Tag: baseball

April 1, 2026 – No Foolin’, It’s Good To Have Box Seats

April 1, 2026 /

Last weekend I went to a baseball game with my Dad. It happened to be a college baseball game with a perennial national contender. The weather was nice, the teams were good and I was looking forward to it. As the OSU team stays chronically good, so does the access. The games are on radio and TV and they get first billing on the local sports report.

Growing up, we had a neighbor whose name is Frank. Frank owned a regional construction company. When I say regional, I mean throughout the western United States, not just doing work but established quarries, trucks, facilities, staff, etc. Frank also happened to go to our church. Even though Frank was our neighbor and went to our church, his kids were four or so years ahead of me and so we were kind of out of cycle. It was a situation where we knew of each other but didn’t necessarily interact routinely.

It has been probably been twenty years now but Frank decided that he was old enough to retire. I am not sure exactly what age that was nor am I exactly sure what in to the decision on how to disposition the company. From what I know, the construction company was started by Frank’s father. Given that I know he has kids, I am guessing that they did not have any interest or possibly ability to run a large regional corporation.

Regardless of the motivations and reasons, the construction company was sold. Frank went immediately into politics and performed a couple of terms as a state senator. I haven’t asked personally, but I assume that he realized it was pretty fruitless to try to accomplish anything in that venue and so then he really retired.

I have already stated that we had some connection. The truth is, I didn’t know him well and neither really did my parents. As us kids moved away from the house and the dynamics in the family home changed, my parents started to get closer, particularly my dad. It was more like a friend of a friend situation. Some church members that were close to my parents were also close with Frank and so that relationship developed. More on this in a bit.

When I was considering career change from chemistry to computer software, I had interview. I remember sitting at a large conference table speaking with a middle aged man. Through the door walked one of the tallest people I had ever seen. He introduced himself as Bill. I hired on and continued to marvel at how tall Bill was.

After working there a few months, another new co-worker was talking about Bill and OSU basketball. It all clicked for me Bill was a basketball legend. He played one year with Gary Payton one of the most successful alums of all time, not to mention an NBA great. And, the year Gary played Bill was the team leading scorer. I was working for one of OSU’s best athletes.

While I worked there, I found that Bill was a patron of the OSU sports teams. The basketball program was not great and there were often eight tickets sitting on the table for tonight’s game. Bill and his co-owner got into football. They had a premium tailgating spot right next to the stadium. I would go to a game or two and so I would stop by and say hi on my way into the stadium.

It has been a number of years now that I have worked at that company. Bill sold out and bought a house in Palm Springs as well as a really nice fishing boat. I am sure that we would recognize each other but I really haven’t seen him in years. I of course deep sixed my position and then went on to work at other competitors after a couple year hiatus.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I came to know how Frank has left his mark on OSU. My Dad periodically got some basketball tickets from Frank and these were among some of the best seats in the house. The were mid-court, a couple of rows up and behind the bench. So, you could see all of the action. It was actually the parking that signaled to me the significance of the situation. We were parking against the basketball arena, right next to the entrance door.

After a couple of experiences where I attended games under other circumstances, I couldn’t find a parking spot. I was late to the game and when I did, I had to wait over an hour to get out of the parking lot on a school/work night did I come to know how premium the parking was. Walking into the box to watch a baseball game I looked at the plaque to see the donor’s list and sure enough Frank’s name was near the top. I knew that this was someone that has invested heavily into various athletic programs.

End Your Programming Routine: This isn’t a story of jealousy, clearly I have been a benefactor of Frank’s generosity. I have no idea how much that construction company was sold for but it was a pretty penny. It was enough to get season tickets to every major sport for twenty years, premium parking and still more to build a luxury box and still have plenty left over. I know that Frank is a faithful man, I also know that he inherited some fortunate circumstances. I would even go as far as to say more fortunate than a gifted athlete. I enjoyed the game and we won 19-2.

June 29, 2023 – New Rules in Baseball?

June 29, 2023 /

I used to love baseball as a kid. I used to play it, watch it and listen on the radio. I was never good and so I quit before high school because I couldn’t make the ‘A’ team as a youth. I still like it, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate to it. If I could listen to it on the radio and do something else, that would be my ultimate. Maybe when I will retire, I will be one of those that catch every game while I sit on the porch.

I have been following the College World Series. As you know, I am a Oregon State Beaver fan and at least in this sport they are a perennially a good team that makes it into the playoffs most years. The Beavers were a good team, but I knew that they were not the best. They got beat in conference tournament before the finals. This is never a good thing because you want to end the season hot. Actually, in the regionals they lost to LSU (the future 2023 champion) so I don’t feel too bad.

When I was in Minneapolis last week, we had a team outing to the Minnesota Twins. I was excited because this was the first major league game I had been to since 1980. My dad spent some time in Milwaukee on a project and we went with him. So, to date my first and only MLB game was with the Brewers who instantly became my favorite team.

Incidentally, 1982 was the last year they went to the World Series. They have only made the playoffs six times and lost in the first round each time. Not a lot to get really exited about. Nevertheless, I was ready to enjoy this game.

