Yanksfan Soxfan

Happy Mom's Day

My mom has spent the last thirty three years of her life protecting her three boys from a cruel, uncaring world. During our childhood- when Mike Pagliarulo manned third, Alvaro Espinoza'a hat sat precariously high on his head, Pascual Perez emoted on the mound, and the Yanks generally were mediocre--she tried her best to guide us through the inevitable disappointments of a baseball season. Her favorite tact was to tell us to turn off the tv when the Yanks game was on. "They're going to lose. I don't want you to be upset again." She would say this even if the Yanks had a sizeable lead. She understood the angst-filled nature of a baseball season, especially of a New York season in those days, and she  felt it her duty to  shield us from all the pain. We were sore losers. A Matt Nokes at-bat might actually bring us to tears, especially if he made an out at a key moment. She saw how baseball affected us and her conclusion was that it was probably bad for us. So when she heard Phil Rizzuto's voice on the television, it was like Pavlov's ringed bells and the dogs: "They're going to lose...."

The odd thing is she continued this practice throughout the glorious dynasty years. The Yanks were not going to lose. I was at college and we'd be speaking on the phone. I'd tell her that I was going to watch the Yanks World Series game against the Braves. And she'd say, "Why are you going to do that? They're going to lose. I don't want you to be upset." And then the Yanks won four world series.

She continues telling me these things now. More and more her visions seem prophetic. Certainly, if I had spoken to her after game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, she would have warned me, and I would have ignored her. I probably would have been a lot happier person if I had turned off the set after game 3. So here's to my mom, whose advice I don't always follow (and whose advice I shouldn't always follow by the way). Thanks for trying to help through good times (Tino! Tino!) and bad (Wayne Tolleson).

Happy mother's day to all the moms out there.

Caught in a Rundown

Perhaps someone thought that Jacoby Ellsbury wasn't running enough?

Belth, Jordan and Lederer Sit Down

Rich Lederer hosts a roundtable with Alex Belth and Pat Jordan to discuss  The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan, a new collection edited by the Bronx Banter founder. You gotta love exchanges like this:

Alex: I have a gub. So what am I going to do with a gub? The truth of the matter is, all of Patty's close friends are Jewish liberals and he lives in Fort Lauderdale, which is littered with 'em. He can't get away from us. Maybe that's why he has a gub. He's afraid the B'nai Birith is going to come and take his library card.

Pat: What's a gub? Yes, all my friends are young Jewish liberals. The Youngers of Zion. They meet once a year in Ft. Lauderdale to control my life. They force me to get a website, to blog, email, all kinds of loathsome chores. They demand I learn how to use the TV remote. When I was talking to Alex on the phone one night, my wife was cursing loudly at the remote she couldn't figure out. Alex said, “What's she mad at?” I told him. He said, “Jeezs, Fred and Wilma Flintstone." When my computer doesn't work I stand on a chair and drop a rock on it. In the morning Wilma and I go to the quarry to lift rocks. Still, the Youngers of Zion conspire with my wife to drag me outta the 19th century where I'm comfortably ensconced.

It's a fun interview and the book sounds like a must-read.

What I Did During My Stint on the 60 Day DL

How does one spend the time mending their shoulder while the rest of the guys plug away on the grass? Playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball, of course! The Sporting News is recreating the 1986 season via the old school game, and our own Curt Schilling has the Sox in second third (behind the Tigers and, sadly, the Yankees). Will Leitch, of Deadspin fame, has the Cards tied for first with the Mets, managed by none other than Baba Booey himself.

A Hawk Named Dustina

From ESPN.com:

A 13-year-old girl touring Fenway Park on a school trip was attacked by a resident red-tailed hawk that drew blood from her scalp Thursday.

She wasn't seriously hurt, but some observers saw an omen for a certain New York Yankees slugger in the attack at the home of the Boston Red Sox. The girl's name is Alexa Rodriguez.

