Author: Jim Ellwanger

Carlos Zambrano and Matt Morris are both good pitchers

Steve Stone, at one point during today’s Cubs-Cardinals telecast: “I just had a booth tragedy. I rested my Tootsie Pop on my lemonade, and it fell in.”

Also, I’m going to assume the local WGN station identification announcement is usually played at a reasonable volume, as opposed to the one on Superstation WGN, which was cranked way up high, apparently to match the action! in the big shows they were promoting today, “Andromeda” and “Mutant X.”

There’s a lot to like

Bob seems to have been spending all day reading this blog from beginning to end. He left a comment related to the very first entry which I might as well address. I listed the four potential itineraries and said, “I actually have reasons for liking all four of these itineraries, so I don’t really care which one eventually gets chosen.” Bob wondered what those reasons were.

All four included at least nine games in nine different ballparks, including the places I specifically wanted to go, Montreal and Pittsburgh, and the place Levi specifically wanted to go, Boston. And then there were also more specific areas of interest for each of the four.

Itinerary #1 was the earliest in the year, so I wouldn’t have to deal with feelings of anticipation as long. It also included a scheduled day with no game, neatly placed on the itinerary between Boston and Philadelphia, which could have been used to see Stephanie D’Abruzzo in “Avenue Q,” or go to the Baseball Hall of Fame, or see the Red Sox twice, assuming we could afford the tickets. It also went across Memorial Day, so I’d save a vacation day from my job.

Itinerary #2 was the only one to include all four of last season’s League Championship Series participants, plus featured two games in the same city on consecutive days, which is neat even if one of the teams is the Yankees. And it was the only one with the Devil Rays, and the travel would be in the reverse direction of the other three.

Itinerary #3 included the Cardinals, which I knew would make Levi giddy with glee, as well as the only stadium that probably won’t be around anymore within the next three years, Busch Stadium (unless they tear Olympic Stadium down the instant the Expos leave Montreal).

Itinerary #4 was the only one to include a game in Baltimore, in the first of the new retro ballparks, and it would probably have allowed us to economize by staying with my aunt and uncle in the Philadelphia suburbs for a full three days. It also was the only one to include a minor-league game as originally drawn up, although we ended up adding one to the beginning of Itinerary #3. It also went across Labor Day, so it was another potential vacation day saving.

It’s probably a little late to be thinking about the alternate itineraries now, since we’ve been seriously committed to Itinerary #3 since February, when we got the Red Sox and Phillies tickets. I’m probably going to revisit them once the dates roll around and the games are played, and we’ll have some “we could have been there!” hindsight.

Original comments…

thatbob: Perhaps I’m building you a cumulative index (hottt!!!).

One more musical note

A while back, Stacey had suggested the song “Piazza New York Catcher” by Belle & Sebastian to me. I almost got it with the code she gave me, but I instead decided to purchase the entire “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” album at some point in the future. I’m sure I’ll make it to Amoeba Music at least once before the trip, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a used copy or two (of course, the problem with going to Amoeba Music is that I can’t get out of there without spending at least $40 on used CDs).

Original comments…

Levi: If you’re feeling sinister . . . we have the disc and I could make sure the song is on my iPod . . . and yours.

More ice cream, more songs

After that last rant, let’s just say it’s a good thing the other book of old Charles Schulz cartoons that just came out, “Li’l Beginnings,” did fit into the package lockers.

Now, then: Stacey also pledged to vote at Ben & Jerry’s, and also got a free song from iTunes, and passed the code along to me. I already have three different versions of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but figured one more couldn’t hurt, so I downloaded a 2003 version by someone named Kathleen Holeman, who is not listed in the All-Music Guide. Turns out it’s a neat rendition, including an additional verse with some ranting against the current state of Major League Baseball.

The three versions I already had were a 37-second-long instrumental version of the chorus only, a version credited to “Bruce Springstone” parodying a certain New Jersey-based singer (both from the “Baseball’s Greatest Hits” CD), and a 1909 version by a singer named Edward Meeker that I downloaded from the “public domain 78s” collection on mp3.com a few years ago.

By the way, if anybody feels like opening up iTunes and rating an iMix or two, why not try this one or perhaps this one? Sorry, no “Mix American Style” yet…that’s going to be a big job, to try to substitute songs according to what’s available in the iTunes Music Store. Actually, someone else has already done an iMix containing songs related to all 50 states, but they’ve got them in the order each state entered the union (a neat idea), and their first two songs are suspect because they’re about a river that shares a name with a state (“Down Across the Delaware,” James McMurtry) and a phone number in New York City that happens to have the name of a state in it (“Pennsylvania 6-5000”).

Original comments…

thatbob: Along that vein, Oregon Hill is set in the deep south, Virginia is merely the girl’s name, and of course Kansas City is in Missouri. But who am I to judge? My playlist “I Love to Count!” couldn’t get past twelve.

Kathleen Holeman: Thanks for listening. I don’t know if it told you when you downloaded it, but I wrote the commentary at the end of the song. The front part was the original verse. I am a jazz artist in the Kansas City MO area. My husband and I have started collecting pictures of us with various minor league (or less-than)mascots. Fun! Write back to me if you want to. http://www.kathleenholeman.com

This is Priority Mail?

