Kiskys at the Bat

Special Agent Oh No: The morning started off on a sour note when I accidentally tuned breakfast-time cartoons to the Disney Channel. To my horror, the dreaded "Special Agent Oso" show was on. Annoying characters, stupid songs, sub par animation and the main character keeps annoyingly turning to the audience and asking for obvious answers to lame questions. But that's just my opinion. Sensing my disdain, CJ said, "You have to get the hang of the show. ... The more you watch it, the more you'll like it." To which I replied, "Um no, Honey. The more I watch it, the more I can't stand it." Of course, rather than just continuing to rail against a fictional character (Dan Quayle's attack on "Murphy Brown" comes to mind), I decided to use our difference of opinion as a teachable moment. Different people like different things. As evidence, all one has to do is flip through the hundred-plus cable channels and realize that someones for some reasons are watching each one of those channels at any given time, I pointed out to the kids. And it's cool to try new things from time to time, but the bottom line is, we all have our own favorites, for our own reasons. And that's OK (said in a Senator Stuart Smalley tone).

Caseys at the Bat: We're well into September, which means baseball season is winding down (oh noze!) That being the case, we decided to take in a Mariners matinée today! While fun and games were to be had, that didn't mean learning took a hiatus. Instead, while Annabelle was at ballet this a.m., CJ and I walked to the Magnolia library. I thought it would be cool to continue our comparing and contrasting multiple versions of the same story, so today's topic was a baseball classic: Casey at the Bat, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. We checked out two print versions and one audio recording, plus I had another illustrated book version at home. On the way home from the library I popped the audio version - by the London Philharmonic in the CD player. Big mistake. The kids had no frame of reference regarding the story (which first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1888), and some guy in a really strange, stilted accent was using phrases like "the rest clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast." A bit heady for a 4-year-old.

Once home, we read a very kid-friendly version together (1993, Scholastic) - with cartoony pics (Patricia Polacco) and Casey's kid sister and his dad are bit players in the story. Next, we read a version published in 2000 with remarkable illustrations by Christopher Bing. A gorgeous book, the pages are montages of drawings and newspaper and advertisements that look like they're straight from 1888. Both versions held CJ & Annabelle's interests - and they had fun hunting through the pages to find the same phrases in each book. They came to understand the antiquated phrasings, and both grew wide eyed when fans chanted, "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" You can tell they've been brought up attending Mariners games in Seattle, not Bronx Bombers games in Yankee Stadium.

Next up in our reading lineup: Casey Back at Bat. The kids were hoping Casey would finally hit his game-winning homer in this go-round, but author Dan Gutman had other ideas. (Nonetheless, it was a great opportunity to talk about what a sequel is and how sometimes they are so horribly disappointing.)

After a break for lunch, I found the reeeeeally old Disney movie of Casey at the Bat on YouTube . I remember watching this in elementary school. What I didn't remember is that right off the bat, the film's opening song declares: "The ladies don't understand baseball a bit. They don't know a strike from a foul or a hit." Oh. Really? Hmpf. (Don't make me come over there and go Paul O'Neill on your ass, Disney.) Perhaps in an attempt to make it up to the ladies, the sequel (there's that word again, kids!) Casey Bats Again is about how Casey has nine daughters who grow up to be baseball studs. Now that's more like it!

Another One Rides the Bus: Before too much longer, it was time to hop the bus to the game. Since we needed exact change for bus fare, it seemed like a good opportunity to review coins and their value. We got out the change jar and counted out our fares. I have to admit, CeeJ and Bee are not quick to catch on to this money thing, and I think I know why - because coins and cash just aren't a part of their culture. We use a debit card everywhere and pay all of our bills online - they just aren't around hard cold cash money. It's something we're going to have keep working on. Anywho, riding the Metro is a novelty for the kids. Unlike a car ride, you get to face sideways (rather than forward) and no seatbelts! "It's like a ride at the fair!" Annabelle declared.

Field of Dreams: What a terrific afternoon for baseball. Sunny and 70 degrees! Our first stop was the playground where the kids ran off some steam.

Then, it was off to our seats for THIRTEEN INNINGS of fun (and that was with us leaving "early" - the game went 14 innings, with Ichiro hitting the game winning single.)



Good times - and lots of good math. Baseball is chock full of figures and stats and it was three plus hours of addition, subtraction, percentages, and so on.

Of course, there was plenty of food and fun to be had too - at one point the Mariners Moose even came to our section and danced with the kids and they were stadium big screen stars! : )