Between Monday and Friday, I’m the director of the Woodson Art Museum. On Sundays during the summer, I’m the third baseman for the Washington Island Islanders of the Door County Baseball League, an adult amateur league in Door County, Wisconsin. I’ve been at the “hot corner” for the Islanders for the past twenty seasons, and I’ve been blessed to continue playing the game I love for such a long time, now with some teammates and opponents half my age.
In all my years of playing, I can safely say that my museum work has never intertwined with my play on the field. However, I have known for years that Door County-based artist Craig Blietz was a dedicated fan of the Sister Bay Bays, the Island’s biggest rival. Although I’ve casually said hello to him after hard-fought battles in the past, this year is different. Craig is in Birds in Art.
While he was in Birds in Art once before, it was back in 2016 when I was the lowly project coordinator for the Museum. Now as the director, my responsibilities, and my working relationships with the artists, have grown exponentially. After this past Sunday’s unfortunate loss to the league-leading Bays, I caught up with Craig again.
For the strict art-lovers reading this blog, I’ve got bad news that we didn’t discuss our respective day jobs or the upcoming Birds in Art opening. All we talked about was the game that day and the prospects for each team for the remainder of the season. The conversation was as it should be for a Sunday afternoon in Door County.
