Standing in Line

I’d have done so for even longer for the privilege of seeing Don Larsen’s perfect game ball and Yogi Berra’s mitt behind it, but that was a LOT of waiting around. A word to the wise: order your tickets online ahead of time…

Ping

Late this afternoon I returned from a meeting over on West Campus. Passing within earshot of the ballfield, I heard the ping of an aluminum bat. It’s baseball practice time already! The Aggies’ season begins 4 February, with a home game against Sacramento State.

The Samson Factor

Boston Red Sox fans are in great consternation over the news that their shaggy-haired leadoff-hitting centerfielder Johnny Damon has just signed a 4-year, $52 million contract with the New York Yankees. Since it is a condition of playing for the Yankees that one has to have appropriately corporate short hair and shaven face, Johnny’s locks will have to be shorn. Whether this will affect his performance we shall see.

The Old Ball Game

There’s been frost in the morning here, as well as dense tule fog. This may be nothing compared to the ice and snow elsewhere in the country right now, but it still marks the season to get caught up on baseball literature. I just finished reading The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball, by Frank Deford. Christy Mathewson, the erudite college graduate and star pitcher of his age, is a favorite of mine!

On a more geeky note, I was quite pleased to note that O’Reilly has a book coming out in February entitled Baseball Hacks , by Joseph Adler, all about how to statistically analyze baseball datasets, of which there are many out there on the net.

Champions

I’ve been off in Albuquerque at a meeting this week. This has meant that I got to watch a good bit of the World Series from my hotel room. As everybody knows by now, the Chicago White Sox won their first World Series in 88 years yesterday. It was a very good series. Although the White Sox swept the Astros, all of the games were close. Tuesday night’s game lasted 14 innings, and the final game was a pitcher’s duel ending in a 1-0 Sox victory. Congratulations to all the Chicago fans—the Sox played masterfully!

The Wide and Tall Guy

We went over to Chris and Karen’s this evening to watch the first game of the World Series. It was a very good game—the Chicago White Sox ended up winning 5-3. Their starting pitcher, Jose Contreras, was not overpowering, but kept the Houston Astros under control and was finally lifted for reliever Neil Cotts after giving up a leadoff double at the beginning of the 8th. Cotts struck out two batters, and then the White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen called in the big guy, with both arms apart gesturing wide, then tall. This was rookie reliever Bobby Jenks who, as we found out, happens to throw 100 mile per hour fastballs. I haven’t seen one of those in a while. Neither, it seemed, had the Astros hitter Jeff Bagwell, who struck out to end the 8th.

We were all rooting for the White Sox, though not with any great fervor. But none of us can stand A.J. Pierzynski, the Sox catcher, since he left a bad taste for Giants fans in his season with the team last year. Karen won the inning-by-inning pool at the end, but Pica did well too since the score remained stuck at 4-3 for four innings.

Tuxedo Cats Rejoice

For the White Sox are going to the World Series, which they haven’t won since 1917. We were rooting for the Angels, but the White Sox have been on a roll. The Houston Astros are now heavy favorites to make the Series as well.

I won’t have strong emotions either way about the upcoming World Series, but in some ways that’s a relief—just sit back and follow some good baseball.

Walk, and Baseball

We walked into campus today to get the paper. It’s not that far—2 miles—but Numenius made the mistake of saying the word “Wuffles” while we were in the middle of silently kicking an oak gall forward, which I mistook for “waffles,” and so we ended up walking all the way to Cafe Bernardo for brunch.

(“Wuffles,” to the uninitiated, is the name of Pratchett’s Lord Havelock Vetinari’s mangy terrier. Vetinari is the closest thing in contemporary fiction to Machiavelli. It’s said the dog is the only thing he really cares about. Why Numenius said this word at this time is still a matter of some conjecture.)

The Astros managed to eliminate the Braves over 18 innings, the longest game in post-season history. The Yanks squeaked through 3-2 and will now head to Anaheim for the deciding game.

It ends so quickly, the baseball season, forcing us to ponder how on earth we’re going to get through the winter…

Sweet Caroline

Our friend Nicole told Pica today about an NPR story on the mystery of why Red Sox fans sing the song “Sweet Caroline” at every home game. Plenty of Red Sox fans are singing the tune tonight. Having trounced the Yankees 10-1 in the final game of the season today, the Red Sox are going to the playoffs! The fun starts Tuesday—Red Sox versus the White Sox in Chicago.

Final Weekend

There are two games left in the regular season, and the Red Sox, Yankees, and Indians are still in contention for two playoff spots. The Red Sox beat the Yankees this evening, the first game of the three-game series, and the two teams now have identical records. There are many possibilities for the American League playoffs depending on what happens the rest of the weekend. Thankfully somebody else has calculated all of them.

Down the road at the Oakland Museum, the exhibition Baseball As America has just opened up, and will be running through January 22, 2006. Organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, this is the first major exhibition to examine the relationship between baseball and American culture. Sounds like a trip to Oakland is in our future!