on baseball

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.
-A. Bartlett Giamatti

This season is breezing by. Opening day feels like this morning's paper. I worry I'll awaken tomorrow to October.

quick hit

-Howard Ulman, from the AP mails it in here. I'm not going to dissect the whole thing. But check out the title:

Japanese pitcher draws plenty of attention.

Thanks for making that crystal. The rest of the article is factually correct, despite the information being two weeks to four months old. Did he really wait until two days ago to publish all this dribble?

Give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's a general article for AP use, meant to edumacate the non-obsessed baseball masses. But Ulman seems to focus on New England area related sports. I feel a thousand monkeys with typewriters unpaid blogger could do the same job.

a few spring thoughts

Quicky linkorama for the lazy Friday afternoon:

-Some of my good friends live/are stationed in Georgia. It's a fine place. There's an international food market with an amazing selection in Decatur, near Atl. But I suppose judging a state by it's food venues doesn't work as well as judging a state by it's news broadcasts. I do love them Krispy Kremes, but not that much.

-This joke is getting old. Real old. So much for fewer immature postings. Best of luck to the child though.

-That Porter fellow is now unemployed. Wouldn't it blow if somehow the Ravens ended up with an AD for JP swap?

-Not merely about Albert Gore, rather an excellent article by David Remnick. Am I still miffed by Al name-dropping his book(5x) at my graduation speech? Not at all. In fact, congratulations on the Oscar. You're now officially cooler than Three 6 Mafia in my book. Not really. Three 6 is badass.

-Daisuke, 6pm tonight. Why haven't I bought mlb.tv yet? Aside from being able to view all these games, I like mlb.tv for the refreshing announcing from each local market. I'm not saying every local announcer is a Rhodes Scholar, illuminating the world with beams of eloquent analysis. But at least they make certain assumptions of their audience, things like them actually watching the games and paying attention to the daily news reports. Rarely will some local homer pretend the audience had just crawled out of a cave and needs to be explained the infield fly rule, or talk about winter acquisitions in June, or pull a Steve Phillips:

"The key here is consistency because x-player is such a good athlete, and if you watch him play, he knows how to swing the bat and hit the ball and make plays, because making plays is what makes him great."

-Okay. So saying local guys are good announcers is specious at best. But here's a list of national guys I can't stand: Steve Phillips, Joe Buck, Joe Morgan, Tim McCarver. Please stop talking gentleman. By your voices, I feel myself becoming dumber. (Umm, I mean getting more dumberer at an increased pace.)

MLB predictions

I realize this is a bit late and the predictions may seem stilted. But trust me, this entire conversation took place before first pitch on Tuesday. I've the email records to prove it. Without futher ado...

ALDS:
-Yankees over Tigers in 3. RJ dislocates back, breaks hip, career ends.
-A's over Twins in 4.
ALCS:
-Yankees over A's in 7. In a freak deja vu moment, Giambi singles off of Zito in the 7th, Terrance Long pinch hits for Bobby Abreu, who suddenly developed Sammy-Sosa-Dinosaur Syndrome. Long slaps a double to right, Giambi rounds third and beats the Scutaro flip at home for the go head and game winning run.

NLDS:
-Dodgers over Mets in 5. No Pedro no win.
-Cards over Pads in 4, again.
NLCS:
-Dodgers over Cards in 6. Game 6 LA walkoff with back to back to back to back to back HRs off of Isi to win. Nomar tears groin during celebration.

World Series:
Dodgers in 6. Derek Lowe wins all three series clinching games, again. A boy named Theo commits suicide.

This is what I hope will happen. Except for that last line. I guess I'd only put money on the Yankees to win. Of course certain holy vows I have pledged won't allow that. But here are some other bets that I'd like to see made:

1. An over/under on the run-scored difference between the Yankees/Tigers series, I'm going to say 30 (42-12). Seriously two 17-3ish blowouts and an 8-6 close one. Those young dé-toi kids are almost as prolific of K-machines as A-Rod.

Speaking of which, my friend PJ hyperbolizes (only kind of) that A-Rod's going to make the last out in game 7 with the bases loaded, losing to the Mets. Of course no hatred for Mr. Purple Lips lingers after an entire summer of NY-Post shaming and non-clutchness. PJ, a Royals fan, just loves baseball for the game itself.

2. This did, however, spawn an interesting question. How will A-Rod create the last out: k, -k (so), or GIDP? I'm thinking 25/25/50 respectively.

*edit: In Thursday's 4-3 loss, somebody's line went 0-4, 3 k's. Guess who?

3. Grady Little pulls well, a Grady Little in an important game...the dude's like a white Art Shell.

*edit: that is verbatim from an email sent Oct 3, 2006 3:48 PM. A Penny for your thoughts?

4. "Yankee's farm system" said overunder 5x/game by Joe Buck. An oxymoron and an even bigger lie.

5. Ny-Post headline: "Pedro tosses RJ to the ground in subway brawl."