Getting back into America's Pastime

After about, oh, thirty years, I decided to get back into baseball. I did so for a couple of reasons. First, I have to let you know that I've been a Dodger fan since the mid-sixties, when I first came to California. I lived with a family that bled Dodger Blue, and I absorbed their enthusiasm.

Previously, I was a Yankee fan. I'm talking Maris, Mantle, the whole magilla. I can remember when I was living in El Paso, Texas and the school I was attending would play the World Series over the PA system during lunch. Keep in mind that the games were played during the day at that time.

But I digress. Over the next few decades, I became a devoted Dodger fan. But Vin Scully was the game changer for me. Since I was a lover of words, nothing was greater than listening to Vinnie call the games on a warm summer's eve. Heck, when you went to a game his voice would be echoing all over the stadium because the fans would have their 8-transistor radios tuned into his discourse. Someone once said that high school students listening to Vinnie had a 50-point advantage on the SAT test (I'm paraphrasing).

The second reason I got back into the sport, is that at the beginning of this season I found out about MLB.tv, in which one could subscribe for the season and get the home and away feeds of all the baseball games around the country.

Now I know that Vinnie is about 84 and, sad to say, there aren't too many seasons left in him.  So with the opportunity to get all the Dodger games via MLB.tv, I decided that I just had to have at least one last hurrah with Vin and the "Boys of Summer."

So far, it's been excellent! The only drawback is that Vin is just calling the home games. But, hey, who can blame him. He is getting along in years, so that's totally acceptable. I had forgotten how mellifluous his voice is and just how magnificently he paints a picture describing the events of the game.

One of his recent gems that comes to mind is, "He tried to upper cut a very high fastball for a compound fracture." That is so brilliant!

It looks like I picked a good year to follow the Dodgers seeing as how Matt Kemp is tearing up the league, and so far the Dodgers have a great win/loss record.

A bonus I hadn't thought of when I decided to subscribe is that I can watch great moments of other games, such as the perfect game that was pitched by Philip Humber of the White Sox or the steal of home by rookie phenom Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals.

All in all, I'm having a great time getting back into baseball. If your interest is piqued by this post, I'll let you know that I paid $124.99 for MLB.tv, though it might be prorated now that the season is underway.

On a side note, I have to say that Los Angeles residents back in the late sixties, seventies and early eighties were blessed with having hall of fame announcers Scully, Chick Hearn (Los Angeles Lakers) and Dick Enberg (UCLA Bruins and California Angels) call games. Now there's a triumvirate!

Avengers a fun ride

So I saw The Avengers opening day. I loved it! As I wrote on my post regarding The Hunger Games, I am well north of the targeted demographic. But, I have to admit that as a kid I was a big comic book fan. I loved the DC Comics universe (I even had a Superman subscription) and was not particularly fond of the Marvel world. I didn't hate Marvel, just never got into it.

But I have to say that The Avengers is a terrific ride. I got exactly what I was expecting, so for that, I give it a rave. There are a couple of scenes that are gut-busting, downright funny! In my book, The Hulk steals the movie.

For the geek who might be reading this, here is an article whose writers timed how much screen time each Avenger got.

Also, Scott Mendelson has the skinny on the film's $207 million weekend opening.

Finally, I have to say that the Pepper Potts character portrayed by Gwenyth Paltrow is my personal ideal of a significant other. She's very pretty (to me at least, which is most important), very smart (enables her to rationally cope with just about anything in a relationship...one hopes) and is a great quipster (to keep one intellectually challenged). Now what more can you ask of a person, fictional though she may be? One should be so lucky to find the real thing.