- Wrigley Field and Fenway Park- Okay, I'm a Mets fan. But you have not seen a baseball game without visiting one or both of these baseball shrines. I've been lucky enough to see games in both places (more than once at Fenway). Are the parks old? You bet- and old stadiums from the "classic" days of baseball fit in to baseball's history like gloves (no pun intended).
- The history- 140 years. Thousands and thousands of players. Heart-stopping moments: "The Shot Heard 'Round the World", Kirk Gibson's "The Natural" moment, "The Catch", Bill Buckner (sorry, Karen). If you were alive and knew about baseball, you can remember where you were or what you were doing when at least one baseball moment occurred. Can you say the same for basketball? Or hockey?
- The Stats- I am never surprised anymore when some new factoid comes out from a game- take last night. Two switch-hitters on the same team hit homers from both sides of the plate. Okay, no big deal- but did you know the last time it happened was in 2000? Someone did, because it was in today's paper. Is there any organization like SABR for any other sport? I bet you can find an answer to "What baseball team has the most wins on a Tuesday" a lot faster than "What hockey team has the most wins on a Tuesday".
- The Pace- Baseball invites you to walk away and come back later, because it is leisurely; but there is a price- you might just miss something completely unusual. My story- my wife and I were at a Mets/Yankees game in May, 2005. She leaves in the bottom half of an inning to get something to eat and drink. She was gone maybe 10 minutes. While she was gone, she missed a pitcher in his second major league at-bat double over the outfielder's head, then score from second on a sacrifice bunt when the catcher didn't go back to cover home plate in time. As they say, Amazing.
- Lou Gehrig- As I said, I'm a Mets fan. But the greatest player of all time in my mind is Lou Gehrig. Others hit for higher average, others hit more homers, others were better fielders, others were better runners. But there was never a better human being who ever played, and who doesn't get choked up when they hear "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Why baseball?
With all due respect to football, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc., I say baseball is the best sport. Now that the season has started (Let's Go Mets!), let me tell you why I think so.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Random observations
I've often seen those signs in front of houses: "For Sale by Owner". Wouldn't it be great if you didn't like your neighbor you could put "For Sale by Neighbor" sign on their lawn? Money in the bank for you, and watching the look on their face when the moving van pulls up to take their stuff away- priceless.
Label on a container of "Ceramic Stove Cleaning Wipes", used to remove built up grease, dirt, grime, burnt-on food, etc. from those smooth cooking surfaces - "Do not use for personal hygiene". If you've let yourself go that much.....
Why is it that companies want workers to move to places like India and China where labor costs are a lot less, but they don't move corporate headquarters where the highest-salaried employees are to those locations- you could keep a lot of $50,000 / year workers in the US by sending off one $21,000,000 executive and his staff.
We have 23+ wild turkeys that frequent our backyard because of all the birdseed that falls to the ground from our feeders- this morning about a dozen were underneath the electric feeder that doses out food at regular intervals- now the sight of twelve huge birds taking wing was really impressive.
Label on a container of "Ceramic Stove Cleaning Wipes", used to remove built up grease, dirt, grime, burnt-on food, etc. from those smooth cooking surfaces - "Do not use for personal hygiene". If you've let yourself go that much.....
Why is it that companies want workers to move to places like India and China where labor costs are a lot less, but they don't move corporate headquarters where the highest-salaried employees are to those locations- you could keep a lot of $50,000 / year workers in the US by sending off one $21,000,000 executive and his staff.
We have 23+ wild turkeys that frequent our backyard because of all the birdseed that falls to the ground from our feeders- this morning about a dozen were underneath the electric feeder that doses out food at regular intervals- now the sight of twelve huge birds taking wing was really impressive.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Epithet
For some reason, I've known for a long time how I'd like my life to be summed up: "He helped a child". To me, that is the purpose of life: to help the next generation along, to grow and become their own people, who then also go out and help others grow.
Maybe that explains why (a) I've never felt "grown up" completely, and (b) why I like working with youth, especially as a Sunday School teacher and camp counselor/program director.
Maybe that explains why (a) I've never felt "grown up" completely, and (b) why I like working with youth, especially as a Sunday School teacher and camp counselor/program director.
