Baseball Season Begins: A Brief History of Opening Day, Party Ideas, and Shop Updates

1950 Wheaties Ad Featuring
Bing Crosby and Bob Hope

Good afternoon and Happy Monday on a beautiful day in New York City! Yesterday, my husband and I took in the "Mad Men" exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. It was great seeing Don Draper's office up close and personal, along with the costumes and props used on the show. The exhibit will be shown until June 14. Our advice is to get there early because the lines are long. Seeing the exhibit coincided with last night's season premiere. The gang at SC&P have entered the '70s, the styles have changed drastically, and our characters are up to their old tricks. 

It's finally spring and with that, baseball season opened last night with the Cubs losing to the Cardinals, and all other teams begin playing today. Opening Day is one of the most anticipated days in the major league's 162-game schedule. From 1876-1989, baseball's first recognized franchise, the Cincinnati Reds, opened the first game of each season. Opening Day has also become an arena for U.S. Presidents to throw the ceremonial first pitch of the season. This tradition started when William Howard Taft attended the home opener in Washington, D.C. Since then, each sitting President has thrown out at least one ceremonial first ball, either for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series. Some celebrities have also participated in this ritual. 

Here are some fun facts about Opening Day: 

• Throughout his career, Ted Williams had at least one hit each Opening Day. 
• In 1940, Cleveland ace Bob Feller pitched the only Opening Day no-hitter in Major League history.
• On his first swing of the 1974 season, Hank Aaron hit his 714th career home run, which tied Babe Ruth's record.
• In 1907, there was a major snowstorm during the opening game between the Giants and the Phillies. When the Giants started losing, unruly fans threw snowballs at the umpires.
• The biggest Opening Day margin came in 1955, when the Washington Senators beat the New York Yankees, 19 to 1.
• In 1999, the first Opening Day game played outside the U.S. or Canada took place in Monterrey, Mexico, when the Padres faced the Rockies.

Does a team's performance on Opening Day determine the rest of the season? Probably not. The record for the most Opening Day wins is nine, by the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Brown, and the New York Mets. For a chart of Opening Day results for the National League and American League, consult The Baseball Almanac.

For Las Vegas odds and predictions, please check Bovada Sportsbook.

Baseball Party Idea of the Day: Celebrations at Home hits it out of the ballpark with this baseball-themed baby shower. The food labels and old-fashioned jars of candy gives the party a vintage feel. Ticket-style invitations were sent to the guests. The decor also features a baseball base for pennant labels, a scoreboard centerpiece for the dessert table, and centerpiece "diamonds." No baseball-themed party would be complete without traditional ballpark foods such as popcorn, peanuts, Cracker Jacks, Big League Chew, hot dogs, and nachos.

It's now time to introduce our new baseball-themed games from the shop. First up, we have a baseball trivia game, where party guests test their knowledge of the National Pastime. The sample features the text on a stadium photograph. The title is on a black background, and I used an orange border.

Baseball has a long tradition of colorful nicknames. In this matching game, party guests will correctly identify the player with his nickname. The sample features a red, white, and blue vintage background and a silhouette of a batter. I used a typewriter-style font for the text.

Our next game is a word search called "Perfect Pitch," which features 74 Cy Young Award winners. The sample features a baseball mitt within the grid, used a blue border with a black background. I found a baseball-style font for the title.

Finally, here is a crossword featuring terms used in the game. The sample shown below is for a Father's Day BBQ, and it's on an oak background (similar to the wood used for baseball bats) with a red border.

We can customize all games with your choice of color, font and wording to fit sports-themed parties (e.g., bar/bat mitzvah, birthdays, and showers), bachelor parties, and Father's Day. A great idea would be to use team colors! These game and more can be found in the "Sports and Hobbies" section of the shop.

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Have a PRINTASTIC day!

Kathy

Celebrating the Parents-to-Be: Conclusion

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a relaxing weekend. Yesterday afternoon, we heard an excellent interview between Matt Zoller Seitz (editor in chief of the excellent Roger Ebert website and TV critic for New York magazine) and the one-and-only Matthew Wiener, "Mad Men" creator extraordinaire. The topic of discussion was the rise of advertising in NYC and it also brought perspective on Jews coming into their own post-World War II. The event took place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

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Today, we conclude our baby shower discussion with a few more ideas I found online, along with some more games from the shop.

As I mentioned last week, throwing male-only or co-ed baby showers is a growing trend. If the weather is warm, a popular idea for co-ed baby shower is a "Baby-Q" Bash. From Pizzazzerie, here are bottles of soda from the "Pop Shoppe." The colors were inspired by the expectant baby's navy, brown, and white nursery. For party favors, boxes of s'mores with heating instructions were given to the guests.

From The Cake Blog, I love this idea for a "Milkaholic Sip & See" shower. The decorations were done in the simple, minimalist style that I like. As you can see, the table featured lots of milk and cookies and cow prints, which tied in with the theme so well.

From the blog Once Cool Pick, guests got to take home "Badass Brownie" mixes in these cute tubes. 

Are you the type of parents who want to find out until the big day whether the new arrival will be a boy or a girl? There are a lot of parents who want to be surprised, and this adorable "What Will it Bee" shower is perfect.  love these onesie cookies with a cute little bee on each.  Courtesy of The Cake Blog.

How many of you love sock monkeys? Sock monkeys date date back to the Victorian era and are a popular shower theme. Here is a retro-themed shower hosted by the owner of Posh Paperie, which features the monkeys in little Radio Flyer red wagons. How retro is this?

It's now time to present more games from the shop:

This new listing is the traditional predictions and advice cards. In the first sample, I've used a variation on the "Cute as a Button" theme. Sample #2 features a colorful circus tent background and a cute baby elephant.

Next, we have a game called "The Great Hospital Scramble." This is a take on the popular JUMBLE game. Party guests unscramble items from a typical baby registry. They will then unscramble the letters in circles to reveal words of advice for the new parent.

Also new from the shop is a game called "Name that Nursery Rhyme Character!" In this party game, guests need to guess the identity of 20 nursery rhyme characters based on hints given. This is another great game for a book-themed baby shower.

On Wednesday, I'll present the rest of the baby shower games that we offer. We will also start working on Bingo games for the shop next week.

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Women's History Month Fun Fact of the Day: Women's History Month comes to an end tomorrow. Did you know that until 1978, a woman could be fired from a job if she became pregnant?That year, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed. Since then, U.S. employers with 15 or more employees are legally bound to provide the same insurance, wages, and additional support to a pregnant woman that would be given to any employee with medical leave or disability.

In other news:

The Dan Feyer dynasty continued as he took home the ACPT trophy for the sixth year in a row. He beat rival Tylar Hinman by a mere half- (some say quarter- ) second. Read all about it here.

Congrats to Kentucky, Wisconsin, Duke, and Michigan State for reaching the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament! The games will take place on April 4th and 6th at Indianapolis. Check out The Bleacher Report for lineups and predictions.

I've just received breaking news that Gene Saks, the Tony-winning director of "Mame" and several Neil Simon plays, has passed away at age 93. Saks started his career as an actor and his professional relationship with Simon began in 1967. Married to the late Bea Arthur for 30 years, they adopted two sons. He also had one daughter with his second wife, who survives him, along with three grandchildren. Here's a video of Mr. Saks directing the movie version of "The Odd Couple." May he rest in peace.



Wednesday's blog topic will be Easter and Passover. The shop will be closed from this Friday through Easter Sunday. We will reopen on Monday, April 6 at 6:00 a.m. EDT.

Have a PRINTASTIC day!

Kathy