OMG!! - What a Baseball Night!!

Yep, the picture pretty much says it all - with 3 hits last night Yankee Captain Derek Jeter tied baseball immortal Lou Gehrig for the most hits in the franchise history, 2,721, and Billi Pod was there in Section 217, row 20, seat 21, to witness this historic event. Since I have tickets for the next 5 games I will also be present when Jeter breaks the record.

If you are a baseball fan you have already read the news stories about the game and the fan reaction each time Jeter came to bat, if not, then I know you could care less, and that is all right too. Jeter is a class act and has been a leader on this team since his arrival in 1996. Personally, I am still charged as I write this posting on Thursday afternoon on a brisk day in The Greatest City in the World.

The game itself was very exciting with the Yankees winning 4-2 on a 3 run pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the 8th inning by Jeter’s best buddy Catcher Jorge Posada. Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the 8th for the 5th time in the game but drew a walk, which was met by boos and groans from the standing fans, who were all praying for the record to be broken in our presence. Oh well ...

A couple more comments about baseball before I move on to other things and stuff - the Yankees are really playing excellent ball and they exude the aura of confidence and of never being out of a game, regardless of the score. They are a lot of fun to watch (if you are a Yankee fan, I guess) and I am looking forward to the remainder of the season and then the post-season march toward The World Series.

Let me bring you up-to-date on what I have been doing since the last activities posting on September 1 --

Tuesday - Sept. 1 - 7:00 - “9 to 5” - Broadway. “From multiple Grammy Award-winning songwriter Dolly Parton, a humorous story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era. This all-new Broadway musical comedy based on the hit movie features the popular title song plus a new score of 18 original numbers.” (discounted TDF ticket). I actually found this show to be a lot more entertaining than I had anticipated and I am glad I got to see it before it closed.

Wednesday - 2:00 - “A Lifetime Burning” - Off Broadway. “If you had the power to revise your past, what would you change? Who would you be? A trust fund darling Emma imagines what her life would have been like had she come from a less privileged background. Trouble is, she chronicles her alternate life in a new tell-all memoir that was sold for a hefty advance. When Emma is exposed, will her sister, Tess, stand by her? Or will Emma's deceit destroy their already fractured relationship? This dark comedy brings up questions of legacy, loyalty and what it means to belong.” (complimentary ticket). This show had gotten very good reviews and I found it to be OK but not as good as I had anticipated.

Thursday - 8:00 - “Ghosts of Provincetown” - Off Broadway. This is the press blurb “Set against the untamed shores of turn of the century New England, these two short one-act plays, Ile by Eugene O’Neill and The Game by Louise Bryant, debut in New York City as a double bill, fully realizing the intentions of their legendary authors, whose torrid love affair was immortalized by the Academy-Award winning 1981 epic, Reds. These two American masterpieces explore the games we play regarding life and death and the games Life and Death play regarding us.” (discounted TDF ticket). In the last posting I had predicted that this would be a love-it or hate it experience and it basically turned out to be a tie because I hated the O’Neill play, set on a whaling ship, and really enjoyed the Bryant play about a game between Life and Death.

Friday - This was an very interesting day that started with my 10:00 appointment with my eye Dr. Dina Weintraub, who is a loyal and faithful reader of this blog. At 8:00 I saw an Off-Broadway show called “Race Music,” with a complimentary ticket, about a young music lover who cannot land a classical radio job because he is black. When the show was over I raced up to 50th Street to see the 10:30 show of “Naked Boys Singing,” again with a complimentary ticket, about, TADA, naked boys singing.

Saturday - 8:00 - “The Retributionists” - Off Broadway - “Spring 1946. The plan was simple: a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. In this new romantic thriller inspired by actual events, a band of young Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society's wrongs if they can keep from tearing each other apart in the process.” (discounted TDF ticket). This show is playing at the theater right next door to 420 W. 42nd and I had pretty high expectations, but the show just didn’t work for me. I had no feelings for the characters and/or the plot.

Sunday - meet up with David Huddleston and his wife Sarah Koeppe. This will be the highlight of the entire month, without a doubt. David came over to PHC around 4:00 and we had about an hour to catchup on things and stuff before Sarah and her friends arrived. David is a wonderful storyteller with a great sense of humor and we play well off of one another. Sarah and her friends, Randy Adams and Joel Elins, arrived around 5. They have been friends for about 25 years, having worked together with a theater company in Virginia. Randy is the Producer of the soon-to-open Broadway musical “Memphis,” and Joel is a veteran stage manager for Broadway and touring shows.

