It’s been a wild ride so far. I had my monthly fire company on Monday the 14th (Happy Bastille Day to the firefighters (pompiers) in France ) and before and after the meeting we watched the Home Run Derby. We were impressed with Josh Hamilton hitting 28 homer runs in the first round, and at least one missed going out of Yankee Stadium. If he succeeded, he would have been the first to do so. Not even Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, or Alex Rodriguez were able to do it.
During lunch I walked around the Times Square area and took pictures of the various miniature Statues of Liberty that are placed around New York City . During that walk I was able to photograph the statues commemorating
* the All Star game,
* the Seattle Mariners,
* the New York Giants,
* the Arizona Diamond Backs,
* Shea Stadium, and
* the Tampa Bay Rays
While on the West Side I ran into two secretaries who I worked with at my prior firm. They agreed that it was a railroad job 7 months ago, and said that it’s good that I am not there anymore.
Yesterday it started to get interesting. In the evening was the All Star game at Yankee Stadium. During the afternoon there was a parade up 6th Avenue from Bryant Park to Central Park . The marchers did not walk, but rode in Chevrolet pickup trucks (Chevrolet was a major sponsor). So I got to be a few feet from nearly all of the living members of baseball’s Hall of Fame. Here is a partial list: * Hank Aaron * Reggie Jackson * Bob Feller * Gary Carter * Harmon Killebrew * Tommy Lasorda * Tony Gwynn * Juan Marichal * Al Kaline * Rod Carew There were also the managers of the two all star teams, as well as the stars themselves. I was a few feet from * Terry Francona * Jim Leyland * David Ortiz * Derek Jeter * Alex Rodriguez After an hour I had to get back to work, so I did not get to see the National League all stars up close.
In the evening the Bees had a game in Central Park against Richmond , which is a London based (their borough of Richmond , on the Thames River ). I did not play but only kept score. Who cared, the Bees won 15-4. I spoke to one of the British born players and mentioned that Richmond-on-Thames fields a baseball team called the Flames. I mention the team on one of my web-pages - http://london43baseball.homestead.com/. Please check it out and remember to sign the guest-book. After the game we went to Brother Jimmy’s to watch the pre game ceremonies and the game itself. I could not stay too long since I have a long train ride, but watched the remainder of the game when I got home. Since I am a National League fan, I was a bit disappointed with the result – 4-3 in favor of the American League.
During lunch this afternoon I took the subway to the Financial District to photograph a few of the Statues of Liberty down there. I was able to photograph * The Boston Red Sox in the Sports Museum of America, * The Brooklyn Dodgers at the Topps Building and * The Chicago Cubs in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The area around the NYSE is like Fort Knox: iron fences and barriers, guard houses, the street behind building (New Street) closed to traffic and protected by a retractable street barrier (reminding me of a submarine net) while the street in the front (Broad Street is also closed to autos but at least pedestrians are allowed to walk down the middle of it. I guess after 9-11 they can never be too careful, and the NYSE is a symbol of our way of life, like the Twin Towers were. Besides, in 1920 a bomb went off at the former headquarters of Morgan Trust Company (now part of Chase Bank) at 23 Wall Street , across from the NYSE. After 88 years, marks from the blast are still visible. We don’t want history to repeat itself here.
