An off day for baseball, and a glimpse at winter

Friday was an off day for the 2009 World Series, a reminder that the season is nearly over. Baseball is the daily game, and its rhythm regulates our lives most of the year. It’s the oldest and most established of our spectator sports, and I find it the most American of all.

There’s a doctoral thesis waiting to be written about the connection between baseball and our agricultural heritage: The games starting as the blossoms set on the trees in spring, the play flourishing under the summer sun, the shadows lengthening on the diamonds as the cool autumn harvest arrives.

As we’d visit my grandparents in the 1960s, my father often pointed out the places he and his buddies had played baseball when they were kids in the 20s and 30s. “There was a ball field there,” he’d say, pointing to an expanse of grass or a meadow as we drove past. At another plot, “We used to play there.”

Baseball changed as America changed, and urbanization is really what developed the sport into what it is today. While my dad and the other sons of miners in Pennsylvania were playing their games, city kids were playing stickball on the streets of Brooklyn.

In these days of luxury suites and retractable-dome stadiums, it’s important to remember that the game’s roots reach deep into a heritage of farm boys and miners’ kids playing pickup in any scrap of open field they could find.

 

 

 

Who’s your daddy, Pedro?

The highlight of Game 2 for me, the fan sitting in the recliner in front of the 36″ screen in his family room, was the Yankees fans chanting “Who’s your daddy?” to taunt Pedro Martinez.

The self-proclaimed most influential man ever to set foot in Yankee Stadium took the loss.

This is a fun series.

 

Google baseball and what do you get?

The top three Google results for “baseball” are mlb.com, the Wikipedia entry on the sport and — drumroll — The Official Site of the New York Yankees.

A mere hour or so after the Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, what’s the lead video highlight on the Yankees’ site? The triple Robinson Cano hit to give the Yankees a short-lived lead in the game. Evidently the Yankees can’t handle defeat, so they settle for a mid-game highlight.

The Twins win, and we’re stuck with more games in that horrid dome

Twins win

The Minnesota Twins defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-5 in 12 innings Tuesday night to win the American League Central title, and I’m not happy.

Not because the Twins won per se. They’ve been a terrific story this season, charging from behind to tie the Tigers and force the one-game playoff for the division title.

What irritates me is the prospect of at least one more baseball game being played in the  abomination that is the Metrodome. Although I’ve never set foot in it, I’ve loathed that dome for years.

When the Brewers were in the American League and played there, I hated it on general principles.

When Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek and that generation of Twins were in their heyday, I hated it for the homer hankies the fans waved. (I’ve always hated any team whose fans in an act of mass silliness wave hankies or towels or – please, God, no – thundersticks.)

I even hate the dome in football season, as in the past two weeks when the 49ers and Packers lost in succession to the Vikings.

Why do I find the dome so revolting? I don’t begrudge the Twins and Vikings fans a warm place to sit when it’s freezing outside. But the Metrodome is an over-the-top artificial environment, a chamber of Nordic screams designed to rile and rattle the opposing team. The building is a huge advantage for the home squad, and unfairly so.

There are other domes in professional sports. I’ve been in Skydome or whatever it’s now called in Toronto and the old Kingdome in Seattle (inset), for which I had a minimal, grudging tolerance. I’ve also been in Miller Park in Milwaukee, with the roof open and closed. None of those parks approaches the Metrodome in affecting the outcome of a game.

Quirky differences among ballparks parks add to baseball’s appeal — the Green Monster at Fenway Park, the ivy at Wrigley Field, McCovey Cove in San Francisco, the arches at Yankee stadia, old and new. Those features constitute charm and give the home team a bit of a boost. But they don’t loom oppressively over the game as does the Metrodome.

That the Twins are moving to the new Target Field next season is good news. It can’t come soon enough.

For most of us, it’s ‘Wait Until Next Year’

Playoffs notwithstanding, for most baseball fans today is the first day of the long winter. The season is over, the concession stands are empty, the lockerrooms bare as the players have packed up to go fishing or hunting or whatever they do in the off-season.

For followers of the Chicago Cubs, the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Francisco Giants, another year has passed without post-season play. We small- and mid-market fans will watch glumly as the Cardinals, Dodgers, Phillies, Rockies, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees and Tigers or Twins stretch their seasons.

For those teams, hope remains for October glory, a pennant, a World Series champagne spray. But for most of us — like this crushed Cubs fan — our refrain is “Wait until next year.”

Spring training can’t come soon enough.

A couple tips of the cap: To Jonathan Sanchez and Jamie McOwen

A tip of the cap to Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants, who last night pitched the first-no hitter at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The accomplishment was especially sweet for Sanchez because, after having been dropped from the starting rotation, he got the no-no while making a spot start in place of the injured Randy Johnson. Further, his father had flown in to see the game and was there to embrace his son after the game.

With the scent of a no-hitter in the air, I normally would be glued to the TV set. But not last night, as I was at the ballpark with my younger son to watch a California League game between the High Desert Mavericks and Modesto Nuts. Not only was the great weather a draw, but we went to see if High Desert’s Jamie McOwen could extend his 45-game hitting streak.

It was not to be. McOwen went 0-for-3.

In the first inning, he bunted with a man on first base – a puzzling move for somebody hitting .355. The bunt bounced high, right to the pitcher, who wheeled and threw out the runner at second. McOwen beat the throw to first and had to settle for a fielder’s choice on the scorecard.

