Matthew Monday: Iron Man Bobble Head Doll

On June 28^th Matthew and I drove down to Baltimore (about a three hour drive) to watch an Orioles game.  I hope most of you remember that I am a Baltimore Orioles fan.  Matthew, unfortunately, is not, but he enthusiastically comes to all the games I go to.  I try to go one game a year down in Baltimore, and I specifically picked that 28^th day in June.  The reason was the give-a-way that game.  They were giving away a Cal RipkenJr.  bobble head doll but dressed up as Iron Man, the Marvell Comics superhero.

Cal Ripken is a famous, hall of fame Orioles, and one of the most popular.  But he has long retired (2001), but he is now part of the Orioles ownership and keeps in touch with the fans.  His popularity has not faded.  Cal was known as “the Iron Man” because he played in 2632 consecutive games over seventeen years.  Can you imagine, seventeen years without missing a game.  It is more than remarkable.  It is superhuman.

So the Orioles organization came up with a bobble head doll of Cal dressed as the super hero.  Now, truth be told, Iron Man was my favorite comic book hero as a kid.  The identity of Iron Man was a man named Tony Stark, who was an engineer and designed and invented the Iron Man get up.  You may know this from the Iron Man movies.  I can’t help but think that part of me went into engineering because I identified with Tony Stark. 

So when the Iron Man bobble head came out I just had to get it.

Here are some pictures of the bobble head. 

 

The detail in the Iron Man uniform is amazing.  This is one of the better bobble head dolls.

Oh about the game.  It was another of the 2025 games of a disastrous season.  Orioles lost 11-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays.  Not only that, it was a day game, and the sun and humidity were brutal.  I think it was in the 90s with high humidity.  It was a real penance to sit there. 

Here is a nice picture of me and Matthew though.

 

 

Personal Note: My Camera at the Ball Park

I mentioned I had another story to my attending the Baltimore Orioles game on July 16^th.    

As it turned out, in my haste to get out just before the game ended, I left my camera at the stadium, right below the seat I think. I didn’t realize I left it until Sunday night when I went to open the knapsack we had brought that contained a few things, including the camera, and it was not there.

The realization I had left it behind really hurt. The camera was worth around $200 (a Nikon, not a SLR but an advanced point and shoot that had a super telescoping lens), not insignificant but only money, but more importantly the memory card had close to 900 pictures going back to when my son was a toddler. I had not backed up those pictures. The camera could be replaced, but the pictures, which included family affairs, trips, sightseeing, were irreplaceable.

So after kicking myself, praying, and more kicking myself, I called the lost and found on the Monday almost a week later, and lo and behold they had found a camera. The description matched, and they said to come down and pick it up. So on the Wednesday I got on my horse and galloped back down to Baltimore, and to my amazement it was my camera. My goodness, what are the odds? One of my friends said less than a one percent chance of getting it back. God is good. I offered a small reward to the person who turned it in or even the usher or cleaning person for that area, but the young man at the Lost and Found would not take it. He said this is what they do.

What a great reflection on the ballpark administration and working people at Camden Yards. I don’t know how else to thank them but to write this little comment for all to see. To come across such upstanding and honest people is heartwarming. May all those involved, especially the person who turned it in, be blessed. I am truly thankful. I gave that money set aside for the reward to Catholic Charities of Baltimore charity.

Matthew Monday: Baltimore Orioles Game, 2019

On Tuesday, July 16^th, I took Matthew down to Baltimore to watch an Orioles game.  Usually when I take him or the family to a game down to Baltimore it’s on a Sunday, since they play afternoon games on Sunday.  That allows me to leave the game roughly by five PM and get home at a reasonable hour.  If there’s no traffic it’s a three hour drive.

But that Tuesday was Brooks Robinson bobble head doll night, and every adult would get a Brooks Robinson bobble head doll.  Now Brooks Robinson has long been retired, some forty-two years, but he’s a historic Oriole who is still living, and actually my baseball idol growing up.  He was the player I emulated and wanted to be.  So it was a must for me to go.  But that required a night game, which means I would probably head out by ten and make it back one or two in the morning.

So we made a day of it.  I took the entire day off from work and headed down in the morning.  Not only did I get tickets to the game but also for the stadium tour.  The stadium tour is an hour and a half tour of the ballpark where they take you to parts you would not normally see and they provide a great history lesson of the park, the local area, and the ball club.  It’s well worth it.

After the stadium tour, we had the afternoon to ourselves.  Less than a mile from the park is the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum.  So we went there and spent a good hour.  We still had time, so I convinced Matthew to go to the Edgar Allen Poe Museum.  It was another mile away.  We found it but it was closed.  I don’t think Matthew really cared anyway.

The ball game was fun, but the Orioles lost to their local rivals, the Washington Nationals.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Matthew standing next to Brooks Robinson retired number 5.

And next to the statue of a young adolescent Babe Ruth, who by the way was born in Baltimore and actually played for what the time was a minor league team called the Baltimore Orioles.

There were lots of great pictures from the stadium tour.  Perhaps I should do a post of pictures from various angles of the park.  But for now, here are three.  Matthew looking out from the $1000/game, air conditioned luxury suits, the trophy room showing two of the Orioles World Series trophies, and Matthew sitting in the dugout.

And a few pictures from the Babe Ruth Museum.  The first is Matthew in front of a case showing items when Babe was a kid at St. Mary’s Home for Boys.  Apparently Babe was a delinquent as a child, so his parents put him in a nearby Jesuit home for such boys.  It was there Babe matured (if he ever really matured), learned a trade and to play baseball, and where he was scouted and signed.  Babe was sent there as a seven year old boy, which makes me wonder.  How much of a delinquent could a seven year old be?  Perhaps his parents just didn’t want to raise him and shuffled him off.  What I learned at the museum was that Babe’s parents were Protestants, and it was at the home that Babe converted to a Catholic.  I didn’t know that.  The second picture is self-explanatory.

The last picture is me and Matthew at the park.

There are two stories of the trip home that night I need to recite.  But I will only do one here and then have a post dedicated to the second story perhaps tomorrow.

We left the game as the ninth inning was underway and got out of the park shortly after 10 PM.   Driving up I95 I was stopped by a Maryland state trooper around a quarter after eleven for going 78 mph in a 65. I was shocked they would be pulling people over at that hour for a few mph over the sort of unofficial allowed 75. I was very courteous, followed all his direction, and meekly said I was just trying to get home. He looked at me and my nine year old son in the booster seat in the back, took my license and registration, and went to his vehicle to do what he had to do. It was the first time Matthew (who is nine years old) was ever in a car that got pulled over. He didn't know what was happening and why it took so long for the trooper to write the ticket while we waited in the car. When he came back, to my shock he let me off with just a warning. I was so grateful. I found out the next day they were on the lookout for MS-13 gang members who had just killed a couple of people. I suspect that’s why they were out there that night looking for a reason to stop people.