It has been for a while now, sometimes regularly but more often irregularly, that after attending a ballgame I will send pictures I've taken along with thoughts (as I'm seldom without a comment for most anything) to my family and close friends.  For years now they have come to accept that there is meaning in Al Gallagher's comment as it applies to me in that "There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball.  The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit."  At least it may seem that way.  Recently one of my daughters-in-law wrote and suggested that rather than send my pictures and comments by email that I might dedicate a blog to that purpose.  I suspect I was clogging her computer with pictures.

The truth is there are so many resources on the internet for everything and that includes baseball related topics.  I will just add my two cents now and again and, in so doing, save my daughter-in-law's email system. She and you can take a look now and then and share with me a love that in my mind is still properly in third place in my line-up.  Nevertheless, I can hear some of them saying "no way."  For them and those of you who think that's not possible I commend to you the reading of Gary Graf's 2005 book "And God Said, 'Play Ball.'" Coincidentally, that's the year when baseball returned to Washington, the same year they began thinking that I had shuffled my line-up.

Hopefully you'll be able to manage through my comments and enjoy my pics (photography is probably 4th place in my line-up) and find a similar pleasure in what is surely properly called our National Pastime.

So - what better way to begin than by saying "BATTER UP."