Wine and Wine Racks

Anna writes... I have questions that will be pertinent to our super fun father-daughter activities over break:
-Why are wine bottles usually stored horizontally? Does it make a difference?
-Is there a right and wrong way to organize wine on a wine rack... by type? age? cutest label?
-How awesome will the wine rack be that we build?

Wine is stored horizontally in order to keep the cork wet. If a bottle of wine spends too much time upright, the cork will dry out and lose its seal. Then oxygen will get in and spoil the wine. When you go to a restaurant and order a bottle of wine, they will often open the bottle, put the cork down in front of you and pour a little wine in a glass for you to taste. You can tell by looking at the cork if it has dried out due to poor storage. Also, the wine has a very distinct flavor if it has become oxidized. This is mostly a formality as most places know how to store their wines and would recognize a bad cork before they would serve it to you.

Many things about wines and their bottles are steeped in tradition. If you look at the bottom of many wine bottles, you will see that they are indented instead of flat. This is because wines used to have sediments that would keep settling out long after they were in the bottle. Before you would drink the wine, you would store it upright for some time so those sediments would fall to the bottom. It was then easier to decant the wine leaving the sediment but very little of the wine behind. Traditional decanters are still made and sold today but their only purpose is a nice way to display your wine while it is served, much like one would find nice "cat" or "trout" plates at finer eating establishments.

If your bottle has a screw top, there is no need to store the bottle on its side. As corks are becoming more and more expensive, wineries are trying their best to talk the public into accepting screw tops. There is nothing wrong with screw tops other than in the past they have been associated with cheaper wines. People judge things by their appearance so wineries are reluctant to use screw tops though some who have already made a reputation are now going to screw tops. I have recently had several very good wines with screw top bottles. Wines in a bag in a box, however, are still associated with cheap, low quality wines.

When it comes to organizing your wines on the wine rack, you should order them either by age or by price. Democrats usually order them according to age as the older wines should be drunk before the newer ones. Republicans usually sort them according to price, with the most expensive ones on top. After all, what would be the point of buying expensive wines if your friends couldn't see them and be impressed with your lavish life style? European tradition is to stack them left to right, but Jewish tradition is to stack them right to left.

Finally, the wine rack that we will build will be TOTALLY awesome. It will be something you will be able to hand down to your children and grandchildren just like the doll house we built.

Puppies and CDs

Jen says...

Hi Jim,

Why does my roommate's puppy want to poop in my room instead of his? How can I train her to poop in his room instead?

Also, how do CD players work?



Jen, the question as to why a dog poops in one part of the house and how to make it poop in another part of the house is a misguided question. Dogs should not poop in the house anytime, anywhere, without some extenuating circumstance. Throughout the country there are farms that accept animals that don't behave. There they can live outside and poop anywhere and anytime. They are usually owned by a very nice elderly couple whose greatest joy comes from rescuing these wayward animals. Those dogs who insist on pooping in the house should be brought to one of these farms where they can romp freely and act badly. Tell your roommate to take his dog to the farm. If the dog poops in your room more than once, it is perfectly acceptable for you to take the dog to the farm. Remember, we have pets to bring joy to our lives. If we stop receiving joy from having pets, they need to be passed on to someone who they can bring joy to.


As far as how a CD works, there are plenty of web sites that get into the technical explanations of how they work, but let me give you the simple version. A laser is used to engrave "ridges" into the shiny CD media. During playback, the laser in your CD reflects off the high spots but not the ridges. A photo eye will pick up those reflections and turn that information into electronic pulses which in turn are turned into the music that you hear through the earphones or speakers. For a more detailed explanation, visit the following web site.

http://www.cdman.com/technical/howdocdswork1.html

Winter Wonderland

December came in with a roar here in the 'Lou. Here is what it looks like...

