It is always fun to go to a baseball game.  Hot dogs, peanuts, cracker jacks, beer.  The people are fun to watch.  Some are bored, some are excited, some keep track of every move the players make by recording it in the scorecards.  Some drink too much.  Sometimes I imagine it is like being in ancient Rome, as the crowd roars in one voice.

Washington DC had an American League team known as the Washington Nationals/Senators from 1901-1960.  The official name was Nationals but most people called them the Senators.  In 1961 the team moved to Minnesota and became known as the Minnesota Twins.  An expansion team then began  to play in Washington and was known as the Washington Senators.  They played from 1961 to 1971 before being moved to Texas and becoming the Texas Rangers.  Baseball did not return to DC until 2005.  Again they were known as the Washington Nationals.

Harmon Kilebrew hit his first home run as a Washington Senator in 1954.  In 1971, he was playing for the Minnesota Twins and I was there when he hit his 500th home run.  We all got plastic mugs with his picture on them.  In 1975 the Twins retired his number 3.  He retired in 1976 and became an announcer.

Joe Mauer was born in St Paul, and is the catcher for the Minnesota Twins.  He is the only catcher in history to win three batting titles.  Yesterday we went to see the Washington Nationals play the Minnesota Twins to a sold out crowd.  Noah wore his Mauer Twins team jersey.  It wasn’t home territory so there was no fanfare when Joe Mauer hit his 100th home run.  But it was still exciting.  The Twins ended up winning the game in the 11th inning.