = 3

In a strange twist of scheduling, I have seen three MLB games this year (in two stadiums) yet seen only three teams play: the Cubs, the Dodgers, and the Braves.

More on Malls

A view of Riverside, Calif., in 1966 that I found here.

As it says in Ecclesiastes, "Of the making of malls, there is no end." Following on our experience on Fulton Mall in Fresno, we came across three more major pedestrian malls in California, first in Riverside, then in Pasadena, and finally in Santa Monica.

Bracketed by Stupid

Saturday; we're now caught up as far as Saturday, when Melvin and I drove all over the Inland Empire, sightseeing, and ending up at a Rancho Cucamonga Quakes baseball game.

Roger Clemens, Crazy Man

Screen capture from Keith Olbermann's blog post, "Ten Years After,"
in which the sports and political correspondent calls Clemens, "hopped up."

The government's second attempt to try Roger Clemens on charges of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of Congress began a week ago Monday, while Melvin and I were in Los Angeles.

I have waited for this day since last July, when I facetiously accused the prosecutors of intentionally causing a mistrial.  In his opening statement yesterday, Rusty Hardin, Clemen's attorney, stated

"What guy ... would go to Congress and lie under oath, knowing what the consequences would be if he hadn't done it? What man, except a crazy man, does that?"

Exactly.

Castle, Ranch, Temple, Stadium

On Friday, Melvin and I continued south towards Los Angeles but then veered off into the high desert, ending up finally at a High Desert Mavericks baseball game. Before we got to the stadium, we visited a castle, a ranch and a temple.

Streets of Bakersfield

When planning our trips, Melvin and I consult many sources, including real live people we actually know. It turns out we both know folks who had lived in Bakersfield, land of the free and home of the Blaze, the third baseball team we saw on this trip.

Asked what we should see while we were in town, a co-worker of Melvin’s provided the address of where she grew up and suggested we could visit her childhood home. Sarah, the roommate of a bartender I know, told me she moved there for six months to be with a boyfriend. Love conquers all, but not life in Bakersfield.

So my pulse quickened when I came across “Origin of Country,” an article in the March 9, 2012 special travel section of the New York Times.  Sadly, it only mentioned attractions I had already read about.

The Soul of Wit?

En route from Fresno to Bakersfield we made a stop in Visalia. Ordinarily, I'd regale you with tales of our visit to that stadium, but truth be told most of what there is to say has already been covered at Baseball Stadium Reviews, right down to the rudeness of the fans and the coolness of Tipper the Cow. It is worth underlining that this is perhaps the most awkwardly laid-out stadium there is. (See above, which captures only part of it.)

We had front-row seats that were perhaps a little too close to the extensive netting.

Prior to the game we had spectacular salt-and-pepper shrimp at Pho N Seafood. That's about all I can say about Visalia. In truth, my head was still spinning from Fresno.

They Fought the Mall, and the Mall Lost

Hello, PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno. How are you, PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno? I figure you're tech-savvy enough to have a Google alert set up for yourself, PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno, so I'm glad we have this opportunity to talk. (While Rob and I agree on many things on this blog, I'm speaking only for myself here.)

For those readers of this blog unfamiliar with the PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno, let me introduce you. Readers, PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno is a Property-based Business Improvement District and perhaps better known as "Downtown Fresno," though that seems to be a bit of a misnomer. PBID Partners of Downtown Fresno, these are the readers—say hello.

It's All Nancy Pelosi's Fault

...like so much else in this country.

I took Tuesday morning off and Melvin at least didn't have to answer for other people's decisions and mistakes.  We left for Fresno around 2:00, passing in route many signs critical of current water regulations.  It took us four hours to get to the Central Valley city, leaving us just enough time for Laotian food and a baseball game between the Fresno Grizzlies and the Reno Aces.

Three Days in L.A.

Beginning in 2007, Melvin and I have generally included a spring baseball road trip to the south in our schedule. What started as avoiding uncomfortably hot weather took a turn with our April 2010 trip to the Gulf States.  While Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana would unquestionably get quite hot later in the baseball season, we constructed our itinerary around an annual conference being held in New Orleans.

