Jaybird's Jottings

Mint Condition

The spring baseball book bonanza continues with two new titles hitting the shelves this week.  Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession by Dave Jamieson is showing a release date of April 6, but I bought it yesterday at the Barnes and Noble in Springfield.   Josh Wilker of Cardboard Gods fame has written Cardboard Gods:  An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards.  It’s due out tomorrow.

I’m enjoying Mint Condition.   The first chapter is on the first cards and dovetails nicely with Ed Achorn’s book.   Baseball was gaining in popularity in the mid 1880s.   A game in 1886 at the Polo Grounds between the Giants and Detroit produced a record attendance of over 20,000.   Months later, Goodwin and Company produced a dozen card set for the Giants that proved popular.   They also printed up a large number of Old Judge sets.   

Jamieson notes:   

“Taken as a whole the sprawling Old Judge set,  named for a Goodwin tobacco brand, still stands as one of the greatest records of late-nineteenth-century baseball, and the men who played it.”  

Note:   I took a look at the Detroit at Giants game.    Games back then were often disrupted by fans but this one sounded really bad.   The start of the game was delayed because the players couldn’t even make it to their positions.  Not just the outfield but the infield was covered with fans.   Police finally pushed the swarm back.

In the bottom of the first, with Buck Ewing on third and Ward on first, the crowd re-claimed the infield.  The players retreated to their “dressing rooms.”   Mounted policemen arrived and pushed the throngs back to the outfield.    The game continued but any balls hit into the crowd, which still occupied the outfield, was ruled a single.

Anyway, Jamieson doesn’t say anything specifically about this game, but who knows, it might have been the one that convinced Goodwin to get in the baseball card game.

 

Peek at the Peak

Had time for a car tour this afternoon of the Tidal Basin.   Blossoms look at peak.

By the way, if you take Metro and wonder if driving would have been better, forget it.   No parking whatsoever that I could see and slow moving traffic.   

Fort Weed

Back in December, I visited the site of Fort Lyon, located near the Huntington Metro station.   The fort was part of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, the ring of 68 built to defend the capital during the war.  Fort Lyon and three others, Fort Weed, Fort Farnsworth and Fort O’Rourke, overlooked the southern and western approaches to Alexandria and Washington.  

Using a new edition of Mr. Lincoln’s Forts, A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington, I visited the Fort Lyon site, taking photos of what is there now.    I promised similar photos of the other forts, but the slip for that task got lost in my great big circular file.   Might never have found it, but a browse the other day at Barnes and Noble brought the memory back.    Standing at the Local Interest section, I spotted A Soldier’s Account of the Capital in Crisis, 1864-1865 by Marc Newman.

I love these sepia-toned, “Images Of” history series.   Printed with a blue cover, this one stood out from the others.  Grabbing it off the shelve, I noticed it is Arcadia’s “The Civil War History” series. 

The more I read, the more I was intrigued.   The soldier was Richtmyer Hubbell, a 21-year old farm boy from Blenheim, New York.    As Newman details in the introduction, Hubbell traveled to Wisconsin in 1863, where he joined the 1^st Wisconsin Heavy Artillery Company as an apprenticed doctor.    

In late spring 1864, with the war and disease ravaging both sides, the young soldier was given his orders to report to Virginia.   His duty station?  Fort Weed, one of the three forts I had forgotten about.

Hubbell’s reports include his supply runs into Alexandria and Washington, a visit to Mount Vernon, as well as his attending Lincoln’s second inauguration, the New Year’s Eve ball at the White House and the Electoral College balloting in the 1864 Presidential election. 

He also details his life at Fort Weed.  It had 12 guns and a bombproof barracks.   A rifle pit ran from the fort to Fort Lyon.   

Fort Weed was located about 1000 feet south of Fort Lyon.   There are no visible remains.

To get to the site, now suburban neighborhood houses, leave the Kiss and Ride at Huntington, and make a left of N. Kings Hiway.   At the next light, make a right on to Fort Drive.   Proceed to the intersection of Fort Drive and Monticello Road.   Fort Weed was located on and to the south of Ford Drive and west of Williamsburg Road.   Monticello cuts the fort in half with the entrance located near the intersection of Fort Drive and Monticello.

  

 

Water Taxis to Nationals Park

 JD has a post today about American River Taxi.   They plan to launch regular service this summer.   The stops would be Nationals Park, SW Waterfront, Georgetown and Alexandria, with shuttle connections to Foggy Bottom and L’Enfant Metro. 

Currently, the only water taxi service to Nationals Park is Potomac Riverboat Company out of Old Town.  They are offering 60 games this year, starting on Opening Day.  

Strasburg: April 11 at Altoona

The guessing game is over. The Nationals announced today Stephen Strasburg will make his debut on Sunday, April 11 at Altoona.   Nats beat reporter Adam Kilgore had the right idea about maximizing the home dates, but was off by one day.  

Some fans had hoped Strasburg would pitch this Saturday at the Red Sox game at Nationals Park, but Rizzo is having none of that circus.

Mark Zimmerman's blog coverage below.  The photo is Altoona’s ballpark, which looks like a beauty.  

 

Mark Zimmerman:

The top pitching prospect will actually have his schedule pushed back three days; he had been on track to start Harrisburg's season opener (April 8 at Altoona). By moving Strasburg to the 11th, the organization ensures the right-hander will make more starts at home for the Senators while also lining him up on the same day as its No. 5 starter in the majors.

