Short Relief

Short Relief: Getting Perspective

You have been wandering in aimless, companionable silence for a while when your friend has the presence of mind to check the time. It’s 11:58 — too late to change course, find a nice restaurant or a good vantage point from which to view the fireworks. You’re nowhere near the waterfront now, anyway. There’s nothing...

Short Relief: Dedication to the Cause

by James Fegan and Matt Sussman 1/04

My aunt may be advancing in years, but she remains a sharply engaged holiday shopper, securing her entire bounty by the end of November. That means any requests of jerseys for presents had to be locked in before the start of the offseason in earnest. For a young man in his early twenties who thought...

Short Relief: Where the Road Runs Out

by Kate Preusser and Beth Davies-Stofka 1/03

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...

Short Relief: Happy New Year

by Nathan Bishop and Patrick Dubuque 1/02

Boston Red Sox: Warmest and most sincere holiday greetings, John Henry Sports Team Fan. Whether you enjoy your excellence at the plate or on the pitch, domestically or abroad, we here at Liverston Redpool Inc. want to wish you another bountiful year of winning, winning, always and only winning* *Beneath the luxury tax, of course...

Short Relief: El Dropo

by Matt Sussman and James Fegan 12/21

Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak in games gets way more attention, because he dated a famous actress. Those games contained various at bats — a large number, when you think about it — where he recorded an out. And that’s fine. A hit on a given day is a sign that you contributed something, and to...

Short Relief: Lost in Translation

by Sydney Bergman, Roger Cormier, and Beth Davies-Stofka 12/20

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...

Short Relief: Rebirth

by Matt Ellis, Justin Klugh, and Nathan Bishop 12/19

It is cold outside, and the plants are dead. We have a long pot on our front porch, and whenever I look at it in the winter I wonder how it’s possible those thin brown strings covered in dead leaves can summon the strength to become vertical again each March, and yet somehow they do....

Short Relief: Not as Good as the Memory

by RJ McDaniel, Mary Craig, and Kate Preusser 12/18

Every year at Christmas I made my dad lebkuchen, a spicy, chewy German cookie. That description makes them sound good, so let me assure you they are not: They are, in fact, the world’s worst cookie. The dough is sticky and unmanageable, and very finicky: I ruined a whole sheet this year by daring to...

Short Relief: Parachutes and Parties

by Holly M Wendt, Mike Bates, and Ken Schultz 12/17

The thing about parachute day was that you never knew it was coming. An elementary school gym class would simply arrive to the boxy combination gymnasium/auditorium and there it would be: a massive circle of silk as bright as a circus tent, making even the glare from the industrial fluorescent lights in their basketball-proof wire...

Short Relief: Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent

by James Fegan, Justin Klugh, and Matt Sussman 12/14

Last year the signature event of the baseball industry was held in an upscale Disney resort hosted in a tiny tax shelter of a town carved out of Orlando that had a reported population of 47 in the last census. With a single lobby and accompanying bar, the initial thrill of hanging out with all...

Short Relief: Hirsute Riot

by Beth Davies-Stofka and Roger Cormier 12/13

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...

Short Relief: The Baines of My Existence

by Nathan Bishop, Matt Ellis, and Sydney Bergman 12/12

If you’ve never seen a Hallmark Channel Original Movie, they more or less go like this: Young, single woman from a small town moves to the big city for her fast-paced creative job (ad executive seems to be a particular favorite), goes home for the holidays and in the process, meets and woos/is wooed by...

Short Relief: Measuring Up

by Mary Craig, Patrick Dubuque, and Kate Preusser 12/11

On June 22nd, 1914, just nine games into his career with the St. Louis Terriers, Armando Marsáns woke up to the news that he was no longer able to play professional baseball. He suffered from no illness or injury but rather something more sinister. Several days prior, August Herrmann, owner of the Cincinnati Reds and...

Short Relief: Grading on a Curve

by RJ McDaniel and Holly M Wendt 12/10

On April 3rd of last year, Stephen Piscotty probably felt about as good as he’d ever felt in his life. He had just signed six-year, $33.75 million contract extension with the Cardinals. Thanks to his hard work and success, his family’s financial future was now secure. He didn’t have to worry about arbitration or free...

Short Relief: Confession

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Matt Sussman, and James Fegan 12/07

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....

Short Relief: Crimes Both Real and Imaginary

by Justin Klugh and Roger Cormier 12/06

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky were so influential that “Moneyball” Michael Lewis wrote an entire book about them. Maybe the 23rd most interesting tidbit from the book about how our limited brains are out to destroy us is this: we greatly inflate the number of times in our lives we truly predicted a surprising...