The Beep Baseball Game Yesterdy was Amazing!

So, I told you I was going to see a blind baseball game yesterday. It was Milan vs Bologna. Milan won. It was incredible. The players bat for themselves, so there's no pitching. They hold the ball in their left hand down low and bat it the way you would do an underhand serve in tennis. The baseball itself is hollow and has a bell in it so you have to be silent when the batter bats. There are seeing people at each base who clap so the runner knows where to go and they clap faster when they're close. The fielders listen for the ball and dive down one way or the other so that they can use their entire body to block the ball, rather than just their glove. The basemen catch fly balls just like any seeing person would do. The players were all ages and both male and female. There are 7 innings instead of 9 and foul balls are considered strikes. So three foul balls is a strike out. There are some other adapted rules also, and there was an announcer explaining them during the game. Very cool.

There was a group picture at the end and everyone had dinner together and there was a party with music. We stayed around and danced til midnight. What a blast.

Who knew. It was really incredible. Wow. My eyes well up as I write this. There's a whole world out there I know nothing about.

Reading the Financial Papers Can be Enlightening!

So I was just scanning the Sole 24 Ore when I found this article. It talks about reducing taxes up to 96% and my type of tax number is included. We'll see if it will apply to me. Hope hope hope!!!

Finding that article made me feel pretty smart. We'll see how long that keeps up as I try to read and understand it.

Want some Inspiration?

Today at 5:30 I am going to a baseball game (Trieste has two baseball diamonds, believe it or not, built after WWII when the Americans were here before Trieste was turned over to Italy...). Both teams are blind.

I asked my friend Pierfrancesco if he and his family wanted to come (he has a lovely wife and three adopted children from India, but that's another incredible story). This was his answer:

"Sure. We never get tired of seeing miracles."

Which makes me think. If blind people can play baseball in Italy, surely I can learn a thing or two about personal finance over the next year or so.

Here is my goal. I want to do my own taxes next year and have my accountant check them. I think it is time to make some miracles happen.