"I don't care if I never get back..."

There is just something thera-
peutic about sitting four rows behind home plate with a scorecard and a bag of peanuts.

The Mud Hens are in the playoffs and, on the spur of the moment, I decided to go to the opener of their best-of-five series with the Charlotte Knights (White Sox affiliate) tonight. The nice thing about buying a single ticket vs. going as part of a group is that you can walk up 30 minutes before the first pitch and get a great seat (pictured).

The Hens lost, 5-0. Tim Redding pitched a great game for Charlotte. He threw 126 pitches – 89 strikes and 37 balls – and scattered four hits.

But the highlight of the game came in the Charlotte half of the fourth. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Pedro Lopez flew out to right. Casey Rogowski tagged from third but was gunned down by right fielder Ryan Ludwick. Rogowski slammed into catcher Max St-Pierre, who he outweighed by 32 pounds. But St-Pierre, who is from Quebec City, held onto the ball.

Then, after a Gustavo Molina double, Jerry Owens singled to right. Molina apparently wasn’t paying attention earlier as he tried Ludwick’s arm and Ludwick made it a two-fer, nailing Molina by 10 feet at the plate.

It was great.

I’m hoping to play intramural flag football if I can find a team. The cool thing about it is that we get to play our games in the Glass Bowl (pictured). It’s kind of a lame way to make up for not playing football in high school. But at 32, your options are pretty limited.

Class was good today. I actually felt like I was keeping up with the professor. It’s starting to feel like I can do this.

I got another really nice card from my sister, Julie (pictured). She’s awesome. It was very encouraging.