If he pitches every fifth day, here's how Strasburg's first month with Harrisburg would shake out...

April 11 at Altoona

April 16 vs New Britain

April 21 vs Reading

April 26 at Reading

May 1 vs Altoona

Opening Day

Opening Day at Nationals Park is shaping up to be something special.  President Obama has agreed to do the first pitch honors.  His appearance will mark the 100^th anniversary of the tradition.

Nats320 lists some of the events.

10:00 a.m. Gates open – fans are encouraged to arrive early and enjoy the newly-enhanced Miller Lite Scoreboard Walk as well as ballpark concessions that will open at 10 a.m.

12:30 p.m. Pregame Ceremonies Begin

Random Act of Red Recognition: Nationals will honor Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department and United States Agency for International Development/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance for their assistance in the relief efforts following the earthquake that struck Haiti.

Giant flags will be unfurled by the DC National Guard.

Armed Forces Color Guard will present the colors.

National Anthem sung by US Navy Sea Chanters.

Silver Slugger Award & Gold Glove Award Presentation: Ryan Zimmerman will be presented with these distinguished awards.

Ceremonial First Pitch: President Obama.

5 Generals from each branch of the military and 5 Wounded Warriors will also be on the field for the First Pitch.

Umpire Intro/Line-Up Delivery: George Will, Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist/author

Starting Nine: Children of deployed soldiers will take the field

Play Ball Announcer: Miss America 2010 and former Nat Pack member Caressa Cameron will make the announcement. She will also sing God Bless America during the 7th inning.

Photo Credit: Larry Downing/Reuters

 

Blossomtopia

This winter, the nation's capital served as the bulls-eye for the snow gods.   One of the systems dumped so much it was dubbed “Snowmageddon.”   If the predictions hold for this week, Washington will experience the flip-side, a “Blossomtopia,” if you will.

Not sure how many times it has happened in the 98 year history of the Tidal Basin Japanese Cherry Trees, but it appears this time around the four peak bloom days will not only occur on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but all four days are forecasted to see warm temps and sunny or partly sunny skies.    

As wonderful as this will be, Saturday and Sunday will be nuts at the Smithsonian Metro stop.   Compounding the pedestrian bottleneck problems, there’s a construction walkway at the SW corner of 14^th Street and Independence.  

Be careful, and enjoy Blossomtopia!

Oh Spring Time

Today was the Cherry Blossom Festival’s Opening Day.    A handful of events took place, including Family Day, a soccer tournament, the Opening Ceremonies and the Smithsonian Kite Festival on the Mall at the Washington Monument.    

The peak blooming doesn’t start until mid-week, but with clear blue skies, we couldn’t resist seeing the puffy pink and white blossoms of the Yoshino Cherry Trees.    Passed by the Tidal Basin, then the Kite Festival on our way to meet visiting family.   After lunch, we walked past the Capitol to the Botanical Garden.   They have a lovely presentation of orchids, the exhibit ends April 11.

Aviation pioneer Paul E. Garber founded the Kite Festival in 1967. Curious about the event, I looked at the Washington Post’s coverage through the years.   In 1970, a controversy arose.   Jack Eisen reported the event had to move to Fort Washington that year, after it was discovered that there was an old ordinance against kite flying in the city.  About a week later, Frederic Schwartz Jr. filed a suit to force the National Park Service to allow kites to be flown on the Mall.   A couple of weeks later, the House District Committee rescinded the ban, and the Kite Festival returned to the Mall in 1971.  

    

Giants: Past and Present

Kevin O’Brien (The Bleacher Report and Remember ‘51) has an excellent review of Dan Fost’s new book titled Giants: Past and Present.  

It’s good to see someone who agrees with me about the lack of books on the Giants.   Several years ago, I complained that there were plenty of books on the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees, and not enough on the Giants.   Since then, some excellent books on the Orange and Black have come out, but “The Big Three” as I call them, still lead in the feel-the-franchise-love type looks.  So it’s great to see one like that for our fanhood.

Can’t wait to get this one.   Searching inside, you get the sense it’s a family reunion album, spanning the long franchise history, all the way from Welch, Ward and Connor to Lincecum, Cain and Sandoval.   

Love the two photos side by side that create a battery of Lincecum throwing cheese to a Giants catcher from the Dead Ball Era.   You can just imagine the conversations, Timmy saying, you guys were pretty tough and rugged, and those guys saying, kid, with you paired up with Matty, we could have won a few more World Series.  

Looking at the index, I see where Fost also covers the writers such as Roger Angell, and a host of fair to middling players that evoke all kinds of memories.

There have been some cradle-to-current books on the Giants such as The Giants Encyclopedia by Tom Schott and Nick Peters, Giants: Memories and Memorabilia by Bruce Chadwick and David M. Spindel, and Jim Kaplan’s Baseball’s Great Dynasties: The Giants.    This one, however, looks like the best of the lot.  Several of the photos, I have not seen before.

Mark April 10 on your calendars for the start of the party.  We, too, are a great community!! 

 

Red Rocks Pizza

Pizza lover me also beat it over to 904 King Street yesterday.    Red Rocks Pizza has their own new sign, stating a Spring Opening.

Oh yea...