Since I lost ultimate touch with baseball, I forgot that the Twins used to play in a dome. I was reading and in fact it actually closed in 2013, ten years ago! I thought that this stadium was new, but really it is not.

I was always kind of Twins fan. I rooted for them when they played the Cardinals and Braves in the World Series (1987,1991). I guess I have always been a American League guy since my dad was a Yankees fan and the AL Central has been a powerhouse of good baseball in recent history. Since I have been following it, Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City (formerly the Brewers as well) have all made multiple World Series appearances.

The first pitch was at 6:40pm. The game went pretty quickly with a 20 second pitch clock between pitches. I didn’t notice the exact time but by 8:45pm we were headed to the tenth inning. I could hardly believe that the game went so fast. The clock I knew about but I had not seen it in action. I think it made a difference in the speed of the game.

When we got to the tenth inning, I saw something odd. A runner started on second base. I looked it up and it is called a ghost runner. This is an attempt to put a runner in scoring position and speed up the end of the game. This really isn’t much different than what college football is doing. It is not sudden death if the visiting team scores but it is when the home team does first.

As it turns out, the Twins held the tenth and scored on a sacrifice and won the game. This is the way that you always want to end a pop in experience. It was fun, quick and my team won. Despite traffic, we still got back to the hotel by 10:30pm. I would call it a good night.

Before our kids were born, we had more time but less money. We considered buying season tickets to the Salem Volcanos. This was a San Francisco Giants Single A club. For those couple of years, we caught a couple of games a season. Nevertheless, we saw some good teams. For two years, they dominated the league with the likes of Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum. Fast forward a few years and this was team that was crushing the World Series.

The league collapsed in the Covid years and I am sad about that. They ended up replacing the team with a non-affiliated, four team league (all based out of the same stadium). In comparison to the glory years, these teams look like they could be beat by higher caliber high school teams. It is not really what you would want to watch in a semi-professional environment.

End Your Programming Routine: Now that experience is over, I will resume ignoring baseball until the fall comes. I wish that I could follow it more closely but I won’t prioritize sports over important things. I feel a little sad because I think that people used to really enjoy baseball. I know that I did. I guess the silver lining is that there are a lot of games so it is not impossible to catch one.

June 13, 2022 – Baseball, Graduation and Better Weather?

June 13, 2022 /

I was looking back on the years and I wax poetically about graduation at some point every year. This of course is the time that it happens. High school graduation was last Friday and the local university graduation was last Saturday. I love the hope that graduation represents. I love the party atmosphere, people seem to genuinely be in a good mood around town.

High school is really a stage gate. We went to some of the recent end of year awards ceremonies where seniors were recognized. Some of them put in a huge amount of time over the years, 1100 hours dedicated to one discipline. There was real emotion about the tenure ending. However, the exuberance about graduating is really like a caged animals getting released.

College graduation has a quite different feel. I would say it is more of a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. Because everyone has taken a different walk to get there, there is a different level for each person. Some have their parents, some have their kids, some are with friends because the family is far away and some are alone because that is the the way they wanted it. Each person knows that they have put in the work to meet the requirements to graduate. And so a new life begins.

Graduation is the transition between the school year and summer. When I was a kid, summer was the time to play baseball. I would say that it is was my favorite sport at that point, even though I really wasn’t good enough to make the ‘A’ team or the high school team. So, my participation in baseball waned as I got into high school. But, it doesn’t mean that I lost my appreciation for the game.

When I was younger and seemingly had all the time in the world. I would follow baseball. Later, I made attempts at some points but I guess I just couldn’t dedicate all the time. For a year or two we went to five or so minor league games before kids. The local team was a San Francisco Giants Single A team that was chocked full of future major leaguers like Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval. They tore up the Northwest Summer League. Unfortunately, that league was shut down in 2020 and never to return.

College baseball is somewhat big here as well. The Oregon State Beavers have won three national titles since 2006. I was listening to the Beavers play Vanderbilt last week and between the two schools they had five national titles this century. That is nearly a quarter of all the titles in that time frame.

Amazingly, they got in two games over the weekend (best two of three). Other events were not so lucky. There was an absolute deluge of rain Friday night which forced high school graduation inside. I have sat in the seats when it was raining before. It rained off and on all Saturday making college graduation hit an miss. And, baseball managed to miss it all. Last weekend, they played in rain that I thought for sure would postpone things.

This seems to be one of those years that maybe things will turn around July 4th. In the ten day forecast, I don’t see any highs above 73 degrees with more rain predicted. Yesterday, the high temperature was only 58 degrees. It feels more like Alaska than what we have been used to in the last five years. That being said, I remember a year in the 1990s that we didn’t get a temperature in the 80s until mid August.

End Your Programming Routine: In Oregon, you can’t stop for the rain. You just have to work around it. I guess what I can say is 20-30 years down the road you will remember bits and pieces about the graduation ceremony but not necessarily the weather. So, congratulations grads enjoy your moment and go Beavers.