We had a nice visit in PHC and they all seemed to really like my new pad. A lot of time was spent with theater-related talking and stories, which I found to be absolutely fascinating.

Then around 7 we all headed over to the Eastside to the very popular restaurant San Martin, on 49th Street, where we met up with Kate Cronkite, who is Walter Cronkite’s daughter. Kate and David had worked together professionally years ago. I don’t think I have mentioned that David and Sarah were in town because David had been invited to the memorial service honoring Walter Cronkite at Avery Fisher Hall on Wednesday, September 9th.

It was Sarah’s birthday, so that added to the magic moments of witty conversations, memories of things past and discussions of things in the future. I felt very honored to have been included.

Monday - Labor Day - 1:05 - Yankees vs. Tampa Bay (extra full price ticket) - Yankees win 4-1; 7:05 - Yankees vs. Tampa Bay (make-up game from June 5) - Yankees win 11-1. I, of course, stayed in The Bronx between games and just wandered around.

Tuesday - 7:05 - Yankees vs. Tampa Bay (season ticket package) - Yankees win 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th when Swisher hits a home run.

Wednesday - 7:05 - Yankees vs. Tampa Bay (extra full price ticket) - Yankees win 4-2 to sweep the 4 game series and Jeter ties Gehrig’s Yankee hit record.

Now, this is what the future looks like --

Thursday - 7:30 - “In the Daylight” - Off Broadway. “A darkly comic tale about a well-known writer and his homecoming to a family that he has been avoiding for many years. As the play unfolds, we discover the true reasons for his extended absence and the dark secrets his family has been keeping.” (discounted TDF ticket). I know, I know - the phrase ... darkly comic ... usually means very very dark and only slightly comedic.

Friday - 7:05 - Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles (season ticket package).

Saturday - 1:05 - Yankees vs. Baltimore (extra full price ticket);

8:00 - “Emily: An Amethyst Remembrance” - Off Broadway. “By the time she was 30, Emily Dickinson had so isolated herself from the world that she never left the house and rarely accepted visitors. Many have hypothesized why, suggesting madness, scorned love, or secret homosexuality. EMILY looks at the events and relationships in Dickinson's life, and presents these as possible pieces to the puzzle. It offers Emily's poetic voice as a glimpse of her true self: her passionate spirituality, vigorous intellect, courageous sense of humor, and wounded heart.” ($9.00 TDF ticket). This is at a theater next door to PHC.

Also, Happy Birthday to my oldest grandson, Alex Falletta, who lives in Elgin, SC. He is the Apache Helicopter pilot.

Sunday - 1:05 - Yankees vs. Baltimore (season ticket package);

7:00 - “Two Unrelated Plays by David Mamet: Keep Your Pantheon and School” - Off Broadway. This is what the press notes are about this show: “A NY Premiere and a World Premiere. Founder David Mamet returns to Atlantic Theatre Company with this new farce that follows the fortunes and misfortunes of an acting troupe in ancient Rome. An impoverished acting company on the edge of eviction is offered a lucrative engagement. But through a series of mishaps, the troupe finds its problems have actually multiplied, and that they are about to learn a new meaning for the term "dying on stage."

Mamet's world premiere play School is a brief comic discourse on recycling, poster design and the transmission of information.” (discounted TDF ticket). I am really looking forward to this.

Monday - 7:05 - Yankees vs. LA Angels (season ticket package - make-up for rain out game).

Tuesday - 7:05 - Yankees vs. Toronto (season ticket package).

Wednesday - 7:30 - The Opening Night Gala by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra @ Avery Fisher Hall. The program is: “EXPO” by Magnus Lindberg (world premiere); Messiasen’s “Poemes pour Mi” (with Renee Fleming); and. “Symphony Fantastique” by Berlioz. (extra full-price ticket).

This day will also mark the 6th year since my dear friend Ray Coker of Lakeland, FL, left us.

OK, OK, my loyal and faithful readers, I know this has gone on for way too long, so I will end it now with the comment that I have now booked some entertainment event/activity from now through the end of September.

Go Yankees and Go Gators!!

Billi Pod
“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”