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It seemed like it would never come. We had planned a great vacation to San Diego for months, and it seemed so far off. After a busy start to the summer (buying a new house, running a mission trip, working, taking classes [Kim, not me]), it was finally the beginning of August.

You really can’t argue with the weather: sunny with a high of 75, every day. We covered about 800 miles in southern California, including a stop at Petco Park to see the Padres play. Tim Stauffer (UR ‘03, we were in an intro music class together in college) started for the Padres that night, and it was the first time I had seen Tim pitch in person since the spring of ‘03 out at Pitt Field. The bullpen couldn’t hold off the Braves, so Tim ended up with the L that night. This was one of his first pitches of the night:

The last evening we were in town, we ventured up to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sun fall off the Earth. It never disappoints.

More pictures on Flickr

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I’ve got plenty of new pictures from the summer, so it’s time to start fresh with Picture of the Week.

Back in July, my brother and I decided to spend an evening watching baseball. With the departed Braves long gone from Richmond, we hit I-95 south to Petersburg. The Coastal Plain League features college players in a wood-bat summer league throughout southeast Virginia and the Carolinas. This was pure baseball. It was a great evening for baseball, just a hundred or so fans, and a comeback, extra-inning victory for the hometown Generals. Who knows, maybe we saw a future MLB All-Star that night.

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This is one of my first ventures into HDR (high dynamic range imagery). It takes images at various exposures and combines them together to more accurately depict the true picture you see. More of my HDR images on Flickr.

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I can’t even imagine being David Price right now. The Tampa Bay rookie played his first Major League game just over a month ago. He is 23-years-old and wasn’t even playing professional baseball 16 months ago. His first Major League win didn’t come until the playoffs. His first Major League save sent his team to the World Series. And it was pretty clear that the intensity didn’t phase him at all.

So today, the first day of the World Series: best of luck to Price and his TB Rays.

Prediction: Rays in 6

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Over a decade ago, Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson’s number: no player would wear his number again. This year, on the anniversary of his debut, players around baseball wore #42 as a tribute to Jackie.

Adam Jones wore #42 for the Orioles. This kid (yes, kid. he’s 1.5 years younger than me) is on my fantasy team, so I was excited that he hit a home run. But more importantly, a nice tribute to Jackie Robinson. When Adam hit the home run, one of the commentators said, “Somewhere, Jackie Robinson is smiling.” I’m sure he is. Go Orioles!

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congrats to Richmonder Justin Verlander for winning the american league Rookie of the Year award! good to have more reasons be proud of Richmond.

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