The convention determined our destination again last year, but we ended up some place that is cold in April.  Melvin has worked the industry get-together all three years.  I attended the convention in New Orleans but did not last year, although I stayed in the conference hotel.  This year I came to the host city while the conference was going on but spent the weekend on my own (above).

Reading List

If this was a more traditional blog, Melvin and I would post more often, and that would mean a constant search for new content.  The easiest way to populate a blog with content is to comment on, or maybe just take note of, someone else's content.

There was just such an opportunity yesterday.  "To celebrate the return of baseball," the New York Times asked some of its staff "to recommend their favorite fiction or nonfiction books that revolve around the sport."  The selections appeared on page C4 of the local print edition and since they do not appear to have been published online, perhaps I actually serve a purpose by regurgitating them here.

What's this "we" business, paleface?

—just to jump ahead to the punch-line.

I have been struggling for some time with what I want to say here, how the blog can be satisfying to me. It's something Melvin and I have discussed several times on the phone and by e-mail, as well as at the bleary-eyed Long Island City "staff meeting."  I have started numerous posts that ended up in the metaphorical trash basket.

So, when Melvin writes, "Our plan is to post less often but at greater length and even perhaps with more insight—long-form journalism," he may be right ... or he may just be expressing what he believes to be the solution to my vexation.  I sense there may be posts that are exactly the opposite, a series of photographs with little text, like the conclusion of my (long-form, I admit) post on Lightning Field.

Or maybe I have already left the reservation.  In my line of work—"I'm a tumbler; I'm a government man."—it's inadvisable to let people see indecisiveness, to make public the thought process (unless one is breaking the rule manipulatively).

On the other hand, I am perplexed by blogs that peter out or abruptly end.  What happened after that last post?  Was the author killed in a car crash?  Or did s/he just lose interest, over time or suddenly, without ever writing about it?  Not as esoterically as I might have—those are some of the drafts I deleted—but I've now written about it.

On the Road Again

At last! Some clue about where the Byways will take us this year. Our plan is to post less often but at greater length and even perhaps with more insight—long-form journalism is the new new thing, dontcha know. Here's what we have lined up so far:

Tuesday, 4/17: Fresno Grizzlies
Wednesday, 4/18: Visalia Rawhide
Thursday, 4/19: Bakersfield Blaze
Friday, 4/20: High Desert Mavericks
Saturday, 4/21: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes
Monday, 4/23: Los Angeles Dodgers

Some of you may notice that this route will take us right past the Lancaster Jethawks and the Inland Empire 66ers. We had to save something for a later Anaheim/San Diego/Lake Elsinore itinerary....

A second trip in the summer will take us up and down either side of the Mississippi, and then some:

Wednesday, 6/27: Chicago Cubs
Thursday, 6/28: Indianapolis Indians
Friday, 6/29: Bowling Green Hot Rods
Saturday, 6/30: Nashville Sounds
Sunday, 7/1: Jackson Generals
Monday, 7/2: Memphis Redbirds
Tuesday, 7/3: Arkansas Travelers
Wednesday, 7/4: Springfield Cardinals
Thursday, 7/5: Tulsa Drillers
Friday, 7/6: Northwest Arkansas Naturals
Saturday, 7/7: St. Louis Cardinals

There will be a smattering of Cubs and Mets games, too, plus Rob may well file a report from the debut season of the Miami Marlins and their insane home-run display. Play ball already!

Not That Melvin

The reports of our retirement have been greatly exaggerated. We're just hibernating.

Itineraries and some modified expectations for 2012 are forthcoming...

Lose the Bet

—and you're gonna get wet!

At my "local," Lauro, one of the cooks, bet a bus boy, Alek, that the Detroit Tigers would beat the Texas Rangers.  They did not wait until the end of Game 6 to settle up.  With the score 15-4 after seven innings, it was all but certain the Rangers were going to the World Series.

Video by Cesar Gil used by permission

When I objected to the use of Six Point Brownstone Ale for Lauro's shower, I was informed that pitcher was mostly foam from a new keg.  I hate the waste of fine craft beer.

Rust Cannot Sleep Now

I have been watching the 2011 post-season with a couple who are from Detroit and Milwaukee.  It has been enjoyable to do so, even as disappointment has deteriorated towards fatalism.  Their home teams, for which they have never stopped rooting after moving east, are down 3-2 to the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals in the respective league championship series.