Comet SWAN

So, where oh where has Ask Jim been, you might ask. Well amongst other things, Jim has been pursuing one of his many hobbies lately. Jim is a part of a very rare breed. One that few people even know exists. Jim is an amateur astronomer who can’t stay up past 10 pm. That means he has but two seasons for observing. In the fall, after the time change, when it gets dark early but is warm enough to be outside and again in the spring before the time changes back, for the same reasons.

November 1st




As good fortune has it, this fall, there is a comet visible in the evening. It’s name is Comet Swan (Swan being an acronym for “Solar Wind Anisotropies”, an instrument on the Soho satellite {Soho, also being an acronym for “Solar and Heliospheric observatory} not the bird).

November 2nd



Let me share some of my observations with you.

November 9th



Comet Swan is visible in the western skies after sunset. You would probably have to go away from the city lights to see it with binoculars, I have been using by two telescopes to watch them. Back at the beginning of November, I was using my 4 ¼” telescope, but lately I have needed to get out the 8”. It is quickly fading and will probably not be seen for long from Glendale,

November 11th











Finder Chart

Tribute to Sir Albert...

Kind of sounds like the old song "Joltin' Joe Dimaggio" to me. Click and enjoy!

FLASH: LARUSSA LEAVES AFTER POST SEASON, OQUENDO TO TAKE OVER

Close sources confirm that after the post season play, Tony LaRussa is headed home (probably San Francisco, but possibly back to Oakland) and Jose Oquendo will be the Cardinal’s new skipper next year. That’s right, you heard it here first. It can not be verified how accurate the information is from one source and other source may be one of those voices I hear when things are quiet, but all the pieces are falling into place. Okay, so my boss, who know some people in the industry, has been kicking this one around for a while and I’ve been ignoring it but now with the firing of Macha and the bickering with Rolen, I’m starting to see the pieces all come together.

Tony has never felt comfortable here nor has he ever really been accepted. He has had his teams and his time and has not been able to put it all together. His 2004 team was great, his 2005 team was even better. In 2006, he was dealt a bad hand and as the summer rolled on he (as we) thought the owners would shore up some holes. They never did. There were several times this past summer that he left players on the field when they clearly didn’t belong there just to make a statement to the owners saying in essence “these are the players that you gave me, this is what they can (or can’t) do”. The owners got the message and they were not happy with it. He is also getting fed up with players grumbling about injuries they should be playing through (Edmonds), players that should be keeping him informed about injuries they can’t play through (Rolen), a fan base that has never forgiven him for not being Whitey Herzog, and a parochial attitude that he will never be welcome in St. Louis if he doesn’t like it enough to move here.

He has a chance to manage close to home so he can spend more time with his family and he will be better appreciated.

Ownership is tired of listening to the squabbles in the media. They have been trying to be fiscally responsible (or they are too cheap) and have put the best line up they can afford on the field and they feel that Tony has slighted them on several occasions this past year. LaRussa feels like he’s been trying to polish a potato and the ownership feels that Tony is the chef, he should know what to do with a good potato.

Most of our pitching staff and many of our bench position players are either in a walk year or are getting long in the tooth. NOW IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE!

Tony has had a long uphill climb with the Cardinals and he peaked somewhere between 2004 and 2005. He has done a good job, maybe a great job, but he can’t grasp that ring. When you bring in a new manager, the first thing he does is to rebuild the team with his type of players. There is sure to be many new faces on the Cardinals next year so if you’re ever going to hire a new manager, this is the time to do it.

Oquendo has been being groomed for this job. He will be embraced by the fans as “one of us” like Herzog was and the ownership will get him for a fraction of the cost of Tony LaRussa. He is bound to be loved by the players, especially the Spanish players and his presence may help to attract some of them for a reasonable price which will also be attractive to this ownership.

Don’t get me wrong, Tony will not be fired. Whether the Cards win it all this year or not, Tony can say he has done everything he can in this town and it’s time to move on, time to go home. If they can’t put a good spin on it, nobody will pull the trigger, but the finger is there, it’s squeezing and I don’t see anything that can stop it.

MIXED BAG

Anna writes... Why does askbobwillis.com SUCK?

