Author: Jim Ellwanger

Television programming update

The episode of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” featuring five members of the Red Sox airs next Tuesday, June 7th, at 10:00 P.M. Eastern on Bravo (with copious repeats throughout the following week). TV Guide gives it a 9 out of 10 and includes, as a tantalizing preview, the phrase “Johnny Damon gets foil highlights.”

Also in next week’s TV Guide, Superstation WGN has a full-page ad (in the color section, although it’s a black-and-white ad) touting their Friday afternoon telecast of the Cubs vs. Red Sox as a rematch of the 1918 World Series, for all the TV Guide readers who have been waiting for that for 87 years. Presumably, the Saturday game is on Fox (although my DirecTV edition of TV Guide only lists what’s on the national Fox schedule, so it’s “teams to be announced”) — and the Sunday game is in the week-after-next’s TV Guide, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s a complete mystery where it’s going to air.

An affront to baseballrelated.com

The May 30 issue of Sports Illustrated had to be forwarded to my new address, so I only received it just today. So Steve Rushin’s column about keeping score at baseball games only just now came to my attention. This passage is of particular concern: “Those of us who keep score have joined Trekkies and train fanatics — known as ‘foamers’ in the railroad industry — in the pantheon of get-a-lifers.”

So let’s see: I know how to score baseball games and do it occasionally, Levi knows how to score baseball games and does it religiously, Levi has obviously seen “Star Trek” a few times since he often refers to me as James Tiberius Ellwanger for no good reason, and, of course, my enjoyment of trains has reached legendary status.

Original comments…

Levi: Aside from the personal slam, I have to take issue with this guy. At Wrigley Field, I regularly see people in my section keeping score. Some of them are the group of season ticket holders I’ve gotten to know over the past seven years, who are clearly dedicated fans, but I also see a lot of people with the scorecard and pencil they’ve bought on the way in, obviously not veteran scorers, but enjoying the game that way anyway.

Last week, I even had a stranger who showed up an inning late borrow my book for a minute fill in his card. I had to help him decipher my handwriting.

Back to the minors

For Memorial Day today, Jason and I made a trip up to Lancaster to see the Lancaster Jethawks play the High Desert Mavericks. Because Jason was unsuccessfully trying to round up more people to go, we got a late start and didn’t get there until the middle of the 4th inning. We didn’t miss any runs, however; the Jethawks scored their first two runs in the bottom of the 4th, two more in the 6th, and three more in the 7th. So it was 7-0 going into the top of the 9th, and the Mavericks managed to mount a rally, getting three runs with 2 outs, then having the bases loaded — but it was not to be, and the final score was 7-3.

The former Lancaster Municipal Stadium, popularly known as “The Hangar,” has succumbed to the naming rights game, and it’s now Clear Channel Stadium. It’s obvious that Clear Channel needs to associate itself with something good and pure like minor league baseball more than minor league baseball needs to associate itself with Clear Channel.

Brief note on today’s baseball action

Levi saw the Cardinals win in New York today. Hope he didn’t get spit on by any Mets fans, although if they hit his grungy old Cardinals cap, who could tell? Ha ha!

Still 4 hours and 55 minutes until the start of tonight’s Dodgers game, for which I will be in attendance.

Normal train service has resumed between New York and Newark.

It’s up to you, New York, New York

As far as I know, Levi is in New York right now. He tells me he’s going to the Mets-Cardinals game on Saturday (and I’m going to the Dodgers-Braves game here in L.A. on Saturday).

Now, he’s with his wife and some friends from the U.K. Their plans were to rent a car and drive from Chicago to New York (and then back) so the British folks could see the country, or at least what one can see from the Interstate between Chicago and New York. Since even Levi knows a car can be a liability in New York, I first suggested two one-way rentals, but those were ridiculously expensive. So my other suggestion was that Levi park the car in New Jersey near public transportation, and the only good place I could come up with where he could definitely park it overnight and it would be reasonably secure was the long-term parking lot at Newark International Airport.

I gave Levi careful directions for how to get from the airport to the apartment the group is renting near Columbus Circle, via NJ Transit commuter train and subway. They were supposed to arrive this afternoon sometime.

This evening, this happened, on the very train tracks Levi would have been traveling over between Newark and New York. Perhaps Levi has started smoking, and threw his cigarette out the window when he saw the conductor coming. At any rate, I certainly hope Levi was safely in New York by that point, since my careful directions did not account for the possibility of trains not running due to a fire!

Levi, on the off chance you’re reading this: if those tracks aren’t open yet by the time you’re leaving NYC, I think the best alternate way to get back to Newark Airport would be to take the downtown C train to World Trade Center, then take the PATH subway (separate fare) to Newark Penn Station, and then take the next NJ Transit train to Newark Airport.

