A Grand Day Out

Bill Mueller, 3rd baseman for the Boston Red Sox, today became the first major player to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in a single game, as the Red Sox beat the Rangers 14-7. A 9-RBI day for him, he also hit another solo home run earlier in the game. Mueller is a former Giant, and was well-liked by San Francisco fans. He’s having a great season with the Red Sox, and it’s nice to see him doing well. We root for both the Giants and the Red Sox, Pica being a Red Sox fan from her days in Cambridge, Mass.

A Scorecard and a Number Two Pencil

Long ago, I scored the cricket matches for my boarding school, a function of having a boyfriend on the “first eleven” (team). I sat in the scorebox with the scorekeeper from the opposing side and the resident spiders; we joined the players in the clubhouse for tea. We drew little dots in pencil for balls bowled, six per box (an “over”), drawing a large M through all six dots for a maiden (scoreless) over, or a W when it was a scoreless over with a man out, or “wicket.” Matches stretching back into the past were kept in burgundy leather-bound scorebooks, connecting me with boys who had scored when the school was still single-sex and World War Two had not yet blown up their world. I liked the precision of scoring, the order, and the way to make sense of an intricate sport.

Eight years in Boston turned me into a baseball fan (and an inevitable hater of the New York Yankees). I enjoyed nights at Fenway Park, watching the common nighthawks catch moths drawn to the floodlights, listening to the colorful language flung at the umpire (and anyone within earshot). But I didn’t learn to score baseball till I arrived in Davis, when Numenius’ brother joined us at a Sacramento River Cats game, our local AAA affiliate for the Oakland A’s. I watched him fill in the small boxes in different but somehow recognizable ways. I knew I could do this.

Encouraged by Paul Dickson’s Joy of Keeping Score, I started to keep score myself, first at games and then from the radio. The radio proved to be much easier, since the announcers explain every pitch, every decision, every vagary of errors-versus-hits. It makes it more interesting to follow the game when you know that this player struck out last at bat, flew out to left the previous one, and blooped a single first time up. It’s also a way of focusing entirely on the game, which seems to be the last reason many people go to see baseball, when there’s all the entertainment (high-tech or goofy, depending) and food and drinks. I’m often the only person I can see scoring. I’m also the only person I know who sits at home, listening to the radio, scoring games.

Baseball on a Sunday Afternoon

I wrote this last year while watching the UC Davis Aggies play Stanislaus State…

The sun
the green
the bat
the boys
the caps
the ball
the ump
the pitch
the strike
the pitch
the fly
the catch
the throw:
safe!

The Midseason Review

The baseball season is nearing its halfway point. The Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants just wrapped up their second round of interleague play, but I’m one of those who thinks that interleague games are a bit of an abomination. Bay Area native that I am, I root for both the A’s and Giants, so why do I have to choose between them just yet? Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks are creeping up on the Giants, after having swept an interleague series with a team that is hardly their natural geographic rival, the Detroit Tigers (who have the worst record in the majors).

Midseason also means it’s time for the annual ritual of All-Star Game voting. Figuring out who to vote for is far more interesting than the actual game itself: last year’s game, declared a 7-7 tie in the 11th inning by the much despised commissioner of baseball, Bud Selig, when both teams ran out of players, epitomized the all spectacle, no content, nature of that game. So here are my choices, with a smidgen of commentary:

National League:

1st base: Todd Helton, Colorado. I was all set to choose Albert Pujols until I figured out he plays more in the outfield.

2nd base: Jose Vidro, Montreal. Highest batting average among second basemen, plus I like voting for Expos players.

Shortstop: Edgar Rentaria, St. Louis. No stellar performers here, but I’ll take Renteria on account of his on-base percentage and stolen bases.

3rd base: Mike Lowell, Florida. I don’t know a thing about him, but he’s being quite the slugger, with 25 home runs so far.

Catcher: Benito Santiago, S.F. Giants. He’s been a mainstay for the Giants.

Outfield: Barry Bonds (S.F. Giants), Albert Pujols (St. Louis), and Jim Edmonds (Colorado). Bonds continues his remarkable career. Pujols and Edmonds also have very strong numbers.

American League

1st base: Carlos Delgado, Toronto. Very strong on-base percentage, with 26 home runs.

2nd base: Bret Boone, Seattle. Hitting for both average and power, with 22 home runs.

Shortstop: Nomar Garciaparra, Boston. His .343 batting average is very strong, much higher than the well-lauded A-Rod’s .296. Miguel Tejada of A’s, last year’s MVP, is struggling at the plate with a .250 batting average.

3rd base: Hank Blalock, Texas. No strong choices here.

Catcher: Jorge Posada, NY Yankees. He fills the token Yankee spot.

Outfield: Milton Bradley (Cleveland), Manny Ramirez (Boston), and Garret Anderson (Anaheim). Best overall OPS (combination on-base and slugging percentage)

Designated Hitter:Edgar Martinez, Seattle. The perennial DH, still quite consistent.

