2021 Miss Hooters Gianna Tulio Stops By, Ladies Fight At Braves Game & The Field Of Dreams Looks Awesome

Odds & ends before I head north for a couple of days

Here I was just trying to head up north for a few days AND IT HAS BEEN ONE ROUND OF WILD THUNDERSTORMS AFTER ANOTHER for what feels like three days straight. I'm supposed to pick up my canoe partner -- the canartner -- from the Detroit airport, but the metro area is just being pummeled by heavy waves of 60-70 mph storms.

Look, Mother Nature, I don't care if you flood I-75 north of downtown Detroit. Just do it once I get about 75 miles north of Detroit Metro where it's open highway all the way to my final destination.

...moving right along...the weather in Dyersville, Iowa for tonight's Field of Dreams game is going to be absolutely perfect. The high will hit 88 today with bright sunshine. We're going to get baseball from the cornfield, and it's going to be glorious. First pitch is at 7:15 on Fox. For those who haven't seen the field, scroll down to see how beautiful this place is.

As for future games, news broke last night when Cubs manager David Ross let it slip that his team is scheduled to play in next year's Field of Dreams game. A source told the Des Moines Register that the Cubs could play "near the 'Field of Dreams' site in rural northeast Iowa that the MLB constructed."

While MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred isn't making promises, he's not ruling out a version of Field of Dreams in the future. "It is important for us to play live in states where we don't play on a regular basis, and I think Iowa certainly fits that bill," Manfred said this week.

This brings me to ... Where should MLB take its traveling pop-up baseball idea next? Would the union allow a game in a place such as Fairbanks, Alaska for a midnight sun game? What about a game in Hawaii? Somewhere in Montana? How about we play a game in Vermont on some dairy farm?

The ballpark where the White Sox and Yankees will play tonight will be left behind to the owners of "Field of Dreams" after the game. The plan is to use the ballpark for future amateur games and a place where future MLB games and minor league games are played right there in the cornfield.

How big is tonight for Fox? Sports Business Journal reported this week that the network will see advertising revenue higher than any other regular-season game over its 25-year run broadcasting MLB games.

With numbers like that, you can pretty much pencil in MLB for a return trip.

• Thank you to those who reached out with get well wishes after I broke the news that I had been stung THREE TIMES IN THE JUGULAR by a yellowjacket. I'm now back to full strength and the swelling has gone down. It shouldn't affect my golf game this weekend.

• John C. had me worried with his message last night about the Thursday Night Mowing League. His first message included two tips for TNML, but he was sending a message on Wednesday. A follow-up email clarified things.

Key to the TNML is planning.  First, mow late in the day to beat the heat.  Second, front yard first so you can finish up in the back when the Reds game is on.  Veteran move! 

Pro tip #3-When your old fraternity brother is going to be in town on Thursday night, you move TNML to Wednesday. Kinda like the old Monday Night Football Thursday Edition (hence the Wednesday submission).

Commish response: I love the TV location. It appears you can see it from all spots in the pool. I'm going to allow John to mow out of turn this week because it sounds like he's going to be busy telling old stories from the college days tonight while watching the Reds who have an odd 5:10 first pitch in Atlanta.

• Chris B. in Texas is always keeping me up-to-date on commodities. Wednesday he sent along the following headline for those of you ready to jump back into those projects around the house.

• Chris B. is also fired up about the Little League World Series dimensions:

I am a HUGE fan of youth sports, but not so much of the LLWS. It's just not right. They have 12-year-olds playing on a 46/60 field which is WAY too small for them, with no lead-offs. At our neighborhood rec league that's the field & rules our 9-10-year-olds play! The LLWS level of play is for kids that are just starting out on the mound... so they focus on pitching only and don't have to worry about holding runners on. It's silly for advanced 12-year-olds. No action at all on the bases as without lead-offs because 12-year-old catchers will gun the runner at 2B every time with that short throw. And those kids pitching from 46' is nuts. They should be pitching from 50' and when they start 13u Fall ball in just a few weeks they will be pitching from 54' (with 80' bases).

I think Chris is onto something here with distances. Thinking back to my Little League time (Hardscrabble, the oldest LL in Ohio before the league closed a few years ago), the move from the 8-9-year-old field to the 10-11-12-year-old field wasn't nearly as dramatic as when I turned 13 and ended up on a grown-man diamond.

However, Williamsport has its complex set. ESPN/ABC is happy. The sponsors are happy. Little League hasn't gone out of business yet, and the games go on. Little League doesn't appear to be in a hurry to change field sizes for their cash cow.

• Hawaii is going back to limiting social gatherings. The state says no more than 10 people should be gathering indoors and 25 outdoors. Governor David Ige is getting very specific here with his new rules: "No mingling, and masks must be worn unless actively eating."

Good luck to all of you who had Hawaiian vacations scheduled.

• And finally, it looks like your kids will soon want a foldable phone. Samsung's Galaxy Fold 3 "seems like an improvement in every way," CNET says, over the Galaxy Z Fold 2 that was pretty much an experiment phone. Base price for the Fold 3 will be $1,800. In other words, give it a year or two and you'll be using a foldable phone that has a 12-megapixel camera.

Let's have a great day. Fingers crossed I'm up north on a golf course inhaling Pure Michigan by the end of the day.

Numbers from :

Stuff You Guys Sent In & Stuff I Like: