Author: Eric

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Reno 2, Oklahoma City 1

Great game at Reno Aces ballpark last nite, featuring their system’s top pitching prospect making his AAA debut. We sprang for the $18 tickets a dozen rows behind the Aces dugout to get a good look at him: Trevor Bauer, the third overall pick in the 2010 draft out of UCLA, whose slight build and arching windup immediately reminded me of Tim Lincecum. He buzzed through the first three batters, showing good command of a low 90s fastball (he touched 95 later in the game) and some wicked off-speed stuff that had opposing batters flailing (and his catcher scrambling around in the dirt). He scattered only 3 hits over the first 7 innings but worked out of a few jams when other baserunners reached on errors or walks.

Bauer’s counterpart kept the Aces’ bats quiet for the most part despite two Aces entering the game hitting over .400 and another over .370. The Aces broke through with a run in the 3rd when the third baseman’s two-out double high off the leftfield wall scored the centerfielder from third. They added to the lead with a solo shot to right by the first baseman (who was playing in his first game after serving a 50-game suspension for PEDs) in the 7th.

But the clear story of the game was young Trevor Bauer. He certainly didn’t look overmatched by the competition at his new level and was working on a 3-hit shutout in the 8th when the Redhawk catcher managed to muscle a 3-2 pitch high down the line in right for a solo homer that cut the lead to 2-1. Trevor finished the inning, striking out the side, and received a standing ovation from the crowd but he was pinch-hit for in the bottom half.

He was succeeded by a junkballing lefty who struck out the first batter in the 9th with three pitches that topped out at 71 mph but who was lifted for a fat righty after the next batter singled. Was the lefty brought in first just because there were two lefties scheduled to hit first and this portly chap was the real closer? Well, neither appeared to have closer stuff, as the second also featured a lot of 75 mph junk and walked the first batter he faced to put the tying run in scoring position.
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In The Beginning There Was The Word

Beech Bark

The word ‘book’ comes from the German ‘buch‘ meaning simply an item with words fixed on it. It shares the word for ‘beech’ tree because healthy beech bark is remarkably smooth and light gray, whereas marks carved into the living bark of beech trees would first turn black and then grow with the bark, preserving carved words “forever.”

Actual books were first made by monks, who dedicated their lives to collecting and preserving the knowledge of the world. These books were made by hand, often taking years as pages were meticulously arranged and often decorated. The finished books were protected by the monks, and available for reading by a select few clergy, for literacy was necessary only for religion and the government. Rich folks hired people to read for them. Beyond the monks’ libraries and government archives, knowledge transfer was strictly oral.

Those who controlled books controlled power (religion and government). The extraordinary cost (in labor and time) of creating a single book meant that only the wealthy could afford to make them and keep them.

Then some clever people (first in China, then in Germany) figured out an easier way to reproduce words, and books, using moveable type, and suddenly books were cheap and it was worth the time and trouble to become literate because books were popping up all over. It’s no coincidence that the release and consumption of ideas using printing presses (Guttenberg Bible published in 1455) came in the early states of the “Renaissance” cultural revolutions across Europe.
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Big Bend Picnic

Beside the Rio Grande on March 19th, we picnicked on canned fish, tortillas, dried fruit, and cabbage salad with raisins.

Later we soaked in a natural hot spring next to the river, which was only about 15 feet wide at that point, and only knee deep.

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View of Chisos mountains from our lodge at Big Bend National Park.

Rectors Visiting Rectors

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Wendell and Carol of Windswept Lane hosting Alison and Eric of Windswept Farm.

After we left Wendell and Carol, Eric and Alison drove the length of SC from Greenville to Beaufort. Here’s a couple of photos of us on the beach at Fripp Island where Alison’s dad lives.

Seventh Heaven

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I’m in NYC for work and just took the 7 express train out to Flushing, New York’s vibrant new “Chinatown” where many of the newest immigrants have settled. It’s bright, loud, crowded, and has some of the best Chinese food in the City. I thought y’all might like to see what I got. Everything was fantastically good, and “buns” are actually Xiao Long Bao, or Shanghai style soup dumplings, and they were as good as I remember them from our visit to China. High praise.