Geek of All Trades

It's that time again ...

Pitchers and catchers are reporting to Spring Training.  Baseball is in the air, almost.  And I am finding that I am even less excited about it than I was last year.  I'm not sure why. 

Perhaps it's merely that there is only so much room in my mind for extra-curriculars, and that real estate is fully occupied by learning Hindi and watching Hindi films.   Or maybe it's that there's just limited excitement in the prospect of another bloated, old Yankees team (one that will win a lot of games, but they won't be pretty) and another year living on foreign soil with respect to the tired old rivalry that brings out the worst in both cities. 

Perhaps once the games start I'll see things a little differently, and get into the spirit a bit. 

Until then, though, मैं हिन्दी फ़िल्में देखती रहूँगी - I'll go right on watching Hindi films. 

Familiar guys, different jerseys

       

With the World Series match-ups set and the games ready to start Saturday night, I have only one observation to make: the fact that Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Jose Contreras, and Orlando Hernandez are all appearing in this year's Fall Classic says a whole lot about why the New York Yankees are not. 

Supersitions

Anyone who has read classic Peanuts comics knows that baseball and superstitions go together.  Players are very superstitious.  Some have countless rituals that they must perform with every game and every pitch - wearing their shirts a certain way, never washing uniforms (you know who you are, Red Sox), never stepping on the chalk as they leave the field.  Wade Boggs ate chicken before every game.  Nomar Garciaparra's ritual adjustment of his gloves and tapping of his toes before standing in for each pitch is legendary. 

Fans have superstitions too.  This article in New York Newsday explores some of the more peculiar obsessions of Yankees fans.  Some of these sound to my ear more like OCD than superstitions.  But, you know, whatever works. 

I am not a superstitious fan, though I do believe strongly in the power of hubris and the risks of angering the gods of baseball.  But I am not sure what to make of the fact that I know not one but two of the fans quoted in that article.  One is an internet friend who used to run an online baseball discussion forum on which I was a moderator, and now has a very good blog about the Yankees.  The other is a writer who is a very good friend of my very good friend L.  If the Yankees lose tonight, maybe I'll check in with them to make sure it wasn't anything I did ...

Yankees win, in Boston

I haven't written about baseball in a while, but it's not for lack of paying attention.  I just didn't have much to say, because most of the Yankees news has been about "the Rivalry," and as I've written here before, I hate the rivalry.  I think it brings out the worst in both cities. 

During yesterday's game, the game in which the Yankees finally sealed their comeback and clinched the AL East title, I began to keep a game log for posting here.  But I failed to take into account some of the design vagaries of my bloghost, Typepad, and I lost the log two innings in.  I was too frustrated to try to recreate it.

So I'll offer a few thoughts in summary.  During the darkest parts of the Yankees' season I was known to say that I hoped they failed to make the playoffs - such failure of mission, I thought, might finally put an end to Steinbrenner's recent band-aid approach of buying aging stars and embarassingly bloating the payroll.  He and his "braintrust" would be free to return to their earlier style of team-building - the homegrown greatness and wise trades and big spending only where necessary - that established the heart and soul of the 1996-2001 teams.   

Even as I bitterly thought of failure, though, I was raised a Yankees fan and so I never stopped rooting for them to win every game.  And then September happened, and for a while it felt as if they actually were winning every game.  Suddenly the division title and the playoffs and who knows what else was within reach.  And now, after a tense and emotional couple of days that threatened to evoke the horrors of last fall, it all came down to a couple of games with the Red Sox. 

And the Yankees got the job done.

Manny Ramirez stood arrogantly at home plate in the bottom of the first, watching his home run sail over the monster seats in left.  He pumped both his fists in the air as he slowly began his trot around the bases.  What Manny seemed to have forgotten during his narcissistic display was that his home run did not give the Red Sox the lead.  It did not even tie the game.  All it did was cut a 3-0 deficit to 3-2.  The Red Sox never tied or took the lead in that game.  Manny celebrated too soon.  There was a lot of baseball left to play.

In contrast, the Yankees played all nine innings before they celebrated.  Yesterday's game was an example of the Yankees playing to their strengths.  With the offense they have they should be able to score early and give their pitcher a cushion to work with, the freedom to throw strikes and challenge even the likes of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.  They should get solid, if not dominating, starting pitching, and play competently in the field.  This years' Yankees have the ability to send a message to the other team:  "You have to beat us.  We have the lead, and we have the ability to get more.  Come and get us."  They have the ability to take the advantage quickly and put the pressure on the other guys.  When they execute, when they live up to this ability, these Yankees win ball games.  That is just what they did to the Red Sox yesterday, and it was great to see.

So, good luck in the playoffs, fellas.  And I hope my Sox fan friends and colleagues will forgive me for hoping the Indians wrap up the wild card spot and not the Red Sox.  I don't think my stomach can take another Yankees-Red Sox playoff series. 

The art of the steal

The Times today has a nice article about Scott Podsednik and the art of the stolen base.  Podsednik heads into the All-Star break on pace for 90 steals this season.  His ability to get on base and get into scoring position has a lot to do with his White Sox having the best record in baseball this season.

