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Hi Everyone,
Maggie spent the weekend at Foxwoods in Connecticut, so I hung out at home discussing the finer aspects of America’s Game with our roommate, Scott. After this weekend, I find myself on the verge of buying partial season tickets to the Minor League Baseball’s Bowie Baysox of Southern Maryland: the AA Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Since I went to a professional Basketball Game, Minor League Hockey Game, and the Indian Land High-School to toss the baseball; you might say that I had a sports oriented weekend.
A short dissertation about my personal obsession with baseball follows:
Going to watch a professional basketball game between the Charlotte Bobcats and the Orlando Magic where two of the greatest players of all time observed from the sidelines (Michael Jordan as partial owner of the Bobcats and Patrick Ewing as Assistant Coach of the Magic) doesn’t even compare with the experience of watching high school level baseball. Normally seeing Ewing and Jordan on the same court would cause some degree of excitement for even the most moderate of basketball fans, but I miss my baseball too much.
Last year, I visited 11 major league baseball stadiums and one minor league stadium at home in Charlotte. My journey through the sport’s various cities left me with an appreciation for all that goes into the baseball experience: the unique food in a unique stadium, a cold beer while keeping a meticulous score, and an odd patience for sporadic excitement.
All the local color of Pittsburgh, all the bad sides of New York, the History of Philadelphia, and all the glitz of Hollywood come to life in the home ballparks of Major League Baseball’s Pirates, Mets, Yankees, Phillies and Dodgers. My year long single sport quest presented itself as a city by city tour of the United States, and I can say with some degree of confidence that you can judge a city by its ballpark. Take the Pirates for instance; a team occupying Pittsburgh in three different centuries (since 1891 to be exact) but failing to produce a Pennant in the last 30 years. The Bucs finished last season at the bottom of their division and had damn near the worse record in baseball; yet when I attended a game in the latter part of the ‘08 season, and long after the playoffs were a foregone conclusion, the Pittsburgh fans seemed oblivious to their team’s misfortune. As they say, “There’s always next year”. I guess it doesn’t matter whether your team wins or loses (although we do all like to see the home team on top) because you can still go watch baseball, score the game, eat a hot dog, and wash it all down with an ice cold Bud Light (unless your watching the game at Coors Field in Denver or Miller Park in Milwaukee – you may have to order the local fare at those two parks). Like the Pirate fans cling to their Pennant memories of 30 year’s gone by, the residents of Pittsburgh are a resilient bunch of people clinging to the glory days of the steel and manufacturing industry that occurred through the mid 20th century.
For me, these little likenesses and nuances make the viewing of baseball a National History Lesson. At the same time, its activities make baseball a great National Pastime. Particularly the score keeping is a meticulous and precise activity where the fans can get involved with every pitch, hit, out, and inning. In my case, I’m trying to record Hits, RBI’s, and Runs in my scorebook while also clutching a soda in one hand and a Hot Dog in the other. When considering the obesity problem in America – it’s hard to believe there’s anything more American than this. I cannot imagine trying to record stats for a less segmented game like basketball where you have 12 minute quarters and numerous possessions. Not to disrespect or diminish basketball; a sport where superior athleticism, raw talent, and precision are paramount to a successful organization. I’m merely trying to emphasize the aspects of my sport that get me excited about April. I’ll consider seeing Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan together as a major highlight of my live basketball experiences, but it falls short of that day where the Pittsburgh Pirates competed in a game with absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the regular or post seasons.
Someday when I arrive at my second career, I hope to somehow get involved with baseball. During my retirement years, I don’t mind the prospect of working at the ticket counter, between the aisles as an usher, or even in the stands yelling “Get your Hot Dogs!” Just give me a justification to go to the ball field every day, and I will.
So “Put Me in Coach! I’m Ready to Play”
Ryan
Monday, February 23, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Monday Monday 2.16.2009 Part II
Hello Again,
In closing my last message, I mentioned the parallel universe of Babylon 5 (B5) and the location of the world’s largest kiss. I clearly owe you some sort of explanation.
