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...

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.

Joaquin Benoit Halloween Costume

Halloween occurs at the end of October, much of which I spend watching post-season baseball.  That still does not really explain why every year I see some baseball player and decide dressing up as him for Halloween would be fun.

Photograph by Al_HikesAZ used
through Creative Commons license

Last year it was Giant pitcher Brian Wilson, who manages to make a real beard look fake.  Fear the weird!  It's early yet but after last night's decisive (and oh-so-enjoyable) ALDS Game 5 between the Tigers and the Yankees, I have been thinking about a Joaquin Benoit Halloween costume.  You can too!

Baseball is the Opium of the People

Photo by some corporate lackey used without permission because I am
sticking it to the man.  Or something.  "This is what democracy looks like!"

Yesterday, as the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, anti-corporate protesters occupied the Brooklyn Bridge.  Over 700 protesters were arrested but not the young man I encountered in a bar about three-quarters of mile south of the East River crossing.  He reported that he climbed from the roadway to the pedestrian path in the center of the bridge and escaped.  Done with anarchy, at least for the time being, he was rooting for his home-town Phillies to win.