Pulp Fiction - George Plimpton - Sidd Finch - Baseball Is Around The Corner

My son noted on Facebook that I should view an ESPN video feature: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball. I was sitting out on our patio Saturday, enjoying a quiet afternoon, and had time to catch up on posts. I had no idea what I would see, particularly since it was more than seven minutes into the piece when it was revealed: this was a report on an April Fool feature from 1985, and I am one, 30 years after it was published - pure fun.

MLB Spring Training has been under way for some time now, and opening day will soon be on us. My old iPhone died this past week, and since I hadn't backed up the applications that were uploaded, I had to reload my MLB.com app. Of course, I chose the Mariners and Giants as my teams to follow.

We're Going To IHOP

When we moved from Fresno to Corvallis in 1988, we subscribed to cable television for the first time. One of the best perks was getting ESPN as a part of our basic cable package - our son Dan loved it. Since he could first read, he would look at the baseball box scores in the newspaper to track the progress of our favorite teams - the Giants and Athletics - so now we could see live-action sports reports from who became our favorite talking heads: Kenny Mayne, Steward Scott, Keith Olbermann, and others - always using colorful phrases and metaphors woven into their evening reports. "He is as cool as the other side of the pillow," Scott would report following a replay of a great basketball move resulting in a completed basket.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) hits the game winner against Houston as the Portland Trail Blazers face the Houston Rockets in game 6 of the NBA playoffs at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. Bruce Ely / The Oregonian

We are in Oregon this weekend for our son Mike's 30th birthday. As it just happens to be, the Portland Trailblazers were up three-games-to-two over the Houston Rockets going into last night's first-round game. As has been the entire series, the game was going into the last few minutes with no assurance who was going to win. With 0.9 seconds left, inbound play to Damian Lillard for a long range shot, snap of the wrist, release, 10th-of-the-second clock in the background, all net, game over, Blazers win, advance to the second round of the Western Playoff's, Portland celebration mixed with Houston disbelief - plenty of fodder for the next-morning replays.

Our family is still spread out - newly distributed again, but at least all in the west-half of the county. The Blazers are still one of those family linkages we can all rally around. Happy Birthday Mike. More texting across the miles after this weekend as we together watch the second round of the playoff's. As we heard in his game recap this morning: "We're going to IHOP," Kenny Mayne said of the winning Lillard shot.

Walk in the Park - Full Count

After leaving the Harry S. Truman building much easier leaving than arriving (see the previous post), I I turned left on C Street and started heading kind of south, figuring I would eventually get to my next meeting at the Whitten Building. It was a good thing I had headed in a bit of a different direction, because there was a sculpted piece in 

Full Count - John Dryfuss

Washington, D.C. that I hadn't seen before - Full Count, by John Dreyfuss (1). It seems that there is a statue in every park. The baseball theme with a pitcher standing out in the grass all alone made me think about Jamie Moyer, and how a month or so ago I found out that he had injured himself in the Dominican winter league - this could mean the end of his career. His contract with the Philadelphia Phillies was allowed to run out this past year. While waiting for his elbow to recover, Moyer is working as an analyst on ESPN. I wonder if this is the first time there has been a son-in-law/father-in-law, Digger Phelps, duo working for the same sports network. The Phillies news hasn't forgotten him - Moyer hopes for a comeback in 2012. Looking from left to right at each of the images, the series of photographs tell a story (2). Since I hung around looking at the sculpture taking photographs, I thought it best to take a cab to my next meeting - not the kind of thing that Moyer would do, especially someone who will try to come back at age 49.
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(1) Full Count is on display in the grassy area between the Federal Reserve Board's Martin Building and Virginia Avenue.

(2) Never mind that there are streaks of bird droppings on the pitcher - obviously, the umpire isn't doing his job of keeping the the game moving along. With staging of the photo series, I think the next pitch is a strike - what about you?