Opening Day

Opening Day! The happiest day of the year for a baseball fan! The day when everything is new! The day when everything feels possible! The Harrisburg Senators, AA team of the Washington Nationals, began their season last week on the road in Somerset, losing two of the three games in New Jersey, and today wasContinue reading “Opening Day”

Anniversaries and Old Photographs

Diamond Comic Distributors celebrated its 40th-anniversary today. And, even though the office doesn’t have many people working out of it right now due to COVID, the office was decorated for the day with signs. There was even a banner at the main entrance. I hadn’t been out the doors into the main lobby since MarchContinue reading “Anniversaries and Old Photographs”

Scenes from the Senators’ Opening Night

The last time I was on Harrisburg’s City Island for a baseball game — the fourth and final game of the 2019 Eastern League Division Series between the Harrisburg Senators and the Bowie Baysox — no one had ever heard of COVID-19. And I wasn’t visually impaired. Tuesday night, after something like 612 days, professionalContinue reading “Scenes from the Senators’ Opening Night”

Speculating on the Nationals’ Minor League Affiliations in 2021 and Beyond

Yesterday the New York Yankees announced their minor league affiliations for the 2021 season, and it provided our first glimpse at what MiLB will look like next season and beyond: Statement from the New York Yankees regarding their new Minor League affiliation structure. pic.twitter.com/DN9oPbfdt3 — New York Yankees (@Yankees) November 7, 2020   We’ve knownContinue reading “Speculating on the Nationals’ Minor League Affiliations in 2021 and Beyond”

Gritty Leading the People

It was a week of publishing deadlines, and thirty hours after my last files went to the printer I’m still mentally exhausted. I did go to Books a Million again today to see what other gems I could find in their CD sale. (CDs, new and used, are 90% off as they are getting outContinue reading “Gritty Leading the People”

Three Newspaper Clippings and a Genealogical Puzzle

On June 9, 1886, the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Maroons met at Swampoodle Grounds in Washington. That same day, a dozen blocks southeast of the ballpark, following a funeral service that morning in Baltimore, Annie Atwell was laid to rest at Congressional Cemetery in a family plot with the remains of her daughter.Continue reading “Three Newspaper Clippings and a Genealogical Puzzle”

Women Playing Baseball in the 1910s

Recently while digging around on the Library of Congress website I found a series of photographs of young women playing baseball. The photos were undated; they had a range between 1909 and 1923, nothing more specific. The uniforms resembled those worn by Ida Schnall’s New York Female Giants in 1913, though without the stitched logoContinue reading “Women Playing Baseball in the 1910s”

Revisiting Swampoodle Grounds

A week and a half ago I discovered Adolph Sachse’s “bird’s eye view” map of Washington, DC, circa 1883-1884, and I was able to find where my ancestors lived in Washington from the Civil War to the mid-1880s. There was something else I was interested in. Swampoodle Grounds. Swampoodle Grounds, also known as Capitol Park,Continue reading “Revisiting Swampoodle Grounds”

Starring Snoopy, a World Series T-Shirt

After writing on Tuesday about an unlicensed Monty Python/Beatles t-shirt that amused me, yesterday saw a package stuffed in my mailbox — an unlicensed Washington Nationals World Series t-shirt. After the Nationals won the World Series, my Facebook feed was filled with ads for unofficial Nats World Series merchandise. Especially unofficial t-shirts. I bought anContinue reading “Starring Snoopy, a World Series T-Shirt”

Scenes from the Nationals World Series Parade

Washington DC shut down yesterday for the Washington Nationals’ World Series parade down Constitution Avenue. One month ago I was in the hospital, in the Intensive care ward. I thought there was a real chance I was going to be mostly blind for the rest of my life. Yesterday, I was at the a WorldContinue reading “Scenes from the Nationals World Series Parade”