Relatives - Mother's side
We always spent our holidays with my mother's side of the family- Aunt Olga and Uncle John, Michael and Johnny to start with. Michael and Johnny are about 10 years older than me, but we always played games together- wiffle ball, card games, board games- at any gathering. And we gathered a lot. We rotated at first through three houses- ours, my aunt and uncle's, and my aunt's parents, the Shernuks in New Windsor. The Shernuks lived on a one-way street at the top of a hill in New Windsor; a small brick house with a garage and a cherry tree (or two) filling up the small yard. They had their roots in Eastern Europe, as they always greeted us with "Yak sha mas?" (at least, that is how I heard it), with the response being "Dobray!", meaning "How are you?" and "Well".
The tales I heard my mother tell of my Uncle John, who was her half-brother (as I learned later in life) I still recall- how he would chase them to and from school, and how one time he hung from a railroad trestle that spanned the gorge that NY Route 32 runs through south of Vails Gate as she and her friends watched from below, hoping a train wouldn't come. But I also heard of how he protected her- that HE could chase her but nobody else better try to bully her.
There were other relatives as well on that side of the family- the Browns of Middlehope come to mind; and Aunt Martha, who was my great aunt (my mother's mother's sister). And then came the marriages of Johnny to Laurie, and their two kids- Todd and Beth; and Michael to Penny and their two daughters, Donna and Stephanie. Then holiday rotations started going four ways, including one Thanksgiving before "the kids" came- when Johnny was in the SeaBees and we old went to Rhode Island to spend a cramped holiday there. It was fun to go to the base but I was so upset- we had just bought a color TV and I was all ready to see the Macy's Thankgsiving Day Parade in color for the first time and there we were in rainy, gray RI.
I guess the biggest difference between my mother's side of the family and my father's was fun- we always had fun when it was the Robinsons and us together either at a clambake or picnic or holiday feast, in a pool or tobaggoning down a hill, playing killer wiffleball games or croquet-golf. I figure it must have been the presence of the kids who loved games and their parents who also loved playing them as well; with the possible exception of my father who was older and more relaxed.
The tales I heard my mother tell of my Uncle John, who was her half-brother (as I learned later in life) I still recall- how he would chase them to and from school, and how one time he hung from a railroad trestle that spanned the gorge that NY Route 32 runs through south of Vails Gate as she and her friends watched from below, hoping a train wouldn't come. But I also heard of how he protected her- that HE could chase her but nobody else better try to bully her.
There were other relatives as well on that side of the family- the Browns of Middlehope come to mind; and Aunt Martha, who was my great aunt (my mother's mother's sister). And then came the marriages of Johnny to Laurie, and their two kids- Todd and Beth; and Michael to Penny and their two daughters, Donna and Stephanie. Then holiday rotations started going four ways, including one Thanksgiving before "the kids" came- when Johnny was in the SeaBees and we old went to Rhode Island to spend a cramped holiday there. It was fun to go to the base but I was so upset- we had just bought a color TV and I was all ready to see the Macy's Thankgsiving Day Parade in color for the first time and there we were in rainy, gray RI.
I guess the biggest difference between my mother's side of the family and my father's was fun- we always had fun when it was the Robinsons and us together either at a clambake or picnic or holiday feast, in a pool or tobaggoning down a hill, playing killer wiffleball games or croquet-golf. I figure it must have been the presence of the kids who loved games and their parents who also loved playing them as well; with the possible exception of my father who was older and more relaxed.
Where to begin? - Relatives
Well, let's see. I grew up in Vails Gate (or Vail's Gate, depending on your preferences), New York, the son of Beatrice and Victor R. Vitek. We lived in a stone house that my father built working nights and weekends when not on his construction job. Ranch style, two bedrooms, one large bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room, and an on again, off again playroom that was really outside the house.
My father's family was the larger- an Aunt Mary we rarely saw because she moved to the east side of the Hudson when she got married, and then the Newburgh/New Windsor Viteks- Claudia, John, Marty, Ann, Ernie, and Steven. My aunt Claudia I think worked in pocketbook factories, of which there were several in the area. Uncle John worked at IBM in Poughkeepsie, Uncle Marty owned and drove a dump truck (more on him in a bit), Aunt Ann also worked in a pocketbook factory and was an avid smoker and bowler, Uncle Ernie was a plumber, and I'm not sure what Uncle Steve did. Of those, only uncle Steve is alive (I think, we last saw him maybe two years ago in Wappingers Falls but his home was still in Newburgh), and uncle John's wife aunt Tillie was still in Newburgh.
