Merry Christmas

The photos you see here are my Christmas and birthday presents from Ellen. They were not taken with a zoom lens. We bought tickets to a Cub/Cardinal game in the Cardinals Club. That's the section right behind home plate. The bald guy in the front row is the Cardinals' owner, Dewitt.What a way to spoil yourself, if you're a baseball fan. We got our first taste of these seats earlier this year when the Pellicioni family visited in July. Andy wanted to give his sons a special memory and bought the seats for the Cub/Card game that weekend. Our tickets for that game were "way up there", but the Cubs were routing the Cards that day :), so Ellen and I crashed the Cardinal Club in the 8th inning and were astonished at how much better and exciting the game was from that vantage point. We're careful with our expenditures nowadays (wonder why) but felt this would be a great Christmas and birthday gift for me, particularly since this is the Cubs championship season. Say again? Yes, this is the year, not next year. Most people I know have heard what follows many times now, but I'm afraid you have to hear it again. For the rest who may not know....Just before the playoffs in 2006, I predicted the Cardinals would win the pennant. They did. (BTW, every Cardinal fan I knew predicted an exit for them in the divisional series). When Detroit won the AL, I predicted the Cardinals would win the World Series. They did. At the beginning of last season, I called the Cubs to win the Central Division. They did. Before the playoffs, I claimed the Cubs would exit in the first round. They did. Right after the final out was made last year, I said the Cubs would win 100 games and a world championship this year. We still have a shot at 100 games, if we get really hot, and I hope to say next month, "They did."

It was a great time. The Cubs did lose on a bang bang play in the bottom of the ninth after first ballot, future hall of famer, Pujols, hit a game tying three run homer in the 7th. I can say without doubt that Dempster threw him a belt high fastball right over the middle of the plate. That's just batting practice for someone like Albert. You can't make that kind of mistake with that guy. Still, to get beat by a hall of famer isn't such a hard thing to swallow.

We committed to doing this once a year, if possible, instead of buying those five game packs "way up there." Besides, the minor double vision I have from those eye surgeries five years ago make them the only seats in which I can really watch the game, other than in front of a TV. I just can't seem to follow the ball anywhere else in the park. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.