Tin Caps, Boggs, and Bees

It appears we will finally get a dose of Hot Weather beginning tomorrow...Just in time for the 9th Annual Bar Stool Open on Grand Lake. Hal, will be coming home tonight, and join Nick, me, and a few others, including his former roomie Woost, on one team on Nick's Boat...this year 13 bars, 13 holes, and an unlimited number of beers are on the agenda. I'll have photos of the event next week, on Monday.

Baseball @ Fort Wayne____

Patricia and I headed to Fort Wayne last evening to take in a Class A game at Fort Wayne. The former "Wizards" are now the "Tin Caps", having moved into their new downtown stadium early this season, thus the Johnny Appleseed inspired new name and logo, to go with the new stadium. It is impressive...the old stadium was not bad, located near the Coliseum on the north end...the city decided to revitalize downtown Fort Wayne, and build this 8600 seat ballpark. The only down size is the parking, or lack of it, near the stadium...and the surrounding construction. All-in-all though, it is a great upgrade.

http://www.tincaps.com/

The Tin Caps are going great guns, last night's sell out put the season attendance above 300 thousand...fireworks, and $dollar draft beer helped in the sell out, a 12-6 victory for the home team over the Lansing Lugnuts. The Caps won the first half of the season, and lead by six games with a 31-9 record the 2nd half...FW is a Class A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. Patrica and I ate some great food{outstanding selection and menu for reasonable prices) had a couple of bottle beers{can't stand draft}, and left in the 8th inning to beat the traffic...I've seen enough fireworks in my life, so that was not an issue.

Yesterday I got to thinking about another baseball game we attended....and after looking at my old diary, I discovered it was 10 years ago...Today!

Wade Boggs hits #3000 @ Tampa Bay 8/7/1999___

Back in the late 90s, we were taking late summer vacations to Florida...we would stay a few days at the Inn at the Beach in my old hometown of Venice.

http://www.innatthebeach.com/

We would stay there for 3 or 4 days, then head to Key West, and drive up the East Coast, do a couple of other things and head home.

Back in 1999 Sam had decided to take a week and play baseball at the Mickey Owen Baseball School, near Springfield, Missouri. The plan was we would pick him up, and head to Florida for our annual vacation. I thought it might be a good time to take in a baseball game in a different location. As luck would have it, Wade Boggs of the Devil Ray{now Rays} was approaching 3000 career hits, and Ohio's "other" team the Cleveland Indians would be in the Tampa Bay area near the end of our trip....the odds of hitting the right date for Boggs feat were pretty slim, but I ordered tickets for the Tribe vs Rays on August 7, 1999. 10 years ago today.

We finished up our stay at Venice the morning of August 7th. Boggs was now just 3 hits shy of 3000...we headed north to St. Pete, grabbed a motel room, our video camera, and headed to Tropicana Field...Boggs needed a trey of base hits...What were the chances? With seats right behind home plate in the second deck, we had a great birds eye view. The game ended up being a high scoring affair, with Cleveland winning 15-10. Boggs, after making an out his first at bat, collected 2 straight hits...thus setting the script that few could have guessed for this "slap hitter"...Wade Boggs was not usually a Home Run threat, but with youngest son Hal taking the video, he drilled a line drive into the right field bleachers, becoming the first player to collect hit #3000 with a HR. We ended up with great personal video, tickets, souvenirs of the date and event...plus the St Pete Times Newspaper celebrating the event. A once in a lifetime family event, it is hard to believe that 10 years have passed.

Sunflowers and Bees___

Has anybody noticed, at least in our neck of the woods, that we don't have the amount of bugs and bees that we have had in previous years? Even the damn mosquitoes have dropped off the radar. While it may make things more pleasant, it cannot be a good sign. When the Bees are gone, can Mankind be far behind? Just Asking....

Anyhow, my Sunflowers are now going great guns....4 of the Giant Flowers are in full bloom, and a couple more are on the verge...by next week I expect a couple dozen Mammoth Sunflowers to be in full view....the good news is, Bees are taking note, {even though they are hard to see on the photos, they are there} and showing up on the large flowers.

Health Scare Alert____

Watch close this weekend and early next week the "Town Hall Meetings" on Health Care. The real folks, the senior citizens and taxpayers are starting to be slammed by the Press and our illegal Prez. And not the criminal leaders of the union trash, these thugs, are starting to show up to keep the regular folks out of the meetings and shutting them out of the conversation. Make no mistake that Union Leaders are trash, Marxist trash, and will do anything they can to cease the debate, so their hero, Barry Soetoro Obama, can get his agenda passed.

Watch and beware.....don't let these bastards from the AFL-CIO and other garbage stop our First Amendment rights.

I am sure I'll be in no condition to post after tomorrow's Bar Stool Open, and I'm trying to get the final 30% of the painting done in between, well maybe after, beers...so I should be back on board Monday...have a great weekend.

back later>>>>

Photos-{top left}The 3000 hits card from August 7, 1999, when Wade Boggs clubbed a Home Run for #3000. Ticket stubs from last nights game at Fort Wayne, and the 8/7/99 game at Tampa Bay. One of the backyard Sunflowers complete with bees nearing full size{bigger than my melon sized head}, and our Bar Stool Golfing gang from the 8th Annual Bar Stool Open last August...#9 is tomorrow morning thru tomorrow evening.