I like stolen bases.  I like fast guys who get on base, who pester the pitcher, who open up holes in the infield and who challenge outfielders by going from first to third.  If I had my way, we'd see a lot more baserunning in baseball and a lot less base-trotting.  As I've written here before, I would advocate for pushing all outfield fences back 50 feet or more, for the pleasure of fewer home runs and more singles, doubles, and triples, faster guys playing the outfield and more baserunning. 

Mashers have their place, but station-to-station baserunning is not just dull baseball - it interferes with the true energy and excitement of baseball.  A week or two ago a young Yankees player, Bubba Crosby, ran up Jason Giambi's back and was tagged out when both players ended up sharing second base.  Joe Torre's comment:  "Evidently, Bubba thought [Giambi] was faster than he really is."  But who can blame a young player for running hard on a hard-hit ball that he thought he could leg into a double?  Shouldn't young players be encouraged to play that way?  And wouldn't it have been better to see if Bubba could have beat that throw to second and slid in under the tag? 

You go, girl!

Twelve-year-old Katie Brownell of Batavia, NY, is the only girl in her local little league.  Earlier this spring, she pitched a perfect game, striking out all 18 batters she faced (little league games are only six innings long). 

And today, Katie's name and Jersey are in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.  It has not yet been decided whether they will become part of the Women in Baseball or Youth Baseball exhibitions.

Women have the strength, speed, and agility to play good baseball, but they rarely get the chance.  And anyone who plays baseball will tell you that it is full of tough, technical skills that have to be learned when young and drilled for years to master.  So here's to Katie, and to other girls who want to play baseball - I hope that as Katie gets bigger and stronger, she continues to have the opportunity to play, and that by the time she's old enough, there are high-level leagues for her to play in if she wants to. 

Yankees' new stadium plan

Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled the plan for the new Yankee Stadium, scheduled to open in 2009, across the street from the stadium's current address at 161st Street and River Ave.

  (Click on the image for a larger version.) 

I like this plan.  The drawings are gorgeous - the stadium looks like a cross between the present Yankee Stadium and the classic, pre-1976 version.  It just looks right.  It will have about the same number of seats as Yankee Stadium - one of baseball's higher capacity parks - has now, with more than half of them on the lower level for a close, intimate feel.  The Yankees, the richest franchise in baseball, will be picking up most of the tab, bucking the despicable new tradition of ballclubs holding up their fans at knifepoint for municipal funds.  And, the stadium fits into a larger development plan that includes new waterfront parks on the Bronx river, little league and school fields on the site where Yankee Stadium now sits, and new parking facilities. 

And so, at first pass, I approve of this plan and I'm excited for it.  It's always sad to say goodbye to an old friend, and the House That Ruth Built - now one of baseball's elder statesmen, rivaled only by decrepit Fenway and timeless Wrigley - is famously full of ghosts and history.  But writing new history is just as important as preserving old history, and this new ballpark will be a great addition to New York's landscape.  Here's to 2009. 

Wright on!

Like most people, I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.  And so I won't say anything about the Yankees.

At any rate, the New York Times today has a nice piece about the Mets' new young throwback star, David Wright.  Wright gets a good line in: 

"You have good weeks and you have bad weeks, and I am discovering that they are sometimes the same week."

"It's not the same team."

This excerpt from Buster Olney's book, "The Last Night of the Yankees' Dynasty," chronicles the team's missteps of the last three-and-a-half years, the return of the Bad Old Steinbrenner.   It was a tough read for this Yankees fan, but highly recommended.  I have said repeatedly over the last almost 10 years that the Yankees have given me nothing to complain about - all they do is win and make the playoffs every year.  Steinbrenner is often an embarassment but there's no owner in baseball willing to invest more in his team, and I'm grateful for that.  What I'm not grateful for is that he's gone back to his old ways of mistaking quantity of investment for quality, ignoring the people around him who know something about the game, and destroying the last shreds of the grudging respect that the 1996-2001 Yankees earned on the ballfield. 

I'm making it official, folks.  While I'll never root for the Yankees to lose a game, I will not be disappointed if they don't turn it around this year.  If the embarrassing $200M lump of ancient decrepitude comes in third after Boston and Baltimore, and fails to make the playoffs, my heart will sing in hope that maybe then the organization can return to basics, drafting and developing and making smart moves, and build a new team of which Derek Jeter can be the elder statesman.  I would gladly wait loyally through 5-7 years of bottom-dwelling team development if it nets the joy of another 1996-2001 with a new core cast of characters evocative of Jeter, Williams, O'Neill, Rivera, Posada, and Pettitte.  Steinbrenner seems no longer capable of that kind of thinking.  Maybe it takes a real losing year to snap him out of it.   

Open mouth, insert ankle

The other day Curt Schilling called into a radio show here in Boston and had the following to say about Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella: 

"The problem is when you're playing a team with a manager who somehow forgot how the game is played, there's problems.  This should have been over a little bit ago. Lou's trying to make his team be a bunch of tough guys, and the telling sign is when the players on that team are saying, 'This is why we lose 100 games a year, because this idiot makes us do stuff like this.' They [Rays players] said that on the field."

It amazes me that a perennial Roberto Clemente Award candidate like Schilling can be such an unmitigated jerk every time he opens his mouth.  Shut up and play baseball!  I miss the good old days, when players were gentlemen.  You know, like Mickey Mantle.  And Ty Cobb.