It was our much-anticipated quarterly lunch with Tim Kurkjian, baseball analyst extraordinaire, wherein George Will and I bathe in a constant flow of obscure statistics, Kurkjian oddities, and ribald anecdotes, like the one about the Red Sox beat writer who accidentally walked in on a players’ prayer meeting and was greeted by the burly right fielder, newly born-again and not yet practiced in the language of Christian fellowship, bellowing “Hey! Can’t you see we’re having f—— chapel here?”
After which, Kurkjian asked us about our daily reading habits. I confessed that during baseball season I give the front page of the morning paper about 90 seconds before going right to the box scores.
To which Will deadpanned, “Why waste the 90 seconds?”
True story. (You can look it up. It’s in Kurkjian’s book.) Of which there are two things you should know: (a) Will was only half joking. (b) He turned out to be prescient: Last Wednesday, I crossed over. I went straight to the sports section.
It was an important personal milestone, though the circumstances were extenuating: I’d missed the previous home game. You see, on weeknights I’m normally at Nationals Park, it being exactly seven minutes from Fox News’s Washington studios, where my workday ends at 7. If the winds are fair and the Third Street tunnel clear, I can get to my seat by the bottom of the first, in time to see Bryce Harper’s first at-bat.
Except that the previous game was a day game. I may be an addict, but I do draw the line somewhere. If I find myself at the park at three in the afternoon on a Tuesday, it’s time for an intervention. . . .
Between now and October, the Nats are my vice. I started going when they were bad, and once celebrated in this space “the joy of losing,” under the axiom that if you expect nothing, you’re never disappointed. A very serviceable philosophy when your team is terrible.
But I need a new philosophy now. The Nationals are good: young, swift, exciting — and in first place in the National League East.
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1. Avoid running at all times.-S. Paige Posted: May 25, 2012 at 08:58 AM (#4139876)Well in fairness, I think he's in a wheelchair so walking and public transportation are a bit tougher.
Due to a diving accident during his first year of med school, Krauthammer is confined to a wheelchair. Interestingly, Juan Williams often accompanies Krauthammer to the games.
EDIT: A Coke Zero to both 5 and 6.
I don't know, Buttafuoco is pretty cool.
It doesn't sound like Dewey, and before Dewey you're early enough in the history of the born-again movement that it seems less likely it could have happened then.
Other options: Tom Brunansky, Troy O'Leary, Phil Plantier
Unlikely: Gabe Kapler
Trot was definitely a devout Christian (recall the praise to God after the homer to beat the A's), though I got the impression (for some reason) he was that way long before he got to Boston.
Of course, it's possible that he was always a devout Christian who just wasn't stingy with the F-bombs.
Regardless, the anecdote has a nice Hanson Bros. quality to it.
Since my book shop had relatively narrow aisles, Krauthammer used to send his (very nice) wife over to buy books and posters, and since I was always relatively non-political in customer exchanges we got along very well. OTOH whenever she came into the shop owned by one of my friends, he used to rant and rave about everything from her husband's columns to the war in Iraq, and after a while she just stayed away. It's sometimes hard for visible public figures to find shops where people don't know or don't care who they are, and if they stumble into the wrong type of place, sometimes their experiences can be less than pleasant.
You are a wise man, for one who has lived but one lifetime.
If only we could somehow convince you that Baseball Think Factory is your old bookstore, and we're all your customers.
OTOH whenever she came into the shop owned by one of my friends, he used to rant and rave about everything from her husband's columns to the war in Iraq, and after a while she just stayed away. It's sometimes hard for visible public figures to find shops where people don't know or don't care who they are, and if they stumble into the wrong type of place, sometimes their experiences can be less than pleasant.
I don't think even Socrates himself could deal with irony on this level.
Sounds like someone didn't make ADA compliance a priority.
I don't know... I'd consider it, but only if they were dead.
Why on Earth would you have a beef against Charles Krauthammer, his wife, and Andy?
I don't really see the point of pestering someone's wife or family or assistant about that person's expressed views. For all you know they're also embarrassed about some of them.
Hey kid! Quit ripping the plastic off that Playboy!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...oh, George.
Sounds like someone didn't make ADA compliance a priority.
Actually we had plenty of other customers in wheelchairs who didn't have any problem navigating the aisles. If there were books blocking their passage we simply cleared them a path, and nobody ever complained about access. I'm not even sure that was Krauthammer's reason for not coming in himself, but whatever.
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Why on Earth would you have a beef against Charles Krauthammer, his wife, and Andy?
I think that a few of our brown diaper babies take some of these discussions a bit more to heart than the rest of us, but what can you do? The Georgetown Book Shop closed down its Rubashov Re-education room back in 2006.
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