i heard on npr this morning that it was tony peña’s birthday. he was my brother and i’s favorite baseball player growing up. he wasn’t a big superstar by any means, but he was our guy. we were totally obsessed and had to have all of his baseball cards. it all sprung from my brother having a catchers glove with his signature. it didn’t matter that all gloves came with a players signature on them, my brother’s had tony’s and he was also a catcher, so we were hooked.

eventually my brother and i were able to meet tony at an exhibition game between the cardinals and the orioles in baltimore. after the game we tracked down the cardinals bus where the players were loading. unfortunately, we were told tony was already on the bus. when he heard there were two little boys outside wanting to meet him though, he graciously came out and met us and signed our balls. it was amazing!

in the long run it worked out having a favorite baseball player that wasn’t the biggest star. he was humble enough to still come off a bus to meet a couple of obsessed kids and his baseball cards weren’t the most expensive to collect!

by the way, how amazing was the 1987 topps baseball card design? i think that’s where my woodgrain obsession began! it was also a perfect year to be a tony peña fan. he was traded from the pirates to the cardinals, so he had two cards that year!

– ryan

i saw a nice sunset on east lake golf course recently!

– ryan

break out your fancy hats and mint juleps, because it’s derby day 2011!

– ryan

here is my 2011 march madness bracket. i’ve got ohio state going all the way, although i don’t know much about the teams this year. in fact, tonight is the first college basketball game i’ve watched all season. to say the least, there was lots of guessing on my bracket. i did go two for two last night though.

let’s get ready to rumble!

– ryan

ps…anyone else think first four is a lame name for the play-in games this year? and when did the play-in games become the first round?

at the last minute we grabbed standing room tickets for sundays atlanta braves playoff game. we had a ton of fun, especially in the 8th inning when the braves took the lead. that excitement was short lived, however, as the san francisco giants took back the lead in the 9th and won the game. we were still glad we went to see one of bobby cox’s last games though.

– ryan & gub

ps…this is our 100th post!!!

i turned 30, which is kind of crazy. to make the most of such a big birthday, i tried to do something fun every hour and take photos.

here’s what i got into: