Mike O'Connell

I’ve been asked many times this year whether having the MLB All-Star game in my “hometown” makes it any cooler or more interesting compared to other years.

Nope. I’m just gonna watch it on TV whether it’s 20 miles or 2,000 miles from my house. If my son were a little older maybe, but he’s not so it doesn’t matter. That he’s four and would rather play with sticks and dirt in the backyard than with some new age gizmos at “fan fest” probably saved me a few hundred dollars.

I will watch, with interest, tonight’s Home Run Derby, and of course the game tomorrow. I’ll have my son watch some of it too.

We don’t need to see it in person, but we do like the game.

After all, we are not Communists.

The week between the Fourth of July and July 11 should be known as Fourth of July Week. Every other holiday extends its reach beyond its borders (seriously, Hobby Lobby was putting out Christmas stuff last week), so why shouldn’t this one?

The week culminates, of course, with free Slurpees today at 7-Eleven stores around this great nation of ours, including the seven or eight that are within spitting distance of my house (they say location is everything). New today? A Cap’n Crunch Berries-flavored Slurpee. Yes, Cap’n Crunch.

Heaven can wait.

Proof that one should never give up on anything, especially baseball games with mediocre teams.

Witness last night’s contest between the Washington Nationals and Miami Marlins, a game which the visiting Marlins led 9-0 early on, won by the home team 14-12 several hours later.

The Nats, actually, had every chance to blow this game. After said 9-0 hole and my hometown team’s two touchdowns to go up 14-9, Nats relievers did give up three runs in the top of the eighth to make the game 14-12. Sometimes unhittable closer Sean Doolittle gave up two hits in the top of the ninth to bring the go-ahead run to the plate, but was able to strike out Derek Dietrich to end the game.

Nothin’ to it.

Leaving today on a little vacation to a place where the Internet is spotty at best. Expect no posts until July 3, during which time you might peruse our archives.

Quick reminder, on July 4 I will be presenting my annual public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Sterling Park, details here.

See ya!

Gotta hand it to the folks at Fox. The two biggest sporting events on Earth yesterday and they had ’em both. World Cup soccer and the U.S Open (that would be golf) and both of them were exciting to the end. Literally the beginning to the end, as that beautiful time difference between here and Russia has given us soccer (elsewhere they call it futbol) every day from eight in the morning. Hacking around Shinnecock Hills takes about eight hours too, so we were covered on sports right up until dinnertime.

Then baseball starts. On ESPN. You know that old channel. And baseball… you know that one? It’s like golf but they throw it at you from 60 feet away.

It’s what Americans used to do before soccer showed up.