Baseball Trip Replay - Day 69 - July 31, 1994

July 31 - Back to the grind. Left for Columbus. Drove through Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Branson. Exciting drive. Stopped in Afton, OK. Actually, the drive through Missouri was quite beautiful, especially at sunset. Also, since I picked up old Route 66 at St. Louis, there was lots of really kitsch kinds of old gas stations and roadside stores.

Route - I-70 West to I-44. I-44 West to Afton, OK.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 68 - July 30, 1994

July 30 - Slept late. Got up and talked with Rhonda some more. Wish I could have had more time. Left around 4. So I was going to Anaheim instead of Seattle because of the stupid tiles. I wanted to stop in Cleveland, and I tried. There were no motels in available in Cleveland. Nor on I-71. I went 120 miles in 4 hours, and I stopped at every single place. I finally found a place in Columbus about midnight. And got to sleep.

Route - New York 13 West to New York 17. New York 17 West to I-90. I-90 West to I-71. I-71 South to Columbus.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 67 - July 29, 1994

July 29 - Got up at 6:30 so I could get out of Toronto before they towed my car again since we could not find an overnight place to park. So I headed out for Ithaca to visit an old friend from Rice, Rhonda Reese. I got to her apartment about noon, and her boyfriend answered the door. He looked really confused, until I told him who I was. He then remembered I was supposed to be there, so it was ok. His name is Dan, but I never got his last name. Anyway, Rhonda was teaching a class, so she was going to be there later, so I took a nap. (Getting up at 6:30 is not my speed.)

Rhonda got home later, and she, Dan and I talked for a while. Dan was going to a play that night, so Rhonda and I went to dinner and caught up. After dinner, we went to the Cornell gaming group and played games until way too late. It was here I was introduced to Magic the Addiction. Ah, the start of the downfall.

Route - Queen Elizabeth Way to I-190. I-190 South to I-290. I-290 East to I-90. I-90 East to New York 87. New York 87 South to Ithaca.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 66 - July 28, 1994

July 28 - I hadn't had a chance to sleep in for about a week, so I slept until 1:15. When I did get up, I read a Calvin and Hobbes book. Anna called about 4 to say that she got a cashier's check from my bank, and everything went ok. Got ready to leave for the game, went outside, and my car had been towed. Sigh.

Went back in, and traced through the bureaucracy and found it. Took the subway downtown, and walked to the pound. Paid $138.03 Canadian to get it out of the lot, and left $40 more with Laura and Michael to pay the ticket. Seems there is no place close to their place to park past 7:30 AM, which meant that I would have to get up early the next day and leave. Drove to SkyDome and parked.

SkyDome is a very good compromise. It is multi-purpose, which means that it is not an ideal stadium for any sport. For baseball, there is too much foul territory, which means the stands are too far away. Also, you have to look pretty far left to see the plate in the seats down the line. The roof is very impressive however. I wish I could see it open, and see it closing. Oh, well. MacDonald's runs the concessions, but I have had worse. The hotel rooms in the outfield are way cool, and I wish that I could stay there someday.

Milwaukee took a 4-2 lead off of Dave Stewart, but Joe Carter tied it in the bottom of the 8th with a 2-run home run. The Brewers scored one in the top of the 9th, however, and won 5-4. Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers pitched a perfect game also. The players voted on a strike deadline of August 12th. And the league rejected Seattle's proposal to play at the AAA park in Tacoma, so the game I was to go to will be played in Anaheim. I won't be going to Seattle after all.

It was good seeing Michael Gemar again. I didn't know him that well at Rice, but it turns out that he is as big a baseball fan as I am. We both were ticked, however, when the guy in front of us asked us to shut up so he could concentrate on the game. "Why don't you take your conversation up there (pointing to the upper deck) so us real fans can pay attention to the game?" What are real fans? We paid out $23. He left in the seventh inning anyway. Some real fan he turned out to be. Toronto has the quietest fans I have ever seen, and I guess Michael's and my jabbering just got on his nerves. His twins daughters were bored out of their skull, and he kept yelling at them. I don't know what his problem was.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07280TOR1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 65 - July 27, 1994

July 27 - Well, it was time to go to Toronto. It was also time to get the money for the down payment to the title company. They wanted me to wire it. Well, I tried to, but I had to be there to sign the wire order. I fed-exed a check to Anna, and hoped that she could cash it. I also changed my oil. This is very condensed; I finally got on the road to Toronto about 2:15 after having woken up at 8:30. Had a nice, long, uneventful drive to Toronto. This time at the border, it was five questions, and drive, so that was cool. Got to Toronto about 12, and I found Laura McRae's apartment, and I went to bed.

