Happy Birthday Dan!  Dan turns twenty-five today, a quarter of a century old.

The first Saint Louis Cardinal’s baseball game was on Monday.  They won, beating the Reds.  They were off on Tuesday, leaving them Cardinals at one and zero.  They are tied for first place in the National League’s Central Division.  On the other hand the Cubs are tied for last place.  It looks to be another great year for baseball. 😆

Most teams played their first game on Monday, but those two perennial powerhouses and prima donnas the Boston Red Soxes and New York Yankees played the very first game of this season on Sunday night.  I think that this calls for some channeling of the Baseball Curmudgeon.  Opening day starts on a weekday, not on the Sabbath and as the name implies it starts with a day game, not a night game.  Finally, it has not escaped my notice, that by starting earlier than everyone else, they will get an extra rest day somewhere down the stretch.

The Cards started this season on the road and won’t open in Saint Louis until Monday. They will open here during the day too.  Anne, Rey and I went to the last year’s last regular season Cardinals game.  This game is also known as Fan Appreciation Day.  Every fan gets a coupon good for another ticket the following year.  Since there were three of us at last years game, we have three coupons.  So Rey, when are you coming back to redeem yours?

The pictures with this post are from a game last June, when John invited Don, Anne and I to a game.  Getting your picture taken with the statue of Stan the Man is a Saint Louis tradition.  I once saw Stan in real life.  He was much older and smaller than his statue.  Joanie had invited me to a performance of the Saint Louis Symphony.  It was intermission and he was just standing there, talking to some friends.  Joan recognized him, I don’t that I would have.