America: Baseball, Wal-Mart & Apple Pie! ~ Purple

Re-Reading "Match Point" (by Erynn Mangum) today for the third (fourth? I don't even remember!) time today I read this:

"You don't know anything about baseball, do you?" Ryan laughs.

"I do too," I say, hands on hips.

He raises his eyebrows mockingly. "Really. Tell me something."

"The Yankees are a baseball team," I say proudly.

"Who is their manager?"

I squirm and say the first name that pops into my head. "Gary Cooper?"

Ryan closes his eyes. "I'm feeling the need for serious prayer...So who made you watch Pride of the Yankees?"

"Is that where Gary Cooper came from?"

He grins. "And I repeat. You know nothing about baseball."

"You can't know everything."

He shakes his head. "Yeah, but baseball, Laur. That's up there with apple pie and Wal-Mart. It's un-American to not know anything about baseball."

Well, I have to say, I'm not sure if I qualify.

I mean, sure, I know some basball team names, a few player names, but I only follow when the Red Sox are winning, usually just in the world series.

And I re-learn every year. It's crazy. But fun, because Dad loves telling me allll about it.

He's a huge Red Sox fan, but I must say, he's not as big of a fan as my Auntie Jen. WOW. She's VERY proud of her New England background. She does NOT enjoy the south nearly as much, and the worst thing you can do to her is call her "Jenny" --trust me, I know this!

However, she lives in the heart of the south, and has for more than half of her life.. but she will not admit that she's officially a "southerner" now. Don't get me wrong, she likes the area, the nice house she has, etc. She just prefers New Hampshire.

One thing that she is loving about Greenville right now is the new "Fluor Field" (and no, I did not mis-spell it) in the West End. Why would she be this excited about this you ask? Or perhaps you're asking what this has to do with anything. Well, let me explain. ;)

Fluor Field used to be called "West End Park" until several years ago, when the city decided to completely tear it down and start from scratch. They then fashioned the new field (Fluor Field) as a miniature Fenway Park. For those who are not into baseball at all and resemble Laurie, that's the Boston Red Sox's field... in Boston.

What sets apart Fenway from others is the Green Monster. When Fenway Park was built in 1912 in the city of Boston, there was no "Green Monster." Without it, people kept hitting home runs onto the street. In 1936 they built a 37 foot wall and all that changed. When it was painted green in 1947, the Green Monster was born.  NO home runs have ever been hit over the Green Monster. Pretty cool if you ask me. ;)

So, back to the subject... The Greenville Drive (the team that plays at Fluor Field) is the lower-A affiliate of the Red Sox. Once again, pretty cool.

My Aunt works for a company that shares a suite with some other companys and form time to time they get tickets...so, on Monday, the day we went down for Dad's treatment, she had two extra tickets!

So we rushed home, changed, and hopped back in the car, driving to downtown for the game. It was fantastic! Suite seats! Awesome view! A mini-fenway! And that's not all..

My Uncle Jay is a graphic artist for a major company in Greenville and designed some of the signs at Fluor Field. Here they are:

The Fluor Field Sign

BMW Sign

I had so much fun! It was great. Here's a slide show I put together of the evening. Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of my aunt.. she was sporting a Red Sox shirt and hat. Very cute. ;)

I must tell... she saw someone with a Yankee's shirt. Yep. She pointed him out and said, "I better go trip him." I must say, I agreed. ;)

P.S. About the other "American Things" --I like Wal-Mart good 'nuf. In fact, I was there this evening buying some things for my trip ;). Apple Pie is just down right amazing, if you ask me. So, even if I don't qualify on the baseball level, I've got the other two going for me. :D

From Mama

12:12 AM, Jul. 9, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Fun post! You know more about baseball than I do, that's for sure.

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7:51 PM, Jul. 15, 2008 .. Posted by SimplyMe

Thank you...that IS alot like my situation. Except I don't really know if she went to heaven. I mean, you never REALLY do, obviously- no one but God can know your heart- but I really don't know.
Cleo

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9:55 PM, Jul. 15, 2008 .. Posted by giftedgirl

Hey Bethany!!

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I'm home now! So I can be way better about commenting. :-)

Yes, I definitely give you the html for mine. It's not hard to figure out, but it's easier to learn with a visual. At least, that's what helps me out with templates. :-)

Thank you so much for the award! How sweet of you! You very much deserved the award. :-) Your blog is excellent!

LOL The book excerpt was great. I would be just as bad as Laurie if I was being asked about baseball. I know nothing about it. I know a teeny little bit about football, but only because my brother likes it.

That's so cool that you got tickets from your aunt!! Very nice. :-D That's neat that she lives in the south but prefers the north. :-) I guess I'm a bad Southerner because I pretty much could care less about Southern pride and all that. *grin* Both the north and south are gorgeous, and since I have family in both... I stay neutral. LOL

Hugs,
Becca

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8:54 AM, Jul. 17, 2008 .. Posted by sistersinchrist

Thanks for the comment on our blog. My mom and I (this is 01charger), made the template, and we thought that it was cool. I made the header, which was really fun! Oh my gosh...it took my like a half an hour to get it perfect..I'm picky!
TTYL!
Ashley

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8:03 PM, Jul. 17, 2008 .. Posted by LittleSparow

Wow! You did a great job with your template - I like it!

I'm afraid that I am just like Laurie . . . I know hardly anything about baseball. However, I do like Walmart, and I love apple pie, so that should count for something! :)

Blessings,
Kori

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2:50 PM, Jul. 18, 2008 .. Posted by LittleSparow

Thanks for the comment you left . . .I would still like to redo my template, but I don't know where to start. :P How did you get started? I'd love to hear your advice! :)
Thanks!
Kori

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3:54 PM, Jul. 21, 2008 .. Posted by LittleSparow

Wow! I love the graphic! Thank you so much! :) I'd like to use it as my avatar, but I'm not exactly sure how to upload it . . .the things I tried didn't work. :P

I found a web site that's all about HTML . . .so I'm going to check it out and see how much I can figure out. It seems pretty helpful.

Thanks again for all your help!
God bless,
Kori

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12:00 AM, Jul. 23, 2008 .. Posted by BlogBoy

I totally agree. America has so many monuments with Christian sayings on them that it is hard to believe that we were not a Christian nation.

In 1892 The United States Supreme Court in the famous Trinity Decision, examined all of the documents and monuments pertaining to the foundation of America since the pilgrims first came to the US and the nation was then founded. They didn’t spend a half hour on each side or even a day for each side or even a week or a month or even a year. They spent ten years examining every single document that has anything to do with the foundation of this country! Then after all of their study and research they came to a unanimous decision and in that decision this is what they said. “This is a religious people, this is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour there is a single voice making this affirmation. We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth, these and many other matters which might be noticed at a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”

Anyway, the fact is that America has stepped away from their Christian values. As you said. Come Lord Jesus!

Eric