Will's Baseball Round Up

We did an hour on various machines yesterday, treadmill, rope pulley, stair master, rowing machine. A tough but good session. The left foot hurts we don't know why. We'd like to hit the gym today, but the foot might not let us. 

Took the girls to pick up Mrs. Stroock at the airport yesterday morning. Later we celebrated mom's triumphant return by ordering Chinese and watching the Mets/Phillies. 

The Daily Caller reports that the Texas Rangers' home opener was packed. Good. It should be patently obvious by now that lockdowns, social distancing and masks don't work and probably make things worse. NJ.com reports: 'The state’s seven-day average for newly confirmed cases is 3,918, up 7% from a week ago and 44% from a month ago.' How are Florida and Texas doing, ya'll?

We haven't been to an MLB game since...Christ 2004, we think.* But there's a great minor league team ten minutes from us, the Somerset Patriots. Until the Wuflu hit the Fami di Stroock would go to half a dozen games a year. We looked over the Patriots' website and so far they aren't requiring vaxes, tests, etc etc. Good. We won't do it. We've been vaxed, but we'll be damned if we're going to prove it just to go to a ballgame.

Man, oh man, did MLB commissioner Rob Manfred ever screw up by moving the All Star Game out of Atlanta. Idiot. They were going to celebrate Hank Aaron, baseball's homerun king and a black player who had to overcome real racism, not the phony baloney 'systemic' kind. Under Rob Manfred there's no baseball in Atlanta but plenty in Communist China. Senator Marco Rubio asked Beijing's Boy if he'd resign from Augusta National. It's almost as if the right has figured out how to play this game.** When Kristi Noem bends the knee to a bunch of weirdos and Brian Kemp roars like a lion....They've moved the ASG to Denver. We guess baseball will commemorate Larry Walker, or something. 

*We took our grandfather down to Baltimore for the weekend and saw the Yankees play the Orioles. Here's the game. The trip was a huge success

**Reference

Baseball and Books 20 Years on

This morning we find ourselves thinking about things twenty years on, thinking back to the autumn of '99.

We lived in Northern Virginia in a condo off of King Street/Route-7. This time 20 years ago we were entering our third month of unemployment and really starting to feel it. By then we had a routine figured out, at least. Take Mrs. Stroock to work, read for a little while, work out, read some more. We were biting off pieces of history books 25 pages at a time.

We we read about US presidents, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Jackson, and the American Revolution, a decision which would lead to us eventually getting an MA in same. This was a mistake, we should have majored in Civil War Studies, which is much more publishable.

It was  (and is) baseball playoff time and we were hanging on every pitch. The Yankees swept Texas and then were off to Boston for an explosive series against their greatest rival, the Red Sox. The Yankees took the series in five games and went on to sweep the hapless Atlanta Braves in the World Series. The Braves never did figure out what it took to win in the post season. This was our favorite Yankees WS victory.

Last night the Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins to advance to the American League Championship Series, and we didn't watch a single inning. We couldn't care less.

George Will is Decadent and Depraved

Well, we never thought we'd write a headline like that. And we never thought we'd read a sentence like this:

“From the day I announced. George Will is almost deranged,” Trump said. “This poor bastard, I almost feel sorry for him.'

That's the president on conservative columnist George Will.

As in all things, Trump is right.

Through our formative years, George Will was the mild mannered, reasonable sounding, spectacles and bow tie wearing house conservative with ABC.

Will was more or less our introduction to conservatism. Appearing on the old Huntley-Brinkley program he would rationally, calmly and with great precision slice and dice liberal arguments wearing them as a coast of exo-skin by the end of the program.

He was always splendidly appointed in coat and tie by Brooks Brothers. We always took something from the man in work and presentation of self while teaching. Young people will believe anything you say when you look like they're dad.

Will also informed our opinions on baseball. Take pitches. Bat the ball to the right side. Advance the runner. Play for one run at a time.* That's how Joe Torre's Yankees won three of four World Series in the 1990s.

Sadly, like a lot of other formally respectable types, Trump has left . Will at a loss.

Will is a full blown NeverTrumper now. Honestly we'd be disappointed if he weren't.

*Sorry, Euros.

Baseball's Shameful Start Time

Tonight begins game two of the World Series. The first pitch will be sometime after eight o'clock.  In this case Major League Baseball has some excuse. Boston is on the East Coast, LA is on the West, a full three hours behind.  Even so, MLB could start tonight's game at 7 PM if they really wanted to. But they don't. Prime Time (8 PM to 11 PM for all you Euros out there) is where the big TV money is. The last day World Series game was played in 1987.

This has been baseball's standard operating procedure for 30 years now and it's a yuuge problem. How are kids supposed to watch the World Series when the first pitch happens right around bedtime?

Back when baseball was the National Pastime, teachers would have radios in the classroom, later TVs. Kids could listen to the game while they did classwork. The more devilish teachers would use the game as a carrot to get all the work done before the first pitch. 

Baseball was meant to be played outdoors in the sunshine, it's a very important part of the game*. 'Nice day for a ballgame, let's play two!'

This very famous homerun happened after midnight:

In this way, baseball lost a generation of fans, mine own. Growing up and as a young man, we were among the only Gen-Xrs we knew who liked baseball. It's pretty hard to get into the World Series when you're asleep.

*Is this a thing in Futball? Euros opine in the comments.
** Below, the alternate, hometown call:

More Baseball for Euros

Yesterday we pointed out that the Kevin Costner film, Bull Durham, is a fine introduction to baseball. We would be remiss for not mentioning another great baseball film from the same era. 

Fans know where we're heading with this one:

Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Tom Berenger, Denis Haysbert...it's basically The Dirty Dozen on the baseball field, or Victory if that helps you Euros who need a Futball reference.

