Tag: baseball

Jackie Robinson:A Lion in Winter

Jackie Robinson: A Lion in Winter

These aren’t my words, but the film and the post are worth sharing. Jon Leonoudakis is sharing this along with his friend, Ron Rapaport, who interviewed Jackie Robinson toward the end of his life. The above short video is worth watching. Below is the post from Facebook, announcing that viewing will be free for the rest of the month of February, 2021.

“HONORING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: MY SHORT FILM, “JACKIE ROBINSON: A LION IN WINTER.”

For the rest of the month, I’m presenting free access to my 2017 film about Jackie Robinson near the end of his life in a story told by my good friend, writer/journalist Ron Rapoport, who initially wrote this story for the Los Angeles Times in 1972.

The film runs 9 minutes and shares a poignant and insightful story about an American pioneer and warrior for social justice.”

A League of Their Own Series

A league of their own series

I look forward to the series mentioned in the above linked article. The movie is one of my favorite movies, and I look forward to hearing new stories based on the female baseball players. It seems to be coming out on Amazon Prime Video, but I can’t seem to be able to tell when it will be coming out.

The series Pitch was short-lived, but I loved that, too. I hope that women in baseball becomes more prominent. Not just as announcers.

The Perfect Swing by James McGirk

The Perfect Swing by James McGirk
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked this up as a free meditation book on Audible. I was skeptical about it being calming, because it’s a baseball story. Something about the reader’s voice and the way he read the story put me to sleep almost immediately. Three different times! 

It was an interesting story, so I’m not sure why it worked, but it did. I had to go back and listen to it when I wasn’t sleepy at all. Great story with great information, told beautifully. But, it does double as a sleep aid. 

View all my reviews

Last game in these seats

I had tickets to the Giants game yesterday.  It was against the Dodgers.  It was Bochy’s last game.  It was the last game of the season.  So it was packed.

Every year, my friend and I end up at at least one game together.  She’s a ticket taker at the ballpark, so I texted her to find out what gate she was working yesterday.  We had to do the obligatory selfie before she’d scan my ticket.

The former players were in the luxury boxes above our seats.  They were waving at the crowd a few times.

The whole section will be gone for next season, so I had to take photos from the seats.

My friend hadn’t been to a game before, so someone made a sign for him.

This was the giveaway for the event.  Bochy’s last game.  We left early because of the crowd and the heat.  It was unbearable.

After a long day in the sun, the family went to dinner.  A glass of wine was in order.

Bohemian rhapsody sing along

A small group of us went to see Bohemian Rhapsody on the big screen (scoreboard) at Oracle Park on Saturday night. We were trying to get there early, since there were only a limited number of seats available to us. Otherwise, we’d have to sit on blankets on the outfield. No chairs allowed.

We got in line to wait for the doors to open. Security came by asking if anyone had season tickets. Yes! My co-worker shares his with me. We got to avoid the line and got a free t-shirt and a pin. We also got to choose our seats. Win!

We grabbed drinks and snacks and listened to the band who started 25 minutes late. The movie started late, too.  We were glad we brought extra blankets because it was chilly!  I ran into a friend who I wasn’t expecting to see, so that was nice.

Almost at the end of the movie, smoke started coming from a smoke machine under the movie screen.  It was obviously controlled, and we eventually figured out that it was to be used for a laser show.  The people behind us got scared because of the smoke and the fact that no one was evacuating the field, so they left.

Soon after they left, a woman, with security right behind her, came up the stairs next to me and fell up the stairs.  She was rather drunk and complaining about not being able to make it to the bathroom.  Security wouldn’t leave her unattended, and called the supervisor.  He came over and wanted the woman to find her husband, who was out on the field somewhere.  She could hardly walk, how did they expect her to find him?  Security had no idea how to find him.  The woman ended up in the seat behind me.  Suddenly, a teenaged girl comes running down the stairs, “Hey!  Are you ok?  That’s my mom!”  About ten seconds later the woman shouts, “Hey!  That’s my daughter!”  Great.  We’ve identified the parties involved, and found someone to locate the woman’s husband.  The woman started to complain that she had to go to the bathroom still.  “Oh, nevermind.  I already started.”  Wonderful.  Her husband showed up with a bored look on his face.  They attempted to take her to the bathroom, but ended up escorting her from the ballpark instead.  The husband and daughter behaved like this was an everyday occurrence.  No one was surprised.  She did have a wet rear end, though.

There’s always an adventure when I am involved.  At least I wasn’t the one escorted from the park.

Spending the day out

I had tickets to the baseball game yesterday. Traditionally, my daughter and I go to the games for our birthdays. Unfortunately, today’s game wasn’t on her birthday, and it was a day game.

I took the day off and slept in a little. I did a little laundry and showered and dressed. We went to lunch at Public House before the game.

We found our way to our seats and settled in to watch the game. The people who have the seats behind us are a corporation. They usually use the seats for team building. Because it was a day game, they seem to have given the tickets to their moms. They kept looking at all the kids in our section. “Oh, isn’t she adorable?” “I would just die to have that hair!” Annoying, but not as bad as the usual people complaining about Bob, their manager.

The game was great. Several doubles and a grand slam hit. Unfortunately, they were by both teams.

My daughter had to be at work, so we left after the seventh inning stretch. The final score came through before we even got home. It was a quick game.

When we got home, my other daughter wanted me to take her out to eat.  I was exhausted by the time we got home after dinner, so I wandered to find pjs and went to bed to read.  All in all, it was a good day.

Baseball!

I had tickets for the Giants game for today, but my daughter ended up scheduled at work, so she couldn’t go with me. My cousin’s wife agreed to go with me. Yay!

I picked her up and off we went.  We were almost there and realized that we didn’t have sunblock.  Oops.

We got into the lot, no problem.  Got through security and ticketing, and realized it was a giveaway day.  Bags.  Perfect for carrying stuff in to future games.

We got lunch and headed to our seats.  It wasn’t too hot yet.  Around the fourth inning, it was hot.  We took a walk for a snack and wandered back to the seats.  We had cooled off enough to hit the end of the game.  Unfortunately, the Giants lost, but we got to spend time together, so it was a nice afternoon.  Despite the sunburn and the team’s loss.

Meeting Willie Mays

We went to dinner with my uncle last night.  He was telling a story about being in Pac Bell Park, way back when.  He and his late wife had luxury box seats.  He ran into the bathroom and suddenly he hears his wife yelling into the bathroom that he needs to hurry up because he needed to meet someone.  He asked who, and his wife told him that she didn’t know, but he looked important.

My uncle rushed out of the bathroom and found that it was Willie Mays.  He went over to shake his hand.

My first question?  Did you wash your hands on the way out of the bathroom?  Yes, he had.  Good, because shaking hands with unwashed hands makes me cringe.

Thankfully, my uncle realized why I asked.  My mom looked at me like it was an odd question to ask.  I think she missed the part that he had been in the bathroom.  My brain kicked the question to my mouth, so I had no choice but to say it.