Blog post

May 7, 2010 [LINK / comment]

"Is this heaven?"

No, it's not heaven and it's not Iowa, either. (Any real baseball fan will recognize that reference to the movie Field of Dreams.) The photo of a little league game below was actually taken in the idyllic countryside of Virginia -- almost heaven, as in John Denver's song "Take Me Home, Country Road":

Almost heaven, west* Virginia
Blue Ridge mountains, Shenandoah River

Fathers and sons at a little league ball field in New Hope, Virginia, on May 5. The Blue Ridge is visible in the background, part of Shenandoah National Park. (No soccer fields are anyway near here!)

* Just to set the geographical record straight, nearly all of the Shenandoah River lies within Virginia (hence the small w in "west"), as does most of the Blue Ridge, which extends into North Carolina. Only a tiny portion of the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah River are within the borders of West Virginia, near Harper's Ferry.

Hawaii fact check

Speaking of beautiful places to live, a baseball fan from Hawaii named Tom Haynes wrote to tell me that Aloha Stadium was never the home of the University of Hawaii Rainbows, as I had previously indicated on that page. Unfortunately, he tells me, "the movable lower sections no longer move and baseball is no longer played at Aloha Stadium." Corrections have been duly made.

Nats edge the Braves

The night after the Braves edged the Nationals in ten innings, the Nats came back with a narrow 3-2 win to take the series, two games to one. Starting pitcher Scott Olsen went seven and a third innings without giving up a hit, at which point the Braves rallied to tie the game, 2-2. Oh well. Adam Dunn got his sixth homer of the year, while Pudge Rodriguez got his first. In the bottom of the ninth, Adam Kennedy walked, Ryan Zimmerman doubled, and Cristian Guzman walked (intentionally) to load the bases with no outs. Willie Harris came through in the clutch, by driving in the winning run with a single. See MLB.com. That article mentions that Nats' catcher Pudge Rodriguez was catching for the Detroit Tigers when Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter in June 2007.

So, the Nationals are still only two games behind the division-leading Phillies, tied for second place with the Mets. Not bad!