Well, there are actually two reasons:

1. Because it is not Ask Jim.
2. Because it does!

Anna also writes... Why are my earphones labeled "Left" and "Right"? I have 3 different pairs of earphones, and they're all labeled. However, if I put the "left" earphone in my right ear and vice versa, I don't notice any sound difference.

What the HECK?

It’s not just your earphones that are marked left and right, speakers are also marked left and right. Chances are most of the time, you won’t notice a difference and it doesn’t really matter. Both tracks are often different, but it usually won’t matter whether you have the earphones on backwards or not. The only time it would make a difference would be if you were watching a video where something was moving from left to right, the sound would be from right to left.

In the late sixties, when stereo was first becoming commonplace, many audiophiles considered it a gimmick. Those who were classical music fans thought the only time stereo would make any difference was during a crescendo from one side of the stage to the other, but those were far and few between. It was the “pop” music scene that really made strides with stereo when they started recording each instrument on a separate track. They would then use mixers to place those tracks on separate speakers. Quite honestly, I haven’t paid attention to music for 30 years, but if when you say “, I don't notice any sound difference” you mean there is no noticeable difference between the left sound and the right sound, you should listen to some old Beatles songs from their Sgt. Pepper of White album. They did a lot of experimentation with stereo. You will notice a difference, though it still probably wouldn’t matter if you swapped earphones.


Adam writes... Last night I locked myself out of my car. AAA came and stuck a tool called a "slim Jim" (ha-ha, that's you're name too!) inside the window jam and just popped the lock open. Note, this is not at all related to "popping and locking," a widely practiced hip hop dance move.

So can you use a slim Jim to open any door on any car? If so, why don't more cars get broken into with these things?

I can’t say for certain that a slim Jim will work on any car, but it will work on most. The reason that there aren’t more break-ins is because most people don’t know how to foil locks. The only thing locks do is to keep honest people honest. Someone who wants to defeat a lock can usually do so. The more knowledgeable you are about locks, the easier they are to defeat. People who are locksmiths and those who work for towing companies understand how a lock works and where their “soft underbellies” are located. There is actually a profession called “Repo” man. That is a person who will repossess cars from those who run afoul of their payments. They are armed with a slim Jim to get the door open, plus a tool that fits on a ratchet wrench that will pull the ignition out of the steering column. With their knowledge, tools, and practice, they can get into a car, start it up and take off faster than if they had keys.

Slim-Jims are probably sold by J.C. Whitney plus dozens of web based auto parts places. Another handy way to break into a car is a simple coat hanger. You only need to get into the door where the lock mechanism is located, and pull it up to unlock the door. Jim once made his own Slim-Jim and has had occasion to use it successfully, as well as the simple coat hanger method. It’s all about the tools.

Brian Writes... Not to age you, or anything, but I was wondering if you could give me some basic info about the Slide Rule. Whenever I come across one, it completely baffles me, and I can't even figure out how to do simple arithmetic... much less use it to land a man on the moon.

Not that slide rules were before my time, but they were beyond my educational experience. Other than some basic principals, slide rules were not taught or used much until you got to some advanced classes in such fields as engineering. As Jim is way behind on his answers, let me just refer you to the HP museum website for a full explanation about slide rules, their history and how to use them.

http://www.hpmuseum.org/sliderul.htm

WEATHER IN NORTHERN MEXICO...

BRIAN WRITES... Hey Jim, I always thought that the closer you get to the equator, the hotter the temperature. However, Mexico tends to be much more mild than here in Texas, even though Texas is more northern. What in the world is going on?


First of all, let us define our terms properly. When we refer to Mexico, we will be using weather data from Mexico City in southern Mexico. When we refer to Texas, we will use weather data from Austin, a town in northern Mexico as seen in the map of Mexico from 1851.

Latitude is only one of many factors that influence weather. Mexico is cooler than Texas only in the summertime. In the winter, Mexico is warmer. Let’s take a look at some average high temperatures for Austin and Mexico City.

