A dream personified for both those who love seeing poetry in their statistics and those who love seeing the game played the right way, Stan Musial left this mortal coil on Jan. 19th at the age of 92.
Trading-card photo © 1953 Bowman Gum.
During a couple of my years away from the comics world and without an Internet connection, I was fortunate enough to live next to a library. I mostly read nonfiction and young-adult fantasy as neither my comprehension nor my retention were great (not that they’re where I’d like them to be now) — essentially, I needed books that weren’t too complex for me to follow as I read and/or to remember where things left off when I had to stop for a while. One area of interest into which I got to delve more deeply, being freed not by choice but by circumstance from having to stay current with the latest in my hobby-turned-profession, was baseball; I read up a little on the likes of Musial, Willie Mays, and Mickey Mantle.
I’m a few weeks late in bidding aloha to the Flyin’ Hawaiian, Shane Victorino.
Photo: Jeff Robertson for The Associated Press © 2012.
He was traded by the Phillies on July 31st to the LA Dodgers — who drafted him
back in 1999, although his Major League debut came with San Diego. The Padres got him as a Rule 5 selection, just as the Phils did in 2005. In the past seven years the goofy, hardscrabble Victorino was sent to two All-Star Games, rode in one World
Series parade, and got lodged in the hearts of thousands if not millions of fans.
I came up with a personal record number of entries for this week’s Top Ten contest [dead link] at the Late Show with David Letterman website.
My frustration with the Phillies’ rough start to the 2012 baseball season could have fueled the creative burst. Whatever the impetus, I hereby offer up my overly obvious, voluminous, and hopefully humorous...
Top Seventeen Punch Lines to Dirty Baseball Jokes
17. “That’s the pitcher’s mound.”
16. “Actually, I play for the other team.”
15. “Try the split-finger grip.”
I didn’t get around to publishing this during the regular season, and the Phils’ early
exit from the playoffs left me too bitter to come anywhere near the subject of our national pastime. Since yesterday’s unnecessary behemoth of a disquisition tied a belated bow on 2011 baseball for me, however, it’s now or next year to discuss my favorite jersey accents.
We’re not talking about Joe Piscopo, Danny DeVito, or Joe Pesci here.
The World Series began last night, with the St. Louis Cardinals taking Game 1
from the Texas Rangers. I didn’t watch.
I’m still bummed about my Phillies dropping to the Cardinals in the NLDS playoffs, which is a large part of the reason why. As I wrote in the last week of the regular season, 2011 was a banner year for the Phils — which makes it all the more confounding (if not ironic) that they didn’t win a pennant. Charlie Manuel’s team won a franchise record 102 games, by far the best mark in the major leagues, yet as more than one wag put it the team’s ballyhooed four aces were beat in the first round of the playoffs by a wild card; none of the wags, as far as I know, referred to the Phils as royally flushed.
There are those — fans, journalists, and ballplayers, not necessarily in that order —
who believe that a stellar regular season is for naught if you don’t make it to the World Series.
Last night The Phillies didn’t just reverse the frustrating if statistically inconsequential losing streak they’d finally snapped the night before. They won their 101st game of the season, tying a franchise record. And in doing so they handed Charlie Manuel his 645th win as Phillies manager, tying the mark of Gene Mauch. Both records can be broken tonight during the final game of the regular season as the Phillies look to sweep the Atlanta Braves, up their MLB-leading win percentage of .627 a skitch, and play a potentially deciding role in whether the Braves themselves make the National League playoffs. The Phillies begin their postseason battles on Saturday, Oct. 1st, either way.
Related: Play Right • Ball Night Long • Short Fall
The All-Star break seems like the perfect time to talk a little baseball.
I’m very happy that the National League won this year’s MLB All-Star Game 5-1 — not just because the game decides home-field advantage for the World Series, a fact that I fervently hope affects my Phillies, but out of good ol’ NL pride. National League baseball is real baseball.
I was up late enough last night to watch my Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4,
in the 19th inning of their 6-hour, 11-minute game. It was the longest MLB matchup of 2011 so far, no surprise, as well as the longest game for the Phils since 1993 and longest for the Reds since 1972.
Sadly, I’d not seen any of it prior to the final inning — although I heard some of it on the radio and the post-game coverage provided a pretty good recap.
Photo of Jay Walker's Library: Andrew Moore for Wired © 2008.
This post is currently down for maintenance.
