This and That

We went over to Clare’s yesterday morning to deliver Leo his “Paw Patrol” pajamas. It wasn’t long before our grandson put a whiffle ball on the tee and swung away. He always makes contact, although at twenty months he insists on jamming himself, and he loves to run around all the imaginary bases scattered throughout the backyard. I TIVOED the afternoon’s White Sox game, a telltale sign as to just how much they’re irritating me right now; dusting and vacuuming rate ahead of my watching underachievers do their thing live. It wasn’t until 4:30 that I switched on the game. Clare called, asked if I was watching, then told me to call back when I’d finished. The joy of TIVO is I can speed—and I mean speed—through any part of the game I want. A game that took 3:21 in real time lasted a half-hour in TIVO time. I saw Jake Burger hit another homerun in place of Yoan Moncada and beheld Yasmani Grandal collect three hits, including a game-tying double in the bottom of the tenth. That brought up Burger, who worked the count to 1-2 before…TIVO timed out. I then had to switch on my PC downstairs to find out what happened. OK, Oscar Colas got the game-winning hit, and the Sox top the Orioles 7-6. When I called Clare back, she told me Burger singled the winning run to third ahead of Colas’s hit. Neither of us knew about the jerky move Mike Clevinger had pulled off the night before. It seems that Clevinger arranged to have the Kanye West song “Gold Digger” play for his walk-in music from the bullpen ahead of his start Friday night. Class mover, there. At least my grandson has an excuse; he’s a toddler. And Clevinger?