I miss my visits to various ballparks; the overpriced beer, the spilled nachos, hauling myself upright for people to pass, collapsing into my seat and hauling myself up again for the late-comer, the earsplitting loudspeakers. There’s something about a summer night at a bank-sponsored elliptical heat sink, watching the moths in the floodlights.

But most of all it’s the game I miss.

I long for the great moment when the down-and-outers spark a rally, and claw their way back, run by run, chasing starter, middle-distance, and even threatening the closer. Finally, with tying and go-ahead runs on base, “and the last man in,” closer faces hitter, and the hoots-and-hollers of the fans reach crescendo.

What a let-down, when the hitter chases a split-finger with the count 3-and-2, and grounds out 4 to 3, ending the inning and the rally.

And today I’m reminded of what I’ve lost this summer, as a promising rally peters out (although the STJ is not Peter Panuthos, but Lewis (“The Name is a Home Run”) Carluzzo).

Here’s Faith Lynn Brashear and Hendel N. Thistletop, 2020 T. C. Memo. 122, filed 8/19/20.

This one started out showing real promise. See my blogposts “‘Got To Be There’ – Part Deux,” 8/26/16, and “A Court of Limited Jurisdiction,” 10/25/16.

Well, Faith Lynn and Hendel finally shucked their erstwhile lawyer DJ and went to trial. You can read STJ Lew’s blow-off of unsubstantiateds. It’s too disheartening for me.

And no designated hitters today.