Like lots of stuff, they really don't make baseball cards like they used to. Halftone action thumbnail! Alternating colors in the player names! Don Drysdale's coif!
12 Sep 07 · filed under: baseball, the ancient past, visual · 
(0) ·
#
I’ve said it before: I don’t like Barry Bonds. So it may seem strange that I wanted to be there when he hit home run number 756. But consider this: I love baseball; the record for career home runs is, like it or not, one of baseball’s hallowed milestones; Bonds plays in my city; the Giants were beginning a home stand as he was poised to break the record. Too many stars were aligned for me to NOT try to get into a game. I could always boo, right?
So, on Tuesday, August 7, I rode my bike to AT&T Park, hoping to get lucky and figuring that I wouldn't. Immediately, I got really lucky, scoring an amazing ticket in the club level (a $70 value) for the price of two AT&T Park beers. At that moment, I had a good feeling. A couple of hours later, Bonds faced a 3-2 count, and I decided to join 45,000+ other fans in pointing my digital camera at the plate. Up to that point, I made sarcastic remarks about mediating the experience in that way. Now I’m posting my crappy version on the Internet. Why? I don’t know. Anyway, a moment ...
read on »
20 Aug 07 · filed under: baseball, san francisco · (0) ·
#
After all my trash talk about Bonds and how he should just fess up to the roids, I saw him hit a dinger last Saturday, and I actually cheered. Like, I stood up as it left the bat, and maybe even jumped in the air when it went out, all the while clapping my hands. It was irresistible. He hit the thing a mile. It was awesome.
12 Sep 06 · filed under: baseball, flickr · (0) ·
#
As Barry Bonds approaches Babe Ruth on the lifetime homerun list, he's getting a heckuva lot of ambivalent coverage: Veterans express ambivalence and skepticism (SI), even San Franciscans souring on the event (AP via ESPN), but baseball has seen worse, though not by much (ESPN). I figured I'd do some first-hand investigation this afternoon, so I rode down to AT&T Park during lunch. When Bonds came up to bat, there was the requisite "Bar-ry, Bar-ry," but even this seemed pretty half-hearted, like everyone felt that they kinda had to chant along. Cynical comments rippled through the crowd. It seems weird to say this, but maybe you don't have to like Bonds as a person to feel drawn to his achievement. Or, how about this: Maybe there's a whole different kind of enjoyment that one derives from watching villains break records? Whatever it was, it was definitely not 2001 all over again, when a Bonds at-bat sent palpable electicity through the crowd. In 2006, it's more akin to watching Enron execs lie their asses off in court.
11 May 06 · filed under: baseball · (2) ·
#
In the fall of 1990, I went to see a Twins-Royals game in the Homer Dome. Do I need to mention that the Royals were not contending for a playoff spot? They weren't, and neither were the Twins. There were approximately 1000 people there, but the rare assortment of players on the field has made the game stick in my memory. Royal legend George Brett was locking down a batting title in a third decade.[1] Bo Jackson was about to play his last baseball game at full strength. And Kirby Puckett was in his prime, smiling, clowning, and inspiring even the Royals fans (me and my friends) among the crowd to cheer for him.
My friends and I had an entire left-field section to ourselves, and the Metrodome's infamous acoustics combined with the absence of people provided my friend Adlai with a rare opportunity to ensure that Twins fan favorite Dan Gladden heard his every comment about his mullet. It also afforded us an opportunity to hear Kirby clowning around with people in the center field bleachers. At that point, no one could argue that Puck was anything but a great guy. He was fun; the Twins were ...
read on »
05 Apr 06 · filed under: baseball · (0) ·
#
I was just watching ESPN's Opening Day coverage of the Braves-Dodgers game, and the conversation between commentator Erik Karros (wasn't he Rookie of the Year like 5 years ago?) and Rick Sutcliffe turned to steroids. Karros couldn't contain himself. He blustered and rambled for a while, criticizing those who demanded an investigation, and basically rehashed Mark McGwire's non-denial denial to a Senate sub-committee: Steroids were abused in the past; the league has adopted a stricter policy; let's all move on. The message was unoriginal -- a lot of current players don't want to dwell on this unsavory development -- but the air of defensiveness mixed with disdain seemed oddly reminscent of another guilty, defiant person -- Donald Rumsfeld.
Anyway, over the past couple of days, I tore through Game of Shadows, the recently published steroids expose by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. After a month of PR build-up and published excerpts, there weren't many surprises:
Bonds availed himself of steroids. One might say, a buttload of steroids.
So did Marion Jones.
They're both liars.
So are a lot of professional athletes.
Bonds is the big story in Game of Shadows. If you couldn't already tell by his cartoonishly swollen neck/head and his late-career power explosion, ...
read on »
03 Apr 06 · filed under: baseball, lit, reviews · (0) ·
#
I watch so much SportsCenter that I figured I'd try to chronicle the non sequitors that they use to punctuate excellent sports moments.
Three beers apiece for my co-workers -- While high-fives among teammates are being exchanged. Derivation: Shawshank Redemption
What's on the grill? -- Punctuates the moment when someone, usually Dwayne Wade, dunks in someone else's face, i.e. "Jason Collins, what's on the grill?"
Pay for my dry cleaning! -- Accentuated a Vince-Carter-administered NBA playoff dunk. Derivation: SNL
Bartender! Johnny Walker Red. -- Highlight involving the Cincinnati Reds.
_____ has powers comparable to Wonderboy! -- Fill in the blank with any player who is about to do something amazing in the highlight reel. Derivation: Tenacious D.
That's levitation, homes. -- Dunk that could otherwise be described with the words "helicopter," "windmill," or "tomahawk," or any dunk by Vince Carter or Andre Igoudala in the month of December 2005. Derivation: Tenacious D.
Bartender! Canadian Club. -- used in conjunction with the Blue Jays, Raptors, or any Canadian NHL team.
Get to the chopper! -- Variously applied, e.g. Albert Pujols has just hammered the crap out of the ball and is beginning to trot around the bases; Ben Wallace has completely ...
read on »
02 Mar 06 · filed under: baseball, the ancient past · (0) ·
#
The Baseball Hall of Fame is filled with guys who cheated, played dirty, were terrible role models, drunks, jerks, domestic abusers, the list goes on. If any of these things disqualified players from eligibility, guys like Gaylord Perry & Whitey Ford (cheaters), Mickey Mantle (a great guy, but a drunk), Ty Cobb (a jerk) and many, many more would have been denied entry.
With the exception of the Pete Rose affair, history has ruled that only two things matter when it comes to HOF criteria: statistical milestones and World Series rings. And for Rose, all would likely be forgiven if he would suck it up and apologize.
In another few years, we'll add some more characters to the Hall's rogue gallery -- the juicers. One of them will be Rafael Palmeiro, who testified before Congress that he had never taken steroids. Palmeiro punctuated his testimony with finger-jabs at the assembled Congresspeople, a gesture that now seems oddly similar to the technique used by Jose Canseco to inject steroids into Palmeiro's butt. Yesterday, Palmeiro was exposed as a juicer, and the NYT reported that he used the real stuff rather than some super-charged multi-vitamin:
Palmeiro said Monday that he had never intentionally taken steroids, ...
read on »
03 Aug 05 · filed under: baseball · (0) ·
#
