Anticipation

I'm not wishing for the end of summer or anything, but I am looking forward to see how this shakes out. It's always great to see the best players on the international stage. Takes the edge off my disappointment that the Habs aren't going to play a game at the Big Owe this season after all, though that's for a good reason too - the Als are having a great year and need the place for a possible playoff date.

Summer sports? Well, I am heading to my favorite minor league ballpark this weekend, though it is not a favorite of the players. Ah well, progress is inevitable and I suppose its inevitable that small towns will be run out of organized minor league ball. Players want big, well-lit luxury locker rooms before they get out of A ball, never mind the majors and there's money to be vacuumed from folks in bigger cities who want the charm of minor league ball even as the prices for tickets and concessions climb to what major league tickets cost just a decade or so ago and the atmosphere is polluted by incessant blaring music and "game presentation" and parents with kids who are there solely to eat the terrible food and play the carnival games and couldn't care less about the ballgame.

Better catch some small-town baseball while you can people, 'cause it's dying like just about everything else that was small-town America in the last century.