To all who read this — whether observing the day as a holy one, based on cultural tradition, or merely with bemusement — I wish you a sweet year to come full of health and happiness.
You can get the lowdown on Rosh HaShanah at www.jewfaq.org, a.k.a. Judaism 101, via Tracey Rich. I like the site because it’s concise; it’s non-judgmental — written, as the home page says, “from a traditional perspective in conversational language you can understand”; and it’s possessed of a domain name that makes me giggle.
My Phillies won on Opening Day for the first time in five years. I just hope, as my grandmother pointed out, that it doesn’t jinx them for the rest of the season; despite a history of bad Aprils, they’ve been NL East division champs for the past three years and made it to the World Series the past two, grabbing the crown in 2008.
What a game, though: 11 to 1 over the Nationals — not, I grant you, necessarily the biggest threat, but a win’s a win. Our new staff ace Roy Halladay struck out nine in seven innings and even got an RBI base hit; it’s a shame that Cliff Lee had to go to bring Halladay in, since his single season with the Phils last year was nothing to sneeze at, but the trade seems to make sense. I was already happy to have Placido Palanco back at 3rd even before he came up with today’s insane six RBIs (four courtesy of a grand slam). And the big man, Ryan Howard, kicked off the offense as always with his first homer of the season. Everybody in the starting lineup hit safely, in fact, and when you look at this group, from Howard to Palanco to Chase Utley to Jimmy Rollins to Jayson Werth to Shane Victorino to Raul Ibañez to Carlos Ruiz, it looks to be another sizzling summer as long as — say it with me, baseball fans who invoke this same mantra of obviousness each year — the pitching holds up and the team stays healthy. We have a few guys still out, including key reliever J.C. Romero and closer Brad Lidge, but Cole Hamels is looking good and, hey, 47-year-old hometown mensch Jamie Moyer is back. Given how well last season ended despite some players falling apart it’s way too early to panic — it’s Opening Day.
Related: P Funk • Low and Inside • Play Right
I came very close to calling this post “27 and Cry” but decided that, even though
most of the plays on words here are made primarily for my own amusement, referencing an obscure Bowie song from a less-celebrated album was just too far out. Also, there is, famously, a distinct lack of crying in baseball. For a picosecond or so, it was titled “No Joy in Philville” in homage to the well-worn line in “Casey at the Bat”.
Except that there has been joy in Philville, despite the Phillies’ World Series loss
to the New York Yankees this night.
You have to be wary of celebrating a single game too much when it only puts your
team up two to one in a best-of-seven championship series. At a certain point you can even get a mite self-conscious over a blowout, so you can only wonder how your team’s hitters feel when they have to keep going to the plate those last couple of innings on such a tear — sure, they might not try as hard for extra bases when ahead by double digits, but they can’t outright stop swinging. That being said, I found the Phillies’
11-0 rout of the Dodgers tonight to be a hoot.
The Phillies won last night — and it had nothing to do with this post.
I wrote a blog entry titled “Losing It” upon their dropping the first game of the
season, you see. And while I’m not superstitious it’s curious that right after that all of my entries to date here disappeared. Never mind that the rest of the post was positive, despite its name.
So as I retyped lost entries, I decided to see whether I could turn the tides of fortune. The only question was, Should the opposite of “Losing It” be “Finding It” or “Winning It”? The Phils were down 3-0 going into the 9th inning when I began writing the meat of this post, so “Winning It” felt inappropriate, and I definitely had some material on the subject of finding.
Original Photo: George Widman / The Associated Press © 2002.
Harry Kalas died on Monday.
If you live — or if you once lived, anytime in the past 38 years — in what they call the Greater Philadelphia Area, you’ve probably heard and almost certainly heard of Mr. Kalas. “Harry the K” was the voice of the Philadelphia Phillies for nearly four decades, so established, so resonant, and so loved that his collapse in the visitors’ press box before Washington’s home opener shocked and saddened millions.
Football fans will recognize Harry’s voice from narration on Inside the NFL. He also
did voice-over work for commercials, including the TV spot for last year’s football movie Leatherheads. But he belonged to baseball.
The Phillies lost the first game of the season tonight. I know there’ll be 161 more, but
it’s always nice to get a win Opening Day — especially when you’re the defending World Series champs and you have a history of bad Aprils.
So when is losing a good thing?
For a good while now, I’ve been stockpiling material to share on the blog. Perhaps because other stuff has felt more timely, I haven’t posted much about comics — but if I were a tag cloud that would probably be the biggest label on me.
