Today kids and parents, who participate in local baseball leagues, will be out in full force on Seventh Avenue for the annual baseball parade, which starts at 10AM at Carroll Street and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. As I remember, the teams meet up on the side streets about an hour earlier than the parade itself.

The  parade marks the beginning of the Brooklyn baseball season and it’s quite a site to see Seventh Avenue brimming with kids instead of cars from Carroll Street all the way to Ninth Street.

For many kids it’s their first time in uniform so it’s a pretty exciting day. I especially like to see the little kids — the cute 3,4,5 year olds in their gear.

The parade ends at the band shell in Prospect Park and many local politicians and officials will be on hand to celebrate the day. There will be lots of speeches and loads of cliches about sports, life and the nature of community. The Brooklyn Dodgers will be evoked again and again by some of the older speakers no doubt.

Ah yes, it brings back memories. My son played baseball with the 78th precinct from kindergarten until he was about 11. I’m amazed that he hung in there for so long as he’s not the sportiest guy. The outfield is a great place to dream until a ball comes your way and then it’s high drama.

There were many highs and lows during his baseball career and lots of trophies (because in Park Slope everyone gets a trophy). His kindergarten team was especially cute. The kids didn’t know you were supposed to run after they batted the ball and the parents would all yell “Run, run!”

The parents we met were pretty low key about the whole baseball thing. We didn’t experience the hyper-competitive, cut throat behavior we’d heard about.

It was Park Slope after all.

The parents I knew did a lot of socializing during the practices and games. Every so often they’d take a break from their conversations and ask, “Who’s winning?”

But there was joy in watching the kids improve and really learn the skills of the game. And don’t get me wrong: joy in winning. And when the kids lost a game we watched silently as they shook hands with the other team and tried to take it in stride.

And yeah: when my son hit a base run or a made a good outfield play we were ecstatic.

Ecstatic.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

The Little League Parade is tomorrow. They may be little but there are a lot of them and it is one of the great sights to see ’em marching up Seventh Avenue and across 9th Street to the bandshell.

The 78^th Precinct is informing the community that the Little League parade route has changed this year (but I can’t find out exactly how the route has changed. I am looking into it).

Little Leaguers will gather on the morning of Saturday, April 10th, 2010 on First and Second Streets between 6^th and 8^th Avenues.

Maybe that’s the change: it’s not starting down by Carroll? Not sure yet.

If you live on those blocks, you may see lots of Little Leaguers tomorrow morning!

It’s one of those events that makes this part of Brooklyn so quaint and cute: Little Leaguers from all over Brooklyn march through Park Slope and Prospect Park to kick off the 2010 baseball and softball season.

The parade begins at  7th Avenue & 2nd Street at 10AM and ends with an event at the Bandshell. It’s all happening tomorrow on Saturday, April 10,  10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m, and it’s the day that marks Prospect Park’s official Opening Day, which means that there are great activities throughout the Park.

FYI: The 78^th Precinct is informing the community that the Little League parade route has changed this year. Little Leaguers will gather on Saturday morning on First and Second Streets between 6^th and 8^th Avenues.

If you live on those blocks, you may see lots of Little Leaguers tomorrow morning!

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

Marty Markowitz wants an Apple store in Brooklyn and he wrote Steve Jobs to tell him. Here’s the note he sent from his iPad.

Dear Mr. Jobs:

As you surely know, in the creative world, there’s no place hotter than Brooklyn , USA . Just like “Apple,” Brooklyn is now an international “brand,” signifying the coolest place on earth to live, work, play and create.

I know you’re always dreaming up the next big thing—here’s a suggestion: Hit the big time and bring an Apple store to Brooklyn !

As we speak, Manhattan ’s got four Apple stores, and our “suburb” of Staten Island ’s even got one. It’s time to bring the goods to the real market—the Mac-loving designers, writers, artists, bloggers, musicians, creative innovators and tech entrepreneurs in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, Park Slope and Carroll Gardens, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, DUMBO, Red Hook and beyond.

Downtown Brooklyn is the third largest business hub in New York City —with more college students than Cambridge , Massachusetts . And these days, tourists visiting NYC are staying in Brooklyn hotels, dining at our renowned Brooklyn restaurants, hitting our clubs and cultural hot spots (and hey, if they want to take a day trip to Manhattan , that’s okay!).

One more thing…

As Brooklyn borough president, I invite you to come to Brooklyn for a meeting, tour our borough and explore possible sites. I will even visit you in Cupertino —one hour is all I ask—and make the pitch of a lifetime for the biggest retail launch of the decade.

Let’s make “Apple Brooklyn” the ultimate prototype store—one that changes the game yet again, with a retail experience that offers superior educational outreach and catalyzes entrepreneurial partnerships—a kind of “e-town square.”

This is my official invitation: Let’s make it happen! An Apple Store Grows in Brooklyn !

Sincerely,

Marty Markowitz

Sent from my iPad

It was a 34-year-old woman who jumped in front of a train at the Seventh Avenue station on Wednesday at 5:30 PM. Hugh Crawford happened to be there and took pictures of the rescue effort.

Thankfully, the woman survived with deep cuts.  She was taken to Kings County Hospital in Crown Heights for treatment.

Service was halted for 40 minutes while rescue workers pulled the woman from the tracks.

No Words arrived at the Seventh Avenue F Train station in Park Slope on his way to Manhattan to trade in some camera equipment when he noticed that a person was under a train on the Manhattan bound side. The police were talking with the person until rescue workers arrived and got him out. We don’t know the condition of the person who fell into the tracks or how he/she fell into the tracks. But No Words did take a number of pictures of the scene.

Photos now, details later, click the photo to see the entire series

St. Vincent’s, last RC hospital in NY, is broke,  closing. –news item

Where’d the money go,

Pedophile protection.

It is so gorgous I barely know what to do with myself. Has there ever been a more beautiful New York day? It’s absolutely sublime and even more sublime if you don’t have to be indoors today.

–I want to take my computer outside and write in the park or sitting at an outdoor cafe!

–I want to go running!

–I want to walk around the park with a friend!

–I want to take my bike out for a spin!

–I want to have a picnic under a tree in Prospect Park!

–I want to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!

–I want to have my therapy appointment on my therapist’s stoop (not likely).

–I want to have a beer at The Gate at sundown.

–I want to open all our windows!

–I want it to be just like this for days!

Public school started back up again today after the Passover/Easter break. It felt like a long vacation but it was only one week and two days. OSFO didn’t do much. She spent time around the house, on the stoop, hanging out with her friends.

This morning the unbearably LOUD  alarm clock went off at 6AM in the morning and I went into OSFO’s room to wake her up.

“Come back in 10 minutes,” she said.

I returned in 10 minutes and she was still loathe to get out of bed but finally did. She went through two or three outfits before settling on the short-shorts and turquoise t-shirt and left the house around 8:05. I fell back asleep and had an unbelievably elaborate dream.

I dreamed that OSFO and about 20 friends returned to the apartment because they were cutting school. Kids were everywhere. On couches, under tables, in beds. I was furious and I furiously called their parents.

“Your child is cutting school,” I said into the phone to numerous parents.

It was quite a rancorous scene. OSFO disappeared so I spent much of the dream yelling at other people’s children to go back to school. Bit by bit, the children left the apartment; parents came; the kids returned to school. I guess I was pretty happy to have her back in school.

Unconsciously anyway.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.