WaPo's Tom Boswell rejoices in Bryce Harper's success -and normalcy- amidst media hoopla. His enthusiastic old-time attitude, and all that sheer talent, may keep the 19-year old in the majors after all

LucianM55 video: Nineteen-year old Washington Nationals rookie outfielder Bryce Harper plays softball at the Washington Monument on The National Mall on his first day in Washington as part of the 25-man roster. April 30, 2012. http://youtu.be/Tuc7_4HkYsU

ESPN video: E:60 correspondent Rachel Nichols profiles Nevada high school baseball player Bryce Harper, August 12, 2009.  http://youtu.be/zLV8FpFXOMo

WaPo's Tom Boswell rejoices in Bryce Harper's success -and normalcy- amidst media hoopla. His enthusiastic old-time attitude, and all that sheer talent, may keep the 19-year old in the majors after all. 
Better suited to Southeast D.C. than Syracuse!


From 1993-94, I was on the first DNG -Democrats of a New Generation- softball team in the coed Congressional softball league that played its games on The National Mall in the evenings.
DNG was the Under-35 vanguard of the National Democratic Club, back when they had a very nice three-story building of their own on Ivy Street, S.E., just east of the Democratic National Committee's HQ, http://www.democrats.org/ at 430 S. Capitol St. S.E.


Despite all the games we played, though, I only recall us actually playing one game near the Washington Monument, where this video at the top was shot. 
Because of the sloping topography of The Mall as you got closer to the Washington Monument, that often meant that depending upon which field we were on -and I use the term field loosely, because it's all grass- as a center fielder, when I backpedaled I could be going uphill or downhill!
That could produce lots of unexpected drama!



View Larger Map


My favorite field was the area closest to the merry-go-round over near The Smithsonian Castle, though like all games there in between the fabulous museums that I loved, we always had to be aware of all the distracted tourists walking near us/me in the outfield, on the gravel pathways, while the team batting always had to have someone positioned near their gravel pathway to be alert for foul balls going towards unsuspecting people on their side of the 'diamond' to YELL!

Lots and lots of near-misses!!!

(I also helped design the logo we used on our white t-shirts, which I'd love to show you here but won't because I'm afraid it will quickly be stolen and appropriated for others to use if I do, not unlike many photos from the blog that have been used illegally in campaign ads and in Internet advertising the past few years, a matter I will be addressing soon. The design was based on a wonderful button I'd been given by a member of the Beverly Hills Young Democrats in 1978 at the National YD Convention in a hotel on Miami Beach, where I was one of the main Dade County Young Dems working as a staffer to try to keep all the balls in the air and all of our guest happy and safe. The t-shirt design involved a profile of a donkey, included red, white and blue, of course, and even had a field of stars, and was positioned above the left breast. I was, of course,  delighted that everyone who ever saw it immediately loved it and wanted one.)


To quote myself from a previous South Beach Hoosier blog post about the DNG:

Back when Donald Riegel of Michigan was the committee chairman, the Banking Committee's coed softball team nickname was "The Bank Robbers," and Sen. Riegel would actually come to their games on The Mall, not just his own office's softball games. People really DO notice and appreciate little things like that, you know? I know I certainly did whenever I would see them playing and see him checking it out for a bit..

In my opinion, that particular Comm. staff might've been the one with THE best possible combination of the friendliest , smartest and most-attractive women on The Hill, which is only part of why I seemed to have to swing by there a lot when I was on the senate side of the Hill.

I've watched two of the games that Bryce Harper has played in thus far, including his debut last Friday at Dodger Stadium and he is as advertised -a five-tool player with an old-time attitude, right down to wearing his pants up, exposing his sanitary hose, like I prefer to see, instead of hanging past your shoes a la Manny Ramirez, a sloppy look I hate.


Personally, because of my love for the game, I really hope Harper stays up for the whole year, because he is the best antidote I've seen yet to the Hanley Ramirezes of the world, and from a selfish perspective, I'd like to see him play a few times in person both here in Miami when he comes down to play the Marlins, and when I head-up to the Washington area this summer for a visit for a bit with family and friends before heading overseas for a while to get away from the daily heat, humidity and rain.

The Washington Post

Bryce Harper might not be ready for Major League Baseball, but don’t bet on it

By Thomas Boswell

May 1, 2012

You might think a teenager in blue jeans and a ball cap might go unnoticed but, as Harper admitted: “They see the rat tail and the tattoos. I think they can notice that.”

So the Nationals’ already famous rookie, who made his home debut on Tuesday night, going 0 for 3 in a 5-1 loss, was asked to take a few swings in the casual pickup game.