Route - I-95 South to I-80. I-80 West to Garden State Parkway. Garden State Parkway North to I-87. I-87 North to I-90. I-90 West to I-290. I-290 West to I-190. I-190 North to Ontario 403. Ontario 403 West to Queen Elizabeth Way. Queen Elizabeth Way to Toronto.

Bone Jarring - Shutting down

Note: This blog entry is copied from the blog at www.bonejarring.com. That website will disappear soon, so I am reproducing the final blog here.

Life changes.

I started this effort in 2012. At the time, I was being paid, but the company I was working for was a zombie company waiting for its death blow, and I had no idea what I was going to do. In 2014, I setup the company, the website, and the github repo, and started working on the side, as I had a good full-time job at this time.

I have not been able to devote enough side time to make this work. And in the meantime, a website came along which captures the spirit of what I was trying to do. It’s not exactly aligned, but it’s close. Please checkout:

https://roll20.net

It’s really good.

Am I disappointed? No. I learned a lot about IOS, and Swift, and SwiftUI, and that has served me in my rejuvenated career as a software developer.

Could I have made this a full-time venture and got this off the ground? Maybe. The real problem is cost of healthcare for my family, and especially, me. I have some major health concerns which don’t affect me day-to-day, but which makes insurance very expensive or impossible to get. I had a potential investor, and Austin is a great place to startup a company. However, I love my full-time job, and the benefits are awesome.

What’s going to happen to the assets of Bone Jarring? I am assigning the ownership of the copyright to myself, Syd Polk. I am making all of the repositories on github public. Nobody was looking at this, but still… The website is paid for until July, at which point it will disappear.

Honestly, there isn’t much there, which is one of the problems I have. I have to pay to maintain the LLC and all of the digital assets, and I don’t want to do that anymore. If I had something close to being ready for the App Store, or if I had a service people were using, I would have explored selling the company to Roll20 or Paizo or Wizards of the Coast, but there is not enough to sell here.

For those few of you who have read along with me the past several years, thanks!

But most of all, keep playing table-top RPGs. Support your local game store, Roll20, Paizo, Wizards, DriveThru RPG, and any game companies that you love their products. It’s a great hobby!

But in this time of COVID-19, checkout Roll20. It’s really good.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 64 - July 26, 1994

July 26 - Since I was ending the night at Yankee Stadium, and one does not drive to Yankee Stadium, I decided to take a cab to Manhattan. Cost $53. Live and learn. You see, Staten Island is the one borough of the five that make New York City without any train service whatsoever. The ferry runs from 6 AM to 11:30 PM. After that, you drive. Sucks rocks.
Anyway, I asked the cab to take me to the Metropolitan Museum. He didn't know where it was, and the cab company gave him the wrong address. I found a cop, and he told me where it was. I was dropped of on the wrong side of Central Park and 12 blocks downtown from it. Aargh. My feet hurt already from yesterday's walk, and I haven't even been in the museum yet.

This place is huge. The highlight for me was the musical instrument collection. All sorts of really rare European instruments in one room; the other room had non-European instruments, and I have no idea how rare they are. Was a really cool place.

Another highlight was the Rodin statues in the 19th century European art section. It seems that Rodin had this grand vision of a huge work called the Gates of Hell, of which the large Thinker (there are several Thinkers) was just supposed to be a small part. He never put them together, and kind of gave up later, and made the pieces more elaborate so they wouldn't fit together anyway. But the unifying theme is quite dramatic, and the Met has at least six of the statues in the series. Their Impressionistic collection was large, but Philadelphia's was better quality. They had a special exhibit on Picasso's Weeping Women, which as exhibits go, isn't supposed to be very good. However, I gained a new appreciation for his work. They had another on Salvador Dali. I really like a few of Dali's works, the more surrealistic, the better, but the rest of his art was kind of bland. The exhibit was well done, however.

About 3:30, I couldn't take anymore. My brain was spinning, and my feet hurt, so I bought a mystery novel, and sat in a cafe on Madison Ave. and read until time for the game. I took a cab to Yankee Stadium. They started on time, but it looked real iffy. It was raining quite hard there for a while. The Yanks blew a 5-0 first inning lead and lost 10-7. The best part about this was the bleacher bums. They reminded me more of the Rice Student Section at a football game than anything else. They were chanting and clapping in unison throughout the game. They were obnoxious but funny. I glad I wasn't sitting there, but they were fun to watch.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07260NYA1994.htm

I got the date wrong on the scoresheet. Oops.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 63 - July 25, 1994

July 25 - I had wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, it's not open on Mondays. Seems that a lot of things are not open on Mondays. So I took the ferry, and parked my car in Greenwich Village, since that is where I was going to end up that night. I took a cab to the Guggenheim Museum. Way cool building. It's built as a spiral, with the largest layer at the top. You theoretically start at the top and work your way down to the floor. The art, well, it's 20th century. There is some neat stuff, but there is a lot of circle-of-rocks and three-flourescent-tubes-on-an-otherwise-blank-white-wall type of stuff. I was disappointed, though. It only took two hours to go through.

