Making a point at the baseball game

Four young Europeans were sitting behind Angela Zaragoza at a Giants game last week, and they were all relying on explanations provided by the one who knew the most about baseball. “The pitcher threw four balls outside of the strike zone,” said the expert, “so the batter gets a walk to first base.”

“He has to walk?” asked a companion. “He can’t run?”

Later, when the Giants scored a run, the shout went up, “Yes, he gets a point!”

P.S.: Following up on last week’s citation of the San Francisco church sign that noted Giants had more mentions in the Bible than Dodgers (which have none), Bob Rosenberg astutely observes: “Although ‘Dodgers’ does not appear in the Bible, in the Spanish translation, ‘Los Angeles’ appears 74 times.” Rosenberg wrote again, just in case his comment be misconstrued. “But understand,” he said, “that I am a fan of Los Gigantes!!!”

*** ⏩ Kind reader K.M. passed along an invitation to Friday, May 4, installation ceremonies for Abraham P. Cooper, new San Francisco postmaster. This event was at the Postal and Distribution Center on Evans Avenue, and was apparently so fancy that there was a dress code: ‘Red, black and white (business).’ ” The colors, I am told, are not the Postal Service’s signature colors, but were suggested — as was the decorative motif of the event — by the flag of the postmaster’s home country, Trinidad and Tobago. (I checked out this homey detail, and it’s a particularly handsome flag, with a distinctive diagonal stripe.)

⏩ Strange de Jim quotes the wisdom of Chelsea Handler, who “wonders how long it will take Trump to pardon Bill Cosby.”

⏩ In last week’s Chronicle Pets Remembered section, careful reader Katherine Lieban noted the first entry that paid homage to a finned friend: Frank the Fish. A glorious image of a goldfish — an artist’s or photographer’s rendition, I think, because not many pet owners take pictures of their goldfish — was accompanied by comments about Frank’s “short but very fulfilling life.” Among his hobbies: “Frank really, really enjoyed eating, and seemed to gain weight easily. His young owner delighted in pouring flakes for him, morning and evening, which seemed to quicken his weight gain. An over-feeding may have been the reason we found him floating on the bottom next to his castle. Services pending.”

This is a loving tribute, of course, but I’m wondering, especially when we considered our tributes to departed humans we love, if it is disrespectful to note that the deceased ate too much.

***

Daniel Woodhead forwarded a campaign email he received last week from Angela Alioto, headlined “Only 1 woman mayor in 167 years” — referring, of course, to Dianne Feinstein — and saying, “It’s definitely time we elect another woman mayor.” This is accompanied by pictures of Alioto, Jane Kim and London Breed, with the added notation, “I’m the most qualified and experienced.”

It winds up being pretty much a direct hit on Mark Leno. Woodhead thinks its creator “should be tarred and feathered.” I’m less irate. But maybe we should be a little more evolved than pitting the girls against the boy.

***

In April, a New York magazine Travel guide focused on San Francisco, with an array of pieces about the best breakfasts, views, late-night entertainment, etc. One of the stories in the package was “A Day Out in Divisadero, San Francisco’s Epicenter of Cool.” Eat your heart out, Valencia Street!

A perfect day on Divisadero, as planned by Josey Baker of the Mill, featured an array of establishments that have opened there in the past dozen years or so: Yoga Garden, the Perish Trust, Rare Device, Bi-Rite Market, 12-year-old Nopa. There were also mentions of a few places that had been there for longer: Eddie’s Cafe, Everlasting Tattoo and Alamo Square Park.

Having been a longtime dweller in the neighborhood, and rather sentimental about that, I felt a twinge of nostalgia for traditional Divisadero establishments that disappeared as the hood became the “epicenter of cool.” Gone but not forgotten: What about the House of Stools N Bars? The place where you went to buy (back?) the hubcaps that had disappeared from your car the night before? The beloved Mo Jo? Country Cheese?

PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING

“I’d feel better about myself if I were in nonproliferation.” Young man who’d said he was designing weapons at Livermore lab, overheard at the San Francisco Film Festival by Tom Miller