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Home » Baseball, The Vine

The Vine: January 10, 2007

Submitted by on January 10, 2007 – 3:27 PMNo Comment

The song is indeed called “Walking.” The name of the band is Pocket Size and they’re British.

This song came out when I was big into buying whole albums just for one single and I have this one on my iPod even today, somewhat randomly.

They’re surprisingly un-Google-able, though, so I’m not surprised Aretha had trouble.

Signed,
Oh My God, I Have So Many CDs

Dear eBay Is Your Friend,

Thanks for the response! Most readers who answered thought it was this song, but I got some other suggestions, too; they appear below, and if I got it more than once, blah blah asterisk blah.

Cub — “Magic 8 Ball”
Dust Bunnies — “Hop On By”
Gabrielle — “Walk On By” (cover of Warwick version)
Gomez — “Step Inside” *
Jeanette — “Heat of the Summer”
Oh Susanna — “Walking”
Sixpence None The Richer — “There She Goes”
Something Corporate — “Walking By” *

onlylyrics.com
http://www.alaskajim.com/charts/yearlysingles/1999.asp

My question is fairly simple but I need someone else to tell me how they feel about it. Basically, I need to stop correcting my boyfriend’s grammar. It’s taken me nearly a year to get over the “me and John” thing. But I still have a tendency to correct him out loud, although mostly under my breath or in my follow-up sentence. It’s always a minor correction like “fewer” vs. “less” or “good” vs. “well” and I admit to him that I knew exactly what he meant when he confronts me. It’s not that I think less of him when I say it, but I’m afraid that’s how he feels. I think he’s very smart, but I also think it would help him to speak correctly.

I feel like I’m coming off as some sort of grammar Nazi. But I do a lot of technical writing in my engineering job, which includes correcting other people’s reports, and I have a second job as an SAT tutor concentrating on the Critical Reading and Writing Sections. So I spend a lot of my day correcting other people, just as I was corrected as a child by my English teacher mother. It’s ingrained and I don’t know how to turn it off. Or, if that doesn’t work, how do I tell him that I can’t turn it off? Do you have any advice?

Sincerely,
Thank Goodness He Doesn’t Say “Irregardless”

Dear “Thank Goodness” For Whom,

Understand two things right up top here: 1) I have problems with this too — I just popped off an “or fewer” last night, in fact; and 2) it’s a little obnoxious. I was correct on the merits, technically, but I knew even as it was leaving my lips that it was a bit rude.

I know it’s difficult to resist, but — one woman who is also sometimes unable to stop herself to another — you have to try. You have to think to yourself, “It’s actually ‘bring,’ not ‘take,'” not say it out loud, because you aren’t his English teacher mother. My English major mother did it to me too, constantly — “Who’s going to the mall, again?” “Me and Age– uch, fine, ‘Agent Weiss and I'” — but she’s my mom. She had a stake in whether I grew up knowing how to speak correctly. Your boyfriend is already grown, and if he’s not writing “me and such-and-so did XYZ” in formal correspondence, or if he is but he didn’t ask your opinion, you need to…not.

I feel you on the fact that it’s almost instinctual — that you hear an error and it pains you aurally and you just knee-jerk want it corrected. But when I do it, it’s not really rooted in an altruistic concern for how they’re perceived rhetorically. It’s about being right, and being right has its place, but it’s not always enough. If a correction slips out every now and then, well, we’re none of us perfect, but try to be more mindful of it. You can in fact turn it off, probably, if you make an effort.

Dear Sars,

I have a baseball question. Now first, I must admit to being really only a casual fan. However, I am from Baltimore and as a young child, the year that I first became aware of Major League Baseball happened to be Cal Ripken Jr.’s rookie year. So to me, Cal has always equaled baseball. Anyway, I was of course happy that he was elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday; he has always been a good ambassador for the game and he is consitently generous and respectful of the fans. But at the same time, I was a bit puzzled by some of the commentary I’ve been reading.

Everyone seems to agree that he deserves to get into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, but they seem to be against him getting 100% of the vote. Why? Well, because no one else has ever gotten 100% of the vote. But that just seems dumb to me. If you are a voter, and you receive a ballot, shouldn’t you just vote for who you think is deserving rather than concerning yourself with how others are voting? I mean, it would be one thing if a voter had said that Cal didn’t deserve to be in and voted accordingly, but that didn’t seem to be the case from what I could tell. If everyone (i.e. 100%) thinks he is deserving of being in the Hall of Fame, then he is therefore deserving of getting 100% of the vote. This attitude of “well, Babe Ruth didn’t get 100% so Cal shouldn’t” just seems kind of…silly.

Am I missing something? And just as a point of clarification, are blank ballots counted as “no” votes rather than abstentions? I read that several voters cast blank ballots due to the steroid controversy and those blanks appear to have an impact on the percentage he received.

Thanks for your wisdom,
Hey, I just like baseball for the hot dogs

Dear I Like It For Everything But,

The short answer: no, you’re not missing anything, it’s just the usual BBWAA drama-queening; and yes, blanks are counted as “no” votes.

I could go on a lengthy rant about the absurdities in play this year, but instead, I will refer you to two pieces: first, my piece on Barry Bonds, in which I discuss why any other player approaching the Babe in any way makes baseball fans really itchy; and second, Fire Joe Morgan’s outstanding rant, posted yesterday, on the pointlessness of the blank ballots. Item 13 in particular is interesting, if you think about it — not to mention dak’s contention that it’s time to stop caring about the Hall.

I think those two pieces should just about cover the subject; if you’re still confused, email me back and I’ll try to come up with a response that isn’t fourteen paragraphs. Until then, consider this: Pete Rose, who is not now and has never been on the ballot at all, received four write-in votes.

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