Read the rest of the article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/bryce-harper-might-not-be-ready-for-major-league-baseball-but-dont-bet-on-it/2012/05/01/gIQAm2iTvT_story.html

Reader comments at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/bryce-harper-might-not-be-ready-for-major-league-baseball-but-dont-bet-on-it/2012/05/01/gIQAm2iTvT_allComments.html?ctab=all_&#comments

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Archive of Thomas Boswell's columns:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/2011/02/24/ABcmlyI_page.html

Washington Post video: Mascot hopefuls enter 'presidential race' February 19, 2012

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mascot-hopefuls-enter-presidential-race-119/2012/02/19/gIQAxmCyNR_video.html 

That's how I remember it: Drew Geraci's HDR Time-lapse video of Washington, D.C.

District 1.5 : HDR Time-lapse from Drew Geraci on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/21291306

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Drew Geraci's VIMEO page is at: http://vimeo.com/user2987882

Politics, Ice Coolers and Fighter Jets on the Beach: 2010 Air Lauderdale Beach Fest

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Air Lauderdale leader proposes political booths, responds to criticisms
by Brittany Wallman
November 17, 2009 06:06 PM

Among the offerings planned at the April 24-25 Air Lauderdale Beach Fest is a political area, where candidates can set up tables to reach out to voters, said Stan Smith of Air Lauderdale.

He noted that 2010 is a big election year, and thought candidates would want to take advantage of the opportunity to reach thousands of South Floridians.

Smith responded a moment ago to early criticisms of his plans to charge a gate fee for the festival area, and to ban coolers in the gated festival area

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/11/air_lauderdale_leader_proposes.html
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The National Mall in Washington, D.C., belongs to all Americans, but for years, despite the fact that many events like the Fourth of July or Memorial Day Concerts/Fireworks were pretty much all-day family events, for which people arrived in the morning with all their stuff, the National Park Service banned coolers within The Mall area and, eventually, the consumption of alcohol as well. http://www.nps.gov/mall/index.htm

Video of The National Mall plan http://www.nps.gov/nationalmallplan/Timelapse.html

There were predictable outcries against the change of policy, especially from suburban families that for years had used the Metro system to get to and from the Mall quickly and cheaply.
With their ice coolers full of sandwiches and cold soft drinks and beer.

These changes produced rather predictable bad results in the view of most Washingtonians, and combined with what most thought were the high prices charged by officially-licensed vendors, only further hastened the ruination of what had been one of the few traditions -besides the Redskins- that united all the myriad racial and cultural demographics of Greater Washington.

I pretty much attended both events every year for over ten years, and for me, they always represented one of the highlights of the year, especially if out-of-town family or friends were attending with me.

Sitting on the lawn off the steps of the west side of the U.S. Capitol, they'd often get a kick out of the fact that there were so many people there they recognized from TV or newspapers, like Senators or Congressmen, or even Hill or media folks whom I knew and had might've mentioned in passing over the telephone at some point, who'd come by and say hello, often with their spouses and kids.

It was very affirming and a reminder that for certain days at least, everyone in Washington, regardless of their political opinions or policy prescriptions, had the same two goals: good weather and a good show!

Given the NPS changes and the impediments placed in their way, rather quickly, less and less people wanted to attend the events in person, and more resorted to simply watching them on PBS, as I do while I'm down here.

Sort of like South Florida's traditional apathetic sports fans.
Except that last time I checked, all the teams in the area still serve alcohol, no?

The $5 for access to a special area discussed above seems reasonable enough, since you don't have to go there if you chose not to, but overall, they only have one year to prove themselves.

Any out-of-the-ordinary screw-ups or rip-offs will kill what some think is a golden goose.

As I've mentioned here before, The Mall is also where my coed Capitol Hill softball team played in the early Nineties, when I was an outfielder for the National Democratic Club's DNG squad, Democrats of a New Generation. http://www.natdemclub.org/

The NDC was located right next to the Democratic National Committee HQ on Ivy Street, where many of us had reason to be fairly often, though it wasn't the safest neighborhood at night.

The NDC is also where I watched the the Dan Quayle-Lloyd Bentsen VP debate in 1988, with a few dozen friends and colleagues who left in a better mood than we arrived with. Though we played all over The Mall, usually, we were fortunate and played on an area either near the Smithsonian Castle or its Carousel, or in the field just south of the West Building of the National Gallery of Art.

Places with lots of people nearby so we could could get in our fair share of people-watching in between innings and at-bats.
And the people-watching was always very good, too.

See also:
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/good_national_mall_ideas_from_nps.php
and The National Coalition to Save Our Mall
http://www.savethemall.org/