Leaving Cesar’s hometown, our small group of Americans left for Mexico City. Lara and Cesar’s wedding godparents gave us a ride in their 12 passenger van to the town of St. Martine where we could catch a bus to Mexico City. Once we made this 2.5 hour journey to the city, we took a taxi cab to the hotel. I mention all this travel only because of our interesting cab experience. Since I don’t have a true appreciation for football, I didn’t mind risking the chance of missing the biggest sports event of the year by traveling outside of the country on Superbowl Sunday. Nonetheless, I will never forget how I saw the last 30 seconds of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ big victory on a 6 inch television screen mounted to the dash of a Cab in Mexico City.
Maggie and I spent the remainder of Sunday Night and all day Monday in the city. With limited time, Cesar focused on two main attractions: the Zocalo and Garibaldi Square. According to our friends at Wikipedia.org, in Mexico “a zócalo is the main plaza or square, set in the heart of the town.” The original Zocalo sits at the heart of Mexico City with a huge cathedral, hundreds of vendors selling trinkets off blankets on the ground, and scattered street performers. It’s a place of great commerce, entertainment, and history. We spent a few hours at the Zocalo basking in the sun, getting cleansed by the medicine men, shopping a little, and watching the street performers.
The second of our two stops came later that night about 7 blocks from our hotel at Garibaldi Square. If you ever find yourself in search of a Mariachi Band in Mexico City, you simply come here and pick one out. People come to this square to pick out a band that serenades your party so you can either dance or stand by listening with admiration. The bands charge little to nothing for their services and put on a great show. I noticed the smiles on each of the band member’s faces and thought “these people are enjoying themselves as much as we are enjoying ourselves.” Garibaldi Square also makes a great place to get drunk as the local beverage of choice is some crazy concoction calling for beer, lime juice, hot sauce, chili powder, and one very large cup.
Before I close the books on my discussion of Mexico City, I have to relate my stories back to my original statement amount B5 and the world’s largest kiss. Anyone close to the subject of Babylon 5 (which I’m guessing is approximately 0 people on this email chain) would already see the parallel. The Babylon 5 Space Station fictionally resides in space during the years 2258-2278 with the major storyline revolving around the first five years. The station acted like a floating city where aliens and humans could work out their problems peacefully. Now that you have the background of Babylon 5, I can give you the parallels. The major central market on Babylon 5 has a name and you guessed it: The Zocalo. On top of that, one of the central characters is Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (like Garibaldi Square). I left Mexico with no doubt in my mind that Babylon 5 writer Joseph Michael Straczynski spent at least a little time using Mexico City as a central point for the characterization of his television series.
As far as the World’s Largest Kiss goes, I read in the Charlotte Observer this past Sunday that the Zocolo housed the world’s largest crowd of kissers this past Valentine’s Day with nearly 40,000 people gathering in the square and kissing at the same moment. Guinness World Records has verified that this event marked the World’s Largest Group Kiss!
Stay Tuned because I still have my first wine tour and Valentines Day left to relay in Volume III of this week’s Monday Monday.
Have Fun Today,
Ryan
In closing my last message, I mentioned the parallel universe of Babylon 5 (B5) and the location of the world’s largest kiss. I clearly owe you some sort of explanation.
Leaving Cesar’s hometown, our small group of Americans left for Mexico City. Lara and Cesar’s wedding godparents gave us a ride in their 12 passenger van to the town of St. Martine where we could catch a bus to Mexico City. Once we made this 2.5 hour journey to the city, we took a taxi cab to the hotel. I mention all this travel only because of our interesting cab experience. Since I don’t have a true appreciation for football, I didn’t mind risking the chance of missing the biggest sports event of the year by traveling outside of the country on Superbowl Sunday. Nonetheless, I will never forget how I saw the last 30 seconds of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ big victory on a 6 inch television screen mounted to the dash of a Cab in Mexico City.
Maggie and I spent the remainder of Sunday Night and all day Monday in the city. With limited time, Cesar focused on two main attractions: the Zocalo and Garibaldi Square. According to our friends at Wikipedia.org, in Mexico “a zócalo is the main plaza or square, set in the heart of the town.” The original Zocalo sits at the heart of Mexico City with a huge cathedral, hundreds of vendors selling trinkets off blankets on the ground, and scattered street performers. It’s a place of great commerce, entertainment, and history. We spent a few hours at the Zocalo basking in the sun, getting cleansed by the medicine men, shopping a little, and watching the street performers.
