This evening, I threaded the needle on my commute home from the airport. At four, the Cardinal’s first playoff game kicked-off, and at five President Obama landed for a pair of political fundraising events. All these events could have involve major traffic disruptions to my regular commute home. There was though a brief open window between these two events and I managed to thread it perfectly. I had no real opportunity to go see the Cards play tonight, but I would have liked to have seen that game. Strike One! I did have a hanging outside curveball of a chance to see the President tonight. Actually, I had two outside chances. The ticket price for this fundraiser was $25,000. I looked at the checkbook, but no there was no twenty-five grand in the exchequer. I would have actually needed fifty grand, because I’m sure that Anne would have liked to come along too. Strike Two! My best chance to see Obama was through a lottery. Not Powerball, but simply by making a $100 donation. A $100 donation would have put my name into a lottery for a chance to attend one of tonight’s fundraisers, but I did not give. Like Powerball always says, if you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t expect to win. Strike Three, You’re out!

Continuing with this post’s sports motif let me tell you about a NY Times article that I spied this morning during my daily Starbucks vigil. This story borders on poaching, since it occurred in Kayak Woman’s backyard, but since she doesn’t usually do sports stories, I’ll run with it anyway. Pinckney, MI, was mentioned on the front of today’s NY Times. For Brianna Amat, last Friday night was a night to remember. This 4.0 GPA Pinckney Commie High senior was crowned homecoming queen at halftime, and then went on to kick the winning field goal in the second half. Pinckney beat Grand Blanc, 9-7. I might be stepping on Karen and her daughter’s toes here too? Nicknamed the Kicking Queen, Amat is quoted, “For the longest time, I was the shyest kid ever, and now everyone knows my name. It is a totally different experience.”  Even when I was in high school, back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, I thought that the concept of a homecoming queen was anachronistic. This belief was only reinforced when Julie Brown came out with her ’80s hit song, The Homecoming Queen’s got a Gun. Now even her music video seems anachronistic. Ms. Amat has made me a born again believer though, because it is hard to argue with that triple-threat combination of intelligence, strength and grace.