A baseball game at Rice University

I spent a few hours today at Reckling Park, Rice University's sparkling jewel of a baseball stadium. If you like baseball - or just being outdoors on a warm early spring afternoon - there are few better places to while away a couple of hours than at Reckling. Comfortable (if somewhat hard) seats, unobstructed views, a most imposing backdrop (Texas Medical Center) and of course, some of the best collegiate baseball to be seen anywhere in the USA.  Not to mention some pretty nice looking (I didn't try them...) Prince's hot dogs and hamburgers. And beer.

I'm a big baseball fan but today it was all about getting a few close-up photographs.  I took the 200-400mm zoom lens and added a 1.4 extender, making for an effective focal distance of 300-600mm.  As it turned out I got more than a few; tough to decide which ones to throw out... Here are quite a few pics of starting pitcher Austin Kubitza, a freshman who seemed very cool and totally in command on the mound.  Plus a few others of some of the hitters in action; or at least attempting to produce some hits.  On the day the Rice offense did not come through; once or twice they had several runners on base but the crucial hits just didn't materialize.  As a result Rice lost to Stanford 6-2. 

Buffalo Wallow 6-K Race

The 2011 Buffalo Wallow 6-K cross-country race was run this morning at 0800 (first round for runners over 40) and at 0900 (for the younger runners).  The weather was fairly cool but oppressively humid - so much so that I was sweating heavily even after just warming up for less than a mile. I felt ok during the first two laps - featuring two very steep inclines and one nasty sloping downhill stretch - but by the last time around I had nothing left.  By the very end of barely 4 miles I was exhausted.  Very little sleep for two nights in a row no doubt played a role, but clearly I have a lot of work ahead of me to get back into competitive running shape. Other Striders which did very well included Sabra Harvey, John Yoder, Chris Adams, Alison Stewart and the Schroeder brothers Doug and Steve.

Here are some photographs I took of the second (younger) wave: