I’ve always despised extra innings games in baseball. It’s not that I dislike the concept. I get it, you have to play until someone wins. It’s just that I don’t like the feeling in the pit of my stomach when the Yankees, as the road team, don’t score in the top of the inning and then the home team just needs to score one run to win. It’s the uneasiness of the 9th inning or any inning in the playoff elimination game. Baseball has always been a place to escape for me. A 3-hour spa day that’s repeated practically every day for at least 162 games. The Yankees were in Seattle again last night. And if you can’t tell by the stirring intro, they lost in extra innings. After scoring a gazillion runs in the first two games, they managed a big fat donut. Zero, zilch, nada. Major League Baseball has made a lot of changes that I agree improve the game. The current extra innings rules subtract rather than add. A free or “ghost” runner is added automatically at second base. For thousands of years (okay maybe just since the 1830s) extra innings worked just like the 9th inning in a tie game. Both teams were guaranteed at least one at-bat. This would continue until the game was no longer tied after a full inning. No extra, unearned baserunners. It’s like you played a full game and then the winner was decided by a dance off. I am happy when the Yankees win but I still don’t like the unfairness of the situation. Well enough of my sleepless rants of a madman. On to the next sabbatical adventure.
Maple Street Biscuit Company was established in 2012, in Jacksonville Florida. It was sold to Cracker Barrel in 2019 but their menu and name remains the same. There is a Maple Street Biscuit location near my home. Until today, I had never stepped inside or even ordered takeout. Their main selection consists of various buttermilk biscuit concoctions with numerous toppings and side. I am an egg, pancakes and grits man at heart. I always saw biscuits as a tasty side dish to be eaten with butter and jelly while waiting for your meal, not a main dish. Fortunately, they had something called a Fritaffle. Basically, it is an omelet baked in a cast iron waffle pan. I ordered one with bacon and cheddar cheese. It came with a side of home fries. I must admit, it was quite tasty, and I hungrily cleaned my plate. They also have drip coffee of varying varieties. I tried something called Maple Tap. Like the name implies it has subtle maple flavors. Not bad. The restaurant has open seating with plenty of tables for parties large and small including a covered and screened patio. The setup is simple. You go to the counter to order and pay for you food in advance. They have a cute gimmick where instead of table numbers, you have a question of the month. Whatever your answer is, this is how they identify your order. This month’s question is “what would you name your sailboat?”
I answered the Minnow (yes from Gilligan’s Island) because I couldn’t remember the name of Quint’s boat in Jaws. (It was the Orca). That would have been much cooler than the Minnow. As a first-time visitor, they gave me a desert biscuit to go. I am sure one my daughters will eat it. By the look of the clouds, heavy thunderstorms are going to be moving through the area soon. Time to head back home.
