Category: periodicals

Items from newspapers, magazines, or other publications that are issued periodically.

An affront to baseballrelated.com

The May 30 issue of Sports Illustrated had to be forwarded to my new address, so I only received it just today. So Steve Rushin’s column about keeping score at baseball games only just now came to my attention. This passage is of particular concern: “Those of us who keep score have joined Trekkies and train fanatics — known as ‘foamers’ in the railroad industry — in the pantheon of get-a-lifers.”

So let’s see: I know how to score baseball games and do it occasionally, Levi knows how to score baseball games and does it religiously, Levi has obviously seen “Star Trek” a few times since he often refers to me as James Tiberius Ellwanger for no good reason, and, of course, my enjoyment of trains has reached legendary status.

Original comments…

Levi: Aside from the personal slam, I have to take issue with this guy. At Wrigley Field, I regularly see people in my section keeping score. Some of them are the group of season ticket holders I’ve gotten to know over the past seven years, who are clearly dedicated fans, but I also see a lot of people with the scorecard and pencil they’ve bought on the way in, obviously not veteran scorers, but enjoying the game that way anyway.

Last week, I even had a stranger who showed up an inning late borrow my book for a minute fill in his card. I had to help him decipher my handwriting.

Ah, Wrigley

From today’s Tribune, a story about three guys being charged in a brawl outside the ballpark Sunday evening.

The two highlights of the story:
1) The guy they attacked, who was running a memorabilia stand, at the start of the verbal altercation identified himself as a police officer, off-duty . . . then the guys attacked him.

2) The last sentence of the article points out that police suspect alcohol to have been a factor in the incident.

The other shoe, or cleat, drops

Over the winter, new expensive seats were added at Dodger Stadium by reducing the size of foul territory and moving the dugouts forward. This is fine, except that there’s apparently a city ordinance that limits Dodger Stadium capacity to 56,000, so some of the cheap seats are no longer for sale (they’re going to be covered with tarps).

Predictably, there was a column in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times about a man who’s had four front-row seats at Dodger Stadium since it opened in 1962, who was offered the chance to move forward to the new front row at a substantially higher cost ($120,000 versus $20,000). He turned it down, so now his seats are in the fifth row, and he’s “protesting” by not attending Opening Day. I find it a little hard to feel sad for someone who can afford $20,000 for Dodgers season tickets; what about people who are going to be shut out of the cheap seats for popular games because there are fewer of those available? (Granted, those are harder for columnists to find on a deadline.)

More from "Faithful"

Poor Stephen King, on the West Coast while the Yankees and Red Sox are playing in late July: “With no NESN, I was reduced to the coverage in the Saturday Los Angeles Times — which, due to their ridiculous infatuation with the Dodgers, was skimpy.”

I would guess that the Los Angeles Times is less infatuated with the Dodgers than the Boston Globe is with the Red Sox, if only because there are two major league baseball teams within the Times’ home delivery area, and they try to serve both constituencies. In fact, it was probably the amount of Angels coverage that kept them from putting a longer Yankees-Red Sox story in that morning’s paper. They’ve definitely had more Angels articles than Dodgers articles this offseason, because of the name change foolishness. Speaking of which, ESPN is going to be using “LAA” in the score box on any Angels games they broadcast this year, and they don’t even have the same owner as the Angels anymore!

Original comments…

Jason: Imagine that – a city newspaper writing a whole lot about their local baseball team.

Since the Angels are now “LAA”, does this mean the Dodgers will be “LAD”?

Jim: Yes, based on “NYY” and “NYM,” the Dodgers will be “LAD,” unless they try to get clever and go with LAN (for “National”).

Levi: I hope they abbreviate DC as “DC-(N)” as if they’re a politician.

The World Series was more engrossing than…

The scandal du jour in my hometown is that, back in October, a fire department captain invited two strippers and a couple of photographers to a fire station so they could take some photos, in which the women were both fully nude and partially clad in firefighter uniforms.

The Tampa Tribune’s in-depth account of the evening says, of the firefighters who were on duty at the fire station that night: “Berwald, Campbell and Layton said they hung around in the truck bay out of curiosity when the women and men arrived. They said they were focused on the World Series, however, and went back to watch television as soon as one woman was completely naked.

“Layton said he later learned one woman wore his uniform pants in the pictures.”

Original comments…

thatbob: To be fair, it was a very engrossing World Series, and 80% of firemen are gay. There aren’t many other professions where you get paid to lay around the house, lift weights, and gossip – when there isn’t a fire, of course.

maura: the scandal du jour in your hometown should be the rays’ willingness to give money to denny neagle.

Levi: I was talking to a coworker the other day, and I said, “You know: no matter how much we screw up at work, we can’t screw up so that it costs our company $75 over five years like Dave Dombrowski did by signing Magglio.” It was a freeing realization.

Not that I don’t love Magglio. But the guy is old, and he’s going to cost more than Scott Rolen, who’s younger and better and plays a tougher position.

Clubhouse cancer

I seem to remember Baggarly writing a story or two about recently departed Giants catcher A. J. Pierzynski being a clubhouse cancer. Well, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the many elements in A. J.’s clubhouse-cancerness was this:

One of those now-it-can-be-told stories the White Sox, A.J. Pierzynski’s new employer, surely haven’t heard: During a Giants exhibition game last spring, Pierzynski took a shot to his, shall we say, private parts. Trainer Stan Conte rushed to the scene, placed his hands on Pierzynski’s shoulders in a reassuring way, and asked how it felt. “Like this,” said Pierzynski, viciously delivering a knee to Conte’s groin. It was a real test of professionalism for the enraged Conte, who vowed to ignore Pierzynski for the rest of the season until Conte realized how that would look. The incident went unreported because all of the beat writers happened to be doing in-game interviews in the clubhouse, but it was corroborated by a half-dozen eyewitnesses who could hardly believe their eyes. Said one source, as reliable as they come: “There is absolutely no doubt that it happened.”

Can you get prickier?

That kind of behavior would go a long way towards explaining why a catcher with a career line of .294/.336/.438 isn’t valued more highly. He should fit right in on the White Sox, a team Batgirl described once as being so unpleasant that, if you traded every player, they’d still have a character problem.

Original comments…

Steve: What a payoff for checking in. You think a catcher wouldn’t be such a pussy in the first place.

Levi: You know, now I can picture what Mike Matheny’s agent told Brian Sabean: “Sure, Mike won’t hit for shit. But I guarantee you he won’t knee the trainer in the balls, either.”

That’s how you get 3 years/$12 million.

And they named the baby Damon

I guess I should make mention of the fact that the Boston Red Sox are the Sports Illustrated Sportsmen of the Year, which I guess makes sense, since as of now, the Sox winning is the feel-good sports story of the year. The story in Sports Illustrated is about Red Sox fans, which means it’s heartwarming and tearjerking, not to mention heartjerking and tearwarming.

The problem is with the timing, since this issue came out at the beginning of December (I guess it was tied to a TV special where they revealed the choice). What happens if, for example, Brett Favre thwarts an invasion of Earth sometime between now and the end of the year? Well, maybe now that the Sox won the World Series, it won’t matter so much if we’re enslaved by aliens.