A Connecticut Yankee road trip

The road to Hartford, CT — where Younger Daughter was checking out the University of Hartford in a college visit — took a short detour to New York recently because when I’m driving, we’re always looking for a ballgame somewhere along the route.

Actually, I had purchased tickets for a Yankees day game against the Seattle Mariners back in March when tickets first went on sale having no idea what direction life would be taking in July. Stopping in New York on the way to Hartford turned out to make sense from a travel standpoint in this instance.
Our seats in Yankee Stadium ended up being a few rows behind and a few seats over from where Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit landed in the leftfield bleachers a few weeks ago. The Yankees’ captain was the first Yankee to reach 3,000 career hits — not Ruth, not Gehrig, not DiMaggio, not Mantle. So Jeter’s accomplishment is a pretty big deal for a franchise that’s experienced a lot of pretty big deals in its existence.
While we didn’t see that type of history, we were there on a day when something of note did happen: the Mariners broke a 17-game losing streak by beating the Yankees that afternoon. I guess all the Mariners needed was for Younger Daughter and I to show up for a game. I’m sure the Yankees appreciated our role in their loss.
We got out of New York ahead of the evening rush hour — driving in New York is never easy no matter what time of the day it is — and got to Hartford in relatively uneventful fashion.

I say uneventful except for the traffic in Connecticut. I’ve never driven in that state where traffic just isn’t all gummed up for no apparent reason whatsoever. I expect traffic in Philly and New York. I do not expect it in Middleofnowhere, CT.
The University of Hartford tour kicked off Day 2 of the trip. Notable UHART graduates include the singer Dionne Warwick and Houston Astros retired first baseman Jeff Bagwell. It was a nice tour and a nice campus, but I’m trying to not exercise any undue influence on Younger Daughter’s choice of a college. My sense from her reaction is that UHART is not her No. 1 choice.
The highlight of the day for old Dad — considering that UHART costs about $43,000 a year to attend — was a visit to the much more affordable Mark Twain house in Hartford, which only costs $16 per person to tour.
Although no photos or video were allowed inside the home, it’s an absolutely beautiful place. As you undoubtedly know, Twain, the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is considered the greatest American humorist of his age.
As a writer of substantially less note than Mr. Twain, I thought it was very cool to stand in the same room where Twain penned some of his greatest works — “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” “Life on the Mississippi,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” Hopefully, a little of that karma rubbed off on me.
A couple of days that included visits to Yankee Stadium and the Mark Twain house, two iconic U.S. sites, and the most important aspect of all was that I got to spend some quality time with my daughter. And really, it doesn’t get any better than that.

These sour grapes make a unique whine

Admittedly, I got a big crate of sour grapes ready to be distributed. But I don’t care. With the way the Yankees have treated the Phillies up to this point in the 2009 World Series, I am in no mood to be nice.
And if baseball must be played in November, then certainly I would like the Phillies to be one of the teams still playing. Having said that, though, I was at Game 4 of the World Series, it was so dadgummed cold that I nearly froze my patootie off, which had that happened, would have created a lot of problems for me trying to hold up my drawers.
It tends to get chilly this time of year around here. But hey, the alternative is somebody else’s team is still playing baseball in November, so I guess I can stand to do with a little less of my patootie.
Here’s what else about this World Series to date has me peeved:
— It appears to entirely be my fault. I was at Game 4 of the 2008 World Series and the Phillies scored 11 runs, won the game and eventually went on to become world champions. I apparently did not do my job as a fan this year in Game 4, and for that I apologize.
— Ballplayers, Phillies included, either need to shave or not shave. I am tired of looking at four-day facial growth. Either grow a beard or don’t grow a beard. I am surprised the baseball wives have not chimed in on this. What, I have the only wife in the world who doesn’t like to snuggle up and have her face scratched?
— Tuck in the back pocket of your baseball pants. Players sometimes keep a batting glove, or something else in that back pocket. When they pull that something out, the pocket gets turned inside out. It needs to be tucked in because it just looks stupid flapping there in the wind, especially on anybody in Yankees pinstripes.
— I am no longer interested in anything that Alex Rodriguez has to say on any topic, not even if he’s talking about Kate Hudson.
— Having said that, I will not and did not boo Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera. They’re great players, they show a lot of class and all they do is beat you. That should be admired by all baseball fans.
And then the Phillies won Game 5 Monday night and I was less grumpy. At the time that this is written, there could be one more game, there could be two more games. The outcome will determine weather my weekend is full of wine or . . . whine.