Hello! I love your writing, both on TN and The Vine — I’ve even gotten my
mom hooked on your essays.

I have a handful of comments and a couple of questions, all of which are
more-or-less related to, yay, baseball.

First: Someone wrote to you about the Braves, and you said:

[…] I think this comment is key: “Winning the division does not
automatically mean an appearance in the World Series.”

No, no it doesn’t. See Seattle Mariners, The, 1995. The Mariners are
actually a really good example of a lot of things that you’ve been
discussing of late (and even a few things that you haven’t touched on, like
rebuilding after the departure of “big names”) –particularly postseason
crash-and-burn, and bullpen trouble.

Next, you were grumping about Selig, and this caught my eye:

…and as much as I dislike the DH and wish organized baseball would ditch
it, it’s been in effect since I was a newborn and I’ve sort of made my
peace with it.

Ever since I read up on Edgar Martinez and his numbers, I was wondering —
do you think that the Hall Of Fame will be persuaded to induct Edgar? Or
will he, as pretty much a dedicated DH, be left out, remembered only by
die-hard Mariners fans and stat geeks?

After that, you were talking about horrible announcers:

Steiner’s tolerable, but man do I miss Gary Thorn. (“Thorne”?) He went off
to do hockey play-by-play and ABANDONED US.

Thorne. I love listening to him for both sports, since he’s intelligent,
coherent, and funny — and he knows a LOT about both hockey and baseball,
which I really appreciate. Rick Rizz and Dave Niehaus are my absolute
favorites for baseball, though, mostly because they’re smart, funny, and
seem to have a genuine love of the game.

I’m not a big fan of Fox’s broadcast announcers, whose names escape me. The
announcers for the games carried on FSN tend to be less annoying and more
bland, since I can’t seem to remember their names, either.

Two last things, both of which are things I’ve been thinking about for a
while, now.

I recently moved away to school, had a roommate, blah blah blah Real Live
College Student Stuff. The weirdest thing I ran into, though, was actually
something very small: I met no one else that was interested in sports.
Everyone I tried to talk to about them looked at me funny, and not because
I was a girl — because none of them liked sports, period. Has this ever
happened to you? It’s not ruining my life or anything (I’m out of school
and back home, which is an entire letter on its own), I’m just curious.

Also, my advice to all baseball neophytes? If you can, go see a
major-league game at the ballpark. I finally got to see my first games this
October and, in addition to getting to see history made in person, they
were the best time I had while surrounded by complete strangers since the I
went to see my first rock concert. Wow, what a lot of fun — everything
from being assailed by the scent of garlic fries to the fireworks for
Ichiro-san’s tying and then breaking Sisler’s record to the sheer energy of
all those people holding their breath, waiting for the next pitch… Even
the odd guy two seats down who high-fived me two or three times while his
wife was off getting popcorn was great.

Cheerily, I remain,

Looking Forward To April So I Can Get Back To Seattle

Dear Looking,

Fox’s most infamous broadcast team consists of Tim McCarver, Joe Buck (who is okay), and Al Leiter (who is really good), at least for the ALCS.In the studio, Kevin Kennedy and Jeannie Zelasko.Eat a sandwich, Jeannie Zelasko.Shut up, Kevin Kennedy.

Nobody else at my school gave a tinker’s damn about baseball, including the girls on the softball team, so I’m more or less accustomed to that environment; if I wanted to talk baseball, I had to catch my dad at the breakfast table.I don’t think that was because we were girls, either, so much as that we were overloaded with homework and extracurriculars, but a lot of people genuinely believe baseball is boring and just have no interaction with it in their lives.Which is fine, but again, I’m used to that mindset.

And I would definitely recommend going to a game.It’s what got me into baseball; prior to that, I could not have cared less if I were dead, but something about watching a home run making its way over the wall and being a part of a crowd all leaping to its feet with the peanuts flying and the “oh?Ohhhh?OH HELL YEAH!” is really exciting and you want to learn everything you can about what’s going on.

“They’re not booing, Sar.His name is ‘Mookie.'””Oh.”

Hi Sars!

I don’t have nearly enough space to go into the awesomeness that is TN and TWoP, so maybe I should just move on to my question.I read your recent piece on voting, and, word, but also, do you have any suggestions on figuring out how to get involved and feel like you’re making a difference?I agree with pretty much everything you said in the column, but I am at a loss when it comes to actually getting out there and contributing.

I used to volunteer on a regular basis doing something I pretty much liked, but then I started classes (while working) and got a boyfriend and had to reprioritize my schedule.So now I don’t do much of anything to help the earth or others less fortunate than me, which makes me feel slightly guilty on a regular basis.I could give money, but I always feel like it’s just going into some huge black hole.Is it worth giving whatever one can anyways?How do I decide which organizations are most worth my time and money?Does it really help to buy the papers published by the homeless?

Thanks,
Bleeding Heart Liberal who wants to give blood, just doesn’t know how to get off her duff and do it

PS Of course I’m voting.For Kerry.But I live in MA.Damn electoral college.

