I made it to Wednesday night's game in Cincinnati and it's odd what had the strongest impression me. I suppose I could do that Mr. Spock arched-eyebrow thing at Jason Marquis's performance against the league's leading offense. Put me in the camp that thinks he's a better pitcher than Matt Morris. Was that 86-88 mph pitch a cutter? Yes, I said "Oh, fudge" when Albert Pujols hopped on one leg a couple of times during his 5th inning double. Of course Albert being Albert, he still thought about trying for an extra base when Wily Mo Pena threw the ball to some place that made sense to only Wily Mo. There was Randy Flores making Adam Dunn look foolish, as if to say "What lefty problem?" And finally I could hear the groan of the crowd as Edwin Encarnacion's long flyball came down in the 9th: "Here comes that man again."

My strongest impression, however, happened before the game. Great American Ball Park is a nice, though now overly common, place to see a ball game. I think from the upper decks you can get a good view of the river and John Roebling's practice run for the Brooklyn Bridge. But as I walked to the stadium, I was struck by the ugly vacant lot immediately next to GABP. In fact it was so bad that I have an idea for a new website called uglyvacantlots.com. The lot is concrete infested with two-foot high weeds and the usual trash of paper cups, empty two liter bottles and plastic bags. There were some big puddles left over from Tuesday's rain and some huge concrete barriers just lying around for no reason.

Of course what makes the lot especially sad is that piece of land was once occupied by Riverfront Stadium, home to the Big Red Machine. For various reasons I hated that stadium, but it had the kind of history that's difficult to replace. Couldn't they at least treat it better than that?

I can't think of a clean way to segue to this post on a Red Sox blog, as pointed out by David Pinto:

This season should’ve been one long celebration. Standing ovation after standing ovation at Fenway. It should’ve been about just enjoying the buzz and allowing nothing to take our glow away. Sox fans should’ve enjoyed this season as if they just had the best sex of their lives.

OK, I have a belated segue. Just as the above remarks about Riverfront Stadium are an indirect complaint about the demise of Busch Stadium, I read Sully's comment as an indirect thumbs-up to Cardinals fans. The curtain calls can be awkward and sometimes they seem, well, too self-conscious. However we should be celebrating this team as much as we can because it just doesn't get much better than this.