Doubting Thomas Blog

Archive for the ‘baseball’ Category

Instead of making resolutions, I’m writing down plans…well, not plans exactly, but stuff that I want to do.

I think most of these ideas are feasible. What do you think?

1. Finish the house we started in 2009. I’d like to incorporate green technology, but we’ll see.
2. Get back to running my favorite seasonal business, The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co.
3. Go to more pro baseball games than we did in 2009. I’d like to see my first major league game. In Toronto. I know what you’re saying…someone my age has never seen the MLB in person? Nope.
4. This one is related to #2 above. I will lose a little weight and continue to improve my cardiovascular health. Riding The Buffalo Bike Taxi Co, it would be nearly impossible to gain weight.
5. Do more writing, even if it just more-frequent posts on this blog. I do want to get back to real writing, though.
6. I’d like to learn to speak another language. I studied French in high school and college, so I remember some of that, but “Quiero aprender a hablar español de este año.” (Without having to use Google Translate.)
7. I have a bunch of audio cassettes that I want to convert into digital files, so that I can actually listen to that music. (Younger readers may want to ask their parents if they have any audio cassettes in the basement that they could look at.)
8. I say this every year, but this year is different (partly because of the divorce). I want to spend more time with old friends. I have not ever visited my friends Jesse, Rich, Craig, or Greg at their houses.
9. I’d like to buy an electric car. A Tesla Roadster would be nice, but I would “settle” for a a hybrid Fusion.
10. We live near a lot of water, so I’d like to make sure we get the canoe wet a lot this summer. The Buffalo River is a lot more scenic than you’d expect.
11. Another thing I’ve wanted to do for years, but somehow haven’t found the time to do, is ride my bicycle across New York State. The Erie Canal is a great way to go.
12. I want to take the boys camping, somewhere that they’ll never forget. I think the Adirondacks would be great.
13. We’ve been attending church more regularly, but this year, I would like to make it such a standard part of our life that the boys don’t resist going, when they are at my house on a Sunday. But here’s a problem I haven’t figured out how to resolve: I like three different churches, but I can’t go to all three on the same Sunday morning. Ultimately, I think it will be better if I am more actively involved with one of those three churches, doing things besides just attending morning church services.
14. Many of these things can be done, and some should be done, with family. Baseball, bicycling, and church, for example. This year, I would like to have time to visit my family members at their houses, but also to make the house we’re working on large enough for everyone to gather here for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

What about you? Will you be doing any of these activities?

Statistically speaking, the Buffalo Bisons are the worst team in the league right now. They have lost 47 of the 73 games they have played so far, which gives them an average of .356, which is 15.5 games behind the best team in the North division leader, the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees.

I have a proposal for sports teams. Instead of charging fans the same price for admission to every game, modify it up or down, according to how far above or below .500 the team’s record is so far this season.

For example, at today’s home game, every ticket is $7.00, no matter where you sit. The team is .144 below .500, so the price of each ticket is reduced by a factor of .144. Tonight’s tickets would therefore be $5.99 each. Tomorrow night, the most expensive ticket in the ballpark is $11.00. (I know! Isn’t that a deal?!?) If their record doesn’t change tonight (for example, they get rained out again), the ticket price would be adjusted to $9.42.

If the Bisons had the S/WB Yankees’ record of .568, the ticket price would be adjusted up by a factor of .068 to $11.75.

This provides a financial incentive for teams to play better and win more, and gives fans more incentive to come see teams that stink.

Go Bisons! Boo Yankees!

Normally about this time of year, I’ve already brought the bike taxi out of its winter hibernation, dusted it off, checked the brakes, tires, axles and everything, and brought it downtown to give people rides, but so far this year, I haven’t done that. NOT having a Sabres post-season (AGAIN!) has a little to do with that, but in general, I feel like April FLEW by this year.

At least we made it to one Bisons game so far, which last year… I hate to admit it!… but we didn’t get to a game all summer! And yes, it was a beautiful day, and despite the sunburn I got on my arms, my new tattoos, and my knees, and despite the Bisons LOST again! we had a great day.

I’d like to make it to at least one game every month this summer, but you know how it goes, when you’ve got your work schedule, the boys both have different baseball schedules, etc., it makes it hard. Plus we need to plan in a weekend to visit my parents out-of-state, go see my brother, my older sister, and my younger sister, none of whom have the common sense or kindness to move to Buffalo so that I don’t have to do all that driving!

Here comes May!

Though Mayor Jimmy Griffin wasn’t perfect, I agree that Buffalo should name the Buffalo Bisons ballpark after him.

Based on the current 8-year, $2,500,000 deal with Dunn Tire, the naming rights for Buffalo’s minor league baseball park are worth $312,500 a year. Do you suppose it is possible to find a way to name the park after Griffin and still sell the naming rights? For a minor league team, that $312,500 will pay up to about 13 players’ salaries for 7 months. We obviously can’t just give up that income, but the area needs at least one major sports facility with a decent name. As nice as it is for the Dunn Tire people to help pay the bills, Dunn Tire Park sounds like something from a bad cartoon. And “The Ralph” is ridiculous. Want to watch hockey in the Hong-Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation Arena?

Read more in the Buffalo News.

The house that Jimmy Griffin built. That’s how many people think of Dunn Tire Park — and they’d like to see the name of the stadium reflect that.

Griffin, Buffalo’s longest-serving mayor, died Sunday in Father Baker Manor in Orchard Park about a month shy of his 79th birthday.

Local talk-show callers speculated about the cause of Griffin’s death Monday, but longtime Griffin supporter and close friend Ronald J. Anthony said that it had not yet been determined. “There is no confirmed cause of death,” Anthony said.

Anthony said he did not know how long the former mayor had been in the nursing home.

Under Griffin’s leadership, the city ended up with the Buffalo Hilton (now the Adam’s Mark), townhouses, the Hyatt Regency, the General Cinema in the Market Arcade, a restored Shea’s Buffalo and the HSBC Bank Atrium, among other projects.

But the crown jewel of his four terms as mayor was bringing professional baseball back to Buffalo and creating a home for the Buffalo Bisons in 1988 at Pilot Field, now Dunn Tire Park.

“Bringing baseball to Buffalo was no small feat,” Anthony said.

The idea of renaming the stadium for Griffin is something Anthony has wanted to do since long before Griffin’s death, he added.

Also, regardless of whether the baseball park is named for the late mayor, Conehead should start offering a deal on beer: the Jimmy Sixpack.

May 11, 2007, Rochester Redwings beat the Buffalo Bisons 13-2 on 20 hits, but we still had post-game fireworks.