Short Relief

Short Relief: Why It Is Man Alone Who Laughs

Level 1: While one man is conducting a television interview, another man pours sunflower seeds on his hat. Level 2: While one man is conducting a television interview, another man pours sunflower seeds on his hat. The man and the people interviewing him laugh, because it is funny. Level 3: While one man is conducting...

Short Relief: We Have the Facts and We’re Unsure if That’s Good

by Adam Sobsey, Kate Preusser, and Patrick Dubuque 3/27

Whenever I hear the phrase “compact swing,” I think immediately of Bill Madlock. He somehow became identified with that particular piece of scout-speak—“his swing so compact it wouldn’t disturb the cobwebs in a ghost-town phone booth,” one journalist wrote—and in turn I began to identify with him. Not because I had a compact swing myself—I...

Short Relief: Quoth the Raven

by James Fegan and Holly M Wendt 3/26

There was a black cat chasing a group of crows–a murder of crows, one might foreshadow–in the parking lot of the Camelback Ranch spring training complex near the end of the day this week. The cat got a hold of one the crows in it claws, prompting a commotion, but the crow got loose and...

Short Relief: Promoting the General Welfare

by Beth Davies-Stofka, Mary Craig, and Matt Sussman 3/23

Mon, Mar 5 Lyssa, we got a new hitting coach. it is raining today probably going to rain tomorrow too. say HI to your mom. Wed, Mar 7 Coach says my swing will be a lot better if I learn to tap my toe. say HI to your mom. she doing better? Thu, Mar 8...

Short Relief: Rule 34.01(a)

by Emma Baccellieri, Zack Moser, and RJ McDaniel 3/22

A few years ago, Emma Span published an article here at Baseball Prospectus on the subject of baseball fanfiction, specifically all the many weird sex scenes and pairings that the genre offers. (Please read for the mention of the Kevin Millar/Keith Foulke/Jason Varitek threesome.) The sex is what people tend to focus on when they...

Short Relief: The Slowing Ascent

by Jason Wojciechowski, Patrick Dubuque, and Matt Ellis 3/21

World Series: no instant replay. The games are so long. So long! And they’re just random ball-bounces anyway. Let the chaos reign. Playoffs: in the seventh inning or later, if the game is presently a save situation, then a replay umpire is allowed to call for replay of any call that can currently be challenged...

Short Relief: A Little Refreshment

by Kate Preusser and Adam Sobsey 3/20

The Mariners claimed a pitcher. His name is Ashton, or Austin, or Chase, or Chasen. His minor-league FIP is in the mid-3s, or the low-4s. He wears his socks high, or he doesn’t. He has no real social media presence, maybe a locked Instagram account with a handful of pictures–an off-season fishing trip, his first...

Short Relief: Memories Are Like Moonbeams

by Matt Sussman, Holly M Wendt, and James Fegan 3/19

In my Catholic high school religion class they taught us the value of seeing perspective from different angles; specifically the teacher talked about looking “at the light” as opposed to “in the light.” This was meant to be interpreted as, don’t mock someone for their beliefs unless you can empathize from a perspective of believing...

Short Relief: Time Travel and Baseball Messengers

by Bryan Grosnick and Mary Craig 3/16

Tampa, April 2018 – Tampa Bay Rays R&D Department The entire back half of the warehouse was a jumbled mess of wires, server racks, and exotic machines that looked one step removed from a sixth-grade science fair. In front of them was what appeared to be a portable shower festooned with dials and pulsing with...

Short Relief: How to Watch a Baseball Game

by RJ McDaniel and Beth Davies-Stofka 3/15

Baseball starts at 10. You should wake up fifteen minutes before that. This has been your routine for the past two and a half years. Having a game to watch is one of the only reliable ways you have had to convince yourself to get out of bed. It has always worked before this year....

Short Relief: Words of Encouragement

by Jason Wojciechowski, Matt Ellis, and Patrick Dubuque 3/14

We went to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden this weekend for the BNP Paribas Open, also known as the Indian Wells Masters. We saw many tennis players, and all of them played tennis the same basic way. Sure, some were big hitters without much foot speed and some were small and fast and defense-oriented, but...

Short Relief: That Time the Angels Traded for a Quarterback

by Patrick Dubuque, Kate Preusser, and Adam Sobsey 3/13

Minor league baseball cards look different than their major league counterparts. Perhaps it’s the youth of the talent, or the inexperience of the photographers; maybe it’s just baseball lacking that last coat of the varnish of seriousness. Minor leaguers make more faces, contort themselves into unnatural positions never seen during play. Often times they are...

Short Relief: The Fog of Baseball

by Holly M Wendt and James Fegan 3/12

It’s a matter of perspective, one’s sight-line to the game. The one I’m most used to now, of course, is the television’s panopticon: a carefully curated series of angles and cuts, close-ups and B-roll, a variety of points of view that no single fan could experience in the same near-simultaneous way that the televised game...

Short Relief: History is a Story of a Painting of a Narrative

by Matt Ellis and Matt Sussman 3/09

1934 Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience, today we are out at the Polo Grounds, that historical home of the New York Giants. There were sixteen teams, enough today to be a simple conference, but then the entire league. Nevertheless, an argument about what could be, what should be, and importantly, who...

Short Relief: A Beautiful Day

by RJ McDaniel, Beth Davies-Stofka, and Patrick Dubuque 3/08

You wake up one morning and everything is fine. Your room looks the same as it did when you went to sleep. Nothing has been disturbed or altered. You didn’t have the nightmares last night. There are no demons in this room. You feel okay. You get out of bed and open the curtain. It...

Short Relief: The Idle March

by Emma Baccellieri, Jason Wojciechowski, and Mary Craig 3/07

March is the worst month for baseball writing. There’s a fair case to be made for December or January, which are generally rather boring—but at least they’re unpretentiously so. They know that they’re boring. There is no great annual wave of writing that strains to make them any more interesting than they are. March, though:...