When we were 15 we asked a girl out to see Major League. She agreed, but took two of her friends along. Let's just say we didn't even get on the base path....damn it.

One of those tag-alongs is dead. The other is you know who...

Baseball Prep for Europeans

This clip will tell, say, an Englishman, all he needs to know about baseball:

You're welcome, ladies.

Seriously if you want to learn a little baseball watch Bull Durham. It's a good enough intro to the game. Of course Bull Durham isn't really about baseball, but sex. Which makes sense to an American.*

Romantically speaking, Yanks will break things down into four categories which just happens to be how many bases are in baseball, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and home.

1st base is a kiss.
Getting into 2nd base means you got up her shirt.
3rd base refers to getting your hand in her pants.
A homerun is well, you know.

This is a simple game...

*Hey Macgregor! You guys do the same in Canada?

Baseball Long Long

Look guys in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, you gotta do something about this.

Last night's ten inning game took more than five hours.

Now granted there was a ton of hitting in the Astros' 14-13 win over the Dodgers, but come on.

Every batter has to step out, adjust his gloves, take a few practice swings.

Every pitcher has to walk around the mound, collect his thoughts.

And how many times does the catcher have to come to the mound and talk to the pitcher? Fellas, if you haven't figured this out by now...

While last night's game was an extreme example, most ball games take three to three and a half hours, which is just too long.

Back during Babe Ruth's time Yankee late inning comebacks were nicknamed 'five o'clock lightning'. The games began at three.

From now on get the ball, set, throw the ball. Batters must keep one foot in the box at all times.

OK?

The below footage is of Mike Hargrove, nicknamed 'the human rain delay'. Today his routine would be utterly unremarkable:

Must we add a pitch clock?

Baseball Ga-Ga

We were just reading a piece about the decline and hopeful destruction of Rolling Stone. The author went into the usual recital of how music was a refuge during a rough adolescence. Queen got plenty right in Radio Ga-Ga

We were nodding our head in agreement until we realized that music wasn't really a refuge for us in the years from say, 1987 to 1993.

We found refuge in baseball.

Our first season as a fan was 1987. Here were The Boss's Yankees, always good but not good enough. They won 89 games that year. Our man was Dave Winfield, rightie to rightie. I mean, come on:

That was a 14-13 epic slug match in which the Yankees took first place from the Jays, and our first moment as a baseball fan.

We had our Dave Winfield batting practice T well into college.

Back then we could watch any baseball game. TBS was in our cable package so we watched a lot of bad Braves baseball. So was WGN.  We saw a lot of the Cubs. And of course the Mets. We loathed the Mets for a long time, jealousy we guess. It was sweet when the Cubs took the division from them in 1989. That was a fun, scrappy team.

One of our favorite pastimes was remaking rosters. We loved to do deals in our head and on paper and remake a team into a contender. We always made fair trades, of course we also knew how said players were going to do the next season, so heh.

We also played a game called Statis Pro-Baseball. One could play a game in half an hour or so. We did entire seasons.

As Queen might sing, our only friend through teenage nights.

Baseball kept us warm. We saw the Yankees go from good, to god-awful to good again just before they established their 90's dynasty. We missed part of that because we were furious about the '94 strike. Besides, in the spring of 1994 I met a girl.

I'll ask her what she thinks about all that later today.

Twenty, Ten, Forty-Four

So the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians to advance to the American League Championship Series.

Interestingly 20 years ago the Indians beat the Yankees to do the same.

As noted elsewhere we weren't watching then, we were banning baseball over the disastrous strike of 1994.

Not till the next spring would we come back.

This current Yankees team is kind of interesting. They've been rebuilding these last few years and are actually ahead of schedule. They're loaded with young players and a few others acquired via trades and free agency. The Yankees also have a few holdovers from the old era.

It was about ten years ago that we became bored with the Yankees.

Interestingly 10 years ago the Cleveland Indians beat the Yankees to advance to the American League Championship Series.

That Yankees team, as all Yankees teams of that era, was loaded with expensive free agents. The Yankees fielded an allstar team, no joke. Every position player 1-8 was an all star.

It just wasn't very much fun anymore. Who cares about finding a gem in the minors or resurrecting a player whose career was over when you have Robby Cano bating 9th?

The current Yankees are fun.

Do we have any thoughts about last night's game? Not really.

Twenty years ago we were 24 years old. A few years later during the great championship run we stayed up till midnight and one AM watching the games.

Last night we fell asleep at 10.

So no.

20 Years ago, 3 Years Scorned

So  last  night we watched the wildcard play-in game between the NY Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. It's the first Yankees game we've scene all year.

The Yankees victory had us thinking back to our baseball fandom 20 years ago.

Actually, we had no baseball fandom.

Or more properly we were no longer a fan.

On August 12th, 1994 the baseball players went on strike, thereby cancelling the baseball season. The 1994 baseball season ended at 112 games and no World Series.

[You need more than 112 games to finish a season? Bloody Yanks,-Ed]

We were mad about that. We were even madder about how unapologetic the owners, the players and the league were when they went back to work in the spring of 1995. Their whole attitude seemed to be, 'Ok, we're back. Lucky you.'

Like about 20% of baseball fandom we told MLB to go fuck themselves. Ours was the fury of a lover scorned, for we loved baseball. For three seasons we banned the game. We missed the Yankees 1996 world championship as a result.

We regret nothing.

There was a lot going on in our lives back then. We were living in DC, Northern VA properly, going to school, getting engaged, watching our life plans implode. Heck, during the swinter of 1994, we met a girl and that summer took her to Yankee Stadium. Whether or not she remembers, I'll ask her tonight.