Baseball Fans

Naomi in front of the cement tiger at Comerica Park

with Dad

To the left of me, are two solid shelves of baseball books. In many of our cupboards are boxes and boxes of baseball cards that presumably will be worth something someday. I doubt they are even worth  tenth the price of what was paid. I think he has finally stopped buying baseball stuff as the latest "Baseball Register" is dated 2011. Still Steve can be found staring at box scores on line committing them to memory. Ask him about any baseball factoid and he will answer. Can he remember which way to turn on the way to Josh's house? No. But he knows his baseball. He did experience a first yesterday: a reversal of an ump decision due to taped reviews.

Despite having now lived in Michigan longer than New York, the Yankees are still his favorite team. He can not watch their games unless he knows ahead of time they are going to win so he tapes the games. He is no fan of the Tigers, our 'home' team but he will watch them as he loves the game and he really doesn't care if they win (although it will be helpful to the Yankees if they lost a few more games).

Shanna is also a fan of the Yankees even though we never lived in NYC (we certainly visited there a lot). One year she wanted to go as Don Mattingly for Halloween, probably the only 9 year old girl to dress that way (certainly in Michigan). I dutifully painted pinstripes on long underwear and appliqued a Yankees ensigna to the front and Mattingly's number to the back. Her short hair was easy to comb into a Mattingly haircut. I drew in his big mustache (need to find this photo I know I took). Yankee caps are easy to come by in this house.

Although Naomi prefers football, especially UM football (hard to be a fan after last night...ugh!!!!), she does like baseball, so it was a good father-daughter activity with perfect weather (heat had gone away with Friday's storm) yesterday. They were gone for 8 hours.

Josh never cared for baseball. He much prefers football, especially UM. The other day when I was over helping him with Allie, as he washed bottles, I had to read him the odds of each professional football team reaching the Super Bowl as he had to formulate some picks that night for some betting pool he's in. (The Broncos and The Seahawks chances are best).

Although Steve's mom was an ardent Yankee fan, she quickly adopted the Seattle Mariners upon her move there. The nursing home recently alerted the Mariner's management about their biggest fan and they sent her a letter and shirt:

She will turn 90 in a few weeks.

I am not loving my new bike. Now I heard weird noises and it is very difficult not to have the brakes rub against the wheel. Still it was cool and calm out. I could not have done last week's ride as the sun would be blinding me and the drivers heading east. Saw 3 sandhill cranes in a corn field a few miles out and a deer that scampered in front of me. The city is now studying what to do with the deer here.

No good solutions.

update: I did find Shanna in her Don Mattingly costume:

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