Original comments…

Levi: The fire occurred about an hour after we crossed, right around the time I was praising Jim for giving us flawless directions that were easy to follow, and about four minutes before the crazy woman from whom we rented an apartment started hollering about how she wasn’t told there would be four people staying there.

Big Ben: For future reference, the terminus of the Gladstone Branch of the NJT Morris & Essex lines (Gladstone Station) has free parking. I’ve parked there for as many as five days with no trouble. It’s not necessarily secured, but it’s in a quiet New Jersey ‘burb that feels pretty safe. The Summit station on the same line has paid ($5/day) parking that is probably a little more secure.

levi’s help-mate: hey there jim,

levi probably already told you, but we passed over that bridge two hours before the fire. and he probably also told you that on the way home we stopped in philly to catch the cardinals again!

– stacey

Jim’s first major league game of 2005

Since I posted a couple of weeks ago, the Nationals had fallen a couple of games out of first place in the NL East, but the Dodgers were still atop the NL West.

There have been a few changes at Dodger Stadium since last season — other than three-fourths of the players on the field — and perhaps the most dramatic one is one I didn’t get a picture of: tickets are now being scanned at the gate instead of torn.

The blue seats up front are new…

This new LCD ribbon board goes all the way across the front of the loge (second) level, displaying all the latest in advertising, and probably some scores, if you can find them…

And there are smaller LCD displays next to the field for more advertising, replacing those old-fashioned “roller” displays…

And there was a new logo on the scoreboard…

The advertisement is for a special “Dodgers vs. Nationals inaugural game” T-shirt that was being sold for $30. Hey, they’ve got to pay for the new LCD displays somehow. What wasn’t new was the “ANA” designation for a team that everyone else is abbreviating “LAA”…

What I didn’t get a picture of, because there was nothing to see, is the fact that the Dodgers are saving 10 cents a letter by not putting players’ names on the backs of their uniforms. Also, I was distracted by the advertising on the new ribbon board. So I guess there was a game at some point, and here’s the final scoreboard…

Original comments…

thatbob: Look look look! As of today, 5/6/05, the White Sox have a .750 record! And the Yanks are tied with the Wuss Wusses for last place in their division! Incredible!

Comment allez-vous?

Hmm, the comments aren’t working. I know the files are on the server, they’re just not showing up correctly on the pages. I wonder if the hosting company upgraded PHP versions and broke the comments that way.

New comments have always been automatically e-mailed to me, and that’s still working (I just tested), so I’ll still be able to read your words of wisdom — and everyone else will once I fix whatever’s screwed up. Unfortunately, I won’t really have time to deal with this for a while (maybe as much as a few weeks).

Baseball plans for 2005: Now it can be told

First of all, on last night’s “Simpsons,” astrology was described as “the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of the sciences.” True enough.

Now, then, a while back, someone asked about baseball trips this summer. Sorry to say Levi and I aren’t doing a big baseball road trip this year like we did last year. But — unless gas goes above $4.00 a gallon — Jason and I have a Western trip planned for July, involving fewer games than the trip last year…

Thursday, July 7: St. Louis at Arizona
Friday, July 8: Memphis at Albuquerque (Pacific Coast League, class AAA)
Saturday, July 9: Salt Lake City at Colorado Springs (another PCL game)
Sunday, July 10: San Diego at Colorado

We’d have done a slightly longer trip, but the baseball schedules didn’t permit (for one thing, that’s leading into the All-Star break for both MLB and the PCL).

Now, I also happen to know that Levi and Stacey are visiting New York next month with friends from the U.K.; I assume either the Yankees or the Mets will be in town, but their schedule might be filled with other plans. (The two minor-league teams in NYC won’t be playing yet, since they’re short-season Class A.)

And I have also suggested a fair number of potential itineraries to Levi and Stacey that would work if they wanted to visit southern California and see the Dodgers, Angels, and Padres. Now, Levi’s predictable enough that I know his top choice would be the last weekend in July, when the Cardinals are in town to play the Dodgers, but he hasn’t made a decision yet on whether or not he can make it then (or ever).

As far as I know, my first major-league game attendance this year is going to be two weeks from tonight, to see the first-place Dodgers play, that’s right, the first-place Washington Nationals on May 2nd. Well, maybe they won’t be in first place in two weeks, but whatever. The post-Opening Day column in the L.A. Times about how horrible the Dodgers were going to be this year is now but a distant memory.

Original comments…

Levi: I just this morning purchased several tickets in a terrible, distant-from-the-plate (maybe not even in Queens!) section of the upper deck of Shea Stadium to see the Cardinals play the Mets on May 14th.

Jim: From what I know about Shea Stadium, sounds like you’ll have a very good view of the underside of airplanes.