So now it's 11:30, and the first set at the Village Vanguard is at 9:30. Hmm. So I took a cab to the Central Park Zoo. Should have gone to the Bronx Zoo instead. The Central Park Zoo is very, very small. Took 45 minutes to get through. They did have snow monkeys and red pandas, but what a tiny little place.

So now it is 12:30. Hmm. Only nine hours to go. Just about all of the other attractions either didn't really interest me or were closed on Monday. So I decided to go to Music Store Row on 48th Street.

The last time I had tried to go, summer of 1982, I was mugged. I guess this was the get-back-on-the-horse test. I was tired of shelling out money for cabs, and I had plenty of time anyway, so I walked. From 64th and 5th Avenue to 48th and 7th Avenue. Not too bad. There are six stores in this block that sell woodwinds, so I went into all of them. There were a couple of stores that consisted of walls of saxophones with a repairman in the middle who is the owner. One of these had a contrabass saxophone. It looked new. There are less than ten of these in existence. He wanted $40000 for it. That's about right. The best of the stores is Sam Ash. It is split into four stores, one for woodwinds, brass, and sheet music, one for guitars, one for drums, and one for keyboards and computers. The woodwind store had a few things to drool over, like a silver Selmer Mark VI bari sax for $5500. The salesclerk knew of all of the Bay Area stores, so we talked for a while. Priced a few things and left. I have been meaning to buy a keyboard to use with the MIDI setup and my Mac, so I went to the keyboard store. Got a couple of ideas, although it will be a while before I get one.

So now it is 4:00. Well, at this point, I am stymied. I walk back to the Village, 11th Street and Greenwich Avenue, and pick up a Village Voice. They have movie listings. So I go see Speed, a truly silly movie. It does have lots of action, but there is very, very little plot, even for an action movie. Sigh. I ate at an Italian Restaurant, and hung out at a Village coffee shop for a while. Cafe Barrone at home is much better; the prices are better, it is cleaner, the food is better, etc. But what can you do?

Finally, got in to the Village Vanguard. On Monday nights, the Village Vanguard has the Village Vanguard Band, which used to be the Mel Lewis Band, which used to be the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis Band. I call this the And Band, since Thad Jones and Mel Lewis are both gone. The band is tight as ever, and they have some good soloists. The piano player, John Hampton, stole the show. He was amazing. One chart started with just the piano, bass and drums, and he started with an extremely out, harmonically advanced chorus or two, and gradually worked his way over several choruses back to a very soulful blues. Quite effective. The lead trumpet and bass trombone players were great. The trumpet soloists were ok. There were two trombone soloists, one who played a bluesy, plunger-and-straight mute solo, and one which played a bebop solo. I think my friend Clint does a better job with the plunger stuff by far. The sax players were all very good, although the bari player did not take a solo. They couldn't double for spit, though. The lead alto player's flute was fine, but the second alto player's clarinet was awful, the second tenor player's flute was very, very bad, the bari player's bass clarinet was inaudible, and the first tenor just played everything on tenor. Was a joke, but they all solo rings around me, so what if they can't play flutes and clarinets? Had to leave after the first set, since Chuck's brother Mike had to lock up after I got home and was waiting up for me.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 62 - July 24, 1994

July 24 - Shea Stadium is at the intersection of two freeways, so I drove. Of course, one is being rebuilt, but that seems to be the norm everywhere. The game was good. The Mets took the lead with a pinch hit home run by Todd Hundley. SF won it when Barry Bonds hit a bases loaded single off of John Franco. SF 8, NY 6. Ate at a neat neighborhood Italian place here on Staten Island. Was cool.

Game log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07240NYN1994.htm

The dancing gloves are creepy, especially if you watch the video at 2x.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 61 - July 23, 1994

July 23 - Andy decided to get his replacement car, so we went down and he put a deposit down on a new blue Probe. Nice car, not for me. I then left for New York. Arrived at Chuck Kuffner's parents about 7:45. Staten Island is a neat place, and I like New York better than when I was here before. The Kuffner's are a really neat family. The are friendly and loud, like a lot of New Yorkers. I am very happy that Chuck set me up here.

