A friendship divided...

12 July 2026: 

[Catch-up post...]

Had a great time yesterday with Jane, Kara, Patrick, Connor, and Maggie seeing the Nats play the Yankees.

This was my first Yankee game in forever. Seriously: it might be 20 years?

The Yankees won with a home-run driven come-back in the 8th (just like the night before). They also won today, again with a comeback.

Busy Saturday...

28 March 2026: Grading ENGL 407 Critical Essay Proposals at the end of a long Saturday. Grading all morning, NWP event in the afternoon, then--a treat!--dinner and a movie (They Will Kill You) with Amy, followed by housework and more grading...and I've got so much more on my plate for Sunday to even begin to feel caught up.

But the proposals are strong, reflections of my smart and creative students. And the day, while long, was pretty darn good. And I just watched the Yankees sweep the Giants in their opening series.

I'll take it.

1-0!

27 March 2025: Lucky enough to get to be home this afternoon and watch the Yanks win the season opener. Let's go, Yankees! Let's go, spring!

Until next year...

31 October 2024: “[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”― A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games

"Whitman, Melville, and Baseball"

20 October 2024: 

“Did you see the baseball boys are home from their tour around the world? How I’d like to meet them — talk with them: maybe ask them some questions...That’s beautiful: the hurrah game! well — it’s our game: that’s the chief fact in connection with it: America’s game: has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere — belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life." --Whitman on baseball in 1889.

The Yankees won the ALCS yesterday and are off to their first World Series since 2009. I am, of course, delighted. But if they hadn't clinched it last night--if the series had gone on and maybe even if they lost it--I would still be delighted by the games. That's one way you know you love baseball, I think: even when your team loses, you can have a blast. Anyway, for a trivia game I am writing for some colleagues, I came across this piece about Whitman, Melville, and baseball. Well worth a read!

Game 3...

17 October 2024: 

[Catch-up post...]

Got to work this morning (Friday) and realized that I hadn't posted on Thursday even though I crossed it off of my list. Oh well!

I think if I had posted, it might have been about Thursday's Yankees/Guardians game. The Yankees lost, but my goodness, it was a great game. You know you love a sport when a game doesn't end the way you want it it to, but you still had a blast watching it. 

Quiet Monday evening...

14 October 2024: Yes, I am repeating yesterday's post a bit, but it's worth highlighting a couple of quiet and relatively stress-free nights in a row. It's been a long and busy day, but a good one and I got so much done. There are still some items on my to-do list, but I am yawning my head off and they can maybe wait until tomorrow. My tired butt just wants to watch the Yankees (ahead of Cleveland 4-0 in the fifth inning of Game One of the ALCS as of right now) and then head to bed.

Yankees vs. Tigers

18 August 2024: The Yankee game is in extra innings, which is always fun. But this game is extra charming because it's being played in Williamsport, PA, with a stadium full of Little League teams. They keep showing pics of the MLB players in their Little League uniforms. It's so cute.

Well, the Yankees just lost as I wrote this, but it was still a fun game. 

Quiet Friday evening...

7 June 2024: After a rather nice day--a bit of work at the office, a long lunch with a dear friend, and the first provost search committee meeting--I am enjoying a really lovely summer evening. The front window and back door are open and there's just the perfect little breeze. The girls are either snoozing or looking outside. I am tinkering away at some not-terrible work. The Yankees are playing the Dodgers and I am getting to watch it on TV. Lovely, lovely, lovely. 

Opening Day! / Three to go!

28 March 2024: Celebrating two victories this evening: 

1) The Yankees won on Opening Day in a pretty thrilling game that I got to watch online. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the return of baseball puts a little pep in my step (even when I am still a bit down with this cold).

2) I just finished my entry on Religion and Spirituality. That makes three completed in April (and twenty-one this academic year). And...just three more to go! Now April is the cruelest month, grading-wise, but I am hopeful, hopeful, hopeful...

They're not done yet...

15 September 2023: There hasn't been a ton to celebrate for Yankee fans this season, but I just got a nice rush from listening to their ninth inning comeback against the Pirates. They are now one game above .500. Would be nice to add a few more wins in there, but I am just grateful for the great audio tonight. 

Soothing baseball vibes...

14 June 2023: Grateful for a string of Yankee games that I have been able to watch over these past few days because they've been on FOX, TBS, and ESPN. Even when they lose, I am soothed enough and happy to get out of my own head a bit, even as I am reading during the commercials or half-paying attention while typing notes. 

Perfect timing...

23 May 2023: Just a bit ago, I went upstairs to check on BabyCat and clean her "apartment" a bit. I had the Yankee game playing (audio only) on my phone, but left it down here. Came back down just as Aaron Judge hit a homer to tie it in the ninth. I mean, the timing was so perfect, I almost wondered if I was listening to post-game highlight playback. Pretty sweet. I do miss seeing games on TV (my live streaming service of choice couldn't make a deal with the MLB network, so picking are pretty slim), but the audio is often good enough. 

(Oh--and they won in ten innings!)

Opening Day!

30 March 2023: Opening day always lifts my spirits. And a 5-0 win with both Judge and Gleyber hitting homers? We will take it! Welcome back, boys of summer! 

62!

4 October 2022: Aaron Judge just hit home run #62 and I am all teary-eyed. I remember him hitting a home run in his very first MLB at-bat. Love this game so much. 

The cats were sleeping downstairs...

31 July 2022: Texted Vogel today that I was reading Alcott while listening to the Yankee game--which is pretty much quintessentially me (minus the bit alluded to in this post's title). 

Streetfest!

25 June 2022: Pushing back against the darkness a bit today. Volunteered at Streetfest and worked at the SU table for a couple of hours. We are now experts at helping vendors set up tents. Got home a bit before 3:00, took a cold shower (it was HOT out there), and have been crashing since then, watching TV: first the Yankees (they lost), then a movie (Fire Island, which was so cute), and now Dickinson, which I have been putting off forever to serve as a treat (but only when I was also able to really focus on it). 

Spring Cozy

13 April 2022: Thirteen hours on campus today. Part of that (the last hour) was attending a lecture, but I am still pretty spent. At the same time, the weather is lovely this evening, the windows are open, and the Yankees are on. Wes is sleeping behind me and BabyCat is staring from a few feet away. This is my kind of cozy--"Spring Cozy," I guess. Tired but comfy and relaxed, feeling okay about getting a decent amount done today. 

"You and Me on the Rock"

3 October 2021: Feeling both mentally worn out but emotionally pretty good because I've knocked out a ton of work today: finished a draft of my Scarborough Society lecture, wrote a Fulbright recommendation, got a solid draft done on my Strategic Plan report (boring), responded to so many emails. In short, I've crossed just about everything off my weekend "to do" list. 

The new Brandi Carlile album has been a good soundtrack for today, particularly "You and Me on the Rock," which she played at the concert that Erin and I saw in late August. She called it her "Joni Mitchell" song, which you can immediately hear. It's just a really fun and sweet song that's been on heavy rotation for me today. 

Love these lines: "Me out in my garden / and you out on your walk / Is all the distance this poor girl can take / Without listenin' to you talk..."

Update: and the Yankees just made the post-season in the bottom of the ninth in a 0-0 game. Cue that track again! 

Opening day...

1 April 2021: Today feels a bit brighter (emotionally) than yesterday, even if the weather has turned colder. Some more signs of spring: I just got back from a trip to Lowe's where I picked up a new mower (!) and now I am watching the Yankees play the Blue Jays. (Still not sure if the latter should be happening--COVID is still here--but I can't help but watch.)