Salvaging
Posted by SBG on Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Lucy and I went out for dinner this evening when she got home from visiting her parents. She had been gone since Tuesday and we enjoyed a nice evening out together. My lovely bride, who, God love her, does not like baseball, was forced to watch baseball with her parents, who watch pretty much every game. She is quite a honey despite her distaste and absolute ignorance of the game. Anyway, she bought a little primer on baseball on laminated cards so that she can at least learn the rules. I mean she really knows nothing about it.
She said that after reading the primer a little bit that the game is rather simple. I said yes, honey, it's a simple game, and that's part of its beauty. We talked a little bit about what makes the game unique: no clock, defense has the ball, etc. and so forth. I doubt that she'll ever be a big fan, but I'm hoping that she comes to appreciate the game enough to tag along to a half dozen or so games a year.
I was thinking about the nature of the game this weekend in light of the Tigers series. I talk a lot about the game here obviously, and I think about the statistical aspect of it. I get a lot of enjoyment from thinking about numbers -- I like watching people climb up counting stats lists (witness my slavish devotion to the Justin Morneau home run tracker). I like things like VORP and all that junk.
But, the biggest enjoyment of all is to watch world class athletes play the game. It's amazing to see how outfielders can throw the ball. I was watching a play today where someone from the Tigers hit a ball into the corner and Rabe fielded it and threw it right onto the bag at second (a rarity today, right?). The Tiger was safe with a double, but Rabe's throw, a routine play at this level, was pretty phenomenal. It's at moments like that when I appreciate how damned good these guys really are.
And along the same lines, it was pretty fun to watch the Tigers this weekend. They are a very good team. Very good. The Twins hung tough and took a couple of very tough losses on Friday and Saturday. Thinking about those games, I thought about how much fun it was to see two really good teams duke it out. The Tigers were absolutely relentless, and frustratingly, they seemed to avoid about twenty double plays. Things looked extremely bad today. Santana was not sharp and although he battled, he just could not hold the Tigers. Then, suddenly, in the bottom of the eighth inning, this team that looked so good all weekend imploded. The Twins got a gift or three in that eighth inning. Not that they weren't due. The Tigers seemed to get every break all weekend, and the Twins got all their breaks in that one inning.
So there you have it. The Tigers played 27 real good innings and one bad one. That 28th inning was enough to allow the Twins to salvage Sunday's tilt.
My impression is that this Tiger team can go deep into the playoffs. They've got great young pitching a lineup that works counts and some power. I thought the Twins played well against them, even though they came up a little short. It was fun to watch these two good teams play. If only my wife could appreciate how much fun it was.
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This is one of those reasons that I absolutely love that baseball has a 162 game season. Anyone who says the baseball season is too long is crazy. There are just too many things that can happen in baseball for us to settle for fewer games.
I mean, seriously, a game-tying bases loaded balk? You couldn't script an inning like that without making it seem contrived, but there it was.
I also wholeheartedly agree about how impressive it is to just watch the players play sometimes. They do some pretty crazy stuff, but usually what impresses me most (other than being able to hit, which is obviously tough) is how hard practically everyone on the field throws. Even Rondell White, who I will harp on mercilessly for his poor throwing arm, can throw the ball much harder than I ever could.
SBG, one of the key elements in teaching a woman to enjoy a game (football, baseball, whatever) is for them to have a connection with the players. Can't give you the psychological details of it, but basically women work on a different level (as we ALL know), and relationships are a big part of that. Relating to the players is the easiest way for a woman to get into a game.
With that said, there are so many interesting players on this team with so many different reasons to enjoy watching them; Little Jason Punto's spark-plug play, cool rookie Phenom Jason Liriano, meek (yet poised) hometown boy Jason Mauer, power hitting Canadian Jason Morneau, and all those youngsters recently brought up from Rochester (what were their names again?)...
Seriously, if Lucy can get into the players, she's well on her way to getting into the game.
btw SBG, if you were going to tell Lucy what the current odds of Twins reaching the post season, as compared to say last Wednesday, what would you tell her (nudge, nudge).
I'd tell to look in the upper left hand corner, R_R!
I did update after your comment, but I had forgotten to update the date earlier. The 18.00% was through Saturday.
Re: watching the world-class athletes. I think that is only half right. The other half comes from watching guys who most certainly do not look like world-class athletes doing things on the field.
I mean, seriously. Matty LeCroy? John Kruk? Terry Forster? Cecil Fielder? There are still a lot of guys in the majors who look a lot more like beer-softball league players than world-class athletes.
And then there are the pint-sized super heroes (LNP, David Eckstein).
I think that is part of the charm and attraction. We see guys who look just like the rest of us. Which allows us to identify with baseball players a bit more than with, say, NBA players. Even though I'm pretty sure that I cannot hit a 90-MPH slider or an 85-MPH curve, let alone a 95-MPH fastball.
When I was in high school I once went to a charity basketball game between members of the Vikings and some home-town "heroes". I'm a big guy (6'2"+, high school defensive tackle and shot-putter). But I was absolutely in awe of Bobby Bryant -- a freakin' cornerback! And Matt Blair was even bigger. And that was BEFORE steroids and serious weight training were in heavy use in the league. I think that was the point at which I figured out that I was not going to be a pro football player.
But baseball does not depend on overwhelming "physicality". Just great eye-hand coordination. (not that tools hurt, of course). And anyone can aspire to that seemingly mundane talent.
A lot of NFL guys look like that, too. Maybe fans don't fantasize about playing in the NFL so much because they know, for a start, that they'd never want to take such a pounding every weekend. But when I see football players without their pads, I usually am struck either by how small or fat the guy looks without his padded enhancements.
FW:
You've probably seen more of them than I, then.
I used to teach at the University of Illinois and had a few football players in classes. Those guys were certainly normal human scale. but then, UofI football sucked at the time.
I'd agree that there are way too many linemen carrying way too much fat. But even those guys are very often scary-athletic. (remember the Fridge, who could dunk?? yikes).
the NFL has a lot of disposable horse flesh passing through the league for a couple years, playing special teams. But I'd wager that the average (non-offensive lineman) looks more like Terrell Owens than David Wells.
Ooooh. I'm being moderated
Is this the newest enhancement in the fight against spam, SBG? To have to manually check every post with a URL in it? Or is it because I grabbed the Terrell Owens pic from what is probably a gay porn site?
I have no idea why you are being moderated. I turned off all moderation when I went to the logging in required, I thought.
But does David Wells represent the average baseball player?
No doubt, most NFL players need to be both unusually strong and fast to stick in the league. But I think most baseball players these days also dedicate themselves to building up muscle and keeping in great shape. Maybe some fans feel like they can relate to certain players who are small, like Ichiro! or Tiny Superhero, or look like they belong in a beer league, like Wells or Kruk. But maybe the more crucial element is that the skills required to play baseball, as you say, seem relatively mundane or simple to master. You hit the ball, you catch the ball, you throw the ball. I think most fans have a poor idea of how difficult it is to do those things at the major league level, as opposed to Legion ball or wherever the typical fantasist stopped playing, and how much strength and quickness is needed to do those things well.
You hit the ball, you catch the ball, you throw the ball.
And if you lollygag around the infield or lollygag your way down to first, or lollygag in and out of the dugout, you know what that makes you? Larry?
A lollygagger.
LOL. Excellent!