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.)
I was an early
fan of B.J. Thomas, but the verdict was far from unanimous. Even Dave
Marsh, while praising his 1972 hit “Rock And Roll Lullabye”, slammed the singer
as “not much better than a B-level country-rock hack on every other record he
made.”
First in-person baseball game in a long
time. There was much to like. Catching up with friends was great, the
drives down and back were uneventful, and singing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”
at the seventh-inning stretch is still a great feeling. Unlike Friday night and
Saturday, there wound up being only a few minutes of rain, and the temperature
and wind were bearable despite the unusual late-May chill.
Then there was the game itself. Before it started, I (only
somewhat facetiously) wondered whether Max Scherzer would give up a dinger in
the first inning, as has so often happened to him and other Nats pitchers this
season. It turned out I was right, as Avisail Garcia, one of the few
right-handed hitters in the Milwaukee lineup, turned around a 1-2 fastball. Unfortunately,
Max had issued a 5-pitch walk to Dan Vogelbach two batters earlier, so the home
team was in an early 2-0 hole – not a particularly good sign for an offense
that had managed only 3 runs while losing both ends of a double-header the
previous day.
Scherzer was fantastic after that, allowing only one more
baserunner while fanning 10 through his 6 innings of work. Meanwhile, however,
the Washington bats remained silent. Brandon Woodruff faced the minimum number
of batters through the first 4 innings. Kyle Schwarber got a big cheer when he
singled to lead off the 5th, but he didn’t even manage to reach
second base. The Nats mounted a mild threat an inning later, when Woodruff
walked Yadiel Hernandez (pinch-hitting for Max) and gave-up a two-out single to
Trea Turner two batters later, but once again they failed to convert. Starlin
Castro did at least manage to get to second base in the 8th, after
drawing a walk from reliever Brad Boxberger. After Omar Narvaez extended the
lead with a 9th inning homer off Austin Voth, Turner generated a bit
of excitement with a leadoff single off ace closer Josh Hader, but Bell,
Schwarber, and Harrison went down in order to send the Nats to their fourth
straight loss, and a 4-5 record for a homestand that began with a sweep of the
(admittedly awful) Orioles.
As uninspiring as the show on the field was, trying to get
food from the concession stands (those that were actually open, that is) proved
far more frustrating. It started when one of our friends on the lower level
reported: “No souvenir cups, out of Diet Coke and the lids don’t fit on the
small cups.” A bit later, my seatmate began his quest for some chicken tenders
and fries. He returned after a surprisingly long absence to report that, after
waiting a while for someone to notice him in the season-plan-holder eCash line,
he was told that “eCash wasn’t working for them”. I, on the other hand,
noticing that the lines at that stand had gotten unbelievably long, decided to
try ordering a slice of pizza via the Ballpark App. After staring at its “Being
prepared” screen for 35 minutes or so, and not having received any text-message
updates despite having signed up for them, I went up to the counter and was
informed that “there was no pizza” (the stand closed shortly thereafter). They
did give me a refund, but by now it was well after 2:30 and I hadn’t eaten
since breakfast. At least the Section 317 Grand Slam Grill seemed organized, as
I was able to successfully place and retrieve an order there. Still, it took
about 15 minutes to get my food. Given that concession service and speed has
never been a Nats Park strong point, especially with relatively large crowds, I
hate to think about bad things might get for the remaining games, with all
crowd restrictions lifted. We will try to eat before we go in.
