Baseball fever

Now that Peggy is retired and no longer has to go to bed in the 7th inning of the Orioles games, she is able to stay through the thrilling conclusions, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the club is in first place by a good margin, and is a sure bet to be in the playoffs for the first time in a couple of years.  She's a good luck charm for everyone!  Lifelong fan that I am, I have enjoyed some great years with Oriole baseball, and some pretty doggone awful years too.  (at left, the Sports Illustrated cover told the story of the 1988 season's sad beginning. It didn't get much better that year, and then in 1989, they were in the pennant race up until the very end. You never know!)

This year has been good all along and the games are fun to watch.  We sit at home watching on cable, enjoying the play-by-play of Jim Hunter and Gary Thorne, and the color commentary supplied by former Oriole greats Jim Palmer and Mike Bordick, and the colorful pie-in-the-face post game antics of Adam Jones, who delivers instant dessert to the game's hero after a big win.

One thing I notice, watching on tv at home, is how many people sitting in the stands are paying but scant attention to the ballgame going on in front of them!  When the camera scans the seats behind home plate, all sorts of people are staring in the palms of their hands, palms which contain cell phones.  They're talking on the cell phones, they're reading their emails and texts, they're watching YouTube videos of the very game that they are attending, they're mugging the for the cameras, they're watching other people in the stands, their eyes are everywhere but on the field, where exciting major league baseball action is unfolding right before their unseeing eyes.

At the least, they're missing the game.  At worst, they run the risk of foul balls and slippery bats coming their way very, very quickly. If you're sitting close to the field, you have to keep an eye out for flying objects.  Keep this sign in mind, and enjoy the game!