Last night, before the Canon photography class started, I stopped in the hotel’s bar. I had misjudged the traffic and had arrived at the facility way too early. The bar was pretty empty; two businessmen had settled down at one end of the bar with their cocktails and were busily engaged in a conversation. After the bartender served me a glass of wine, I asked him when the Cardinal’s game started. “Seven”, he said.
That question was all the invitation that one of the businessmen needed. He explained that they both hailed from Boston, and then went on to commiserate about his Red Sox’s fall from grace this month. I said that I was hopeful about the Cardinal’s prospects; because in 2006, they had started post-season with an even worse win-loss record and then went on to win the World Series. This confused the Boston businessman, because he thought that I was referring to the 2004 series in which the Red Sox’s humiliated the Cardinals and broke their venerable streak. I corrected him with, “No, that was the Jimmy Fallon series”, a reference to the movie, Fever Pitch, “2006 was against the Tigers, remember, Hit It to the Pitcher?” To this, he just nodded.
His acquiescence empowered me to begin to boast, “You know, I hope that the Cardinals end their season in a tie with the Braves. That way, we’ll have a special playoff game here on Thursday.” This intrigued the businessman and he asked about tickets. I couldn’t help him, because I didn’t know, but at this point the bartender spoke up and told him how he could find tickets. This conversation concluded with the one businessman telling his partner that he wasn’t scheduled to return to Boston until Friday, so he just might catch that game.
This all took place before last night’s games, but true to form, Boston lost and is not in a tie for the wildcard birth. Plus, the Cardinals won and tied Atlanta for the National League’s wildcard birth. Tonight’s games could easily make this entire supposition mute, but as of writing that Boston businessman could see a game here on Thursday.
The photo with this post was taken last night at the Canon class. It is the first time that I tried to use the flash attachment that came with the camera. Greg looks a little over exposed. Maybe I should have slipped him some saltpeter first. That would have given him the requisite 19% grey complexion for perfect exposure.