Are you undecided on whom to root for in the 2009 World Series? Well, I’m here to tell you that the Phillies should be your team — for the next week or so at least.
Around here, we don’t take kindly to bandwagon jumpers. The thinking goes that if you haven’t suffered through [...]
We discuss the South African runner that might or might not be a man, Rick Pitino, and other sports topics. You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 90 mins) or subscribe to the feed. If you use iTunes, just click here and then click subscribe and iTunes will take care [...]
It’s that time of year again. Boy, I say that a lot.
A couple of players get inducted into the Hall of Fame; Andre Dawson and Dale Murphy don’t because they played one era before their accomplished were rendered obsolete; ESPN speculates on who will get in next year; someone mentions that Pete Rose should be [...]
In parts of the U.S., a small town may have only one or two car dealerships or authorized service centers for vehicles within a 100-200 mile radius. Therefore, the closure of a Chrysler or GM dealership could virtually take a whole town with it, including sponsorships for youth baseball.
Shall we establish this irrefutable fact straight away? Just as football was perfectly tailored to television, baseball is a perfect match for the Internet. No other sport provides as much material for daily discussion. People can gather in online communities to talk about the game going on, trades which should occur, coaches and general managers who should be fired, and they can do it everyday. Seems a bit fanatical… but oh yeah… fans… right.
My first game there was a real blazer, in ’93. It was hot. The Yankees came back on the Angels, late. They were down 8-1 or something. Rallied and won. From my upper-deck seat, the ball appeared a snowball, flying around, serving the whims of gravitation. It was all I watched… the snowball in the blistering sun…. Slicing through the infield and the sliding men trying to grab it… the snowball… soaring over the fence as the crowd reacts favorably… the snowball… it was everything. I was only vaguely aware that the Yankees had won. It mattered little. I had just seen a show. And I was hooked.
Not unlike the small business owner trying to remain fiscally sound and viable in the current marketplace in the toughest economy in nearly 80 years, small sized and boutique bat makers struggle to survive.
Of rhythmic strings and a bleeding syringe, baseball is often a paradox. The basic game is regulated chaos, carefully confined performance art often disguised in metaphor by swooning scribes drowning in reverie*. This is a show, a worthwhile exhibition, unrehearsed and unpredictable human drama preferably played out under a blazing sun.
Would you believe it, back in 2005, there were actually articles proclaiming that the steroids era was over and that little ball was back? I kid you not. Jason Giambi, oh so hilariously shrunken on a Sports Illustrated cover, was just another symbol [they love those] for a bygone era. An article suggested that the combination of steroids testing and rising young pitching made the game more receptive to the talents of speedsters like Scott Podsednik and Juan Pierre. We had evolved beyond Jason Giambi. After a slow start, Giambi wound up crushing 32 home runs that very season, and casual baseball fans collectively just asked themselves who the hell Scott Podsednik is?
When MLB negotiated with TBS to air the entirety of all first-round MLB 2008 playoff series, it was the first time in MLB and television broadcasting history that post-season coverage was not available on over-the-air TV for fans. And it was just a harbinger of things to come.
