Matt Klentak: “But if we can keep the rotation as good as it is or make it better and also add balance to our pitching staff, I think that’s something worth exploring. I don’t know if we’ll actually do that, but I know that we will explore it.” Matt Klen: “But if we can keep…
He was always in the cage or in batting practice, taking a few more cuts to get his reps in. Until one day, it hit him: Why take more swings, when he could just swing more bats? “Old Three-Bat Thomas,” called him. “That’s not going to help,” his teammates would shout from the dugout. “If…
Baseball is over now, and I am in denial. It always takes a few days for it to really settle in that this isn’t just an off-day, it’s not the All-Star Break, I can’t turn on a game in a few days and have baseball keep me company again. There’s always a feeling of loneliness…
Eight of the top ten grossing films of 2017 were sequels, remakes, or prequels. The same can be said for 2016, and again in only slightly decreasing numbers the deeper you trace backwards through the new millenium. Ours is the era of the remake, the rehash, the repeat. It is almost as if the future…
Violent clashes are a historic part of sport. “Kill! Kill! Kill!” we chant continuously through every televised sporting event, the only sound detectable over our shouts being the opening and closing of the front door as our families leave us for the last time. The attempts to contain the natural brute force and gore of…
This was a night in which Joe West seemed, once again, determined to be noticed.
In the old days, autumn was about the stifling, unsurvivable humidity of summer giving way to the brisk breeze of October, which blew gusts of school supplies and various gourds down the streets of our cities, while we cowered inside of our homes, comforted only by the terror and passion of postseason baseball flickering on…
Examining why love seems to be in the air during the 2018 MLB playoffs.
It’s important to acknowledge what this ad is and is not. It is not a sign of some cultural sea change within the game of baseball, wherein more than a century of stodgy traditionalists, puritan-descendant Northeasterners and barely disguised racists have bludgeoned the exuberance out of the young, reckless and darker skinned. It is an…
Hey everyone! Welcome to our MLB Postseason chat, where you can ask today’s host, [GARY WHEN WE FIND A HOST MAKE SURE TO PUT THEIR NAME IN HERE], all your burning playoff questions! Feel free to ask away starting now! @JudgeJuryXecutioner: how do u see this playoff picture shaking out Mysterious Stranger: Heh heh. You…
You know, baseball was once a game we respected. We’d spit our orange tobacco juice on the dirt and set each other’s cleats on fire and then sigh and look at the horizon and say, “Ah, yes. Truly, this is the sport of kings.” Together, we’d say that as a team, in unison. Haunting, people…
Baseball’s hieroglyphic system is a point of pride to pass on from nerd to nerd, usually between those who share a bloodline. Being able to trace the action of a full nine innings through the scribbles of a scorecard is a source of pride and satisfaction. “I can just check the box score online,” you…
I think many people, including myself, learned to love baseball because of its dependability. It’s not a new or original idea that, in a world that regularly reminds us of our insignificance and helplessness, we find comfort and safety in what we perceive to be bigger than ourselves. I imagine divinity, from Jesus to Zeus,…
As a thirty-something father of two, I spend a lot of time sharing. Sharing space, sharing money, but most of all, sharing time. I’m a personality easily overwhelmed by stimuli and socializing, and well, parenting supplies a large dose of both of those things. The usual social retreats — video games, exercise, drinking alone in…
With the success of the Little League Classic and the outpouring of support both it and the LLWS received this year, changing baseball at the Major League level, the one through which we largely absorb it, becomes an annual conversation. Each year, we gush over the event in Williamsport and ask each other, “Can you…