The second of our two stops came later that night about 7 blocks from our hotel at Garibaldi Square. If you ever find yourself in search of a Mariachi Band in Mexico City, you simply come here and pick one out. People come to this square to pick out a band that serenades your party so you can either dance or stand by listening with admiration. The bands charge little to nothing for their services and put on a great show. I noticed the smiles on each of the band member’s faces and thought “these people are enjoying themselves as much as we are enjoying ourselves.” Garibaldi Square also makes a great place to get drunk as the local beverage of choice is some crazy concoction calling for beer, lime juice, hot sauce, chili powder, and one very large cup.
Before I close the books on my discussion of Mexico City, I have to relate my stories back to my original statement amount B5 and the world’s largest kiss. Anyone close to the subject of Babylon 5 (which I’m guessing is approximately 0 people on this email chain) would already see the parallel. The Babylon 5 Space Station fictionally resides in space during the years 2258-2278 with the major storyline revolving around the first five years. The station acted like a floating city where aliens and humans could work out their problems peacefully. Now that you have the background of Babylon 5, I can give you the parallels. The major central market on Babylon 5 has a name and you guessed it: The Zocalo. On top of that, one of the central characters is Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (like Garibaldi Square). I left Mexico with no doubt in my mind that Babylon 5 writer Joseph Michael Straczynski spent at least a little time using Mexico City as a central point for the characterization of his television series.
As far as the World’s Largest Kiss goes, I read in the Charlotte Observer this past Sunday that the Zocolo housed the world’s largest crowd of kissers this past Valentine’s Day with nearly 40,000 people gathering in the square and kissing at the same moment. Guinness World Records has verified that this event marked the World’s Largest Group Kiss!
Stay Tuned because I still have my first wine tour and Valentines Day left to relay in Volume III of this week’s Monday Monday.
Have Fun Today,
Ryan
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Monday Monday 2.16.2009 Part I
Hi Everyone
Since the frequency of my letters dwindled over the past month, you all probably feel entitled to a Monday Monday Mini Series. Only once before did I write a three part bonus installment edition of Monday Monday with a To Be Continued style theme. With that in mind, I urge you to check your email often with the understanding that a new chapter could appear in your inbox at any time.
We closed the books on January a few weeks ago, and in the first month of 2009, the Bullet Train that is my life made stops in Maryland, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mexico (keep in mind that I work in Maryland and travel through most of the other states on my way there).
Maggie and I just returned from a trip to Mexico where we witnessed the marriage of Maggie's cousin Lara to her new husband Cesar. Our plane left Charlotte on the last Thursday morning in January. We stopped in Atlanta to switch planes, but made it to Mexico City at about 2:00PM. Lara and Cesar met us at the Airport, and the weekend rollercoastered from there.
Witnessing the Mexican tradition of marriage made for a once in a lifetime experience that I will undoubtedly remember forever. In short, we saw live people dancing with live turkeys, Lara (with a bottle of tequila in hand) chasing Cesar (wearing an apron) through the street (an area that also doubled as the reception hall), a mob hoisting up the bride and groom and tossing them as high into the air as humanly possible, and another mob attempting to knock the newly married couple out of their chairs. Believe it or not, all this happened during the “first dance” section of the wedding.
I also learned where the phrases “blocking off the street” and “road block” come from. During the wedding reception hours, traffic could not pass by Cesar’s house because bricks were literally laid down in the road to prevent automobiles from travelling through. Even if people did get through the blocks, they would next have to bolster their way through a 25 foot high tower of speakers for the all night DJ, then through all the tables and chairs, and then through the bandstand set up for live music on the other side. I could include a picture of this scene, but it wouldn’t do the sight any justice; you had to experience it.
I can’t say enough about the scenery on Lara and Cesar’s actual wedding day, but I’d commit an injustice by not mentioning the previous day’s activities. The other Americans and I stood by as we witnessed town-wide and weekend-long participation in the preparation for this special day. No less than 50 people packed the center court yard of Cesar’s parent’s house to pluck 250 chickens, make god knows how many tortillas, and they worked well into the nights making somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 tamales. During this tamale production Cesar grabbed me to help serve shots of tequila to all the hard working people. I think the crowd consumed three liters of tequila in about 10 minutes. . . .I don’t think we can serve three liters that fast in America.
On the subject of Tequila, I should point out that each table at the wedding was provided one bottle of soda, one bottle of tequila, and all the beer we could hold. When that ran out, you didn’t even have to get up before another bottle of soda, tequila, or beer replaced the empty.