Dear BHL,

It’s hard to find time to help out, because it seems like there’s so much that you could do, and you’d need to devote so much time to make a discernible difference, and you just feel overwhelmed and lazy so you don’t do anything.

But giving blood is a great way to help out if you’re really busy.The Red Cross has an info page here about where and when you can do that; it only takes about an hour, and you do it every two months at most.

If that’s not really involved enough for you, think about the issues that matter to you, then see if there’s a chapter of a relevant national organization that you can join — and don’t rule out doing clerical work. That’s usually what I wind up doing when I volunteer, because I’m often the only one who doesn’t require computer instruction, and database updates might not feel all that helpful, but they are.

You could also see what’s going on in your community in terms of canned-food drives, clothing/winter coat drives, and so on, and get a bunch of your friends together to do a super-big group donation — a bunch of cases of tomato soup, a bale of winter clothes you don’t wear anymore.

Or go to Volunteer Match and get matched up with a good volunteering opportunity for you.And remember, even if you can only spare a few hours a week, it’s something.The most important thing, I think, is to try to be aware, in your day-to-day life.Not of anything in particular.Just…aware.

Hi, Sars. Regarding Kevin Brown, Paul Sullivan put forth this idea in the Chicago Tribune: The Cubs could take Brown off your hands in exchange for Sammy Sosa, whose popularity in Chicago has dropped precipitously in recent times due to decreased offensive output and increased surly/squirrelly behavior. (Sorry, Sammy, but neither the fans nor the media told you to use a corked bat in a game, or to cut out on the last game of the season right after it started.) My question is this: Would the Yankees (or their fans) even WANT Sosa?

I read TN regularly and, of course, love it, but I always enjoy it even more when you write about baseball, so the most recent Vines have been much fun. And please, if you get a chance, thank Bill Simmons’ Dad for not mentioning Bill Buckner as part of The Curse — yes, he made a huge error at the worst possible time (though, even if he’d fielded the ball cleanly, the tying run would have scored anyway), but the man had a fabulous career overall, played a big part in the BoSox making it to the Series in ’86 in the first place, and is fondly remembered here in Chicago for his years of quality service with the Cubs.

And, of course, my condolences to you on your Yankees.

Ed

Dear Ed,

Thanks for the kind words in my hour of need.Heh.

I don’t think we’d want Sosa.We’re already carrying a bunch of big contracts on aging sluggers, not to mention that we’ve got a total bottleneck at DH/1B as it is.Who knows if Giambi’s ever coming back, but — what, we’re supposed to put Sierra in right?(Actually, I think he’s a free agent for next year.)Move Tony Clark to catcher?Bernie’s probably got to come out of center; he was never Mays out there, and now, he’s just too slow.I love the guy, but his range stinks.And Yankee Stadium has a short porch, but there’s “short porch” and then there’s “Wrigley Field” — I don’t know Sosa’s home/road power splits, but we’ve got big enough hitters without him.The hitting is not the problem.Unless you can teach him a splitter, you can keep him.

Oh, Buckner.My family and I made up a song, sung to the tune of the Monkees’ theme, about Bill Buckner, and every time his name comes up in our presence, one of us will still sing “hey hey it’s Bill Buckner” and then we forget the rest of the lyrics we made up back in the day so we just riff something about a peg leg.We’re not nice people.

Anyway.I was going to mention Buckner yesterday when I was talking about the Curse, and how it’s weird that he’s become the focal point of that notorious half inning, because he really had comparatively little to do with the result.And I think most Red Sox fans don’t blame him for what happened — mostly they feel bad for him.Even I felt bad for him; I was overjoyed that it happened, because the Mets were my team, but I also had a pang of “daaaaaamn, that dude feels like shit right now.”

But that half inning really isn’t his fault.It’s Schiraldi’s fault, and Bob Stanley’s — and ritually overlooked in the story, at least by Sox fans, is the fact that Mookie Wilson gutted out a heroically long at-bat in which he got a piece of umpteen pitches in a row, stayed alive, and finally got his bat on something.And before that, Carter and Knight and Mitchell gritted their teeth and strung some singles together.I said it a week ago, but it’s worth repeating — sometimes, a loss isn’t because anyone screwed up.Sometimes, it’s because the other team beat you.You can say it’s Buckner’s “fault” or Schiraldi’s “fault” (and it’s worth noting here that the Mets let Schiraldi go for a reason, namely that he just didn’t get it done most of the time), or you can say that the Mets did what needed doing.I mean, that team won 108 games that year; I think they clinched in, like, June.It was a great team.

And here’s the other thing…that was a Game Six.The Sox had room to come back from that.They didn’t.You can’t put that on Buckner, Lord knows.

And Red Sox fans know that too — the ones I’ve talked to, anyway.They might blame the manager for putting him in, but they don’t blame him; they know what happened.It’s just sort of typical that Buckner has become the story there, when really it’s that the bullpen wet itself and the team couldn’t recover the next night, but…see my comments from yesterday.Stanley bouncing a pitch and letting Mitchell score isn’t quite as neat, narratively, I guess.

[10/24/04]

Share!