Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 3:00 a.m. in "The City."

Why is it that I flash to those old Movietone™ newsreels that ran in the US from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. I guess it is because my blogs often take a nostalgic turn, especially when I am recalling events from bygone eras.

At any rate, we have a current temperature of 49° under cloudy-skies, as we fall to our overnight low of 47° before we return to those thrilling days of yesteryear and a high temperature of 67°. That comes with a 60% chance for rain later around 10:00 a.m., but well before those showers morph into the T-storms that are in the forecast from the NWS, anywhere between 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. with a chance of 40% to 90%. Those T-storms also bring the possibility of one-inch of rainfall. I guess it's a good thing we got our gardening done yesterday.

Like I've often noted, while the weather here in GH can often be unpredictable due to being on the shores of the "Big Lake", the severe weather conditions in the south of late are much worse.

I was out with the fur-children yesterday morning and I noticed that the mulch which had been spread earlier this spring, had brought with it some unexpected visitors, i e, mushrooms of some type/types. I doubt that they'd be edible, but they were/are photogenic, so naturally, I took some pix. In this case, I eschewed the macro lens that Mary learned to use and instead, employed by smaller telephoto lens in close-up fashion. I like the results. What say you?

If you know the type of mushroom, let me know.

Not sure on this one either.

A different point of view of one of the mushrooms lying on its side.

Great subject matter yields great pix!

Elsewhere in the news, Mary printed out a factoid of one of the many problems with baseball these days, and it is not that the game is too slow. In this case, the writer was addressing the issue of velocity of pitches. Baseball has been played professionally in the US for over 100 years. Since 1893, the pitcher's mound has been located 60' 6" inches from home plate. However, in the late 1800s and throughout much of the 20th century, baseball pitchers were not big men.

In fact, the immortal Cy Young, for whom the annual award given to baseball's top pitcher, is named, was only 6' 2" and 200 lbs. Today, there are numerous pitchers over 6' 3" with the capability to throw baseballs over 100 mph! One suggestion has been to move the pitcher's mound back to 62' 6" thus allowing batters more time to react. Taller pitchers reduce the time between the release of the ball and the time a pitch crosses the plate. That lowers the time a batter has to react to the pitch.

Past changes in the height of the mound in the late 1960s, did result in higher batting averages and fewer strikeouts. However, the players association is likely to resist any future changes. In addition, there are so many pitching changes in today's game, that the pace of the game has slowed as a result. One rule that is set to take effect in the 2020 season is to require pitchers to face a minimum of three hitters.

In the modern era, the reaction to mid 90s plus fastball velocity has been for batters to swing for the fences, which has resulted in lower batting averages and more home runs. If attendance continues to fall, MLB™ will have to do something or lose more fans each year.

But I digress, as usual.

The Cubs fell to the Phillies yesterday to split their series. They face the Reds today in  the "Friendly Confines" @ 2:20 p.m. EDT.

My beloved Red Sox fared better, as they defeated the Blue Jays yesterday. The Sox travel to Houston to face the Astros tonight @ 8:10 p.m.

The Tigers remain woeful, as they fell, again, to the lowly Marlins, the Tigers' 8th loss in a row. The Tigers travel to NYC to face the Mets tonight @ 7:10 p.m.

The West Michigan White Caps once again were outclassed by the Bowling Green Hot Rods yesterday. The Caps travel to South Bend, IN to face the South Bend Cubs tonight @ 7:35 p.m.

Yesterday it was sunny most of the day, so I was able to get more of the coloring done on Mary's dragon pic in my art studio. Of course, we also did the gardening later in the day after I made more of my soon to be famous vegan bratwurst sausages. While we gardened, I wore my yak brace, which helped a lot, and then we visited the chiropractor later for a tune-up, which also helped.

We have nothing set in stone on tap for today. The weather may dictate much of our activity. If that is the case, we will visit the grocery store and do more reading. Mary won't be able to get to my valances until the next sunny day. as the light in her craft/sewing room is only conducive to sewing when there is sunlight streaming through the nearby window. Ciao.