Let The Games Begin! Baseball Is Back - With Fans!

Baseball spring training games began yesterday in Florida and Arizona, and both states are allowing fans to attend at 25% of ballpark capacity. I tuned into the first Chicago White Sox telecast of the season on MLB.com, and was pleased to find that Steve Stone and Jason Benetti were broadcasting the game, as upbeat and entertaining as ever. The White Sox, my South Side Chicago heroes, are predicted to be playoff contenders this year, and I am going to try and catch as many games as possible this season, especially since here in Denver, the Colorado Rockies are predicted to finish dead last. Rockies fans tend to show up no matter how bad the team is, thanks to a beautiful ballpark, very much like Chicago Cubs fans. Now that the Rockies have traded away Nolan Arenado, the best third baseman in baseball, perhaps fans will finally decide to stay away from the park, prompting the team owner to actually put somebody with baseball knowledge in charge, and spend some money on the team. And by the way, the photograph above was taken during spring training at Municipal Stadium - now long gone - in West Palm Beach, Florida back in 1996 (i.e. the good old days). Wish it were possible to travel back to that time.

Remembering Happy Times At Hatch's Bookstore

When I first moved to Denver back in 1981, I worked as the manager of the Hatch's Bookstore in the University Hills Mall. Hatch's was a 6 store chain of bookstores owned by Bob Hatch, with an additional 2 stores owned by his sister. When I started, it was the smallest store in the chain, but expanded into an adjoining store with an outside entrance, and overnight became the chain's largest. I worked there from 1981 until 1984, when I started working at the University of Denver Bookstore. I have a lot of great memories about those days at Hatch's, and the day I started working at DU, knew I had made a mistake in leaving. However, not too many years after I left, the chain went out of business, like a lot of bookstores, and while not nearly as fun, DU provided a much better career path. Sadly, thanks mainly to the internet, bookstores - both independent and chain operations - are fast disappearing, and I was lucky enough to retire before they have totally disappeared. But nothing was as fun as back in those early days at Hatch's. And yes, that is me at the entrance to the Hatch's at University Hills Mall, enjoying the happiest years of my life, and not even realizing it at the time. 

Blackberry's 14th Birthday!

My sister Susan's dog Blackberry, seen in the above photograph, turned 14 years old last week (February 15th to be exact). I didn't even remember about it until yesterday, and so we didn't have a party. However, I suspect Blackberry doesn't care, just as long as she gets fed - often. She is an extremely friendly dog, and is known all over the neighborhood. Susan is always amazed that people she doesn't even know greet Blackberry by name on their walks. Children still refer to her as a puppy, despite her white goatee and rear end. I have suggested to Susan that she take Blackberry to Jody, Susan's hairdresser, and have those areas touched up, but she refuses to do this, not even considering how this effects poor Blackberry's self-image. Very cruel.

Ruminating About Rome

I really love Rome. Everywhere you look there are ancient ruins, and many of it's streets and neighborhoods date back to the Middle Ages. I took the photograph on the left of my sister Susan while we were taking Rick Steve's Night Walk Across Rome. It may look like there were very few people around, but right behind us were the Spanish Steps, the terminus of the walk, and it was packed with tourists. Far too many people to comfortably walk up that stairway, and so we turned around, and headed back to our hotel, with a stop for dinner along the way.

While we were in Rome, we stayed at the Hotel Smeraldo, just around the corner from the Campo de' Fiori, one of the nicest piazzas in the city. I took the photograph on the right in front of our hotel. Many of the streets look just like this, filled with people and surrounded by atmospheric buildings. I wouldn't mind living here, but I suspect that like Paris, it might be on the pricey side. On the other hand, a number of small towns in the Italian countryside are offering houses for sale for $1, although fixing up a house built in the 1500s might be problematic, and expensive, too. Does that sound cynical, or just realistic? I suspect both.

Pining For Paris

Since travel to Europe is not allowed during the pandemic, we can only dream about visiting there in the near future. Therefore, over the next couple of days - as a public service - I am featuring some photographs of my trip to France and Italy, taken several years ago. The photo above was taken in the Rue Cler neighborhood of Paris. What I like most about it, besides the beautiful streetscape, is that it shows ordinary Parisians waiting for the bus, going home after work. How lucky they are to live in such a beautiful city. But what I really want to know is how they can afford to live there while most Americans can't? It seems so unfair. Perhaps the French government might consider a subsidy program for Americans who want to move there, in hopes of bringing back those funs times during the 1920s with all those starving American writers and artists. I'll e-mail my buddy President Macron today. I'm sure he'll love the idea.

The Corner Grocery

The corner grocery used to be a staple of every neighborhood back in the late 19th and early 20th century.  Before the advent of the supermarket, people needed a nearby place to buy groceries, and usually they were commercial buildings plopped down right in the middle of a residential neighborhood, such as the one in the photo on the left that I took while wandering around Fort Collins, Colorado. It used to be called the East Side Grocery, but is now someone's photography studio, with living quarters upstairs.

Another former grocery can be seen in the photograph on the right, located in Denver's Lower Highlands neighborhood. The "ghost sign" on the front of the building shows that it was once The Fair Market, but it is now Studio David. I'm not sure what Studio David is, but years ago when I was taking photography classes at the University of Denver, it was called Gallery Sink, owned by photographer Mark Sink. Our class went there on a field trip one day. Sink takes photographs using traditional methods, and his works look like they were taken back in the 19th century. When we were there, he spoke to the class, and afterwards mentioned that he was working on a photography project featuring (I think) fairies, or some sort of Victorian costume party, or something like that. He invited the class to come back, get dressed up in costumes he would provide, and take part in the shoot. Surprisingly enough, I decided not to partake in this, and if anyone ever uncovers what looks like a 19th century photograph of me in a fairy costume, staring unashamedly at a nymph, it is a forgery. I swear.

Lawyers Lawyers Everywhere, By Which I Mean On TV Commercials

I was walking down Denver's 16th Street the other week on the way downtown and ran across the law offices of Mike Sawaya, seen in the above photo. As Denver residents know, Mike Sawaya is an injury attorney who constantly runs ads on television about his firm, as do many other injury lawyers here in town. Of all these lawyers, Sawaya seems the most sincere, stressing that the most important thing is to make sure you get the proper medical treatment and are financially able to recover from your accident. However, I was surprised to see that the sidewalks along the 16th Street side of Sawaya's Victorian mansion had not been shoveled after a snowstorm the previous day. If I had fallen, I would have had to call Frank Azar, "The Strong Arm," one of Sawaya's competitors, and hire him to sue Sawaya to get the amount of money I deserved, as Frank likes to put it. That would have been awkward.