Baseball is coming
How many more days until Spring Training? I can't wait.
Looking forward to seeing some more Durham Bulls games this year.
Looking forward to seeing some more Durham Bulls games this year.
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4 Comments:
Baseball? Baseball!?!? How can you be so fascinated with what is so obviously a conspiracy to lull the hordes of working American automatons into a constant state of somnambulance during the summer months, when they should be enjoying vibrant lives of action and activity? Can't you see it's just another way for The Man to try and keep you down? (Although I must admit, I did have some fun times watching the Myrtle Beach Pelicans tear it up...) But seriously, why do they have to play so many games? The first, what, 130 games (nearly twice what the NBA plays in an entire season!) are completely meaningless, unless you consider they give the juiced-up meatheads more opportunities to smash the juiced-up ball over the moved-in fence with their juiced-up bats... c'mon!
I saw that episode of the Simpsons too, the one where Bart uncovers Mark McGwire in cahoots with MLB in a satellite tracking scheme...
I like the longetivity required in baseball. It also provides all those fun numbers to play with. I appreciate the statistics. I find it absurd to claim 130 games could every be meaningless. I realize this could be the product of all those years of Chicago baseball's ineptitude clogging your logic there. Any team can beat anyone else in baseball. That is the beauty of it all. You have to measure over the long haul to separate the herd into winners and losers. It's a long, huge, accumuluation of a myriad of little things. I appreciate those little things.
Sure, there's steroids in baseball. But the BALCO case is showing steroids in Olympics and NFL too and a quite disparate hype about those sports.
Oh, man. I totally forgot about that episode of the Simpsons! Remember that episode of South Park when Butters aka Dr. Chaos (or Mayhem or something) is trying to wreak havoc on the town, but every plan he comes up with his little sidekick says, "Simpsons did it."? Well, it's true. They have.
The description of baseball as a "long, huge accumulation of a myriad of little things" is perfect. Numbers have never been much of a friend to me. (Have you ever tried cutting crown molding to fit together on inside and outside corners? Not just numbers — angles, and several of them in one cut...) And stacking all those numbers upon numbers is maybe what drives me nuts about the sport. I know guys that use Velcro to hold their shoes together instead of laces, but they can tell you who the NL hits leader was for the year 1967 without batting an eyelash. Now what that means exactly, I don't know, but I don't like it...not one bit.
And screw anyone who has to use steroids or other performance enhancing substances. Especially in a sport like baseball where you can be a skinny little guy and still hold your own if you know what you're doing. You can still pile up all the little numbers you want.
Growing up playing the game, it was painfully obvious that strength was never a great indicator of success in baseball. After all, I made the all-star teams and many much more muscular guys plain stunk. Professionally it used to not make sense to me because of the sport being such a contest of endurance over the years, but there's no denying steroids of various varities are there. I suspect that like too many things, money was the impetus. In terms of players seeking greater contracts in arbtitration hearings and free agent signings, where homeruns are overvalued in terms of their value to the team. These guys chased that golden carrot. Mike Greenwell mentioned something similar to this in reporting he wants his MVP from when he finished 2nd in voting to Jose Canseco. A true bunch of slop I blame no one other than Bud Selig. Sure there's the players union, but these guys already had two work stoppages when they could have enforced this forseeable outcome. I seriously doubt the players could have surmounted a strike over a steroids policy being implemented in say 1998 when Mark McGwire was caught using andro.
I have to say it again. The NFL is praised for their steroids policy. The same policy that caught none of the Raiders that testified at the BALCO hearings.
And you'd maybe not guess it, but I am one of those guys that can swap innane statistics. And yes... I enjoy it.
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