Category Archives: Sports

The Chief Photographer and I were spending a few days at her sister’s vacation cabin on the Juniata River near Thompsontown, PA.  Sunday afternoon we drove into Millersburg where our brother-in-law Tony spent his early years.  We visited the local landmarks, saw Tony’s childhood home and had lunch at Max’s Grille downtown.  While in town we visited the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art.  Ned was an artist specializing in forest animals.  On the way to the Center we spotted this homage to the St. Louis Cardinals on State St near Rising Sun Road.  Just had to get this image.

Big Cardinals Fan

We were in New Jersey for Grandparents Day at Nate’s preschool.  Actually it was more like Grandparents Hour.  Anyway we took Nate out to lunch and then spent the afternoon at Johnson’s Corner Farm in Medford. A great place to spend time with Nate.  They have a very nice playground, animal feeding, and hayrides out to pick the crops in season.  For us it was apples and pumpkins.  On the playground was this big baseball glove with a hole in the palm to throw beanbags through.

Johnson’s Farm Glove

We skipped the Home Show in January, usually our way of getting ready for the upcoming year.  Instead we held off for the Flower Show which was better than I remembered from past years.  These soccer sized pool balls provided quite a bit of entertainment for show goers.  I had to wait a while to get this image.

Flower Show Pool Table

This is billed as the “World’s Largest Binoculars,” and they very well could be.  Located on Main Street in Venice, California they were designed by Claus Oldenberg and Coosje vanBruggen.  Quite the find, only negative is that I was there during a work protest.  Fortunately for me there was no picket line.  Not sure I could have crossed, I did grow up in Detroit.

Venice Binoculars

The Indianapolis Indians are the Triple-A baseball team that plays at Victory Field here in Indianapolis.  We go to a few games each year and it’s lot’s of fun.  Guys trying to make it to “The Show” while sometimes someone is down rehabbing from the majors.  The Indians are the farm team for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  On the way into a game we spotted this Big Shirt and grabbed the photo opportunity.  I think the Indians won that night.

Indianapolis Indians Jersey

The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati opened recently and has many interesting items. Visiting Cincinnati during fall break we stopped by and found a foursome of Big Things, this Big Bowling Pin and the Hammer below. The other two are in the Food and Drink and Big People sections. I have a couple of other Big Bowling Pins on the site below. There are two bowling alleys here in Indy, however for some reason I don’t have the images from Woodland Bowl a mile or so from my house. I’ll have to correct that.

Sign Museum in Cincinnati

Andy and Lindsey joined us for a few relaxing days in Ocean City, Maryland. A great time together. Saturday we left the ocean for Baltimore to attend Matt and Erin’s wedding on the Inner Harbor. After checking into our hotel we decided to have lunch together. Andy had scoped this out and led us to historic Fells Point and to Max’s Taphouse. What a place. From their website – “With 140 rotating drafts, 5 Hand-Pumped Cask Ales, and a world-spanning collection of approximately 1200 bottled beers in stock, Max’s is legendary for having Maryland’s largest selection of local and imported beer.” I don’t think you go there for the food, which was OK. Andy studied the beer menu for a while. If I lived nearby I would be a regular. They even have a “Monday sucks Happy Hour.” How cool! Oh, and they had this Big Arrow hanging from the ceiling. The bartender didn’t know the story behind this.

Fell’s Point Arrow

We had some difficulty getting to the Rubiks Cube, but sometimes good results follow in unexpected ways. This is a case in point. We were off target (thanks GPS) and pulled into a hotel parking lot when, lo and behold, Deb spotted this Big Basketball. Turns out we were next to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, in Knoxville. An appropriate location considering this is the home of Pat Summitt. She is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history of either a men’s or women’s team in any division. She has been coaching since 1974, all with the Lady Vols, winning eight NCAA national championships, second only to the record 10 titles won by UCLA men’s coach John Wooden. In 38 years as a coach, she never had a losing season. On April 20, 2012, the White House announced that Pat Summitt would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. What a great person!