I forget the order, but McOwen walked in one trip to the plate and was retired in another.

For his final at bat in the top of the ninth inning, he struck out swinging. I thought he deserved a standing ovation, but hardly anyone in the crowd seemed to have a clue about what they had just seen.

In any event, I tip my cap to McOwen, who completed the eighth longest hitting streak in minor league baseball history. That’s quite an accomplishment.

My son and I managed to listen to the ninth inning of the Padres-Giants game on the way home. All in all, it was a special night.

Vote for Pablo!

A journalist by profession, I usually refrain from taking sides. I try to see the merits and disadvantages of each aspect of an issue, causing me occasionally to over-analyze a situation. I confess, I’ve been overthinking the issue of fans voting for the American and National league All-Star game rosters.

Major League Baseball is using its “Final Vote” promotion to lure fans to its Web site and vote among five players in each league for the final spots on the AL and NL teams. The traditionalist devil in pinstripes on my left shoulder keeps shouting in my ear, “It’s a crass commercial gimmick that diminishes the dignity of the game.”

The “lighten up” angel wearing Astros’ mustard stripe double-knits on my right shoulder says calmly and confidently: “Hey, it’s game. It’s for the fans. It’s fun.”

I listened to the angelic voice and have been stopping by MLB a couple times each day. I’ve cast most of my AL votes for Carlos Pena of the Tampa Bay Rays. But on every single one of my NL ballots, I’ve marked Pablo Sandoval of the San Francisco Giants, the guy under the “SF” cap above.

The Giants organization is having some fun with it. On last night’s telecast, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow were plugging Sandoval, the “Kung Fu Panda,” as they broadcast from a platform down the right field line. Behind them were “Vote Pablo” posters plastered to the brick walls of AT&T Park.

I imagine the other teams are likewise pumping the fans to vote for their players. The voting, which ends at 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, lasts only a few days. The dignity of baseball can surely survive that.

And now, back to voting, Chicago-style, early and often (and late) for Pablo.

Don’t knock the Rock: An update

One of the joys of blogging is when a post triggers a reaction in someone or enables you to learn something new. My recent post on the 50th anniversary of Rock Colavito’s four-homer game brought a comment in from someone who runs the Rocky Colavito fan site. There you’ll find a link to a petition to the veterans committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame to put the slugging Cleveland Indians right fielder (and off-season mushroom farmer) in the hall. Note: A donation via PayPal is required to contribute.

This blog has now cleared the one year mark, which must mean it has achieved some level of viability. My “hello, world” post was on June 18, 2008, and the first “real” post was on June 21, 2008. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to take a look. I’ll be looking for an updated banner image to mark the occasion.

Let’s go, Big Unit!

Randy Johnson heads to the mound Wednesday night in Washington in search of victory No. 300.

Over the years, Randy has worn the caps of many ballclubs in both the American and National leagues, starting with the Montreal Expos. It’s a quirk of fate that his first crack at No. 300 comes against his old franchise, now in the guise of the Washington Nationals.

Johnson will be wearing the orange and black of the San Francisco Giants tonight. No matter what cap he’s worn, he’s been a dominant force in baseball for two decades.

Good luck, Big Unit!

Jeff Kent: Hero or villain?

Jeff Kent announced his retirement from professional baseball today, ending an outstanding career as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kent has always brought out mixed feelings in me, and a lot of memories were dredged up today as I heard the morning guys on KNBR radio in San Francisco talking about him.

I first noticed Kent when he was playing for the New York Mets, and I considered him a hack. Why — who knows? I never saw him play anywhere but on TV, and only rarely.  I had no rational basis on which to form an opinion.

Kent came to San Francisco by way of Cleveland in a stunner of a trade for Matt Williams, who at the time was one of my favorite Giants.  So I didn’t exactly warm to Kent right away.

But what a run he had with the Giants. As Murph and Mac pointed out on KNBR, the Giants went from losers to winners as soon as he arrived, which didn’t happen when Barry Bonds came to The City a few seasons earlier. The team hasn’t been the same since Kent left. Of course, he left and later ended up with the hated Dodgers, and every time I’d see him in Dodger blue I’d seethe with rage.

For any good reason? Not at all. But as a Giants fan, I figure my DNA requires that I hate anybody wearing Dodger blue, especially somebody who turned on the Giants. And especially somebody as talented as Kent, who always seemed to get a key hit and wreck whatever the momentum the Giants had.

Now, in the middle of winter, I’m taking a mellower, more rational approach. What entitles us sports fans to decide that any particular player is a hero or villain? We don’t know these athletes, and the closest most of us will ever get is brushing past them as they walk off the field at the end of a game while we head from the cheap seats to the parking lot.

Kent was a fine player. Who am I to begrudge him getting a better deal for himself and his family by leaving the Giants for the Dodgers, or any team for another?

Here’s wishing Jeff Kent well in his retirement from playing. Whether in the role of hometown hero or archrival villain, he added to my enjoyment of baseball. His play is worthy of the Hall of Fame, in my judgment, and I hope he gets elected.

As for whether he should go into the hall with an “LA” or “SF” on his cap, don’t push me. I haven’t quite fully forgiven his move to Chavez Ravine.