Yankee Stadium is tumblin' down

"When the walls ... comes tumblin' down..." The ominous refrain in that John Mellencamp song is probably being sung in The Bronx this month, as the demolition of Yankee Stadium (the original one, more or less) reaches the climactic phase. For weeks it has seemed that the process was dragging on forever, but the winter weather was the main reason for that. Over the past week or so, workers have been drilling seams into the upper deck, in preparation for pulling it down one section at a time. The first and second decks were demolished from December through early February, and the wall in back of the bleachers, with the imitation decorative frieze, was taken down last week, exposing the crumbling innards for all the world to see. I know it was inevitable, and I've been preparing myself for this for quite some time now, but it still leaves an indescribable feeling of melancholy.

Anyway, Mike Zurawski drew my attention to a youtube.com video of one section being pulled down, by Bobby Jackson. That video is also displayed at demolitionofyankeestadium.com, which has plenty of grim late-breaking photos. I was hoping that they would pull down the entire upper deck at once, which would have been spectacular and would have at least gotten over the pain quickly. For people like me, watching the drawn-out process is a form of torture. Some people think the reason for doing it section by section is to preserve Gate 2 for historical posterity, and I certainly hope that's the case.

Strasburg shines in debut

In his first start as a pitcher for the Washington Nationals, Stephen Strasburg lived up to the sky-high expectations people have of him. Going against the Detroit Tigers in the Nats' spring training home in Space Coast Stadium, he only went two innings, but he gave up just two hits and no runs, while getting two strikeouts. He is reaching 98 mph with some consistency, and we can only hope that he doesn't wear out his young arm trying to prove himself. See the Washington Post. Long-suffering Nationals fans are giddy with excitement over what the future holds for the team with Strasburg on the mound. All indications are that he will start the season in the minors, and probably get called up to Washington by mid-summer.

R.I.P. Willie Davis

Former L.A. Dodger center fielder Willie Davis, renowned for his speed and base-stealing abilities, passed away at the age of 69. He played when the Dodgers won the World Series in 1963 (against the Yankees) and 1965 (against the Twins). See Yahoo sports; hat tip to Bruce Orser.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 10 Mar 2010, 11: 13 PM .

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My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

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* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or ~~strikethroughs~~, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.

Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""

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