Women’s Hall of Fame Basketball

We went to a putt putt course in downtown Gatlinburg since we had a two for one coupon from our rental agency. It was a course designed for minimal space, we played our way up a hillside and down the back nine. I was doing pretty well midway through the front nine only to be ambushed by 3 holes in one by Deb on the back nine. I had to buy dinner that night due to my confidence after the 6th hole. Oh well, it was a nice dinner, first week of April and we ate outside, I had trout (the local speciality fish.)

Gatlinburg Golf

I spotted this Big Skate outside the Fall Creek entrance to the Indiana State Fairgrounds where the Indianapolis Ice play. This year they are playing downtown at the Bankers Field arena while the Pepsi Coliseum is being refurbished. The Ice are members of the US Hockey League, hospital stuff an U20 (players are under 20 years old) hockey league. These guys are looking at a shot to play in the NHL.

Indy Ice Big Skate

The Colts made it into the playoffs as a Wild Card after a pretty awful season (by Colts standards) due to most of their key players being injured most of the season. We hadn’t seen a live game during the regular season but tickets became available at the last minute so we scored a couple for the game with the stinkin’ New York Jets. The Colts lost but I did get this Big Colts Helmet. Not much of a consolidation.

Colts Helmet

On the East Coast in June for Kelly and Dan’s wedding. Nice affair outside Baltimore, had a lot of fun there. On Sunday I traveled with the Chief Photographer along with Julia and Dan up to DC to attend a Nationals game which was my Fathers Day gift. It was super hot but it didn’t spoil my first visit to Nationals Park to see Strasburg pitch. If you’re not a baseball fan, Stephen Strasburg is a phenom that’s taken DC by storm. On the metro to the stadium there were more Strasburg jerseys than you could count. Outside the fan store was this Big Nats Cap.

National’s Cap

Deb and I went to Philadelphia during her Spring Break. We had a great time, stopping at Nancy and Tony’s cabin. We went from there to the Phillies game where they set a record, being the first professional team to lose 10,000 games. We made history! Anyway, there was this diversion for kids and seekers after of Big Things. This photo is the result.

Phillies Shoe

Andy and I were playing golf at a course near his North Wales, Pennsylvania place and wandered into the club house. When lo and behold, there was a Big Golf Ball. I just needed to get my photo taken and all I had was my Razor phone. Maybe not the best quality but you have to learn to sacrifice to get the shot when it presents itself.

North Wales Golf Ball

This shoe is dedicated to Oscar Robinson, Mr Basketball. He grew up in Indianapolis and is a pretty wonderful guy. A 12 time All Star, 11 time member of the All NBA team and season MVP winner. In respect, the US Basketball Writers Association named their annual trophy for best College Player after him. Oscar Robinson is a man to be respected. After basketball he returned to Indianapolis and worked in the African-American community. If you want to know more about him “click here,”

Oscar Robinson Shoe

Here I am outside the Indianapolis Repertory Theater, maybe you could tell from the William Shakespeare painting on the shoe. I have a friend, Nan, who is very involved with the IRT, maybe you’ll run into her down there some day. This is one of four shoes taken during the NCAA Final Four Tournament here in Indy. Businesses and organizations around the city sponsored these shoes.

IRT Shoe

This is another of the 4 Final Four shoes. I don’t recall who sponsored this shoe, so I don’t know what to say. Maybe it’s an orthopedist, who else deals with bones in the foot. What do you think, any guesses?

Shoe with Bones

“You’re in Good Hands with Allstate.” Big deal. There were plenty of shoes around downtown Indy.  Do you ever wonder what cities do with these big things after they are done with them.  Chicago had a bunch of cows around town for a while.  Maybe the is a company some where called “Rent a Big _______”

Allstate Shoe

This shoe was made for the Big 10 Championship here in Indianapolis. Pretty darn big shoe out in front of Conseco Fieldhouse. A little earlier is an image of me and a Big Basketball inside the building.

Big 10 Shoe

We saw this giant basketball a long time ago on our “Explore Indy” trip in January of 2002. Everyone on the bus that saw this got excited. Unfortunately it took a while to get down to Conseco Fieldhouse for this photo.

Conseco Fieldhouse Basketball