This email has already reached one page in length, so with brevity in mind, I’ll have to wrap it up. But I can’t finish this chapter without mentioning my favorite part of the wedding in Mexico: Lara’s arrival at the church and the procession that followed. At 15 minutes before the hour, Cesar made his way down the street to wait at the door of the church. At 5 minutes before the hour, Lara made her way out of the house, down the street, and met Cesar at the entrance. Lara is immediately followed by a mariachi band singing and playing music as she walks. All of the family, friends, neighbors, and witnesses followed the band and Lara down the street and to the church. The whole thing was beautifully done like something out of a storybook!
In my next installment, I’ll take everyone back to Mexico City where I’ll discuss the parallel universes of Babylon 5 (the science fiction television series from the mid 90’s) and the location of the all time world’s biggest kiss.
Ryan-- Ryan Joy
Since the frequency of my letters dwindled over the past month, you all probably feel entitled to a Monday Monday Mini Series. Only once before did I write a three part bonus installment edition of Monday Monday with a To Be Continued style theme. With that in mind, I urge you to check your email often with the understanding that a new chapter could appear in your inbox at any time.
We closed the books on January a few weeks ago, and in the first month of 2009, the Bullet Train that is my life made stops in Maryland, New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mexico (keep in mind that I work in Maryland and travel through most of the other states on my way there).
Maggie and I just returned from a trip to Mexico where we witnessed the marriage of Maggie's cousin Lara to her new husband Cesar. Our plane left Charlotte on the last Thursday morning in January. We stopped in Atlanta to switch planes, but made it to Mexico City at about 2:00PM. Lara and Cesar met us at the Airport, and the weekend rollercoastered from there.
Witnessing the Mexican tradition of marriage made for a once in a lifetime experience that I will undoubtedly remember forever. In short, we saw live people dancing with live turkeys, Lara (with a bottle of tequila in hand) chasing Cesar (wearing an apron) through the street (an area that also doubled as the reception hall), a mob hoisting up the bride and groom and tossing them as high into the air as humanly possible, and another mob attempting to knock the newly married couple out of their chairs. Believe it or not, all this happened during the “first dance” section of the wedding.
I also learned where the phrases “blocking off the street” and “road block” come from. During the wedding reception hours, traffic could not pass by Cesar’s house because bricks were literally laid down in the road to prevent automobiles from travelling through. Even if people did get through the blocks, they would next have to bolster their way through a 25 foot high tower of speakers for the all night DJ, then through all the tables and chairs, and then through the bandstand set up for live music on the other side. I could include a picture of this scene, but it wouldn’t do the sight any justice; you had to experience it.
I can’t say enough about the scenery on Lara and Cesar’s actual wedding day, but I’d commit an injustice by not mentioning the previous day’s activities. The other Americans and I stood by as we witnessed town-wide and weekend-long participation in the preparation for this special day. No less than 50 people packed the center court yard of Cesar’s parent’s house to pluck 250 chickens, make god knows how many tortillas, and they worked well into the nights making somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 tamales. During this tamale production Cesar grabbed me to help serve shots of tequila to all the hard working people. I think the crowd consumed three liters of tequila in about 10 minutes. . . .I don’t think we can serve three liters that fast in America.
On the subject of Tequila, I should point out that each table at the wedding was provided one bottle of soda, one bottle of tequila, and all the beer we could hold. When that ran out, you didn’t even have to get up before another bottle of soda, tequila, or beer replaced the empty.
This email has already reached one page in length, so with brevity in mind, I’ll have to wrap it up. But I can’t finish this chapter without mentioning my favorite part of the wedding in Mexico: Lara’s arrival at the church and the procession that followed. At 15 minutes before the hour, Cesar made his way down the street to wait at the door of the church. At 5 minutes before the hour, Lara made her way out of the house, down the street, and met Cesar at the entrance. Lara is immediately followed by a mariachi band singing and playing music as she walks. All of the family, friends, neighbors, and witnesses followed the band and Lara down the street and to the church. The whole thing was beautifully done like something out of a storybook!
In my next installment, I’ll take everyone back to Mexico City where I’ll discuss the parallel universes of Babylon 5 (the science fiction television series from the mid 90’s) and the location of the all time world’s biggest kiss.
Ryan-- Ryan Joy
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