Baseball, not redundant

At a recent worship team practice or youth group (I forget which), I was talking to our worship leader, Ken, about how our main sound tech guy was on his annual golfing trip.  We mentioned how he was playing 18-27 holes a day and how nice that would be.  Ken was quick to point out how he'd rather be watching 18 innings of baseball a day then playing all that golf.  My sentiments too.

I seem to write about baseball a lot.  I like many other sports and probably enjoyed playing football the most, but there's something about baseball that causes me to want to be poetic, linguistic and tell its tales.  The first time I really remember writing about baseball was in my 10th grade English class taught by Robert Smith (still the best teacher I've had).  We took a look at the movie, The Natural, starring Robert Redford and how his character, Roy Hobbs, was a presentation of the King Arthur Legend.   I think the legends, the stories,and  mystical nature of baseball history has made it intriguing to me.  It's stories are ones that are passed down from generation to generation, as a grandfather tells a grandson how he saw Bob Feller pitcher, Willie Mays run down a fly ball, or Ted Williams knock out a base hit.  How a father tells his children about Dennis Eckersley's No-hitter, seeing Rod Carew swipe a base, or Reggie Jackson hit a towering home run.  I know I will tell my kids about seeing my favorite player, Nolan Ryan, pitch.  About seeing Ken Griffey Jr's sweet swing, and Kenny Lofton's amazing catches along the outfield wall.  The stories of past players seem to continually build upon and enrich the history of baseball

There are many large-than-life figures too, from Babe Ruth to Satchel Paige to Shoeless Joe Jackson to Jackie Robinson and many almost-too-good-to-be-true tales like Ruth calling his shot; Paige waiving in his outfielders and infielders because he knew he'd strikeout the side; Shoeless Joe's bat, "Black Betsy"; and the countless times Jackie stole home (19 in his career). 

The legends we hear about the game peak are interest as we discuss, debate, and even argue about who's the greatest, how a particular player would do in today's game, and try to adjust stats for the time era the player played in.  It makes for great theatrics to try to pit our favorite players of yesterday and today on the same diamond.  Author Kevin King tries to do this a bit in his book, All the Stars Came Out That Night, as he puts together a fictional account of the stars of the Major Leagues and Negro Leagues coming together to play a great all-star game in the depression era.

This is what's great about baseball, its a game for everyone...the fanatic, the family, the leisurely fan, the historian, the writer and musician alike (check out The Baseball Project).  This seems like a hodgepodge of baseball thoughts, so more on all of this in upcoming posts.





Record of attended Indians games: 0-1

2010 MLB Games attended: 1 to date

Hot Dogs eaten at a game this year: 1 to date (1 last game)

Nighttown

Here is a really good article from the Plain Dealer interviewing Nighttown owner, Brendan Ring.  Nighttown is a jazz club and restaurant in Cleveland Heights and just a hop, skip, and a jump from Case Western Reserve University.  I really enjoyed the times I have gone there and think it is the premier place to hear jazz in Cleveland.  The article is quite interesting and I really like the thoughts he has about living and working in Cleveland (he came from Ireland, you should check it out Josh) as well as some of his favorites around town.  He even gave a nice shout out to the Eldred Theater at CWRU and the Nottingham Spirk design company (which is also right next to CWRU).  Brendan Ring seems to be a good ambassador for jazz, cleveland, and local business.  Check his place out...the patio just opened for the summer season too!

MLB Picks

With today being Opening Day, here are my 2010 MLB picks

American League:

AL East - New York Yankees
AL Central - Minnesota Twins
AL West - Texas Rangers
AL Wild Card - Boston Red Sox

AL MVP - Evan Longoria
AL Cy Young - Jon Lester


National League:

NL East - Philadelphia Phillies
NL Central - St. Louis Cardinals
NL West - Colorado Rockies
NL Wild Card - Atlanta Braves

NL MVP - Albert Pujols
NL Cy Young - Roy Halladay


Playoffs
Yankees over Rangers
Twins  over Red Sox
Phillies over Rockies
Cardinals over Braves

Yankees  over Twins
Phillies over Cardinals

Phillies  over Yankees 

Welcome Back Baseball

As Tom Hamilton would say, "Welcome back to another season of Indians baseball." Unfortunately, the Tribe started the season out poorly, getting shut out by the Chicago White Sox 6-0.  Chicago's Mark Buehrle did make an amazing play in the field.  After a line drive hit off him and rickashayed into foul territory, he chased down the ball and flipped it with is mitt between his legs, getting the batter out at first.  We may have already seen the best play of the year on Opening Day.





A few articles to read for the start of the season...

Terry Pluto talks about spring training and taking a realistic look on the bright side for the Indians.

The Plain Dealer's Dennis Manoloff has a good two part interview with Bob Feller. Part 1 and Part 2.

Les Levine writes about his Opening Day memories with the Tribe.

Former MLBer Doug Glanville talks about his first opening day and compares where he was at as a 20 year old baseball player to that of 20 year old Atlanta Braves phenom, Jason Heyward, who homered in his first major league at bat today.

Softball's just around the corner

What a beautiful day out today.  I sure hope the weather isn't playing an April fools joke on us.  Got a chance to toss the ball around today with my brother, while we start getting are arms warmed up for the softball season.  I can not wait!  It'll be great to playing closer to home and on the new Willig fields.  I ready to get going tomorrow.  With all this talk of softball, it reminds me of The Simpsons's episode, "Homer at the Bat," where Mr. Burns gets a bunch of Major League ball players to play on the power plant's softball team.  There is a great rendition of "Talkin' Softball" borrowing from the song "Talkin' Baseball" song.  Here it is for your listening pleasure.  Hope it brings thoughts of the summer sun and fun times.  Enjoy!