Raincharm’s Weblog

First the statistics – White Sox 4, Mariners 2
Attendance = 26,000+
Included in the attendance Jay, Carl, Mark H, Kevin S, Jimmy (a guy who would feed tennis balls to players working on their batter’s eye, including Edgar Martinez & Ichiro), and his daughter.

Carl spent a lot of time over by the bullpen, both during batting practice and the game.
While Carl & Mark were over at the bullpen, two men in their 30’s asked to take a picture of Carl and Mark. Now both Carl & Mark have their share of grey hair. (And Mark has a grey beard.) They acquiesced, and then the two men asked Mark to take a picture of them. Then they held up their phone, switching from one picture to the other saying, “Before, and 20 years later.”

Carl got two balls during BP. Gave one to a guy and his wife on Carl’s left from Alaska, and then gave the other to a guy on his right, from the Okanagan (northeast Washington).

Lots of interactions. Met a guy who went to Princeton. This guy played on Princeton’s baseball team as a catcher, under coach Scott Bradley. Scott Bradley was a Mariner catcher. Now Kevin caught Scott Bradley’s last home run in the majors. When Kevin found out Bradley was coaching at Princeton, he sent him the ball. Bradley thanked him and offered to give him a Princeton jersey. But Kevin is still waiting.

One player came out and picked up 5 balls in the bullpen, and then through them back on the field (and not to the fans). Carl figured out who it was, Will Ohman, and noted that this player was a little chunky around the middle. So he heckled him saying, “Time to hit the treadmill, Will.” Will turned around and make a show of sucking in his gut, so Carl did too.

Carl has a project where he sends postcards to baseball players, and asks them about a specific situation, that they would likely remember. First home run, first win, first game, … Don Cooper, pitching coach for the White Sox, is one player that Carl had sent a postcard, and had not received an answer. When the White Sox were in town earlier this year, Carl asked Don Cooper why he had not responded. Don Cooper said, it’s somewhere, but send another and I will answer. So Carl did. Still no answer. So today he said, “I sent another one, but I know you are busy.” Don Cooper said, I will get to it, and then brought over a nicely rubbed up ball with a 50th anniversary stamp from Anaheim Stadium. (The White Sox were just in LA.) Guilt trips by Carl.

But really, many of the players and coaches that he talks to seem to enjoy the conversations, and don’t take steps to avoid him. He gives them his memories of their memorable moments.

WORD from NYC.
Ashlan is 5 blocks from the evacuation zone for a category 3 hurricane.
Planning to get some more bottled water tomorrow. Their larder is pretty well stocked, and they can bunk in their living room, away from the windows. She was not scheduled to work this weekend, and since the subways will be shut down – it would not have been an option anyway.

This entry was posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.