Happy Birthday Adrian! Daddy stop talking, Shots fired, Almost perfect, Junior

Let me start by wishing my dear friend Adrian a very, very, very Happy 30th Birthday! As some of you may remember, there was a time in the not too distant past when Adrian hated me so much that she wouldn't let her husband hang out with me (it was never an official policy... just a theory of mine). But that was back when she was in her 20's... We have since made up (though, I must point out, I still haven't seen her husband around much lately). Anyway, I hope Adrian has a very happy 30th Birthday.

I went for a walk Tuesday night with Mary Ruth. We walked to a pond in our subdivision so we could feed the ducks. We’re walking and she is talking to me non-stop (“Look, Daddy, isn’t the world beautiful? God made the world so beautiful! There are no bugs on us...”). So we get to the pond and we feed the ducks and life is good. We are walking back and she’s still talking non-stop (“Look at the sky Daddy, isn’t it beautiful? Weren’t the little baby duckies so cute!” and on and on and on). Well, we’re walking and she gets a little quite so I figure it was my turn to talk to her. So I’m pointing out things (“Look at that bird, Mary Ruth, isn’t it pretty?) and then I say “Mary Ruth, weren’t the little duckies just so cute” (in a “baby voice” like what she had used when she said it). She looks up at me and says “Daddy, stop talking”. She doesn’t yell, she doesn’t scream, she just calmly looks up and says “Daddy, stop talking”. At that moment I notice some long-haired hippy looking young boy (If I had to guess, maybe 6 years old) on a skateboard going by us. That can’t be the reason she told me to stop talking (I thought to myself). As soon as the young boy went past us, she looked up at me and in the sweetest little girl voice said “Ok, Daddy, what were you saying?” SHE IS FOUR YEARS OLD! WOW! If she’s already embarrassed by me, it’s going to be a long life for her! Haha.

You may have seen an article in the Post & Courier today titled: 4 wounded, 1 gravely, in barrage of gunfire. You will note the address of the shots (Seaside Lane). That road runs right behind the James Island baseball field (which is where I was last night with Jeremy for an American Legion baseball game). Having played 5 years on that field, hearing gunshots (or, for that matter, smelling burning flesh... don’t ask) coming from Seaside Lane does not faze me at all. But when the shots started last night it was all I could do to keep Jeremy from returning fire. The good news is West Ashley was playing Goose Creek last night, so there wasn’t even a pause in the game when the shots were being fired. It was brought to my attention that we did not hear police sirens after the shooting (which really wasn’t very far from us... probably closer to us than the pond from my previous story is to my house). Again, this did not shock me. My guess is they didn’t want to let the people with guns know that another “target” was in the area. Oh, before I forget, West Ashley lost 7-0... but at least they got a hit (which is more than they did the previous game they played).

Did you hear about the almost perfect game last night? The only runner to reach base got there because of an error by the first base umpire. Armando Galarraga of the Detroit Tigers had his perfect game blown by (a very good) veteran umpire, Jim Joyce. Replays show the runner was out. Watching it in “real time” it looked like the ball was starting to come out of the pitchers glove (he was covering first), though it never came out. Here’s the thing, I’d love to rip the umpire but I just can’t. After he saw the replay (after the game) he knew he got it wrong. So, he went to the pitcher and apologized and said he got the call wrong. He even said in public that he was wrong and he was sorry. Umps don’t usually do that... so it’s hard for me to be mad at one who does. I thought that was real classy of him. Also classy, was the way Galarraga handled everything. He didn’t talk bad about Joyce (even though nobody would have blamed him)... instead he said that it was ok, nobody is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. What a classy way to handle that situation... especially considering the odds are very much against him even coming close to throwing another perfect game. I think what I would do, is put him in the record books as having thrown a perfect game and I would put an asterisk by his name with a note explaining the situation. I know mistakes are part of the game and we can’t go back and “replay” every game, but this is a unique situation in my mind. And it’s not like other records aren’t able to be reviewed. Official scorers are able to go back during a game to change an error to a hit (or the other way around). And the umpire even said he messed it up. Everyone knows it was a perfect game. Time to make it official.

Ken Griffey, Jr. retired last night. I wish we would have had a chance to see him play his career injury free. He had one of the sweetest swings of any player I saw play. He was a guy who just looked like he was born to play baseball. So here’s to you, Ken Griffey, Jr. I hope you have a great retirement.