This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Baseball

  • Weekend Open Thread

    Just finishing up a 2+ week “double up-and-back” road trip to help out a relative. So today’s WOT article will be a short one.

    It’s MLB playoff time. The Cubs and the Rockies played one helluva great wild-card game this week; the Yankees and the Athletics also played, albeit their game was more one-sided. So given the timing this article from a couple of years ago just seems apropos.

    Fair warning: if you read it, I’d recommend having a tissue handy. Or maybe several.

    Yeah, the article’s from ESPN. But even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

    Enjoy the WOT, and have a great weekend.

    —–

    Postscript: FWIW, the author of the linked article, Tom Friend, has written a book covering the subject in more detail. It was released this week; it might be worth checking out.

  • “Chicken Runs at Midnight”

    Ran across this article the other day; I then found the video at this link on the same subject.  IMO both are worth your time if you like baseball.

    If you do follow either or both of the links above, I’d recommend you grab a tissue or two before you start.

    Yeah, they’re from ESPN.  Can’t say I much like ESPN’s politics these days, but IMO they’re no better or worse than SI or most other sports media in that respect.  Or most other media, for that matter.

  • For Our Baseball Fans

    This is for our baseball fans.  IMO it’s apropos considering that today begins the 4th of July weekend.

    ESPN has been running a series this year.  It’s a fictionalized “diary” by Yankees’ pitcher Myles Thomas concerning their 1927 season.

    Thomas was a real individual.  As various baseball sites show, he was a journeyman and not a star.  But he’s not really the point of the series.  The point is to provide background on the individuals involved with that team during the season.

    The diary entries appear to be based on real events.  Some are entertaining; some are moving.  All IMO are well-written.

    And some of them are gut-splitting hilarious.

    If you’re a baseball fan, IMO you could do much worse than to spend a few minutes reading each of these “diary entries” whenever they’re posted.  Enjoy.

    And have a great 4th of July.

     

  • Yogi Berra Passes

    D-Day veteran and baseball great Yogi Berra died yesterday. He died at home, of natural causes.

    As noted in this article from earlier this year, he was 90.  Fittingly, his passing came on the 69th anniversary of his major league debut.

    Berra was a Navy vet – he was gunner’s mate during World War II. He served on the crew of the USS Bayfield during the D-Day invasion.

    Combat veteran in the largest, most critical amphibious operation in history. Baseball Hall of Fame. Thirteen World Series rings (10 as player, 3 as manager/coach). Married to the same woman for 65 years, until her death last year. I’d say the man was living right.

    RIP, Mr. B. Enjoy the reunion with Mrs. B in the afterlife.

    Jonn Added:

    Author’s note:  the first link (which Jonn added) in turn has an embedded link to an article that describes what Berra actually did during D-Day.  After reading it, all I can say is . . . cojones muy grandes – de granito.

  • Quietly Doing the Right Thing

    Most regular TAH readers know I’m a baseball fan.  Indeed, one of many things that p!ssed me off at the now-4-years-deceased Usama bin Laden is that my post-9/11 mobilization required me to travel on 4 November 2001 – the night of game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

    At the time, I was an Arizona resident. And yes: if you lived in Arizona and were a baseball fan, that was indeed a magical year.

    I’d have given much to have been in Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) that night. I’ve talked to someone who was there; when a certain very tall guy walked out of the bullpen to pitch in relief with 2 outs in the top of the 8th, it was truly an electric moment – followed by an equally electric moment about 15 minutes or so later when Luis Gonzalez choked up and hit a soft single off a guy named Mariano Rivera into center field in the bottom of the 9th to end the game.

    That very tall guy was, of course, Randy Johnson. This Sunday he’ll be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

    But that’s not what this article’s about.

    . . .

    Most regular readers know I’m a fan of Johnson the pitcher.  I personally think he’s got a great case for being the best lefty ever, bar none.  IMO his career is what Koufax’s career might have been absent arthritis and injury.

    But I’m an even bigger fan now. Because Johnson has quietly done something that you may not have heard much about if you live outside Arizona – and he appears to have done it simply because it was the right thing to do.

    Johnson today remains hugely popular in Arizona; he’s still employed by the Diamondbacks today as a special assistant. In honor of Johnson’s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, at the request of the Diamondbacks the state of Arizona was planning to temporarily rename State Highway 51 in his honor.

    There’s just one issue. The highway – a freeway in the Phoenix metro area – already has a name. It’s the “Piestewa Freeway.”

    As in SPC Lori Piestewa, US Army – a Native American resident of Arizona who was KIA in Iraq on 23 March 2003.