Austin’s hottest months are June, July, and August with average monthly highs of 91, 95, and 96, respectively. Mexico City, on the other hand, has it’s hottest weather in April and May with monthly average highs of 79.

In the winter, Austin’s coldest month is January, with an average monthly high of 60, while Mexico City’s average monthly high is 70.

So Mexico’s weather is milder in all seasons. The reason for this is, besides latitude, major factors that influence weather are oceans, prevailing winds, and terrain. As Mexico city is closer to the Pacific in a latitude that has prevailing westerly winds, its temperatures are modified by the cool Pacific Ocean. Austin, on the other hand, is many miles from the Pacific and has much land and many mountains between it and the Pacific. Even though Austin may be close to the Gulf of Mexico, with the wind coming out of the west, the Gulf has little influence on Texas’s weather.

The same moderating affects can be seen when you compare weather in Europe with weather in North America. Paris, which has relatively mild winters is on the same latitude as International Falls, Mn., which has incredibly harsh winters. That is because Paris’s weather is greatly influenced by the warm Gulf stream that flows from the Caribbean, up the eastern seaboard of the U.S. then across the Atlantic from Virginia to Ireland. That was one of many factors that left the Pilgrims so il-prepared for such harsh winters when they arrived at New England. They had no way of knowing the winters would be so much harsher even though they were actually south of their homeland.

BIG BROTHER CABLE TV

JUSTIN (SAME NAME AS YOURS) WRITES... How does the cable TV company know how many TV sets I have hooked up to their service? I called them about a service question and they knew I had 3 without me telling them.

Well Justin (same name as mine), welcome to Ask Jim. I’m not sure I can tell you technically how they can tell you how many TVs you own, but I can give you a guess as to some of the methods they might use. These are going to be guesses based on electronic systems, such as fire alarm and security, that I have installed in the past.

One thing that is not clear in your question is what equipment you have. For instance, do you have a cable box? Do you have a cable box for every TV? Lets start with the assumption that you have one cable box for each TV. Each cable box will probably have some type of internal address like an electronic serial number. The cable company will send out electronic probes that will look for these electronic serial numbers. As each cable box is “pinged” it will answer back with it’s own address. Depending on how sophisticated the inquiry is and what information the box tracks and stores, it could be telling the cable company when the TV is on, what channels are watched and when. I’m not real sure how they would determine a specific address belongs to a TV in your house as opposed to the house next door unless they assign that address to you when they first install the cable and box in your home. Often there is a SKU number on the box somewhere that they can scan (or just write down the number). That way they have your box number in their system. This would be the simplest of scenarios.

Now let’s assume you have one cable box that feeds all three TVs. In that case, the cable box probably has the capability of monitoring it’s output. One brand of fire alarm system I have installed has the ability to not only poll all the devices installed and ask them what status they are in or command them to take a certain action, but the system can tell how much wire is between each device and where, in the circuit, there are splices. This is done by measuring minute differences in voltage and current.

There is also the possibility that there is something in each television that the cable company can “ping” that will tell them how many televisions are in your household.


Ever since there has been cable television, there have been people trying to steal it. I’m sure the cable company has gone through great lengths to detect unauthorized televisions on their system, not to mention the vast sums of money they could make my selling such information as number of TVs in a household and what they watched and when they watched it. (Not that they would ever actually do that, would they?)

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING COIN!

NEIL WRITES... If you put a coin on the track of a small commuter train, what will happen to it? I ask this because when certain persons have done this very act nothing is left but a dark smear and a faint image (not indentation) of the coin in the polished steel of the track. It appears that it is effectively vanishes, but surely a small commuter train isn't sufficient to do that, is it?


Yes, it is!




















