It's Been Awhile

Whew, a month goes by fast. Happy to be back in the blogosphere with a few thoughts from the past few weeks.
It was great to see 10 year old Hunter Benke at Riley Park on Tuesday night. His dad, Mike, was one of the Charleston city firefighters who died fighting the Sofa Super Store blaze. The Riverdogs had him come to the ballpark to hang out with the team all day and he got to throw out the first pitch. You could tell the Riverdog players were happy to have him around, I saw Mike Dunn give him a new glove from his collection. At least for a few hours he was able to smile.
That night at Riley Park was the fireworks game, annually one of the top crowds of the year. Over 7,900 people packed the park and the Dogs are on pace for another record setting season for attendance.
Interesting to watch Serena Williams come back to win the other day after her calf injury forced her to the ground at Wimbledon. After a 3 hour rain delay she came back to win the match, but the national sports take on it was that Serena's performance was legendary. If you saw her at the Family Circle Cup in April you may disagree. I watched her bow out of her first round match with a leg injury and poor play. Maybe I'm just a cynic when it comes to Serena but I've seen her leave Daniel Island twice with injuries.
Time for our North Dakota Fact O' the week.....
North Dakota is the 19th biggest state as far as size (70,704 square miles) but it is the 47th most populated state (642,200 people as of 2000).