The Eternal Optimist

I just realized I haven’t posted anything in a while. And I’ll be in the Midwest for a bit soon, so I probably won’t be blogging while on vacation. A quick wrap-up of my last couple weeks:

• I had days of happy hours, including a going-away party for a co-worker, a house-warming party for a friend and a girls’ night out.
• I spent a Saturday at the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware. I decided I need to learn how to re-apply sunscreen and that Delaware needs to build some multiple-lane roads on the route that everyone takes from D.C. to the beaches.
• I spent part of a day at the National Gallery of Art and refreshed my skills from high school Humanities class when we had to match artists to their works.
• I played in our last softball game of the season. We lost (again).
• I saw three Cardinals games with friends from near and far. They lost two out of the three.
• But, when Yadi finally played in a game I was at (he sat out the first two), I happened to have the lower-level seats so had a much better view.
• I gave two out-of-town guests the most thorough tour of D.C. to include only one museum and a glance at the monuments. (To be fair, we did spend part of each day at the baseball stadium.) We visited a variety of bars all over D.C. and even managed a stop at Ben’s Chili Bowl.

The week before July Fourth, the Democrats and Republicans took the field for the 49th Annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game.

This year the game was sold out (meaning 7,000 tickets sold, even though it’s held in Nationals Park). I think with a little advertisement, it should be easy to sell two or three times that many tickets, for the small $10 price. Who wouldn’t want to watch their congressman try to play ball? It’s pretty amazing once you realize the ages of some of the players on these teams.

With mostly the same teams as last year, the Democrats once again took the prize with a last-inning rally and a final score of 13-5. (The Democrats broke an eight-game losing streak with a victory last year.)

This story reflects on the game — and how November’s prospects can mean big changes for next year’s teams and game.

And this video is a great montage from the festivities.

I saw the White Sox beat the Nationals tonight. More importantly, I saw Stephen Strasburg pitch.

First, you have to understand Nationals Park looks nothing like Busch Stadium on game days. I went to two Cardinals vs. Nationals games last year. The first time I paid $25, sat 10 rows back by third base and had a total of about 30 people in the general area around me. The next time, I was in center-right field but the stadium was similarly very NOT crowded. I think my ticket cost $10-15.

Tonight, I paid $33 for a right field, middle deck ticket. I had to wait in line for a hot dog and beer. There were few empty seats around us. And the game was sold out. All because of Strasburg.

I’m not a pitching expert and my seat didn’t offer the best view of his pitches, but they looked darn good. He was consistently throwing 98-99 mph. (I’m curious whether the scoreboard is set up to show 100+ mph pitches since it appears to only have room for two digits.) And he was consistently stunning the batters. Lots of swings and misses.

And Strasburg set yet another record (the most strikeouts through three starts to begin a career — hey, there’s a record for everything).

I was a little stunned to realize his batting average is .000. “Maybe that’s for the game?” I thought when I first noticed it. Then I realized it was career. To be fair, he only had three at-bats in his career at that point (and, yes, he’s a pitcher) but I guess I was hoping for SOMETHING. Perhaps he can set some record with that too? (How many at-bats has someone gone and kept a perfect .000?)

From the story on MLB.com (because they can give stats better than I can):

The highlight of the game was Strasburg, who lasted seven innings, allowed one run on four hits, struck out 10 batters and walked none. He threw 85 pitches and felt he could have gone longer.

I don’t have much loyalty to the Nationals, but they are my new hometown team (though the Cardinals are still tops!), and it is pretty exciting to have something to be excited about on the team. Maybe I’ll even buy a Nats shirt one of these days.