I think the Padres have gotten us a little bitter and annoyed and I'd rather that Gaslamp Ball be light and gay. So, I figured I'd tell you more about what I did on my summer vacation. Remember, "It's not just a good time... It's a Gaslamp Ball."
That being said, in Cooperstown, we checked out the museum and then decided to take a little break and come back for the hall itself and the rest of the grounds. There's an art exhibit. The library. The gift shop. Bunch of goodies. But first, we wanted to get outside while there was daylight.
We cruised over to Doubleday Field. The field where baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday and the ghost of Leonardo Da Vinci. A little known fact. Thomas Edison was there on the day that Abner Doubleday and Leonardo Da Vinci were planning everything out and they wanted 3 balls to a walk, but Edison said, "No. Four's better." And so there's four.
Anyways... Here's a picture of me and Jon out front of Doubleday Field:
I know what you're thinking. What the heck are Stephen Baldwin and that guy from Once Upon a Time in Mexico doing at Doubleday Field? And when did they both get so squatty? Actually, that's a picture of me and Jon. You might have noticed that Jon and I seem very grabby with one another. That's the love of the game coursing through us. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The ballpark behind us looks nice enough, but you'll notice it looks like we're standing in some oil stained parking lot. The reason for that is we actually were standing in some oil stained parking lot. There's a project underway to renovate Doubleday Field. They'll be paying for it partly through personalized bricks that you can buy. Where we're standing will be a bunch of personalized bricks from baseball fans all over the world.
Across the parking lot we spotted a batting cage and pitching thing that measures your pitch speeds. For $2 you got five pitches so Jon and I agreed to each throw twice and whoever threw hardest could use that third toss for themselves. Here's a picture of us throwing:
Now, notice we're barefoot. I'm thinking that hurt our speeds. The day's record for dudes in our age group was 52 mph. Which is seriously nothing. We thought for sure we'd get our name up in chalk for the other 3 visitors that day to see. Jon threw first.
47 mph.
Weakling, I thought. I threw.
46 mph.
We both backed up a few steps. Obviously the radar gun is catching the ball as it's accelerating into the target. Jon threw again.
48 mph.
I threw.
49 mph.
On the bonus throw, I got it to 50 mph, but that was with everything I had. I still suspect something fishy about that radar gun, but what do I know.
For the final picture of the day, I should preface it by saying that we had driven down from Montreal that day. It was a long, long day. I was tired and a little giddy. We hadn't eaten dinner yet. Breakfast doubled as lunch and was at a McDonalds 7 hours ago. We walked by the kid's area in the Hall of Fame and saw this thing, and I said, "Take my picture in this thing." If you have little kids with you, tell them to turn away. If they've already seen it, tell them the crazy man isn't going to come after them.
That's me. Crackerjack Dex. Future Hall of Famer.
I heart summer vacation.