Bullpenalized

I didn't take any pictures at the game,
so here is a photograph from my walk to work, earlier in the day.

A young guy sitting in front of Doug and me at last night's game between the Phillies and the Mets made several comments that were quote-worthy for their prescience.

Early in the game he exclaimed, "This is why I don't come see the Mets play. When I do, they lose." In actuality, the second inning home run by former Mets third baseman Ty Wigginton only tied the game, 1-1.

Nonetheless, after 3:13 of baseball on this muggy May evening, the facts were irrefutable: He had attended the game and the Mets had lost.

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.