Route - I-276 to New Jersey Turnpike. New Jersey Turnpike to I-278. I-278 to Staten Island.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 60 - July 22, 1994

July 22 - Was kind of tired after the three day drive, so I didn't really get going until the afternoon. Finally, we got out and went to the Philadelphia Art Museum. I was extrememly suprised at their Impressionistic collection; there were fully 9 paintings that I recocnized. Good museum. We ate dinner, and then went to the game. Well, remember the rain I drove the on the 21st? Evidently, it had rained the game out that night, so they were making it up with a double-header today. We arrived in the seventh inning of the first game. Philly beat San Diego 4-2, but I didn't see any of the runs. Between games, they had a Philadelphia celebrity home run contest, and we got to see 7 foot, 6 inch Philadelphia 76er center try to swing a toothpick that would be a bat for you or me. The second game had three rain delays, shades of Wrigley. When it was finally over at 1:54, San Diego had pounded Philly 8-3. Gwynn went 7-9 in the double-header. Scary.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07222PHI1994.htm

Streets of Philadelphia

Philadephia Art Museum and surrounds

Veteran's Stadium

Tony Gwynn

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 59 - July 21, 1994

July 21 - Finally got to Philadelphia through some serious rain. Reached my friend Andrew Stern's condo about 8:30. Andy did not have a good week; there was lot's of flooding in the Philly area early in the week, and Andy lost his car in it. He had been spending the week taking care of it. After we got all of my stuff out of my car, Andy realized that his watch was missing, so we tried to go find it. However, the eleveator had other ideas. It decided not to stop anywhere. It would go all of the way up, and then all of the way down. We finally stopped it close to the first floor, and pushed the doors open, released the emergency catch, and got out. Excitement in Philly.

Route - I-81 North to I-76. I-76 East to Philly.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 58 - July 20, 1994

July 20 - Made Bristol, TN. On the way, heard disturbing news. Parts of the roof of the Kingdome fell into the stands before anybody had shown up to the game, and they still don't know if they are going to play there anymore this year. I will have to call the Mariners and check what they are going to do about the game before I set out for Seattle from Toronto. The drive was beatiful but dull.

Route - I-59 North to I-24. I-24 East to I-75. I-75 North to I-40. I-40 East to I-81. I-81 North to Bristol.

News link about tiles: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/772185-on-this-day-in-sports-history-the-kingdome-has-lost-its-crown

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 57 - July 19, 1994

July 19 - You know, going east again was a difficult thing for me to do. But I set out for Philadelphia. I got out in the afternoon, and made Hattiesburg, MI. More exciting highways.

Route - I-10 East to I-12. I-12 East to I-59. I-59 North to Hattiesburg.

I did drive by a couple of old haunts on the way out of town.

The Astrodome

A drive through the Rice Village and University.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 56 - July 18, 1994

July 18 - Stayed at Mom's a little more, and we talked and listened to music some more, and did crosswords. The article in the Chronicle appeared, and I was fairly pleased with it, even if I am only from the San Jose area, and not San Jose. I left to meet Dad at his place in Clear Lake City. When we both had arrived, a message for me from Matt was on his machine. Channel 13 wanted to interview me at the game, so I called and set it up. We got to the game before anybody else in our group. Our group ended up being me, Dad, Krista and Bob, Matt, Brian, Chuck, and Jason Stevens. Jason was funny; he grew up in Italy, so at first, he didn't seem to know what was going on. He seemed to catch on quickly, however. The Astrodome has changed a little; the tacky light bulb scoreboard which lit up when the Astros hit a home run is gone, and seats replace it. I miss them. However, they have a lot more banners around the top. I guess they did a good job; I just miss the light bulbs and the rainbow stripes on the uniforms. The game was great, but it wasn't at first. St. Louis got out to an 11-0 lead in the second inning. But the Astros scored 11 runs in the sixth and won 15-12. Was the biggest comeback in National League history. YEAH! GO ASTROS! I think everybody at the game had a good time, and I am sorry Randy, the eternal Cardinals fan, missed the game. Channel 13 came and interviewed me during the eleven run inning. People taped the news, but since they were showing the game on ABC, the news was delayed. I taped the interview directly off of the news when it repeated at 1:45, but the sound didn't come through very well. Oh, well. And Marvin Zindler had just left for Florida to check out conditions in the refugee camps, and I didn't get him. A true Houston experience missed. I decided not to try and get a Gallery Furniture commercial, though.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07180HOU1994.htm

The Society for American Baseball Research has an article on this game: https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-18-1994-astros-erase-11-run-deficit-in-biggest-comeback-in-astrodome-history/

It was an accident that I recorded this without sound:

Astrodome before the game:

Bagwell hits a dinger. He would win the MVP this year.