Uncle Marty was a bit of a hero to me. He was on the shorter side, but the story was told how one time he lost his brakes coming down a mountain (I think it was 9W on Storm King) and instead of trying to get out while the truck was still going relatively slow, he rode it all the way down so he could avoid cars and warn other drivers. He got a punctured lung out of it, so he was always short of breath (and living with Aunt Ann the smoker probably didn't help), and he was somewhat of a curmudgeon, but underneath he was very warm.
Because Uncle Steve and Uncle Ernie lived in the town of Newburgh, we didn't see them as much as we did the others; while Uncle John also lived "out there" in Middlehope, he was more gregarious and his backyard had an awesome hill for sledding. Aunt Claudia, Aunt Ann, and Uncle Marty all lived on John Street in New Windsor, across from Diamond Candle Company where my mother worked. At one time, my parents lived in the house that was later occupied by my Uncle John and his wife, and then by Aunt Claudia and her family. Ann and Marty lived in one half of a two-family brick house. Their half was maybe 20 feet wide and 40 feet long and two stories tall. The living room was dark and the couch was a dark, velvet type. When I was going to summer school during 4th, 5th, and 6th grades my mother would pick me up and bring me there so I could make lunch (Swanson TV dinners in the aluminum trays); I would then go to the candle factory when it was almost quitting time.
It was my Aunt Ann who gave me an accordian for one birthday (which just about dwarfed me in size) and, more importantly, my first dog- Lassie. Lassie was my companion for years, an indoor/outdoor dog that was very much loved. But since that starts getting us over to where I grew up, I'll save more of that story for another time.
My father's family was the larger- an Aunt Mary we rarely saw because she moved to the east side of the Hudson when she got married, and then the Newburgh/New Windsor Viteks- Claudia, John, Marty, Ann, Ernie, and Steven. My aunt Claudia I think worked in pocketbook factories, of which there were several in the area. Uncle John worked at IBM in Poughkeepsie, Uncle Marty owned and drove a dump truck (more on him in a bit), Aunt Ann also worked in a pocketbook factory and was an avid smoker and bowler, Uncle Ernie was a plumber, and I'm not sure what Uncle Steve did. Of those, only uncle Steve is alive (I think, we last saw him maybe two years ago in Wappingers Falls but his home was still in Newburgh), and uncle John's wife aunt Tillie was still in Newburgh.
Uncle Marty was a bit of a hero to me. He was on the shorter side, but the story was told how one time he lost his brakes coming down a mountain (I think it was 9W on Storm King) and instead of trying to get out while the truck was still going relatively slow, he rode it all the way down so he could avoid cars and warn other drivers. He got a punctured lung out of it, so he was always short of breath (and living with Aunt Ann the smoker probably didn't help), and he was somewhat of a curmudgeon, but underneath he was very warm.
Because Uncle Steve and Uncle Ernie lived in the town of Newburgh, we didn't see them as much as we did the others; while Uncle John also lived "out there" in Middlehope, he was more gregarious and his backyard had an awesome hill for sledding. Aunt Claudia, Aunt Ann, and Uncle Marty all lived on John Street in New Windsor, across from Diamond Candle Company where my mother worked. At one time, my parents lived in the house that was later occupied by my Uncle John and his wife, and then by Aunt Claudia and her family. Ann and Marty lived in one half of a two-family brick house. Their half was maybe 20 feet wide and 40 feet long and two stories tall. The living room was dark and the couch was a dark, velvet type. When I was going to summer school during 4th, 5th, and 6th grades my mother would pick me up and bring me there so I could make lunch (Swanson TV dinners in the aluminum trays); I would then go to the candle factory when it was almost quitting time.
It was my Aunt Ann who gave me an accordian for one birthday (which just about dwarfed me in size) and, more importantly, my first dog- Lassie. Lassie was my companion for years, an indoor/outdoor dog that was very much loved. But since that starts getting us over to where I grew up, I'll save more of that story for another time.
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