Everybody loves baseball!

This from today’s Fresno Bee:

For kids in wheelchairs who love to play baseball, a field of dreams is not carpeted in soft, green grass and dirt, but in smooth, man-made rubber.

A nonprofit organization connected to the Fresno Grizzlies Triple-A baseball franchise will team with the Clovis Unified School District to create such a field, converting the softball and playing fields at Gateway High School.

Yes, we’re goofy around here, but nice things can happen as well. For the rest of this Fresno Bee article (by Anne Dudley Ellis), click here.

I am quite pleased today with the Fresno Grizzlies and Clovis Unified School District for stepping up and making this happen.

Happy Thanksgiving

I would like to wish all Fresnans and the people of the United States a happy Thanksgiving. We have so much for which to be grateful.

A typical Saturday night in Fresno

You kind of have to expect this sort of thing in Fresno, but I just about witnessed a fight last night. I was out with my wife at Tahoe Joes alone (a not common occurrance given our three children) and one booth over there was a neanderthal. Apparently a neanderthal who was going to get violent with the waiters.

The supposed crime?

He believed that the waiter purposely sprayed him with a small amount of soup. Yes, the way it is set up does get a large pot of soup close to that particular booth. His theory:

One time is an accident. A second time is on purpose.

Interestingly, human beings from this century just asked to be moved to a different table.

And the kicker? He had his family with him, including a young daughter who was busy learning that it is acceptable to be loud and obnoxious in public.

Surprisingly, when the restaurant staff who was very patient and didn’t have him thrown out, moved him, he brought his beer along for the walk to the new table.

Fresno on the World Stage

Or what it takes to get noticed is to have a riot over Playstation 3s. Yes, we are all idiots here.

See: Playstation 3 wait turns violent.

and: Chaos breaks out over Playstation 3.

It’s a game, people. A freakin’ game.

"New Normal"

City Hall is operating under a New Normal. This new management style works to create a culture of excellence where people get the best every day. This message has been working its way through every city department and now they want the citizens of Fresno to know about it.

So, with excitement, I read this pronouncement on the City of Fresno website. And right below it there is a link to learn more about this new exciting new city policy. Being the loyal Fresnan that I am, I clicked away.

In typical Fresno fashion, I got…

Photo op.

No text. Nothing but pictures of smiling politicians (and people required to be there for politicians).

Figures.

Madonna in Fresno?

For those of you who think that Fresno is just a pitstop on the way to Yosemite, it was announced today that Madonna has included Fresno as a concert on her world tour. See, we’re part of the world just like you.

Yup, we also get the opportunity to watch a middle-aged woman embarrass her children. Can’t get much better than that.

I’m sure that this is recognition of Fresno’s place on the world stage. Or it could be that we are on the map between San Jose (May 30) and Phoenix (June 8). This concert is the only one scheduled between those two appearances.

Tickets cost between $55 and $350.

Welcome to Fresno

What is there to say about Fresno? We have an ex-actor as mayor, a school district that cries poor (and blames that on the teachers, but ends the year with a surplus), an “old boys network” like you would not believe, and a city council that does not know what it is doing from one day to the next.

So there it is.