Check out that 6th inning.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 55 - July 17, 1994

July 17 - Went to Galveston with Matt, Chuck and Amy. Ah, to soak in the warm waters of the Gulf. It may be murky, but I do miss the warmth. Basically, went in the water, messed around on the beach and talked to people. Susan (I think that's her name; see above) and a guy named Oz showed up later. Brian and Denise showed up even later. Had to leave about 4:30, so that I could meet up with my mother. Mom lives in one of the apartment complexes that Rice students live in, Brompton Court. As a matter of fact, while I was walking back to her apartment, I saw a guy that used to live next door to me at Hanszen, Keith Goodnight. I could not attract his attention, but I didn't really know him. Mom made me good food, and we talked and listened to music. She seems to be doing better than she has in years; I think Krista getting her life together has helped Mom immensely.

Short conversation with my mother.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 54 - July 16, 1994

July 16 - When I was living here before, I was a member of the Houston Starfleet Battles Playtest Group, and I wanted to go to the meeting, but they were all bummed because a member, Paul Cramer, had been screwed at Origins, so no playtest meeting. Instead, I got to accompany Brian on his stereo quest. Brian is getting a nice system; video outings should be at his place from now on. (You're welcome, Brian.) Met up with Matt again, and we went to Pico's for dinner. (Yum) Went to see Arnold's new movie, True Lies. Silly movie, but great action scenes. After the movie, we went to House of Guys and chatted for a while. Met somebody else, who is also an undergrad at Rice. I think her name was Susan, but I wouldn't swear it. I was always terrible with names. Just like old times. Went to Matt's, and went to sleep.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 53 - July 15, 1994

July 15 - Finally contacted the reporter, Carol Rust, from the Houston Chronicle. Went downtown and met her, and we did the photo shoot. She asked me some questions, and went off to write the story. I found Matt Cohen, who got the story going in the first place, and he gave me a tour of the Chronicle, including all of the neat old and new computer hardware they have. We ate at Treebeard's, which is a good Cajun lunch place. Good food. I then got in touch with Brian Donnell. I went back to Krista's and got my stuff, and made my way to Brian's. Brian's apartment is nice; he lives in the second floor of a duplex with hardwood floors and a good layout. He put a ping-pong table in the dining room, which is really cool. I really liked this place. Brian was having trouble with his burglar alarm; it was quite amusing.

Matt and Chuck Kuffner came over, and we went to eat at Pappa's out on the Southwest Freeway. I seemed to be the only one who had been there, and I thought I was losing my mind, because as we were driving down the feeder road, it kept not being there. But it was, and my Houston memory was vindicated. Had wonderful shrimp. Chuck and Matt invited some friends to meet us, and they showed up about an hour later. Amy Hemphill is an undergrad at Rice, and Denise Krause is a single mother who is just starting college for the first time. We chatted for a while, and then went to see Forest Gump. What a wonderful, wonderful movie. I went back to Brian's and went to sleep.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 52 - July 14, 1994

July 14 - Set out on the second day of my journey to Houston. Decided to go through New Orleans because it had been a long, long time. Nice looking city despite the rain. The drive was not very exciting otherwise. Found my sister's house when I got to Houston about 7:30. My sister and her husband, Krista and Bob Bartel, live near Hobby Airport in Southwest Houston. Bob runs the Houston Youth Hostel. He is a neat guy. I am not sure who he works for. He likes to fix up his house himself. He absolutely is in love with Krista, and a nice guy to boot. This is a refreshing change for Krista. For her part, Krista is recovering from some surgery, so she is still kind of taking life gingerly. She has had it rough; I am glad that her life seems to be taking shape.

Route - I-10 West to Houston. Joy.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 51 - July 13, 1994

July 13 - Set out for Houston. Went back roads for a while until the sun went down. Bought some oranges at a road side stand. Excitement. Stopped and stayed at a motel in Gulfport, Mississippi. If you ever have to stay anywhere near the Mississippi River or the Gulf Coast in the south, make advanced reservations. The casinos make finding places hard. The place I stayed at was quite overpriced because of it. When I logged in, Matt had left me a message to call a reporter from the Houston Chronicle who worked for a friend of his. I couldn't get hold of her. Sigh. Went to bed.

Route - US 192 West to US 27. US 27 North to US 27 Alt. US 27 Alt North to US 98. US 98 West to Florida 87. Florida 87 North to I-10. I-10 West to Biloxi-Gulfport.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 50 - July 12, 1994

July 12 - Went to Epcot Center. I've been told that if you have been to Disneyland in Anaheim that the Magic Kingdom in Orlando was about the same. Epcot was kind of a disappointment. I guess I was expecting more substance or more rides. Instead, there were a few rides with some sketchy science and history, mostly told from a white American/European slant to it. I was quite annoyed with the ride that goes up into the ball. It was supposed to be a history of progress kind of thing. When they were talking about writing, they did not mention cuneiform and the Assyrians/Babylonians/Sumerians who used it (I forgot who developed it) at all. They acted as if a writing system was impossible without an alphabet and did not mention the Chinese at all. When they did mention Islam, it was if they were merely caretakers of all of the precious Greek and Roman knowledge while the West figured out how to get itself back on track after the collapse of Rome. Did you know that Rome burned down? AAGH!