Way back in March, in this very blog, I maligned the AAA web site because it would only allow a total of eight destinations on the form to have a Triptik made for your upcoming road trip, so I had to make two separate requests, and then all I got in the mail was a Triptik for the final third of this trip; I had assumed that someone saw two requests by the same AAA member coming very closely together and threw away the first request.

Well, all this time, it turns out the AAA and their web site wasn’t at fault. It was the U.S. Postal Service. The Triptik covering the first two-thirds of this trip, it turns out, came in a much bigger box (because of all the Tourbooks that came along with it), too big to fit in one of the package lockers in my apartment complex, as the mailman discovered when trying to deliver it on February 4th (I know this because of a telltale scrawl on the address label). But he didn’t leave a note then, for whatever reason, and the package apparently got forgotten about somewhere in the North Hollywood post office until yesterday, when I finally got a note telling me to pick it up in a hurry or they would return it to the sender on May 3rd.

But now we have the small problem that all these Tourbooks are the 2003 editions, because the updated editions don’t come out until March or April (if I had remembered this, I wouldn’t have ordered the Triptik for this trip so early), and the more significant problem that the route shown on this Triptik doesn’t reflect our current plans, which involve going from Carmi, Illinois, to Detroit via University Park, Illinois, so we can drop Luke off at the Metra station.

So I’m going to go in person to a AAA office soon to get them to make a “corrected” Triptik while I wait, and maybe a big pile of 2004 edition Tourbooks, thus avoiding the Postal Service altogether, and the North Hollywood post office in particular. (My copy of the April 11th TV Guide also seems to have disappeared into a black hole, but TV Guide extended my subscription for two weeks to make up for it.)

Yet another song

Of course Levi and Steve should coach Little League. It would be the only team with assigned reading every week!

I got another free iTunes song for going to the Ben & Jerry’s web site on Tuesday and pledging to vote in November, so I downloaded “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again” by Billy Bragg and Wilco. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to pledge to eat Ben & Jerry’s, since I tend to stick with ice cream with company names ending in “reyers.”

By the way, the new “radio charts” feature in the iTunes Music Store is surprisingly cool, although they unfortunately don’t list what’s being played on Carmi’s very own WROY. (They don’t seem to list any oldies stations or “standards” stations…and since they also don’t list any satellite format playlists, they only list a handful of AM stations nationwide.)

Original comments…

stacey: jim, did you know that “dreyer’s” is known as “edy’s” east of the rockies? this is akin the “hellman’s” & “best foods” mayonnaise phenomenon.

Jim: Yes, especially since I grew up way east of the Rockies. In fact, I don’t think they had Edy’s in Tampa until, like, the late ’80s or maybe even the early ’90s. By the way, I’m still a little mad at them for discontinuing my favorite flavor ever, Banana Cream Pie, which was banana ice cream with chunks of vanilla wafers. Breyers makes a banana ice cream with chocolate chunks in it, which is okay, but I could do without the chocolate. I like banana ice cream.

The magic’s in the music and the music’s in me

I assume, Levi, that you’re only referring to songs with vocal accompaniment being performed or played at the ballpark. Because as I see it, anything is fine if it’s being played live on an organ. Especially “Three Blind Mice.”

Original comments…

Levi: You’re right, Jim, And I have to admit a dirty secret: I have a soft spot for “Jump”, played as the Cubs take the field at home. It sounds great, it somehow hasn’t dated, and its message of the importance of taking a leap of faith seems appropriate.

Oh, and a side note. I’m not entirely certain that there is _any_ song that wouldn’t be improved by being sung by Roy Orbison. Just like I think there might not be any movie that wouldn’t be improved by Peter O’Toole’s presence.

Another baseball song

I’m now 3-for-3 on winning iTunes from 20-ounce Pepsis purchased at 7-Eleven. I’d buy more if it weren’t actually uneconomical (they cost $1.23 including the “CA Cash Refund” value), considering I wouldn’t be buying 20-ounce Pepsis if it weren’t for the fleeting fun of this iTunes contest.

Anyway, the song I purchased this time was Jonathan Richman’s “Walter Johnson,” with typically Jonathan Richman-esque lyrics…

All through baseball
He was loved and respected
Was there bitterness in Walter Johnson?
Well, it was never detected

I have seven more baseball songs I’d like to download from iTunes, but I probably won’t be buying any more Pepsi between now and April 30th, the last day to redeem the codes for free songs (i.e., I won’t be buying any more Pepsi unless they run another contest like this, because I like Coke better). If anyone has any leftover codes and has run out of songs they like, feel free to send them along.

Original comments…

sandor: See, if I had my act together, I’d already have built you the addition to this site that would let thankful readers (like myself) donate funds to your trip in any form they like, but preferrably gasoline credits, Pepsi bottlecaps or iTunes Store gift certificates. I’ll get right on that. In the meanwhile, I’ll send 99 cents your way through the iTMS.

sandor: Well, poop. The iTMS only allows gift certificates in increments of $10. The problem isn’t whether I’m willing to donate 10 songs to the cause, which I of course am, but that those sneaky fuckers at Apple will be pocketing the extra 10 cents. Sniff sniff… is that salami I smell?

Jim: Apple wouldn’t pocket the extra 10 cents…the entire $10 would go into my iTunes account, so I would effectively get 11 songs for a total cost to me of 89 cents. Or a full album plus one extra song for 98 cents.