William World News William F. Yurasko's blog v.14 – Nats, Penn State, Redskins, greater DC , travel, more

On March 1 I completed a year of using Google Analytics on this Web site. While I believe Google Analytics may undercount (Sitemeter thinks I have more hits/visits) it is nevertheless a very robust service. Over the next week or so, I will be sharing a few details from my site tracking
Here are the most [...]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Happy 2009 to you and yours. We got Will to celebrate a little on New Year’s Eve, but an adult sized “Happy New Year” sash with flaky paint on it made for a messy little boy. Thankfully, we were about to bathe him anyway.
flickr family and friends can see several other New [...]

Penn State won the Big11Ten! Everything is coming up roses! The Nittany Lions throttled Michigan State 49-18. It seems like everyone we know was at the game, but e watched it over at my parents house with a nice warm fire. We had a great time, though a Yale win would have been nice too.
Penn [...]

I finally found an appropriate occasion to break open this bottle of Maker’s Mark that I got in summer 2007. You may recall that I went to a special event in Northwest D.C. that featured bottles of Maker’s Mark being dipped in blue wax and signing by Washington Senators legend Frank Howard. Ah the symbolism [...]

Penn State has several nicknames for defensive players. To help you keep them straight, I have a handy picture guide.
Strong-side Linebacker
Weak-side Linebacker
Weak-side Defensive End
Okay, for the uninitiated, that is Sam, Fritz and Will. I’ve been known to take credit for the last one too for obvious reasons.
The Middle Linebacker is know as the “Mike” but [...]

THE BRONX — Erica and I took her parents to their first game at Yankee Stadium. It was my fourth and final visit, the first being 20 years ago. Like that day, the Yankees played the Kansas City Royals, but this time they won. It took 13 innings and heroics of CF Brett Gardner to [...]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Congratulations go out my brother Christoper and his wife Sarah on the birth of their first child, a girl named Alexandra Marie.
Will’s new cousin (and neighbor) is going to be called Sasha, the Russian nickname for Alexandra. She is my parents’ first granddaughter, an adorable one at that too. We are [...]

In 2003, ESPN Page 2 conducted an unscientific survey of all the ballparks in the major leagues. I used the same criteria to evaluate RFK Stadium in 2005 and then again after it was “re-opened” by the Lerner group when they bought the team in 2006. After three visits to the new Nationals Park, I [...]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Erica and I are pleased to announce that our first child was born on Saturday night. After nine months of referring to it as “Blueberry” , we now have a real name for him — William Richard Yurasko. We are calling him Will. We didn’t know it was a boy until yesterday [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ryan Zimmerman sent a telegram to the baseball world this evening: “I am Mr. Walkoff.” The fourth-year third baseman did with a ninth inning solo home run into the left field seats. His homer won the first game at Nationals Park for the home team. This may be even better than [...]