PORT CHARLOTTE (FL) — The pink slips came early this year at Charlotte Sports Park, as the Tampa Bay Rays made a significant shuffle to their roster. In total, 17 players were reassigned to minor league camp. Included in the cuts were some surprise names: Willy Adames, Ji-Man Choi, Ryne Stanek, Austin Meadows, Christian Arroyo,…
Comedian Brody Stevens died last week of an apparent suicide. He was 48. Stevens was one of a kind. The phrase “comic’s comic” actually applies with him. Not even Dick Van Dyke himself could tell if Stevens was killing or bombing during sets. It wasn’t just Van Dyke and other popular comedians who commented and…
At some point in every artist’s life, they find a purpose or meaning that forces their hand to make something new, something inspiring. To create something so unique that when people see it for the first time, their imagination lights up. For me, that inspiration started by taking ordinary items that people throw away and…
The ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia fell annually on February 15th. It was a great deal of fun by all accounts, and was celebrated for centuries, drawing a willing and rowdy crowd. It was a lewd, rude, and wildly popular festival that survived imperial Christianity until late into the 5th century. The day began at…
The Simpsons. I know you have heard of this television program. FXX runs the show five days a week. Half the time the four-hour blocks are connected by some tenuous, begrudgingly appreciated theme (tonight’s theme: Moe). Tuesdays are weird. I’m not going to bother explaining what they do on Tuesdays. Mondays and Fridays are six-hour…
(English translation: No Exit from Arbitration) SCENE A conference room in Deadball Era style. A massive bronze pitch clock stands on the mantelpiece. ARENADO [Enters, accompanied by Tony Clark]: Hm! So here we are? CLARK: Yes, Mr. Arenado. ARENADO: [Taking in the surroundings] And some get used to this? Even after the tweets? CLARK: Tweets?…
A woman stops at a market near Brooklyn’s McCarren Park. She buys mini-quiches and carrots on her way to visit her mother. They settle in front of the television to watch the game and grieve. A Yankees fan for 80 years, her father died last winter, so this is the first year that he won’t…
Yesterday, in introducing Jed Lowrie, not Manny Machado nor Bryce Harper, as the newest member of the New York Mets, GM Brodie Van Wagenen said the following: “I fully expect us to be competitive and to be a winning team and our goal is to win a championship and it starts with the division, so…
Last Saturday, female and male recruits started training together aboard the Marine recruit depot at Parris Island, South Carolina, a first for the Corps. This is a red-letter moment for women. The Marine Corps is the only service branch that hasn’t fully integrated its recruit training, and while the separate training policy hasn’t officially changed,…
Some families have more tragedy woven into the fabric of their family tapestry than others. The Grimaldis are said to be cursed in love, the Guinnesses cursed by cars, the Hemingways cursed by dark thoughts coupled with substance abuse. The Kennedys are just plain cursed. The Furcal family might be baseball’s most cursed family. Silvino…
Don’t think about the last time you attended a funeral in Pittsburgh. Don’t think about your great aunt’s funeral on one of those cold gray days the city specializes in. A city with less sunshine than Seattle; a city clouded in funereal gray. Your sister stands next to you, and your shoes sink in the…
Do we only care about little girls until we want to win baseball games?
Once in Greece, I asked for a “Wednesday” (τέταρτη) kilo of feta instead of a “quarter” (τέταρτο). The lady behind the cheese counter in a grocery store in suburban Athens looked at me for a minute, told me my Greek wasn’t very good, and then asked me to repeat what I wanted. I’ve told that…
It happens all the time now. I’m sitting on my park bench feeding the ducks most definitely named Dewey and Louie, and a text message like this comes in: Phillies signed McCutchen. Three years. “Three years?” Time stops momentarily, ironically enough. “Three years?” I said out loud before putting my right hand up against my…
I remember an evening in a warm cafe in Toronto, sitting with Ben, a United Church pastor. We had become friends after I persuaded his church to give sanctuary to a refugee named Ibrahim. We didn’t know that a Holocaust survivor lived nearby, and that Ibrahim’s presence near her home triggered old and dreadful fears….
There’s a thing we do, as modern worn-out adults. We have children, and we want to give those children experiences, and we can’t afford real experiences like ruins and cathedrals and shit. Not like our own childhoods, where we were left alone for hours on end to wander empty backyards, static and safe. So we…