Blind Item

Overheard at New York's Regency Hotel this morning, which famous pint-sized film director/auteur and notorious Mets fan didn't do the right thing in speculating that a certain Bronx team is the one to beat in 2008?

A Splendid Find

On Saturday we were upstate for the weekend with my diehard Soxfan parents, who made the trip out to Columbia County to visit the SF clan. Our son Isaac of course made his weekendly demand for a visit to our wonderful local used bookshop, Rodgers Book Barn. It must have been something about the high percentage of Royal Rooters in the house (literally, it's a house), because as we were walking away we noticed a hardcover copy of the book that the above image is taken from, Ted Williams' classic "The Science of Hitting". It was four bucks, so an automatic purchase since our only copy of the book is a reprinted paperback. The bonus was that, upon further inspection, we discovered it to be a first printing, and in darn good shape at that. It's worth well more than the four bucks we shelled out.

The 1971 book is a classic of baseball instruction full of helpful illustrations and handy tips for the devoted ballplayer, even if impossible to emulate as an amateur. Williams' first person narration is rich and anecdotal; it reveals the great depth of Williams' historical knowledge of the game. It is up there with Ben Hogan's Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, one of the greatest pro-to-amateur sports instruction manuals ever published. And, to this design nut, there is an amazingly modern graphic sense to some of the diagrams, particularly for a sports instruction book. The image at the top of the thread is from the cover, a hit chart representing Wiliams' hot and cold zones, done decades in advance of the visual information we are given on a nightly basis via ESPN, NESN, YES, etc. There is also some beautiful photography, in particular a sequence showing Williams' swing as it passes through the plate, shot dramatically from above the dish. We were lucky to find this.

A couple of pictures follow after the jump.

Over and Out

On Slate, Bill James offers the formula he uses to determine when a basketball game is over: "Take the number of points one team is ahead. Subtract three. Add a half-point if the team that is ahead has the ball, and subtract a half-point if the other team has the ball. Square that. If the result is greater than the number of seconds left in the game, the lead is safe." (If you're a Knicks fan, the answer is, "don't ask.") Fun, if not baseball related. Alas, there's no version for the pastime.

Oscar De La Hoya vs. Oscar The Grouch Equals Blood

And my suspicion is there will be a lot of blood tonight. The favorite to win Best Picture is No Country for Old Men, but I suspect Paul T. Anderson's oleaginous epic will rule the day. Personally, I prefer the Coen Bros' masterpiece, but I think Hollywood wants to officially appoint Anderson as the genius of this generation. But I'm probably wrong. Last year at this time, I thought it would be Hillary versus Rudy for president. I'm not so good at predictions. By the way, the Sox are repeating in 2008. Definitely.

What else will happen? Julie Christie, Daniel Day Lewis , Ruby Dee (in a photo-finish with Cate Blanchett) and Javier Bardem will win the acting categories. Elsewhere, The Coen Bros will pull out best directing and writing (the adapted version), and Juno (which I haven't see but seems disgustingly indie-rock cloying for my tastes) will win the best original screenplay. I hear the Atonement score is nice, so I'll give that one the nod for music. Best editing? I say The Diving Bell and the Butterfly wins that one. Persepolis will win Best Animated Feature, and Tim Burton's Sondheim piece will get best art direction (again, blood looks cool on film!).

I'm probably  wrong about some of these things. If you feel like chatting during Hollywood's night of self-congratulation, then this is the thread for you. Chat away!

Obama's Whitman Sampler

The other night in Chicago, speaking with the counts from the primaries coming in, Barack Obama poetically described his campaign as "a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest." Whatever one feels about his campaign, it's a powerful metaphor, and he delivered it with typical panache. The words and cadence brought to mind the following quote on the national pastime, attributed to Walt Whitman: "I see great things in baseball. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism, tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set, repair those losses and be a blessing to us." These days neither politics nor baseball is quite as salubrious as one would like. Here's hoping for better days ahead, on and off the echoing green.