An Evening with the River Cats

We went to the Sacramento River Cats game this evening. The River Cats are the Triple-A team for the Oakland A’s, and they were playing the Albuquerque Isotopes, whose parent club is the Florida Marlins. I had to go watch a team named the Isotopes: aside from being a joke from The Simpsons (in one episode Homer had to stop his favorite team, the Springfield Isotopes, from moving to Albuquerque), it’s in the family—my father in his days as a nuclear chemist was the co-author of several editions of the Table of Isotopes. Anyway, the team has a neat logo, so I picked up a hat.

The River Cats played well, and won 6-2. Bobby Crosby, their young shortstop, went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Since the A’s shortstop, Miguel Tejada, will probably not be staying with the A’s next season (he becomes a free agent, and the A’s don’t have enough money to keep him), there may be forthcoming advancement opportunities for Crosby. Eric Hiljus, who’s bounced between the A’s and the River Cats a lot, pitched for the win.

Raley Field is a great little stadium, and Sacramento fans, generally starved for sports, have really taken to the team. The game was sold out this evening, with 14,611 in attendance. Minor league ball has these endearing sillinesses you never find in the majors—tonight’s favorite was The Dancing Usher Guy.
And what River Cats game is complete without the antics of their mascot, Dinger, shown at right.

Baseball in May

Well, the Red Sox just lost to the Yankees at Fenway… They finally managed to tie the Yanks for first place yesterday but I guess they don’t want us getting our hopes up too much. The Giants, who have been in a rough patch over the last week, seem to be beating the Diamondbacks. It’s hard when they’re BOTH doing badly. At least the A’s are playing well.

Interesting play last week: Barry Bonds hit a popup just in front of home plate in a game against the Expos. The Infield Fly Rule was called, only apparently the Expos players don’t really understand the rule, because Perez snuck home behind the catcher, leading to a lot of shouting on the part of the manager at his players. It made me feel better: I don’t really know the rule either.

The UC Davis baseball team has made it to the national tournament—after the second shutout in two days, upsetting Sonoma State. This is the Aggies’ last year in Division II so hopes are high. Meanwhile, the UC Davis softball team clinched the national championship yesterday in Salem, Oregon.

The Joys of Baseball on Radio

It’s always most satisfying to turn on the radio and find one’s team in the midst of a dominating performance. Such was the SF Giants’ 5-0 win last night over the Chicago Cubs. Barry Bonds hit two home runs, including one into the Bay, and Jason Schmidt pitched probably the best game of his career, striking out 12 and allowing 3 hits in a complete game shutout. This was after not pitching in twelve days on account of the death last week of his mother.

I enjoy listening to Jon Miller broadcasting the Giants games. He’s regarded as one of the best radio broadcasters in the game, and has a way of painting vivid word-pictures of the action on the field as well as being much the raconteur. Last night he called Barry Bonds’ second home run! “The wind is blowing straight out towards center, towards McCovey Cove. And Barry Bonds has an affinity towards McCovey Cove….” Next thing we know, Bonds launches one into the Bay!

McCarthyism at the Hall of Fame

The president of the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled a 15th anniversary celebration of the movie Bull Durham on account of the anti-war sentiments of would-be participants Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. There is substantial discussion of this over at Kos and at Peace Tree Farm (here and here). Doug Pappas in his Business of Baseball Blog notes how condemnation of the HOF’s move is coming from all over including noted baseball writers Roger Kahn and Jules Tygiel.

Sigh. Fortunately baseball can survive bad institutional leadership
such as we have now. I liked the comment at Kos that baseball is a
non-violent, process-oriented sport in a goal-oriented, violent society.

Early Season Baseball

Aaron Gleeman points out the perils of baseball in April.

Even though both Pica and I are anything but Yankees fans, I am
pleased that Hideki Matsui hit a grand slam in his opening game in the
Bronx.

Speaking of lifelong Yankees fans, the late Stephen Jay Gould’s
essays on baseball have been reprinted in a single volume entitled Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville.

A Raley Field Outing

Today we skived off from our Saturday morning peace vigil duties and went to see the exhibition game between the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers at Raley Field in West Sac. We went with Cindy, a friend of ours from the Davis Peace Coalition, and her husband Tony.

It was great seeing Ichiro and A-Rod in Yolo County’s very own Raley Field. We were on the lawn, the regular seats having sold out within hours of being put on sale last month. Good view of Ichiro not too far off in right field, and he even lead off the first inning with a home run.

Ichiro and the Mariners inspire celebrations of Japanese culture, or at least the River Cats management think so. There were Sacramento-area taiko drummers pre-game, and the first pitch was thrown by a pitcher from the Nisei leagues. The catcher of this pitch, clad in a buff Fresno uniform, was the director of the Nisei Baseball Research Project, a group that is rediscovering the history of Japanese-American baseball.