26 years ago today

In late July 1980 for the very first time I was stood up for a date.  I had made a date with this young lady over the phone.  When I came to her door, she just said I just don't want to go out.  For a short time I was "down in the dumps" over this.  At that time I worked for Schering-Plough in Bloomfield, NJ.  A few weeks later my colleague Arlene Shapiro asked me if I would like to meet her sister-in-law Karen who lived in Queens.  I made a date with her for Saturday night August 30, 1980.  We went to see an ice show at Nassau Coliseum.  To make a very long story short we were married on October 16, 1983.  It shows that one can "bounce back" from a disappointment.

Modern Times by Bob Dylan Out Today

As expected the new CD Modern Times by Bob Dylan was released today.  Yes, it is hard to believe that Bob has been recording since 1962.  How many recording artists from that era are still around today?  The librarians reading this blog can Google to find reviews.  To be more professional they should search Lexis Nexis :)  I found out some more good Dylan news today.  He will be playing at Nassau Coliseum on November 13th.  Back in the 1960s I had to scrape up my allowance money to buy albums.  I remember running to Alexanders in Rego Park on Friday to see what albums were on sale.  The problem today is that there are so few stores selling CDs.  I could have downloaded Modern Times from Itunes, but I wanted the booklet that comes with the CD.  For a few more dollars there was a DVD of four videos.  Since Lee is off from school Karen took him to the Times Square area.  They went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum where Lee took a picture with Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.  From there they went to the Virgin Record store where Karen bought the CD, DVD and Rolling Stone magazinine with Dylan on the cover.

Baseball Tour - Day 4

Day 4 – Saturday August 26

 

We left the motel near St. Louis at 8 AM and arrived in Chicago at 2 PM.  The first stop was Harry Caray’s, a restaurant named for the famous broadcaster for the Cardinals, Cubs, and White Sox.  We ate from a delicious Italian buffet.  From there we went to US Cellular Field on the south side of Chicago.  The game was briefly delayed by a shower at 5:45 PM.  This game between the Minnesota Twins and White Sox turned out to be the best of all we saw on this trip.  Many of the people in our group were from Minnesota or Wisconsin and were avid Twin fans.  The Twins had a 6-3 lead but the White Sox rallied to tie game a 7 at the end of 9 innings.  The Twins scored in the top of the 11th and won the game 8-7.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=260826104

Baseball Tour - Day 3

Day 3 – Friday August 25th

 

 We left the hotel at 10:30 AM for downtown St. Louis.  Our first stop was the landmark Gateway Arch.  We took a tram to the top where we were able to see Illinois on one side and St. Louis from the other.  There was also s museum with artifacts concerning the opening of the west.  From there we went to the new Busch Stadium, which just opened this season.  The tour guides showed us the luxury boxes and let us sit in the dugouts.  The next stop was the St. Louis Cardinals Museum and Bowling Hall of Fame that were in the same building.  Dinner for us was in Mike Shannon’s a restaurant owned and operated by the former Cardinal player.  The game, which started at 7 PM, was a match up between regional rivalries the Cubs and Cardinals.  The Cardinals won the game 2-0 in spite of leaving 15 men on base. (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260825124)  Although the Cubs scored 11 runs against the Phillies yesterday, the Cards shut them out today.  When we arrived back at the hotel Jay was selling t-shirts with logos of his tour company.

Baseball Tour - Day 2

Day 2 – Thursday August 24th

 

We left the motel in Milwaukee at 9 AM and traveled to Chicago where we arrived at 11 AM by Wrigley Field.  We walked around the neighborhood called Wrigleyville until 12:30 Pm when we went into the ball park.  We had great seats just on the third base side of home plate on the lower level.  The game turned out to be a blowout with the Cubs defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 11-2.  (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260824116 )  The actor Harold Ramis sang Take Me Out To the Ball Game during the 7th inning stretch.  Jay Buckley, our tour guide, gave us 1 ½ hours to eat dinner near the ball park.  We departed Wrigley at 5:15 PM.  Jay gave us a little tour of Chicago as we drove toward St. Louis.  He showed us a video of the history of the St. Louis Cardinals.  He later gave everyone a chance to talk about themselves.  I went up to the microphone and spoke about my history with the New York Mets.  We arrived at the motel in Collinsville, IL at 11:15.  We spent about 8 hours today on the bus.

Baseball Tour - Day 1

Day 1 – Wednesday August 23rd

 

As expected the beginning of the day was uneventful.  After we ate a continental breakfast provided by the hotel, we walked around the area for a short time but there was nothing there except for warehouses and factories.  We spent most of the morning watching television.  At 12 Noon when we had to leave the room we met several of our “tour mates” in the lobby.  We met people from San Francisco, North Dakota, and Minnesota.  The tour bus, which picked up people in Wisconsin, arrived at 1:45 PM  It left at 2 PM and arrived at Miller Park in Milwaukee at 4 PM when our tailgate party began.  There were plenty of hamburgers, bratwust and beer for all.  Miller Park which opened in 2001 is certainly a beautiful stadium.  Since there was a threat of rain, the retractable dome was closed.  The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Colorado Rockies 7 –1.  Kaz Matsui who was dropped by the Mets earlier in the season played for the Rockies.  For a recap please see http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=260823108

Baseball Tour - Prelude

Last winter I did some Google searching for baseball tours.  I found that Jay Buckley in La Crosse, Wisconsin runs many such trips each year.  We picked this trip in late August which was most convenient for us.  We would be visiting Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wrigley Field in Chicago, the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis and back to Chicago to see US Cellular Field, home of the White Sox.

 

Tuesday August 22nd.

 

We left the house at 9:30 AM and arrived at LaGuardia Airport at about 10:00 AM.  The line for security was not too bad, but we had to take off our shoes and were not allowed to take liquids on the plane.  American Airlines Flight 325 left on time at 12 noon and we arrived at Chicago-O’Hare at 1:15 PM.  Our motel, the Exel Inn was about 15 minutes away in an industrial area.  We decided to arrive a day early to make sure we met the tour bus on time on Wednesday.  There was just nothing to so at or near this motel except to watch television or read.  A Subway Sandwich shop was the only place within walking distance to eat dinner.