As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Saturday, May 17, 2014

May 16, 2014 – Nationals 5, Mets 2 – Nationals Park



Umpires: HP: Dana DeMuth. 1B: Ed Hickox. 2B: Jon Byrne. 3B: Lance Barrett.
Weather: 67 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 6 mph, In from LF.
T: 3:08.
Att: 34,413.

Section 107, Row FF, Seats 11-12 – our “home away from home” for several bobblehead games (same row as the April 27 Padres game)

One of the Nats’ biggest problems so far this season has been falling behind early, especially in the first inning. (Comeback victories are nice, but it’s even nicer not to have so many early deficits to overcome.) Friday night was a welcome exception, as Tanner Roark retired the visitors with relative ease in the top of the first, while the Nats combined some timely hitting with Mets defensive miscues to put up three runs in the bottom of the frame. They added to their lead two innings later, with three hits (Ramos, Hairston, and Moore) and two more runs.

Roark pitched effectively through the first 4 innings, never allowing a runner to advance beyond first base. However, his pitch count was climbing rapidly, as the Mets seemed determined to wait him out. (The first time through the order, not a single New York batter swung at the first pitch, although 8 of the 9 were strikes.) The visitors finally caught up with him in the fifth, scoring two runs and waking up the bullpen before Roark retired David Wright with two out and two on to end it.

Ross Detweiler replaced Roark in the sixth and retired the 3 (lefthanded) hitters he faced, and Storen turned in an efficient seventh. Clippard allowed a single to the first batter he faced and a two-out walk to Bobby Abreu, but escaped without damage. There was a little more excitement in the ninth, as Soriano began by allowing a deep fly ball from the light-hitting Anthony Recker that Span turned into an out. With Tejada at the plate, a fan ran onto the field (first one I can remember at Nats Park) and made it almost all the way around the bases before being corralled by security. Soriano got Tejada out, but then proceeded to walk two more weak hitters, Juan Lagares (on 4 pitches) and Eric Young Jr., bringing one of the Mets best hitters (Daniel Murphy) to the plate as the tying run. Murphy drilled Soriano’s first pitch deep to right, but Jayson Werth made a leaping catch to end the game.

Traffic on the way there was the usual rush-hour mess, but we made it down in about an hour. Decided to go with the Cincinnati chili bowl from Hard Times, a relative bargain at $7.00. Weather was relatively comfortable, although much to everyone’s surprise we started to get some light rain in the 8th inning.

In a minor highlight, former Phil Greg Dobbs got a pinch single in his first Nats’ at-bat.

The Fan of the Game contest produced a mild upset (since a kid almost always wins), with the loudest applause going to a guy sitting near us sporting a cap with buffalo horns (presumably to match the Wilson Ramos bobblehead giveaway).

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