The Calm After the Storm

It's been a very quiet week, in terms of Pirate news. After the flurry of activity last week (two signings), the lack of action this week feels eerily calm. Perhaps we were spoiled with actual news, and this week is like a typical off-season week for the Pirates. I almost don't know what to do with myself though.

Speaking of last week, one of the local papers (I can't remember if it was the Bloomington Times-Herald or the Indianapolis Star) printed, in their MLB news and notes, the Paul Maholm signing ahead of the Red Sox re-signing of Jason Varitek. This pleased me, a little too much maybe. Clearly the Red Sox are the bigger team, nationally. And Varitek is certainly a bigger name than Maholm. So either the Sox are hated in Indiana or there's a little love here for the Pirates. Or maybe they were printed alphabetically. Or I guess the Maholm piece might have came in first. Anyway, it was nice to see the Bucs get a more prominent spot in the news than usual.

We're thinking about taking a mini vacation to Cincinnati the second weekend of April. And yes, the Pirates do play the Reds there that weekend. Luckily, my wife does like baseball too, and she does have at least some interest in seeing different ballparks. I would like to visit each major league park at least once in my life. I've only been to 5 so far, and two of them are no longer hosts to their local teams. There are about seven parks within a day's drive from here. Hopefully I can cross those 7 off my list in the next few years. That's my goal at least.