Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

It’s been awhile since I last presumed upon you to indulge my vain amusement with “logo-rubbing” selfies. So, having collected several new ones, here goes:

With baseball season underway and my home garage near the epicenter of Cardinal Nation, I’ll start off with this dashing pose with the St. Louis Cardinals’ “birds on the bat.” In 2012 an ESPN reader survey ranked the Cardinal logo the third most iconic logo in all sports, and #1 in baseball. (Only once in Cardinal history did the team uniform lack the birds on the bat: 1956. The following year the logo was back and the GM who’d suggested getting rid of it was gone.)

Here at the home plate gate at Busch Stadium you can see the evolution of the logo. Zooming in, you can see a version of the logo from the 1920s is depicted on vertical banners displaying the years in which the Cardinals won their NINETEEN National League pennants and ELEVEN World Series titles. The green awnings display the current logo, a refined and more literal depiction of a proud cardinal on a baseball bat.

Synonymous with “Opening Day” in St. Louis is the march around the stadium by another team – a team of Clydesdales representing my proud profession: coaches (OK, so they call theirs a beer wagon . . . technically, it’s a coach). Here I am with the Clydesdale logo at Warm Springs Ranch where the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales are bred.

There’s no better way to score a bunch of great logo-rubbing selfies than to share a parking lot with semis hauling racing teams – in this case, Supercross racing. Rock Star, Suzuki, Dunlop, Husqvarna, and Honda are currently some of the most recognizable pop-culture emblems. Lawn and farm equipment, cars and trucks, motorcycles, tires, sports equipment, energy drinks, and nearly every field of racing are dressed in these logos. Oh, and check out the photo with one of my favorites: the Honda wing logo (last refined in 1988, its beginnings date back to 1947). We got photo-bombed by a lizard! (A gecko actually)

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

NEWS OF THE ELITE: No, not all Clydesdales are created equal. To qualify for the Budweiser hitch, here are the requirements at minimum: must be geldings at least four years old, 18 hands (6′) high, have a bay coat, four white stockings, a black mane, a white blaze on the face, a black tail, and weigh between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds.

A NEWBORN IN THE NEWS: My passengers were treated to a special introduction: Fargo was recently born to Prospect (Sire) and Faith (Dam).