On Sunday, we went to the ballgame, with Joanie and Pat. Joanie arranged it. We got there extra early, because of a promotion, X-Large hoodies. I’ll be sending mine to Dave. One little girl was wearing hers at the park and it fitted like a full-length dress on her. The promotion also included a hot dog and a soda, which I hungrily wolfed down. Damn the half-hour of lost life, but I hear that the last half-hour is no fun anyway. Seats were in the right-field corner and mercifully fully shaded. It was warm, but not as uncomfortable as the other two ballgames that we’ve seen earlier this year with Rey. The Cards jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and managed to hold the Reds to a shutout for the remainder of the game. The first half of the game went quickly, with so little scoring, but many pitching changes and higher batting counts slowed the second half. It seemed that whenever the Reds got a hit, the Redbirds also got a new pitcher. Hence the pictured conference on the mound and the allusion to Bull Durham.

The Reds threatened in both the eighth and the ninth, with leadoff doubles, but could never do much more than that. The home team put on quite the splendid little show that included a homerun, stolen base and a double play. We stayed to the end and then trooped down to MetroLink, for the train ride home. After the game the dugout Cardinals met the bullpen players for some self-congratulatory handshakes and I thought that they only did that in little league. The Redbirds are fifteen games behind the division leading Brewers, but as of yesterday, they are only one game out of getting a wildcard berth. Even though the highs here are still in the nineties, there is a noticeable chill in the mornings. One that I feel every time I go out to get the paper. It would be nice to have another Red October this fall. It has been ten years since they last won the World Series. I think that they are about due again.