The Innoventions booths were just displays for various computer companies, and you had to pay to play the VR games! Journey Into Imagination was kind of trippy and weird; I would not have wanted to be on drugs seeing this ride. The Living Sea was ok, but mainly because they had a display with live manatees! Cool! They were great; I watched them for quite a while. The Land boatride was ok, lot's of biosphere-type agricultural research going on. I liked this ride the best. I made my way over to the Canadaland area. They ran a reasonably (I guess) cool 360 degree movie about Canada. Sigh. Since the rest of the park was all country areas, and it was raining, and I wanted to see the All-Star game on TV anyway, I decided to leave and get dinner. One thing: all the Brazilian teenagers in the world were there. They all were in groups wearing extremely bright identical tight tee-shirts. They would sing and dance as they went from ride to ride.

The All-Star Game was very cool. The NL won 8-7 in 10 innings.

There were bands.

The manatees were cool.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 49 - July 11, 1994

July 11 - Made my way up the coast via the beaches and over to Kissimmee. I cannot believe how many motels there are here. Lots and lots and miles and miles. Signs in English, Spanish, Japanese, German. Nice area of the country though.

Route - US 1 to US 192. US 192 West to Kissimmee. Sometimes I went down Florida A1A instead, but it parallels US 1 most of the way up the coast.

Drive north approximately on US 1 on way out of town.

Miami Beach

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 48 - July 10, 1994

July 10 - I went to school at the University of Miami for one year as a music major. When I finally got out of the room after lots of sleep, I went down to U of M and looked around. There are a lot more trees than there used to be, and as a result, the campus looks a lot better. In addition, they appear to have more money than they used to, and a lot of things have been remodeled and repainted. And they have a commuter train station now. A lot better place. The music school has a new building. My sax teacher is still there, but being Sunday, was not in his office. I was running out of time, so I made my way to Joe Robbie Stadium for the Marlins game. Did you know there are no markings as to where this place is from I-95? I didn't. Took a little to find, but got there ok. The place is actually nice, which I was not expecting from a teal-and-orange colored stadium. The place is primarily a football stadium which provisions for baseball. Despite that, baseball works ok in it. It is octagonal, so most of the seats face the field. They blocked off the upper deck with tarps. They have a large, teal, hand-operated scoreboard which is really neat. The giant TV is in right, right where the sun shine on it. They could have put it on the other side. Oh, well. Minor problem. I sat in the club level. This is unique to this place. The restrooms and restaurants are enclosed and carpeted, with lounge chairs liberally distributed throughout. The seat are outside, but like Disney and AstroWorld, they try to air-condition them anyway. They also have waiters and food delivered, but you are expected to tip. The parking lot is weird. They have strips of concrete, which you drive on, and strips of grass, which you park on. I wondered how many people got stuck in mud. They did not let me take my video camera inside. Florida beat Colorado 6-4 when pinch-hitter Mario Diaz hit a bases-loaded triple.

Time for the All-Star break.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07100FLO1994.htm

There was some kind of silly mascot contest. Astros mascot was there.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 47 - June 9, 1994

July 9 - Time to go to Miami. Well, there were floods in Georgia around Macon, and I-75 was closed. So I had to go around. Took an awful long time to get to Miami. Was impressed with Florida's Turnpike, after being on the Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and the New Jersey turnpikes. The road was in great shape (they don't get snow, make sense), and the service areas were unbelievably clean. Anyway, got to Miami about 2:30. The motel I was staying in was just down the road from Miami International Airport, and the neighborhood was not the best. It was right by a closed MacDonald's, and four women dressed in very little with very high heels and way too much makeup were just getting out of their car and started walking down the street. Some of the parking lot of the motel was blocked off, so I had to snake around to get to the lobby and my room. It was a nice motel despite the people with entirely too loud stereos going down the street around the place.

