Living in coronavirus world 135: Play ball

8/8

Stay safe....

even in Mt.Lebanon

garden story

Walking the streets of Mt. Lebanon, a first ring suburb of Pittsburgh on what I used to call the sunshine side of the tunnel, I am surprised to see a sign in support of Black Lives Matter which tells me how deep the current uprising has touched mainstream US culture. Painted garden store are a commentary on what been gong on the last several months. 

The Four-Way Test

musician frog

North Carolina deck

At my mother’s house, I see my father's Rotary Club plaque with its "4Way Test," all things considered not a bad way to live. The musician frog on the deck that he built to recreate a North Carolina beach house deck, where he felt at peace every summer.

Fred Laird, World War I

I find the World War I portrait of my grandfather, a farm boy from the western hill country of Pennsylvania. 

Fred's diary

We have recently discovered his diary which chronicles his journey from the farms where his family had been since the 18th century to France. The living reality of the old song “How you gonna keep em down  the farm after they’ve seen Paree…” He came home, left the farm. And his daughters wound up in Pittsburgh and now the family through their children has expanded to include members from Mexico, China, Eastern European Jewish , Latvian and Balkan descent. An American story .

Take me out

Brandon Phillips a long way from Atlnata

Major league baseball is being played in a vacuum but the local Washington Wildthings independent minor league team has set up it's own bubble of four teams for a summer circuit. While they usually play at an A level, with no other options, the rosters are filled with players from organized ball as high as AAA, one step way from the Major Leagues, and even two former major leaguers.  To enter the ballpark, you have to have printed your ticket  at home. They take your temperature.  It reminds me of the airport, about 80% shut down. Only one concession stand. No draft beer. ( I still haven’t figured  out why even at bars draft beer is not allowed.) There’s one section set aside for people over 50. (Like me.) Maybe 150 people in attendance for a higher level of ball than has ever been played here.. Former major league allstar Brandon Phillips wears his helmet from his days with the Atlanta Braves. No mascot. No in between inning games and events.  But it’s real baseball in front of real people. 

My aunt and I go to a Venezuelan restaurant for takeout.  The young woman at the counter is not too anxious to talk about current realities in her home country.  We sit on her patio with drinks and chips and salsa and talk, as always, about this strange world we live in. 

On Monday, an unexpected raid shuts the baseball season down for reasons that are not entirely clear. As is so  often the way it is these days.