    It turns out no one had asked the Piestewa family their opinion on the temporary renaming. And to put it mildly, they weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea.

    After hearing of the family’s objection, neither was Johnson. You see, Johnson is also a rather large (no pun intended) backer of the US military. He’s made 3 different USO tours to Afghanistan in support of US troops. He’s trying to arrange bringing two Wounded Warriors to his Hall of Fame Induction.

    So a few days ago, after hearing of the Piestewa family’s objections, Johnson apparently asked that the plan to temporarily rename the road be scrapped. It was. The highway will remain named the Piestewa Freeway. It won’t be temporarily renamed in his honor.

    Would it have been better had someone approached the Piestewa family earlier? Certainly. That should have happened well before it did.  IMO, someone should have asked that family’s permission for the proposed temporary renaming long ago – and abided by their wishes either way.  That would have avoided the problem.

    Still:  here, the right thing happened.  And it apparently happened because of one man saying, “No – that’s not the right thing to do.  I’d prefer you didn’t do that for me.”

    I always respected Johnson as a fierce competitor and an athlete. But now, I respect him even more as a man with his head “screwed on straight”.

    Well done, Mr. J.  Damn well done.

  • Happy 90th, Mr. B

    Today is the 90th birthday of a gentleman named Lawrence Peter Berra.  He’s still with us.

    If the name doesn’t ring a bell – maybe that’s because most people know him by his nickname vice his given name. That nickname? “Yogi”.

    Berra’s baseball career really needs no rehashing among baseball fans.  He’s a in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and is among the most recognizable and well-known people ever to play the sport.  But ESPN has a short article today with some of Berra’s (alleged) quotes, quotes about him, and a brief career highlight or two.  It’s worth a look IMO.

    Oh, and yes:  Berra is also a vet.  He served in the Navy as a gunner’s mate during World War II.  He was one of the crew of the USS Bayfield during D-Day.

    Happy 90th, Mr. Berra.  Here’s to many more.

  • More Comedy from the 9th Circus

    Well, the      gang of fools called the Ninth Circus Clowns of Unreal       “august body” called the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals out on the Left Coast has given us all some new comic relief.

    It seems that a 5-member panel of that       clown Krewe      group of distinguished jurists has decided that it’s OK to be deliberately evasive when testifying before a Grand Jury. But only if your deliberately evasive answers fall in the “little white lie” or “What difference does it make?” categories.

    Specifically, a five-member panel of the US 9th Circuit has overturned Barry “My Head Just Got Bigger” Bonds’ felony conviction for obstruction of justice. The stated rationale was that Bonds’ testimony for which he was convicted of obstruction of justice – while evasive and highly implausible on its face – did not regard an issue of “central importance” to the government’s investigation. Since the issue was not one that was of “central importance”, per the Ninth Circus Circuit Panel, it was therefore permissible for Bonds to be evasive and dissemble while under oath.

    So, it’s OK to lie when under oath, or when answering an investigator’s questions  – sometimes. But only about
    “small stuff”. And sometimes it’s not OK.

    Yeah, that makes “perfect sense”.  Does anyone but me see a potential problem with that?

    Hey, I understand the concept of a prosecutor conducting a “fishing expedition; no, I don’t support that at all. But regardless of how you feel about PEDs in professional sports, the drugs involved were and are illegal. The questions Bonds was asked hardly seem unrelated to the subject of PEDs. Further, his answers seem to me to have been designed more to avoid going on the record – or exerting Fifth Amendment rights – than anything else.  IMO, it’s clear he was simply avoiding answering relevant questions clearly and completely.

    As always, YMMV. Bonds’ testimony can be found here; read it and decide for yourself. Be forewarned that it’s nearly 150 pages.

    IMO this isn’t exactly a shock.  Hey, the case was heard by a panel from the Ninth Circus, located out on the Left Coast. They seem to use a different definition of “reality” much of the time.

  • 84 Years Ago Today . . .

    . . . Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig struck out.  That happened in an exhibition game against the Chattanooga Lookouts while the Yankees were en route home from spring training to start the season.

    In and of itself, that would be only mildly interesting.  However, the pitcher who struck them out was a bit unusual.

    The individual was a 17 year old youth who’d just been signed to the Lookouts a few days previously.  Their name was “Jackie Mitchell“.  And no – “Jackie” here isn’t a short for “Jack”.

    David Schoenfield at ESPN has an article today concerning the event.  If you’re a baseball fan, it’s worth a read.

    Well done, Ms. Mitchell.