I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Actually putting a coin on the track, especially a commuter train, is a very dangerous practice. If the train hits the coin at the right angle and speed, the coin can actually de-rail the train. Such was the case in September of 1984 in Birmingham, England. The eastbound train to Liverpool had just reached it’s cruising speed of 63 miles per hour. It is suspected that young children from a nearby schoolyard had put a shilling on the track to see what would happen. When the train hit the coin, the second car jumped the track dragging the rest of the train with it. Thirteen people and three sheep were killed and no one ever found out who put that shilling on the track. The only trace of the coin was a dark smear and a faint image (not indentation) of the coin in the polished steel of the track.....












Okay, okay, I’m sorry. It must be the coffee talking. The real answer is the coin gets thrown off the track. You have to do some searching to find it, but it is there. I’ve never put a coin on the track of a commuter train before, but when my larvae were young, we would put coins on the track of regular trains and they would get flattened and thrown a few feet from where we put them on the track. Sometimes it would take a while to find them and occasionally we would lose one, but most of the time they showed up.

HOW TO TELL PLUTO FROM URANUS (title by Adam Saraceno)

BRIAN WRITES... So tell me Jim, what do you think of the International Astronomical Union's recent definition of a planet?

For those who may have missed it, our solar system has just lost a planet. There is a new definition what constitutes a planet and Pluto doesn’t make the grade. Pluto is now in the new category of “dwarf planet”. That new designation also includes the large asteroid belt object Ceres and the recently discovered Kuiper belt object “2003 UB313” or “Xena” the 10th planet.

The questions boil down to this... If a body in space revolves around a star, is it a planet? If it is big enough to be spherical will that make it a planet? What about if it is only one of many objects in the same general orbit? Is Pluto a planet with a moon or a double planet? They just keep finding more and more stuff and it is all different. It just gets confusing as to where to draw the lines.

My opinion on this is they finally got it right. In 1930, when Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, astronomers were looking for another planet that would explain some discrepancies in the known planets motions. When he found Pluto, he had no way to tell what it’s size or proper motion was. If they knew what they know now, it would have never been classified as a planet to begin with. It is very different, in many ways, than the eight “classic” planets. It also never did explain those discrepancies.

The debate is really much ado about nothing. What’s the difference between a hill and a mountain; a pond and a lake; a creek and a river? As astronomers made more and more discoveries, the whole planet thing was bound to get messy and we probably haven’t heard the last of this debate.

It’s not all that different from the debate about when the new millennium started. 2000? 2001? Who cares as long as we can party like it’s 1999!

WHY KITTENS ARE CUTE...

ANNA WRITES...Why are kittens so cute? Actually, this is kind of a serious question... Why do many people (like me) find small, furry things so damn cute? What constitutes "cute" and why do we see some things as cute and some things as ugly?

There have been many studies as to why one thing is cute but not another. They all come to the conclusion that it has to do with proportion and symmetry. Large head and eyes, small ears and body plus symmetrical features are often sited as those characteristics that determine that something is cute.

I don’t think these studies really tell us anything. First of all, the researchers look at babies, kittens puppies, etc. and classify all the characteristics they have in common and tell us that this is what makes something cute. This is just bad science. They are really just telling us that babies, kittens and puppies are cute (because they have these characteristics) but we already know they are cute. These studies don’t actually tell us why. Defining what is cute by proportion would be similar to defining what is funny. You can make all kinds of rules and generalizations, but in the end, if you have to explain why it is funny, it isn’t funny.

So I’m going to go beyond science and reach into the world of Jim’s brain and really tell you why things are cute (because I don’t know why things are funny). Cute is an evolutionary tool programmed into living things to help young survive. Animals are always cutest when they are the most vulnerable (with the exception of the first hours after birth). It is when they are young and helpless that they are the cutest. As they get older and more self sufficient they become less and less cute. We see these things that are cute and we want to hold them and feed them and clean up their poop. All the things we would consider very disgusting if they were grown, able bodied adults. That is why we can laugh at a three year telling his father he is stupid while if the same son were to do that when he was 23, there would be little chance for that the father would see the humor. (Hey! Maybe I do know what’s funny!)


