YFSF

Random Observations

The above image, concocted quickly this morning via the great Hittracker and some photoshop skillz, shows an overlay of the path of Adrian Gonzalez' majestic home run last night on Petco's architecture. When he hit it I was curious to know if it would have been a dinger in his old park. Hittracker tells us that it would have been a round-tripper in every park in the league, and you can see that Petco couldn't have contained it either - the yellow line is Petco's right field wall, the hard black line is Fenway's bullpen wall. Nothing was holding in that shot.

Another thought from last night: one can see why scouts and other baseball people are enamored with Jarrod Saltalamacchia. His swing is natural, elegant, a thing of some beauty. Last night he ripped an opposite field double deep to the monster, and that hit was pure seduction. That double could be a case of blind squirrels, nuts, and all that. He may have a swing with no adaptability. He may have a terrible eye and limited pitch recognition. He may simply make far too little contact to be effective at the major league level, in the long term. But watching that hit you realize why people might get fooled: he looked, for a brief moment, like a pure, world-class hitter.

Target Market

Not sure this is funny or scary or both, but some media buyer was anticipating the worst.

Wish You Were Here



Cactus League from die-hard A's fan, friend and partner in devious dealings, Andrew K... JEALOUS, I AM.

Winter Blues

 
12.22.2010, 330pm

Opener Closing Thoughts

 
Opening Night, 4.3.2010

We made it to our first ever opening game yesterday, and while it ended well (though we were home by that point) there was something off about seeing both the Yankees and nightfall before even the ceremonial first pitch was thrown.

Our thoughts and some more pictures after the jump.

Retroball

Red Sox Announce Plans To Return Fenway To Original 1912 Conditions

The Vanished

As a video game fanatic (I grew up with the original Atari 2600 before it was even referred to as a "2600", just to date things), I have always yearned for the great baseball game. And as interesting and sophisticated as consoles have become, I have still never gravitated towards or been convinced by the replication of baseball on video game systems.  Perhaps it is the lack of a continuous pace, the starts and stops, the restful pauses and the build-up of tension, that prevents baseball from being properly translated. A fluidity of action in something like soccer lends itself to virtual gaming for me (the recent version of FIFA '10 is a truly brilliant sports simulation), far more than something like baseball, or even American football (despite the popularity of the Madden franchise). The most memorable hardball video simulation I ever played was RBI Baseball, quite famously amongst my friends, in fact.  And that wasn't because it was graphically compelling or anything like real baseball. Rather, during college I was able to replicate and actually exceed Orel Hershiser's record-setting scoreless inning streak; I am willing to be that several college classmates remember the moment I broke the record in our dorm's common room, even more vividly than they remember what they learned in Art History 301, sadly.

But this game has piqued my curiosity, as a gamer, a baseball fan, and also as an architect. The ability to play games in fields of yore, on diamonds long since demolished, is a deft touch and a nostalgic feature that has me wondering if I should purchase this game and explore the worlds it reproduces. If the game marries classic lineups with classic fields and supplements those with solid gameplay, I may finally (after two decades of continued searching and high hopes) have found a baseball game that I can accept as a reasonable facsimile of the real thing, one which imbues what is really just a bunch of code with romance and nostalgia, characteristics hardly synonymous with video games.

If You Demolish It, They Will Come (eventually)

Heritage Park, to be built on the grounds of the soon-to-be-demolished Yankee Stadium, is delayed, and the community isn't pleased. We were hoping there was some way to pin this on Hank Steinbrenner, but it looks like this one is on the City Parks Department and the EDC. 

The Feed

Ed Price tweets that John Lackey is taking a physical with the Sox, though unconfirmed.  Physicals typically happen after deals are done, so take that for what it is worth.

We're staying skeptical for the moment, but a Lackey signing would be very interesting on a number of levels, and something of a surprise to this blogger.

EDIT: Looks more solid, deal reportedly agreed upon.

Play Ball: The Last Word on NY's New Ballparks

I've written a good deal about New York's two new ballparks in various publications and on the web over the last few years, but this new piece, from the July issue of Metropolis magazine, is my last word on the subject, and—I humbly submit—the most comprehensive look anywhere at the stadium game as it has played out here in New York. But I leave that for you to judge. Please do read it; I will not recapitulate the arguments here, but will say that I believe that the two new ballparks, and others of their ilk, reflect a fundamental shift in the way we watch and think about professional baseball. Magazine stories don't typically warrant acknowledgments, but in this case there are a few individuals I'd like to thank for their participation in this story, directly and otherwise. Editor Martin Pedersen, fellow Yankee agoniste, commissioned and shaped it. Criswell Lappin designed it. (It looks phenomenal; buy the magazine, it needs your support.) The amazing photographs are by Sean Hemmerle. Jay Jaffe and Ivan Drucker were my intrepid co-explorers. For their time and thoughts, I thank Jim Bouton, Neil DeMause, Alex Belth, Greg Prince, Ben Barnert, Cliff Corcoran, Susan Carroll, John Thorn, Andrew Bernheimer, and the YFSF community.