Notes from a Thursday Morning (Published Four Days Later)

Whoa...K.  I started this on Thursday morning.  It's now Monday.  So there's that.

It's not often that I get to sit around the man cave and say "Hey! I have time for the blog!"

So take that with a grain of salt.

I'm still reeling from the passing of James Gandolfini.  He embodied an iconic character in Tony Soprano, and made it all more appealing and mysterious by rarely giving interviews.  He did, however, go on "Inside the Actors Studio"


He was only 51, and he was with his young son.  Ugh.  I have nothing more profound than that.

For those of you not on Facebook (and some of us are on it waaaaaaay too much), Sean graduated from elementary school yesterday.  His Moving Up ceremony was very nice, and I will spare you my rant on how us adults behave at these things, except to say that it's NOT about you, jagov.

I always relish any excuse to use the word "jagov."  Just I relish the opportunity to introduce the new term "erwan" into the mainstream.  Coined by Max Bearfoot, and defined by Ryan DeMaria, it means, in the short definition, "ego."  As in, Mr. Aktovious's erwan was bruised when his beloved Yankees lost to the Dodgers.

Just as with the hashtag #BeBlessed, feel free to give erwan a try.  You'll thank us later.

Anyway, it is with great pride that I present you with this video of Sean receiving his certificate yesterday.


He also won an award for perfect attendance - three straight years! He was asked to stand up (the only award winners who weren't marched up the stage...sigh...).  Sadly, this was the best my camera would give me.

I sat clear across the theater from where he was.

By the way, not to be maudlin, but thanks to those who chatted me up via social media during the ceremony, even if you didn't know it.  As I am an emotional sap, and my mind gets very deep in these moments, it was a bit of a roller coaster ride yesterday.  I hope I don't need to express how enormously proud I am of him.  I'm not sure I ever hugged him tighter than I did yesterday, in part because I couldn't speak.

Sean and his best buddy, Will.

So, yeah.  Onward.

This just in.  I love baseball.  To me, there's nothing like it, and I'll watch it at any level.

Go to a minor league game?  Done.  Happily.  From Dutchess Stadium to the Ballpark at Harbor Yard to Ripken Stadium to Damaschke Field and so on. I've broadcast in them or just sat and watched.  Sometimes I just like looking around and taking it all in.

On Saturday, I went and watched a little league game.  A bunch of 12 year-olds that I don't know, surrounded by families I don't know.  Sean played on the playground and I watched the game.

Only other person I knew: Christopher "Kato, Aktovious, Akto" Kaelin.  The home plate umpire.

We had great weather, Sean and I had dinner before the game, and on and on.  Why not go?  It was fun, and it beat sitting home and getting fatter (which is also why I hit the bike trail on Sunday, and our ride was longer than the ".25 mile" I was accused of).

So we went.  And we loved it.

I wish more people cared about baseball that way. Ratings are down.  Attendance is down.  There is zero buzz about the upcoming All-Star Game at Citi Field.

The Yankees attendance is pitiful, and yet they're still tops in the American League, and fourth overall*.

*The Dodgers are first, but, really, should it count when they're only in the stadium from the fourth-seventh innings?

The Yankees have done this to themselves.  They've built a Stadium with lots of amenities and zero charm.  Plus it's a crazy expensive ticket - they've price themselves out of the market.  They have outpriced the real fans: the likes of me who appreciated the inexpensive ticket.  And they took away the secondary market.

What was supposed to be a "throwback" to the 1923 Stadium really isn't.  It's lipstick on a pig.

What I'm saying is: shame on them.

And, oh yeah, I haven't been to a game in over a year.  That's right.

So, while I sniped at Rays broadcasters Andy Freed and Dave Wills for essentially calling Yankee Stadium "soulless," I can't totally disagree.  But don't get me wrong: I'll happily broadcast Rays/Yankees games in New York for them.  I'll spare them the trouble of being in a big league ballpark in, arguably, the greatest city in the world.

And, um, Tropicana Field isn't exactly a little slice of heaven either.

Anyway, the game has problems.  Steroids and so on.  I've heard it all.

But I still love it.  That's why you'll find me watching a little league game on a Saturday night.