The second part of your question, “why do we see some things as ugly?” is really unrelated to the cute question. Ugly is the opposite of beauty, not cuteness. Beauty and ugly are less definable as both are in the eye of the beholder. The reason for this is beyond even Jim’s vast knowledge.

He then went on to make Superman Cartoons in the early 40's...

And here's another....

JIM'S FAVORITE CARTOON...

What do you get when you get Cab Calloway (one of Jim's favorite singer/bandleaders) together with Max Fleisher (one of Jim's favorite animators)?

You get Betty Boop and Bimbo running from ghosts to the tune of "Minnie the Moocher" (one of Jim's favorite songs).

Enjoy!

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

ANNA WRITES... So Jim, tell me how air traffic control works. Why don't planes run into each other? Do you know of any incidences where planes have collided due to poor air traffic control? Who "owns" the air? In international flights, when do the planes switch from being under U.S. air traffic control to another country's air traffic control? And one last question-- When I fly on a plane, why do I always sit in near vicinity of a very poopy baby?

Well Anna, air traffic control is huge and complicated system but I can give you the simplified version of it.

Every commercial airplane must file a flight plan with the air traffic control system. This information includes departure time, destination, flight number, intended airspeed, cruising altitude, and route. That information is entered into a computer and checked by a flight controller to verify there are no conflicts with other flights or weather. When approved, a strip of paper is printed out and handed to the person in charge of ground control.

This person is in charge of all movement on the ground of an airport including vehicles. He will tell the pilot when he can leave the gate, which runway to use, what route to take to get there, and what order the aircraft will be in to take off. Once the pilot has left the gate, headed safely down the taxiway and is ready for take off, that piece of paper is handed off to the local controller.

The local controller is in charge of all planes taking off and landing at that airport. He is responsible for maintaining safe distances between planes as they take off and land. The local controller gives your pilot final clearance for takeoff when it is deemed safe. Once the plane is in the air, it turns on a transponder that will give radar the aircraft's flight number, altitude, airspeed and destination. The airplane is then handed off to the departure controller.

The departure controller is in charge of all aircraft within a 50 mile radius of the airport. Once outside that 50 mile radius, the plane is then handed off to a center controller. Every bit of airspace in this country is monitored by at least one center controller. As the plane get closer to it’s destination, the whole process is reversed until the plane is sitting at the gate.

Besides monitoring all commercial flights in the air, some methods they use to keep aircraft away from each other is to keep them at different altitudes. They may keep north bound flight at odd altitudes (21,000’, 23,000’, 25,000’) and south bound at even altitudes (20,000’, 22,000’, 24,000’).

To complicate things a bit, you also have private aircraft flying around that have no specific flight plan. If I was a private pilot, I could take an airplane up and just go for a joy ride. I may have to file a plan that tells where I intend to fly but it is not specific like the commercial flight plan is. These private pilots are responsible for themselves. It is up to them to know exactly where they are and where they can fly. Commercial airports have airspace around them that is reserved for their traffic only. If a private pilot should stray into one of those areas, he is notified immediately and must vacate that zone. I once had a friend take me up in his private plane and he did just that. We were in Illinois, yet we had strayed into airspace reserved for Lambert, a good 8 to 10 miles away. They let him know right away that he was in violation and directed him to correct his path at once.

As far as international flights go, much of airspace is controlled by someone. Over the ocean, many areas are outside of radar so planes have to report to controllers giving them there location as determined by GPS receivers.

Have there ever been midair collisions? Absolutely. As in any human endeavor, if anything can go wrong, it will. There have been planes that have collided in mid air and planes that have collided on takeoff and landing. Planes have collided with birds, crashed because of pranks, pilots not paying attention,and Air Traffic Control not paying attention. Once a plane crashed into a balloon (hot air I assume), and in 1945 a B-25 crashed into the Empire State building. Of course, these crashes are few and becoming fewer. Commercial airliners have collision avoidance systems that monitor the flight path of the airplane and flight paths of other airplanes on local radar. If the system sees a conflict, it will go into alarm and tell the pilot the best action to take to avoid that conflict.


