Games: #20 (4/20, @ Reds, W 4-3); #21 (4/21, @ Reds, W 4-2); #22 (4/21 @ Reds, W 2-1); #23 (4/22, @ Reds, W 2-0)

Derek Shelton got an extension and the Pirates are in first place at 15-7. This is not going how I expected but it’s very exciting to watch.

And watch we did. We had a good couple innings as a family in front of the projector Friday night. Seema was a little bored but everyone else was very into it. Lots of chanting of “PAY-OFF PITCH” and the like.

But the most interesting thing happened earlier that day, which the kids had off for Eid. The starter on Friday was Mitch Keller, who we all like. The kids and I went out and played some pepper. Ramona later told me she’d imagined she was Mitch Keller.

I used to do that all the time. And Ramona is someone who’s very invested in identifying things as unfair in general but sexist in particular. She has a stinging critique of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Sometimes it misfires, as when she said “Weddings are sexist,” and then, in the bathroom at the wedding: “This bathroom is sexist. Its walls are green.” But as she’s perceiving what she’s taking in from the world, it processes in her mind and then, when we’re lucky, she extends it into language and tells us what she thinks it means.

There’s something about this baseball in general but maybe about this team in particular that I like in that ‘life lessons’ kind of way. There’s a mix of experience and youth, of talent and grit, that’s really nice to see here. Sure, there’s a statistical likelihood that this team’s performance comes back to earth.

But if you’re loose–what’s to stop you from a little extension?

Today is an off-day, as the team travels to LA to take on the Dodgers. Among the players I’m most excited for us to watch is a non-Pirate: Mookie Betts.

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