Rambling Rhoads

Highlights – after giving up a homer to the first batter he faced and allowing multiple baserunners in each of the first 4 innings, Joe Ross completed 7 innings, allowing only 2 runs … Nats started scoring in the third on 2-out RBI singles by Harper and Murphy … also put up curly numbers in the 5^th, 6^th, and 8^th, notching double-digit runs for the 14^th time this season … Met-killer Murphy wound up with 4 hits and 5 RBI … Rockettes put on a short performance before the game, and another one between innings

Other – “be sure to drive over the white box on the way out of the parking lot”

Monday, July 3, 2017

Everyone is mad at everyone

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/everyone-is-mad-at-everyone/2017/07/02/59a66bd4-5db0-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.379a03b11611

Robert Samuelson, on declining confidence in government, soaring political polarization, and the “messy middle”.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

June 27, 2017 – Nats 6, Cubs 1 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/239081014/max-scherzer-7-steals-lead-nationals-vs-cubs/

Attendance: 31,202 (below the team’s season average)

Game Time: 3:09

Weather: 79 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 3 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Larry Vanover, First Base - Tim Timmons, Second Base - Chad Fairchild, Third Base - David Rackley

Highlights – Nats scored in 4 of the first 5 innings, chasing Jake Arrieta in the fifth … Trea Turner tied his career best with 4 steals, and the Nats set a team record with 7 stolen bases off Arrieta and soon-to-be-ex-Cub Miguel Montero … Taylor finished off the scoring with a 2-run double … after giving up a first-inning run, Scherzer blanked the Cubs through the end of the 6^th, allowing only one more baserunner … Nats bullpen held the visitors scoreless over the final 3 innings

Other – left Rockville around 4:45 and didn’t get into the park until shortly after 7:00, as traffic crawled both on Falls Road and much of the way down the GW Parkway

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Shuffle #97 (June 27, 2017)

Joy To The World – Three Dog Night

That’s All Right – Elvis Presley

Ain’t Even Done With The Night – John Mellancamp

Rock Skippin’ – Jim Hall

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours – Stevie Wonder

Wheels – Emmylou Harris

Right And Wrong – Joe Jackson

Sweet Thing – Rufus & Chaka Khan

Louisiana 1927 – Randy Newman

Monday, June 26, 2017

June 25, 2017 – Reds 6, Nats 2 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/238706816/scott-feldman-leads-reds-vs-nationals/

Attendance: 35,387

Game Time: 3:07

Weather: 84 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 13 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Brian O'Nora, First Base - Quinn Wolcott, Second Base - Ramon DeJesus, Third Base - Paul Emmel

Seventh-inning stretch song: I Can’t Help Myself – The Four Tops

Highlights – Michael A. Taylor hit a 2-run homer in the 4^th, his third tater in two days … Roark held the Reds to one run in his final 5 innings of work … Nats bullpen held Cincinnati scoreless over the final 3 innings … great James Brown medley during the Reds’ 8^th-inning pitching change … a little hot in the sun for the first hour or so, but perfect weather otherwise

Other – Reds got more runs than they needed in a 5-run top of the first … Bryce contributed to the damage by misplaying a ball to deep right that allowed the final 2 runs to score … Nats offense blew some opportunities, going 0-5 with runners in scoring position … in the bottom of the 5^th, Henley unwisely tried to score Brian Goodwin from first with no one out on Harper’s double … ice cream stand had no chocolate

Friday, June 23, 2017

#151 Don't Dream It's Over – Crowded House (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9gKyRmic20

Ariana Grande and Miley Cyrus knew what they were doing when they performed this one together at the recent One Love Manchester concert; it’s one of the most beautiful and well-crafted songs of all time, with the unforgettable chorus, the great lyrics in the verses, and that organ at the beginning of the bridge. Listening again to the second part of the chorus, you have to wonder whether Neil Finn had a premonition of what the state of the world would be like 30 years later:

They come, they come

To build a wall between us

We know they won't win.

#150 Morse Code Of Love – The Capris (1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz_9r1APwM4

New York doo-woppers The Capris had a huge hit in 1961 with “There’s A Moon Out Tonight”, so I could never figure out why their “Morse Code Of Love”, which is also widely recognized as one of the classic doo-wop songs of all time and still gets plenty of airplay on the few remaining radio stations to cover that era, never charted back in the day. (The Manhattan Transfer did get to #83 with a cover version in 1985.) It turns out that timing is everything; although “Morse Code Of Love” sounds exactly like something from the late 50s or early 60s, it wasn’t written or recorded (by a re-formed version of the group) until 20 years later. 1982 wound up being a great year hit-wise for the likes of Joan Jett (“I Love Rock ‘N Roll”), The J. Geils Band (“Centerfold”), and Survivor (“Eye Of The Tiger”). For aging doo-wop groups, not so much.

#149 Hazy Shade Of Winter – The Bangles (1987)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxrwImCJCqk

I’m pretty sure that the original version of this song is the only Simon & Garfunkel single I ever bought, and it remains one of my favorite songs by the duo. The Bangles, however, made it their own 21 years later with a version that, after a slow teaser intro, rocks several orders of magnitude harder than its predecessor. I can even forgive them for dropping half of the lines from the bridge.