Mike O'Connell

The MLB team of my youth (that would be the New York Yankees) now owns the best record in the American League, poised to have homefield advantage in the upcoming playoffs.

It’s a bit disappointing, seeing as though the Bronx Bombers this year have actually played better on the road, doing their bombing away from the Bronx as it were.

No other playoff contender can boast this odd discrepancy, an anomaly that may bode well in series to come.

Today’s episode of Math and Musings gives a more detailed version of last month’s brief review of Tennessee. The state I went to because, eh, it was kinda close by.

For me that was state number 39… not sure where to go for 40. But you can be pretty sure I’ll bring my tape recorder.

Tape recorder. Ha. What a quaint 20th century notion.

The NFL has a knack for putting great games in primetime, and now they’re doing it on other continents as well.

This weekend we’ve already had three, and by football standards the weekend isn’t even over yet!

The only lousy game I watched this weekend was my hometown team (that would be the Washington Commanders).

Um, no surprise there either,

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of visiting City Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, home to FNB Field and the Harrisburg Senators. The Sens are the AA affiliate of my hometown MLB team (that would be the Washington Nationals), an appropriate junior partner if I ever heard one in both city and nickname.

I’d been to FNB Field once before, back when it was Metro Bank Ballpark in 2012. Prior to that it was Commerce Bank Park and before that Riverside Stadium, hosting the Sens since 1987 (and some form of baseball for a hundred years prior). That’s pretty long standing as minor league parks go, as is the Senators-Nationals connection. That one’s been in place since Day One of the big league club in 2005.

If you’re wondering, yes, the ballpark really is on an island, right there in the middle of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania’s capital city. They say the river’s a mile wide and a foot deep, though I didn’t check either stat. It is wide, though seemed pretty deep as well as my son and I walked over the Walnut Street Bridge that connects the island to downtown. There we found the famous Palumbo’s Italian Eatery, an authentic old-school pizzeria rivaled only by The Italian Store and perhaps Naples itself.

My son and I got to the ballpark early, of course, as one does, and got to see a lot of pregame. There ended up being a 75-minute “rain” delay, though I’m pretty sure there was no actual rain falling at any point. A cynical part of me thought it may have been a plot to sell more beer, though if that were the case I guess I was okay with it. They kept us entertained with some Jumbotron shenanigans, and we had our fill of ice cream in upside-down plastic batting helmets. Classic. They also had a cartoonishly large soft pretzel for sale but we would have needed about a dozen other people to help us with that one. Or a few more hours of “rain.”

FNB Field is S-tier as minor league parks go, and I’ve been to quite a few. At this point in my life I tend to go only to places I know will be amazing, and I’ll never tire of being right.
Note to future self: don’t wait a dozen years until next time.

Today on Math and Musings my son and I discuss at great length today’s “holiday.”

(It’s always good to pause for reflection at this point.)

‘Round these parts it’s Labor Day wrap-around weekend or some such thing, also known as sop to vacation industry. They start school in the middle of August so they gotta give ’em something, right?

Franklin and I both learn a few things, and hope you find our 15 minutes entertaining and informative.

Or at least mildly amusing.