Journal of a Sabbatical

May 28, 2000

pitcher's duel

Today's Reading: On Agriculture by Columella, The Birds of Brewery Creek by Malcolm MacDonald,
Uttermost Part of the Earth by E. Lucas Bridges

Today's Starting Pitcher:
Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens

Boston 		IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA 
P.Martinez(W8-2)9 4 0 0 1 9 0 33 128 39-89 1.05 .163 
NY Yankees 	IP H R ER BB K HR BFP Pit B-S ERA OpBA 
Clemens (L 4-5) 9 5 2 2 0 13 1 30 127 50-77 3.97 .250
         

The only place to be tonight was directly in front of the radio tuned to the Red Sox network (well, unless one could actually be at Yankee Stadium). The highly hyped pitching matchup for once lived up to its hype. Clemens rose to the occasion and turned in a great performance. Pedro wasn't racking up the strikeouts but he was pitching superbly until he started hitting batters - he was pitching way inside. The ninth was pretty tense and the final out with Jeff Fry double clutching the throw waiting for Mike Stanley to get back to the bag was a strange climax. I burst out laughing at the end just to release all the tension.

Listening to the ball game on the radio at night after taking a long walk along the Charles River with Nancy in the afternoon made it seem like a really Bostonian type of day. We spotted about 30 or more cormorants pigging out on fish near the Harvard boathouse - whatever they were after was there in abundance. Also spotted a guy wearing a Yankees cap.

All of the above made up for the fact that the parking space blockers have reached new heights of blocking me in. They're building a patio and see no reason not to block my car so they can unload sand and bricks, all day. How much sand and bricks to they need for that tiny yard? I finally called the condo maintenance guy to tell him I had no place to park when I came back from taking Nancy out to dinner at Southeast Asia restaurant in Lowell. The condo maintenance guy called the parking space blockers and gave them what for. They moved the car. I parked. They made excuses after excuses. But at least I don't have to leave my car illegally on the street tonight.