Pudge
It was 30 years ago tonight that Carlton Fisk knocked a pitch off the left field foul pole at Fenway Park, ending one of the greatest baseball games ever played. Shockingly enough, ESPN Classic has devoted most of its daytime programming to the event. First, they aired the game in a slightly condensed version (“We’re skipping ahead to the top…
Jerseys
I’ve never been big on wearing sports jerseys. But the unveiling of the new Pacers gear last week got me thinking, for a moment, about purchasing one. I was thinking more of something in M’s size but still, I was in that ballpark. Even when the Cowboys were at their height in the early 90s, I never thought of buying an…
Tapes
Almost a year ago, I brought back two large boxes of old cassette tapes from my step-dad’s home in Kansas City. I’ve tallied those up in a spreadsheet and have a couple writing ideas based on the results that I will get to one day. Yesterday, however, I took the rather new-millennium step of packing all my CDs away. I…
Fun With Yearbooks
I brought back several boxes of books and other old items from Kansas City two weeks ago and have slowly been working my way through them. Two absolute gems of finds were my sixth and eighth grade yearbooks (I don’t know if seventh grade is just located elsewhere or if it was destroyed thanks to an especially unfortunate picture of…
The Geeks Are Coming!
Or maybe in this case, it should be nerds, since I proudly call myself a geek at times. Anyway, Celebration III, the George Lucas-backed Star Wars convention, is in town. 25,000 nerds, most dressed as their favorite Star Wars character, have descended on downtown Indianapolis. Never have I been so proud to live in the suburbs. Listen, like most males…
Classic Christmas Gifts
My golden age of Christmas gifts ran from roughly age 8 to 13. After that, I really didn’t ask for any big ticket items anymore, since I knew my parents weren’t buying me a car, and my list was dominated by clothes, books, and such. Those pre- and early teen years, though, were filled with items I dreamt about for…
Observations From The TV
Things seen on TV last night. 1 – A Charlie Brown Christmas. M. cried, keeping up a tradition her dad started many years ago. I was a sensitive little lad, and the overwhelming negativity of Peanuts animated specials were always too much for me to take. Whether it was the ridicule of Linus while he waited for the Great Pumpkin, or…
Cologne For Christmas
Is there a more consistent entry on a man’s Christmas list than cologne? I realized that when I handed my list over to S. the weekend after Thanksgiving. There’s some point in every boy’s teenage years when parents think they require cologne each Christmas. I forget when I got my first cologne, but it was probably in the 12-13 range. I…
Important Anniversary
I remember exactly where I was. Sitting on my dorm room bed, reading Newsweek or Time, avoiding studying. The TV was on, but the volume turned down. I looked up and saw Tom Brokaw talking and wondered what was going on at 2:00 in the afternoon that required him jumping on air. I turned the TV and heard that the…
Memorable Football Games
All joking aside you K-State and Mizzou fans, my football memories from college (and after) aren’t nearly as strong as my basketball memories. That’s not just because I went to a basketball school, although that’s a big reason. With college football, you have 4-6 home games vs. 15 in basketball. You’re generally playing all cupcakes outside the conference schedule as…