The Giants

Thursday night, August 28, the Cincinnati Reds play the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ballpark – really – an insurance company of the same name purchased the naming rights to the new stadium.  But that's okay.  What could be more American than watching the oldest team in professional baseball, the Reds, play out their season with the kids up from the minors trying to show they can make it in the majors, which was all hope and sadness. Some weren’t bad at all – others you wanted to not have just watched that perfect down-the-middle fastball as it passed by, and slump, standing there knowing what that meant, as the other team walks off the field.

But it was a fine summer night – hot and humid – and the beer was cold, and the Reds won.