MoonDog Fever

I departed Minneopa State Park, where I spent the July 4th weekend camping, around 4:00 Sunday. I stopped at a Kwik Trip for a sandwich and a cold sparkling water. From there I drove to ISG Field, alternatively called Franklin Rogers Field, where I had a ticket to the 5:05 Mankato MoonDogs game against the St. Cloud Rox. I parked outside a shopping mall where I saw the St. Cloud Rox team bus, as well as other fans parking and congregating. I followed them into the stadium from the right field foul pole entrance. Inside the gates, I saw a Rox player giving a little boy a ball. I walked around the concourse to check out the digs before I found my seat under the covered section behind the backstop. The support beams that held up the roof I found delightful and nostalgic for they reminded me of Tiger Stadium. With the couple hundred others in attendance, I stood for the anthem and took photos of the field, where the teams stood in neat diagonal rows, the Rox in baby blue on the third baseline, the MoonDogs in black on the first baseline. 

The stadium played Springsteen's "Born to Run" as the MoonDog pitcher thew warm up pitches on a hot, muggy day. They smacked in the catchers' mitt. He threw hard but the Rox scored an early run in the top half of the first, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead they would cling to for much of the game. The number of Southern players on the Mankato roster surprised me. They used a lot of country music for their walkup songs. Batting leadoff for the Space Pups was Jojo Williamson, a second basemen for the Alabama Crimson Tide from Hartselle, Alabama, smaller in stature in the mold of Altuve. Batting in the two spot was Williamson's teammate from Alabama, big Andrew Purdy, a 6'2, 215 pounder from Cartersville, Georgia. Third in the lineup was Liam Ebbs, another big boy at 6'2, 220 pounds. From Atlanta and a member of the Wofford College baseball team, Ebbs played first base. Hitting cleanup was a kid out of the University of Hawaii. After that it was Anthony Avalos from Houston Christian University. The Moon Dogs' center fielder, Sam Erickson, was a native of Flower Mound, Texas, a Texas A&M Aggie who came to the plate while Alabama's "Dixieland Delight" played, reminding me of college fraternity nights. The song also blended well with the theme of the game -- America's 250th Birthday Bash -- and the small-town crowd. 

Fans wore a lot of red, white, and blue in the stands. Dads wore polos in the design of the American flag, with the stripes running vertically, and kids wore their little Old Navy tee shirts with the American flag on the front. A middle-aged couple in the second row even wore matching red, white, and blue generic football jerseys. The number on each jersey was 2, with a nameplate that read "AMENDMENT." Another solo fan I sat near wore jean shorts with his orange union shirt tucked into it, New Balance shoes, and a MoonDogs cap. Many fans, for that matter, owned and wore MoonDogs gear. With a name like that, can you blame them? Their appeared to be a lot of moms with tattoos, while a lot of the men looked like law enforcement types. One pretty blonde, who I estimated a player's girlfriend, disappeared after the first three outs. 

Undisputedly the star of the game was St. Cloud starting pitcher Manning West. The lanky (6'6, 235 pounds) Kansas Jayhawk, a native of Winder, Georgia, went 7 innings and allowed only one earned run, striking out 13 and hitting up to 91 on the radar gun. The Northwoods League named West its Pitcher of the Night for his performance. 

In the top half of the seventh, St. Cloud broke out for four runs, cushioning West's lead to 5-0. Then Mankato tried to rally. In the bottom of the 7th they scored two runs, forcing West to the dugout, and in the 8th they added another, but St. Cloud's bullpen slammed the door thereafter. The Rox won 5-3. 

St. Cloud, who clinched the first half title in the Great Plains West Division with a record of 24-12, has now won 3 straight and 7 of its last 10. Meanwhile Mankato, who started the year hot, drops its third straight and their 7th in the last 10. The MoonDogs are 16-24 at the All-Star Break, the Rox 28-14. 

I drove 169-North to Minneapolis Sunday night. The sun still hot, I listened to the Diamondbacks and Padres on Sunday Night Baseball, passing cornfield towns like Saint Peter, LeSeur, and Belle Plaine. 

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

 “There were only sixteen teams in the big leagues, and in an America defined by the railroad instead of the airplane, St. Louis was a far west team and Washington a Southern one. California might as well have been in another country. The pace of life in America had not yet accelerated as it was soon to do from the combination of endless technological breakthroughs and undreamed-of affluence in ordinary homes. The use of drugs seemed very distant. The prevailing addiction of more than a few players (and managers, coaches, sportswriters, and indeed owners) was alcohol, apparently a more acceptable and less jarring form of self-destruction. It was, thought Curt Gowdy, a young sportscaster who had just joined the Yankees, the last moment of innocence in American life.”

David Halberstam

Summer of 49

Northern Wisconsin

 

Bauer's Dam Resort

when they cut me loose

 

"I can't say it out loud like I used to

My mouth moves faster than my hands can write

Maybe it's the weed or maybe I'm a mess

Hey man hey man hey man I'm just doing my best

Somebody turn the lights down low in the living room
And I'll grab a chair
I'm making friends with the ghosts of my youth
And my old bleached hair
Still resting on a bruise to remember how it felt
When they cut the noose
Still resting on a bruise to remember how it felt
When they cut me loose

I traded patiencе for a double threat
Neck tattoos and a lit cigarеtte
I will never forget
I don't know who I am, I don't know who I am
When it's all left unsaid
Hey Man Hey Man Hey Man I'm just doing my best

Somebody turn the lights down low in the living room
And I'll grab a chair
I'm making friends with the ghosts of my youth
And my old bleached hair
Still resting on a bruise to remember how it felt
When they cut the noose
Still resting on a bruise to remember how it felt
When they cut me loose
When they cut me loose"

Cigarettes @ sunset

"Old Bleached Hair"

Possum Rock (2026)

This One's for Zack Novak

 

This one's for Zack Novak.

For Stu Douglass, Jordan Morgan, and John Beilein. 

For Juwan, Jalen, C-Web, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson.

This one's for Graham Brown, Courtney Sims, Lester Abram, and Robert Tractor Traylor. For Maurice Bullock and Steve Fisher.

For Mo Wagner, Charles Matthews, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahman, Duncan Robinson, Jordan Poole, and Zavier Simpson. For Derrick Walton, David Merritt, and Zak Irvin. 

For Caris LeVert, Spike Albrecht, Nik Stauskas, Mitch McGary, and Glenn Robinson III. 

For Trey Burke. 

For Darius Morris. Tim Hardaway Jr., Jon Horford, Evan Smotrycz, and Matt Vogrich. 

For DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris. For Dion Harris, Daniel Horton, Tommy Amaker, and Brian Ellerbe. For Maceo Baston, Danny Wolf, and Vlad Goldin. 

For the Maize Ragers of the late nineties and the 2000's. For those who cheered on the Wolverines in the 2004 NIT Championship.

No Pasaran!

 

My Last Night in Michigan

 Last night I dreamt about the girl I once loved from Petoskey. How fucked up is that? I haven't seen her in fifteen years, yet she still haunts me like a ghost.