Route - I-20 East to US 441. US 441 South to US 319. US 319 South to Georgia 107. Georgia 107 West to I-75. I-75 South to Florida's Turnpike. Florida's Turnpike South to Miami.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 46 - July 8, 1994

July 8 - Slept late. Met more of Andrea's cousins. We then went to the Circuit City to get my stuff installed. The mall that this particular CC was in was really, really lame. One very bad record store, one pathetic book store, and nothing much else. Andrea and I milled around and mostly talked until the stereo was finally installed. We made our way downtown, and went to the Coca-Cola Pavilion downtown. A true monument to capitalism. We went to the Underground, which is a large mall under downtown. Found some food, and found a better record store. Went to the game. We were running a little late, but the game was rain-delayed 25 minutes, so I didn't miss anything. Andrea had got her ticket later, so our seats were far apart, but she found me later, and we sat together because of no-shows. It only took two hours for Bob Tewksbery to shut out Greg Maddux and the Braves as St. Louis won 2-0. (Another note for baseball fans: Maddux lost four times in 1994. I saw two of them). Atlanta Fulton County Stadium is going to be replaced for the Olympics, and that's probably a good thing. It's yet another boring, circular, multi-purpose stadium. They had a fire there a couple of years ago. Lightning had struck the satellite dish that received out-of-town scores, so that scoreboard just sat dark. The colors are hideous, an awful light blue and a dark red. I don't mind the tomahawk chop, but they never got it really going for my video. Darn. Getting out was pretty awful, as downtown Atlanta is a maze and not designed very well.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07080ATL1994.htm

The retrosheet.org link contains a link to a SABR (Society of American Baseball Research) story on the same game:

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-8-1994-tewksbury-goes-the-distance/

2020-07-08 I'm a little more woke now. The Tomahawk Chop bothers me a lot now. And the Braves are thinking about trying to ditch it: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/atlanta-braves-considering-eliminating-controversial-tomahawk-chop/ar-BB16uejd?li=BBnb7Kz

Good riddance (if they follow through).

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 45 - July 7, 1994

July 7 - Time to drive to Atlanta. The drive was pretty smooth; however, I ran into a snag in Chattanooga. There was a series of major accidents on Interstate 24 right before the intersection of Interstate 75. I moved about 3/4 of a mile over about 90 minutes. I finally got off at a city street, snaked my way downtown, and got back on the freeway. I got back on the first exit after the major accident, and they were busy cleaning sand off of the freeway and righting a semi. I could not figure out why I seemd to be the only person who got off of the freeway and went through town.

Anyway, finally got to Atlanta. Andrea Terrill had contacted her cousin Clark and his family, and that is where I was staying. Clark and Suzan have two kids and a dog, so the house is kind of frenetic most of the time. The family had just returned from a long trip to New Orleans, and everybody's nerves were kind of frazzled. Suzan offered to cook some dinner for me and Andrea, but I thought it would just be easier on everybody if Andrea and I just went out. We found a good Italian place, and ate and caught up with life. When we got back, I was put up on the couch. However, because the kids would be up at 6, they moved me to the five-year old's bed about then so I could sleep.

Route - I-64 East to I-57. I-57 South to I-24. I-24 East to I-75. I-75 South to Atlanta.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 44 - July 6, 1994

July 6 - Called the Acura dealer in town. He said that to replace the radio/tape player was about an $800 job. So I went to circuit City instead and got a CD changer, tape player, and replaced my blown speakers in back (which would have been even more at the Acura place). However, all of the Circuit City installation centers in St. Louis were closed on Wednesday. (Why you ask? Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why does it cost $800 for the factory replacement in the first place?) So I stuffed the stuff into my trunk and made an appointment in Atlanta for the only center that had a slot available. I also got my oil changed and got my scoresheets copied at Kinko's (ooh, aah). The Frueh's got home, and we went to the game. Actually, we went to a brew-pub called the Taproom first. Nice place, good lager. Evidently, they had real trouble opening because Anheuser-Busch didn't want them to, and good ol' A-B controls a lot of St. Louis.

Got to the stadium in time for the starting line-ups. Another cookie-cutter, circular sixties multi-purpose thing. It does have little arches over each section in the upper deck, and they each have a little light under them. Also, the view of downtown and the Gateway Arch from behind home plate is quite spectacular. When the sun in shining, the stadium is extremely, overwhelmingly red. They take this cardinal red stuff seriously. Their caps are so red one has trouble seeing the edges when framed against the Astroturf. Its hurts the eyes. This was the first time I got to see the Astros (GO ASTROS!) on this trip, and I was not disappointed. Houston won 7-6. Drabek was uncharacteristically rough to start, giving up five runs. However, Sutcliffe also gave up 5 runs (this was NOT unexpected), and it was left up to the bullpen. Houston's was better. Cool. The Frueh's were great hosts, a lot of fun at the ballpark, and have a great pool. It was nice being able to take a dip at 11 PM, something not possible in Northern California because it is too cold. It has been annoyingly hot all summer, however.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07060SLN1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 43 - July 5, 1994

July 5 - Drove to St. Louis. On the way, my car radio became possessed. It would randomly change stations every one or two seconds, and it thought that there was a tape in the player once when there wasn't. It did this several times, and I finally had to give up and turn it off.

Grr.

