Short Relief

Short Relief: We’re All Water

The joy of playing in the All-Star Game: being recognized as one of the best among your peers, the opportunity to rub shoulders with the best in the game, introducing yourself to a national audience. Of course, that introduction also comes with a risk, as that audience, curious about this new star on the horizon,...

Long Relief: Goodbye, Patrick

by BP Staff 7/10

Image credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

How lucky we are to have someone that makes saying goodbye so hard.

Short Relief: Flex

by Mary Craig and Demetrius Bell 7/09

The team which contained the best pitching staff in baseball the previous season had seen a miserable regression to 5th best in the NL in 1939. The jokes, then, practically wrote themselves when the team debuted new uniforms for the 1940 season. “As long as our team hasn’t any arms, Wrigley feels we need no...

Short Relief: Swings and Misses

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Mike Bates, and Roger Cormier 7/08

Bombs. Dingers. Homers, taters, goners, blasts. I love these words, but I hear them a lot. So I created my own list of home run metaphors, fresh and new. For my source material, I turned to the novellas of E.T.A. Hoffmann. His playful, early-nineteenth-century romantic fantasies are packed with expansive and intentionally silly overstatements. They’re...

Short Relief: Reflections on Loss

by Kate Preusser, Matt Sussman, Mary Craig, Sydney Bergman, Patrick Dubuque, and Beth Davies-Stofka 7/04

Image credit: USA Today Sports

"Every pitch matters; we don’t need loss to remind us. We need grace while the sea resets its shores."

Short Relief: Anachronistic

by Matt Sussman, Matt Ellis, and Patrick Dubuque 7/03

Venus Williams is the same age as Albert Pujols. Contrary to what you may have heard, he is definitely 39 years old, the same age as the elder Williams sister, who lost to 15-year-old Coco Gauff in the Wimbledon first round. When you’re playing tennis at age 39, there are no expectations, just awe. Williams...

Short Relief: Condemned to be Free

by Roger Cormier, Patrick Dubuque, and Demetrius Bell 7/02

The damn stove wasn’t working again. I hate having to light a match to fix it. I’m afraid I’ll burn myself and then have to explain to people what happened. It had become very important to me that on weekday mornings I have a breakfast of eggs and coffee, and in order to cook the...

Short Relief: Lucky Finds

by Holly M Wendt and Mike Bates 7/01

The city of Philadelphia is awash in all things bamboo, thanks to the horticultural optimism of newish Phillie Brad Miller. With the team in the middle of an ugly and ill-timed skid through the NL East, Miller sought a change of fortunes through the procurement of a desk-sized (or player locker-sized) pot of lucky bamboo....

Short Relief: Behind the Glass

by Krystal Languell and Matt Sussman 6/28

thinking like a rhizome peeling into autonomous cells autonomous zones nearly inappropriate puns to get the band back together first the band has to break up assemble some supergroup a clump of resistant bacteria spoof suit per theme trips for the dog and pony show academic competition farce representing the institution expect a lot of...

Short Relief: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

by Kate Preusser, Demetrius Bell, and Mike Bates 6/27

I have tried to be polite and civil about this matter, as it is not my wish any player should wind up in shackles turning the giant wheel beneath Rob Manfred’s office that powers MLBAM, but enough is enough: professional baseball players of America, I need you to let me live my life! It was...

Short Relief: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Nathan Bishop, and Matt Ellis 6/26

I’m not good enough. I’m incomplete and insufficient. My body isn’t good enough, my voice isn’t good enough, and, even if I could perfect them, my femaleness would still remain my fundamental flaw. Every woman and girl has to live with these messages. All my life I have fought back, all the while resisting this...

Short Relief: History Repeats Itself

by Mary Craig, Ken Schultz, and Rich MacLeod 6/25

Deeply rooted in the American conscious is a belief in progress, that America exists to lead the way to a better, brighter future. This belief grew out of the possibilities embedded in the landscape of the country; there was enough land to exploit that each European settler could find prosperity for himself. The Industrial Revolution...

Short Relief: Chase Utley Day

by Holly M Wendt, Roger Cormier, and Beth Davies-Stofka 6/24

From the first-base side of the 400 level of Citizens Bank Park, everything falls into view: the green-on-green tartan of the grass, the crisp edges of the infield dirt and foul lines, the whole arc of the outfield wall and the bushes and the tall, glittering screen and all its flecks of aligning light. Television...

Short Relief: Oh Give Me A Home

by Krystal Languell, Justin Klugh, and Matt Sussman 6/21

The Las Cruces Vaqueros suspended baseball activity in 2015. A few months ago, a notice appeared scheduling tryouts. Anticipate the future. Think about it. Unaffiliated with majors or minors, join the Pecos League in the high or low desert. Champion Bakersfield Train Robbers fans nearly moony for bandanna’ed mascot share the same logo with two...

Short Relief: High Stakes

by Nathan Bishop, Kate Preusser, and Roger Cormier 6/20

I – You’re left wondering how long he thought about doing it. He takes off without hesitation the moment Alcantara drops his head. Was it observing some pattern pre-game? Some trend an eagle-eyed staffer identified through hours of watching isolated footage? A simple wager between teammates? Did he think about it all year? Did he...

Short Relief: The Illusion of Control

by Matt Sussman, Beth Davies-Stofka, and Patrick Dubuque 6/19

You cannot argue balls and strikes, and the rest comes down to instant replay. So when it comes to borderline calls, the only ones we can (and should) question is their decision to post. So let’s rank the hashtags used in its promotion: #OneGameSuspension – This one’s completely accurate. It is about a one game...