And finally, why do you always sit near poopy babies? That is because of the system that has been put in place by John Ashcroft’s Patriot Act. As passengers are issued boarding passes, the security computer assesses potential risks Some, such as potty risks become linked with others such as potty mouths. The security computer then seats them all together so air marshals can keep an eye on them. Maybe you should consider distancing yourself from talking dirty.

CARDINAL'S REPORT CARD

Brian writes...
So tell me Jim, what's your assessment of the Cardinal's season so far? Some blogs are giving out "grade reports" for each player. Feel free to do something like that. Or, feel free to completely ignore that idea.

And Adam writes...
Yeah, Jim. Tell us something for Christ sake. I hear you've been farting around for the last week. Let's hop back on the BLOG trolley and take it for a ride down to rant town.

Then Brian writes again...
Hey did that guy who hosted that one trivia night ever win his election?


So what do I think of the Cardinals so far? Quite honestly, not much has changed since the beginning of the season. The same questions that were there at the beginning are still there now. The only difference is Edmonds health is more questionable the Rolen's health.

They keep on winning series after series, even though they often look bad doing it. I still think they WILL contend for the division title but not for the World Series and maybe not for the Pennant. The bigger surprise than what the Cardinals are doing this year is what the other teams, especially in the Central Division, are not doing.

The Cubs have fallen apart, the Reds realized that they are not the team they thought they were, Milwaukee is playing close to .500 ball, which is respectable for them, and Pittsburgh is getting very comfortable in the basement where they belong. The 'Stros are getting off to a slow start but not as slow as last year, and with the re-signing of Clemens, they will be poised to make a run for it again.

In the National League, the only other team that is looking really good is the Mets. Again, no surprise there. When it comes to Divisions and the Wild Card races, the west is looking the best, with all teams playing above .500. This could be the first time in 11 years that the Braves don't make it to the playoffs.

My biggest concerns are... Can Rolen stay healthy? What's going on with Edmonds? What's going on with Carpenter? and Which Izzy will show up to close the game? One thing I can't seem to comprehend is how the bullpen can have a league-leading ERA when they seem to let at least 50% of the inherited runners score. I realize that some of that ERA is tagged to the starters, but some of it has to be rubbing off on each other. I don't understand it, and it makes me nervous.

To change the subject slightly, for those who enjoy baseball but find it hard or too expensive to get good tickets, let me suggest several alternatives. One is the independent Frontier League. The two local teams are the Gateway Grizzlies who play in Sauget, Illinois and the River City Rascals who play in O'Fallon, MO. We went to see those teams battle each other over at the O'Fallon facility and found it quite enjoyable. For $10, you can buy field box tickets, which we did. We walked up to the gate 1/2 hour before first pitch and got six seats in the second row between home plate and the home dugout. The only glitch is you can't bring in ANY food or drink. Bonny had a bottle of water when she entered and was stopped. They let her take it in, but they let her know you weren't supposed to. Of course, you won't see the talent that you would expect from Major League baseball, but you see the heart that can be lacking in the big leagues.

The other baseball that we have seen and enjoyed is the Vintage Base Ball League. Our local teams include the Unions, whose home field is in Florrisant, and the Perfectos, whose home field is Lafayette Park. They are teams that play by the rules of 1862. The main differences are no gloves, no balls called, no called strikes (if you swing and miss it's a strike but if you don't swing it's not), the ball is fair if it touches the ground in fair territory, even if it rolls foul before reaching one of the bases, and the batter is out if the ball is caught on either the fly or the first bound (the difference is any runner on base must tag up if caught on the fly but not if caught on the bound). These teams are played by regular folk like you and me so the level of talent is very unremarkable, but you are watching a game that is based on baseball (base ball as it was known back then) that was a gentlemen's game, having teams made up of social clubs rather than athletes. It all becomes very obvious when you see the umpire ,who is in a poor position to make a call, ask a runner if he got to the base before the ball. The runner is obligated to tell the truth and once answered, there is no argument. There is a VBBL tournament this weekend at Lafayette Park that we plan to attend.