Got to St. Louis and realized that I hadn't ever called for directions to Rich Frueh's father's house. What's worse, it didn't seem that I had the number. Fortunately, Rich's father was listed, and I got hold of him fine. Arrived, finished watching the Cardinals-Astros game on TV, and went to bed.

Route - US 41 South to I-55. I-55 South to St. Louis.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 42 - July 4, 1994

July 4 - Found out that the game I was going to in Wrigley Field had turned into a double-header since a game had been rained out the last time Colorado had been through. Cool.

Wrigley is the best park in the National League, and I think it's cool, but there are several parks in the AL that I like better. I miss the big-screen TV. The park is clean, and has that old park charm, and the ivy and the buildings across the street with the people on the rooves are really cool.

The first game went fast, and while was watching it, I was listening to the USA-Brazil World Cup game in the radio. Too bad about the USA, but they did great just to get there.

The second game got underway, but in the seventh inning there was a rain delay. This is when I really miss the big-screen TV. They got back underway again, and went into extra-innings. There was another rain delay in the 14th inning, this time sixty-nine minutes. They got back underway, but they had thrown two pitches when the rain started again. They played through until the Rockies had scored two in the top of the fifteenth, and stated the bottom of the 15th, but then again, they stopped playing. They had another fifty-two minute delay, and finally, they played out the fifteenth inning. The first game started at 12:06 PM, the second game was over at 10:15. Longest day of baseball I have ever been through. Don't think I want that to happen much to me anymore.

First game score: Chicago 4, Colorado 3 on a two run single by Derrick May in the bottom of the 9th off of Bruce Ruffin.

Second game score: Colorado 4, Chicago 2, 15 innings, 3 hours plus of rain delays.

Found my way back home and showed David the videos that I had made so far.

Game #1 Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07041CHN1994.htm

Game #2 Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07042CHN1994.htm

Wrigley Field

I have no idea who these players are.

Game 2 went so long it required more pages.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 41 - July 3, 1994

July 3 - Once again into the maelstrom. Back to Chicago to pick up the Cubs. I am very tired of Ohio and Indiana and Southeast Chicago. I thought I would be clever and not get stuck on the torn up freeways of Chicago, so I took Lakeshore Drive through the city. Mistake. Chicago was having its Fourth of July fireworks show, and there were a million and a half people lining the parks and streets of Lake Michigan. Took quite a while to get through this mess.

Got back to David Raitt's and Valerie Tardiff's place about 8:30. There was a significant chance that they wouldn't be, but I could use their apartment anyway. Isn't that cool? Aren't they wonderful people? But they were indeed home; there were dirty dishes on the dining table and the day's World Cup results had been written in on the chart on the fridge. Watched TV until they got back from Wilmette's fireworks show. Chatted for a while and went to bed.

Route - I-279 North to I-79. I-79 North to US-19. US-19 North to I-76. I-76 West to I-80. I-80 West to I-80-90. I-80-90 West to I-90. I-90 West to US 41. US 41 North to Wilmette.

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 40 - July 2, 1994

July 2 - John and I went to lunch in an area not unlike the Village in Houston or downtown Los Gatos or University Village in Seattle. Lots of little shops with lots of college students running around. The rest of the afternoon, I took care of some paperwork and then I went to the game.

Three Rivers Stadium is one of the cookie-cutter, circular stadiums from the sixties, and it was very familiar. The game was delayed half an hour by rain, but once it started, it didn't rain any more. Cincinnati clobbered Pittsburgh 8-1. It wasn't pretty.

Game Log: https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1994/B07020PIT1994.htm

Baseball Trip Replay - Day 39 - July 1, 1994

July 1 - Well, if I had looked at the map before I stayed an extra night in Boston, I would have realized that it is a 12 hour drive to Pittsburgh. The game started a 7:05. I realized that I wasn't going to make it early, but I lucked out. This is one place in my schedule that had an extra day in it anyway, so I decided to just go to the game on Saturday. Not much to say about this day other than I drove to Pittsburgh. I do hate the interstates in Pennsylvania; they are in terrible shape and under construction and have low speed limits and aggressive cops. Ugh.

Pittsburgh is is a beautiful place; it is situated where two rivers combine to form the Ohio River, and it is in the valleys of these rivers that the town lays. There are lots of hills and rivers all over the place. The view as you go exit the tunnel into downtown is fantastic.

I found John Greiner's house. He is living with a couple of other CMU grad students. It's a typical bachelor house; messy but not unsanitary, lots of college-type furniture, computer in the dining room, etc. They seem like pretty swell guys, and we watched TV until everybody went to bed.

Route - I-95 South to I-78. I-78 West to I-76. I-76 West to the I-70 split. I-70 West to I-79. I-79 North to I-279. I-279 North to Pittsburgh.