The Red Sox could be in a dogfight with the Yankees all year long. Dunn and Casey are carrying the Reds’ offense. Akinori Otsuka has been a steal for the Padres. These and other news and notes out of Boston, Cincinnati and San Diego in today’s Prospectus Triple Play.
If you’ve scored games for any length of time–no matter if you were in the press box or the cheap seats–you’ve probably had this happen to you: 1) Someone mocks you for keeping score; 2) Later, the same person asks you for information off your card.
Scoring leaves a personal record of the game. Done well, it’s like a familiar photograph that recalls the memories of a vacation. If I ever need to know what happened in some game, I can look up the results, or even the box score. But if I want to know how it felt to watch it, that’s when I dig up my score cards. The long innings stretch out on the card, my chess-style notes next to great plays and weird manager decisions to revisit later. The guy who mocks the scorer goes home after the best game he’s ever seen, but a week later remembers only what he saw on SportsCenter the next morning. The scorer has a hand-drawn portrait of the game he actually watched; what he experienced.
Back from Toronto and one of the best book signings we had all year. Thanks to Indigo and everyone who attended, with a special thanks to the guys who run battersbox.ca. The constitutional through Toronto’s sunny streets with Craig Burley was among the highlights of my trip. The best part of this job is the people I get to know.
Of course, the minute I leave town, a big injury happens. So, powered by the gourmet pizza served Tuesday night in Toronto, on to the injuries…
There’s an interesting game show developing in MLB these days. With the Kansas City Royals playing down to their talent level, it’s becoming clear that they’ll have little reason to keep Carlos Beltran through the end of the year, after which they’ll lose him as a free agent. (No one, anywhere, thinks he’ll re-sign with the Royals.) Beltran has become one of the top 10 players in the game, a complete package of offense, defense and speed. He’s going to break the bank as a free agent, and is one of the few players in the trade market with the potential to change a race.
So the game of “Center Fielder!” consists of finding potential
suitors for Beltran and creating trade possibilities, blockbusters, with the
Royals and those teams.