As far as the "guy who hosted that one trivia night", he lost, which I take full responsibility for. I always support the losing cause or candidate, and Jack was no exception.

THE NEW BUSCH BALLPARK

So tell me, Jim, what are your thoughts on the new ballpark, Busch Stadium?

Well, as you know, Bonita and I had a chance to go to the new Busch Stadium and see what all the fuss was about.

Someone said that new Busch Stadium was like getting a new pair of shoes. Nice and shiny and new, not very comfortable yet, though probably will be when you get used to them. I find that to be very descriptive. You go into the ballpark and everything is nice and shiny and new. You're not familiar with it yet so everything looks different. You don't know your way around. It has things that the old stadium didn't yet the old stadium had things that this stadium doesn't. As you look around, even though you've never been there before, things look familiar, strangely familiar... like you're having a deja vu. Then you realize that it's not deja vu, you HAVE seen this place before. Yes, you've seen it in Baltimore and Milwaukee and Houston and the other 15 stadiums that have been built in the past fifteen years!

Okay, so I'm not the one to ask. I liked the old Busch Stadium; I didn't want to see them tear it down, and now that I have seen the new ballpark, I saw nothing that changed my mind. A better analogy to me is growing up in an old neighborhood like Glendale, where all the houses are old, and look different because they were built by different families and contractors, and there are trees in everyone's yard. The whole neighborhood has a character and flavor to it. Then you move into a nice new subdivision. The houses are new and large and even though there are several choices of floor plans and trims, all the houses look similar because they were all built at the same time by the same contractor who started the project by bulldozing all the trees. Everything is new, clean, and beautiful, but that flavor and character are gone. But then again, I probably would have said the exact same thing when they tore down Busch I (Sportsman's Park) to build "old Busch" stadium.



You know what? This is just "old man rant". It's fine. It's beautiful. I just can't get past the fact that old Busch represented a whole era of baseball that does not exist anymore... the first stadium of that era... the best stadium of that era... the last stadium of that era to still be standing... was torn down to build a new ballpark that looks like every ballpark that was built since 1990. I really don't give a rodent's pooper that the concession stands on the terrace have the essence of an open air mall a la THE BOULEVARD in Brentwood. I'm not there to shop, I'm there to watch a baseball game. I'm more concerned with what is happening on the field, not the venue. Heck, they could put a contending team in a cardboard box and I'd be happy. I'd be even happier if I could get affordable tickets, but that is going to be tough this year, for the second year in a row.

But let's put that all into perspective. We only have to look west to our cross state counterparts, the Kansas City Royals. If you compare The Royals to the Cards, the average cost of tickets is half, their payroll is half, their wins are half, ticket availability is twice, etc. How many of us would be happier getting cheap and easily available tickets to watch a team that is out of contention at the end of spring training? We fans complain about the high prices and the lack of availability of tickets; not only are they sold out, but many are paying huge premiums for ticket through ticket outlets. And why? Because the "evil millionaire" owners have paid to have "evil millionaire" players on their team, and have put quality teams that are always in contention on the field, year after year, since August Bush III sold them in 1995.

Thus goes the love-hate, yin-yang, duality of the sport of baseball. Heaven help me, I love the game (no matter what stadium it is played in)!

Back to the actual question, one thing I like about the new stadium is the running pitch count board. It tells the total number of pitches, number of strikes thrown, and number of balls thrown. Those are stats that I don't keep on my scorecard but help me better understand the trends of the game. One thing I miss is the manual scoreboard. I loved it when they put it in Busch II and I hope that they will eventually put one in Busch III. I also prefer the old scoreboard that gave you the player's number and position for the batting lineup instead of the new one that gives the player's name, though I like that it gives the player's running batting average. Most of all, we have to remember that the new park is not finished yet. Busch II stood for 40 years and they did nothing but improve it year after year, so we can only expect them to do the same with the new ballpark.