Items from newspapers, magazines, or other publications that are issued periodically.
Someone at the Dallas Morning News web site had a little too much time on his hands.
thatbob: Five of those six graphics should have been framed in the big red circle/slash element which signifies to “DON’T” do something. I hope these unadorned graphics don’t find their way into stadia nationwide and wreak havoc with foul ball etiquette. (I couldn’t notice that title, “Foul Ball Etiquette.” Apparently all rules are off when you’re trying to catch a Barry Bonds homer.)
Man #1: So that’s your new TiVo?
Man #2: By jumping past pitching changes and the commercial blocks between innings, you can watch a whole game and save almost an hour.
Man #1: What would I do with another hour? Look, I have these unwanted periods of consciousness. I use TV sports to get rid of them.
In other news, the Devil Rays have won a franchise record seven straight games, so clearly, Levi needs to go on vacation more often. Alternately, perhaps the Rays could be switched from the AL to the NL.
thatbob: What is a Tank McNamara? Is it related to the Simon and Garfunkel song?
Jim: There’s a Simon and Garfunkel song called “Tank McNamara”?
“Tank McNamara” is a sports-themed comic strip. The title character is a football player turned sportscaster, although many of the strips don’t include him at all, such as today’s. Many newspapers run it in the sports section instead of on the comics page, including the Tampa Tribune during the 1980s, which is where I first became aware of its existence.
thatbob: “Many newspapers run it in the sports section instead of on the comics page,”
In the sacred space customarily accorded to Gil Thorpe?!? For shame!
Epacris: That particular day’s strip is one of my top favourites.
(My all-time favourite is Calvin & Hobbes, 2nd June, 1983 aka ‘The Big Picture’)
I have TMcN on “My Yahoo” front page. Since I’m from Australia & (somewhat unusually) quite uninterested in sport, a lot of the strip doesn’t make much sense, but it can be quite fun about universal sporting foibles.
There is an article in today’s L.A. Times about the 15-inning Red Sox-Angels game on June 14, 1974. The winning pitcher was Barry Raziano of the Angels, who threw two perfect innings in relief; it was his only major league victory.
But more importantly: Luis Tiant was the Sox’s sole pitcher, going 14.1 innings until he gave up the winning run. Nolan Ryan started for the Angels, and went 13 innings, making 235 pitches. But then, in 1974, he averaged 160-180 pitches a game. The Times reporter asked Bill James about it: “It obviously ruined his arm because he had to retire 19 years later.”
Toby: Ah yes… back when baseball was played by men and ruled by an impartial commissioner, not played by ridiculously overpaid prima donnas and ruled by agents and accountants.
Back when baseball players were your heroes, not celebrities.
The title of today’s Merl Reagle crossword puzzle is “Bawl Game,” and the theme relates to Tom Hanks’s line in “A League of Their Own,” featured as 111 Across (“THERESNOCRYING”) and 119 Across (“INBASEBALL”).
As it turned out, since there’s no crying in baseball, all the theme answers were missing a “WA” somewhere, including 35 Across (“Ex-Boston-N.Y.-Tampa player with over 3,000 hits”), 85 Across (“Grassless area on a diamond’s perimeter that lets a fielder know the wall is near”), the long one, 66 Across (“Post-home run comment”), and the one that took me the longest to get, 88 Across (“Try to fool a batter, perhaps”). Answers in the comments section.
Jim: 35. DEBOGGS
85. RNINGTRACK
66. HEREALLYLLOPEDTHATONE
88. THROCURVE (unlike all the other theme answers in the puzzle, the missing “WA” letters weren’t both removed from one word)
Luke: No wa? But you gotta have wa!
thatbob: Japanese fighting spirit!
The folks at Redbird Nation, the best Cardinals site on the internet, noticed that in an interview with Esquire this month, Emmylou Harris had this to say:
“During those long summer tours, there’s nothing on television that doesn’t rot your brain except for baseball. And I love the game. I love the history of the game. I love that fact that anything can happen but probably won’t. But sometimes does. I love that you don’t have to be a perfect human specimen to be a good player; you can be overweight, you can be too short, too skinny. Let’s just say I’m a National League girl, because I don’t belive in the designated hitter. And you can quote me on that.”
sandor: In the documentary Down from the Mountain — the film of the concert of the music of the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — one of the most smile-inducing moments is when they show Emmylou Harris in her dressing room, being rushed out to the stage, furiously digging through her purse to find her wireless baseball score receiver so she can check on the status of the day’s games.
thatbob: The days games. Plural. That’s heartening. I was afraid that, as a southerner, she might just be some kind of Braves fan.
Jason: Basbeall? What’s that?
Jim: There is no such thing as basbeall. There was never a typo in Levi’s post. We have always been at war with Oceania.
The L.A. Times’ sports media writer, Larry Stewart, ended his column today by pointing out that 10 years ago, everyone hated the continuously on-screen score display when Fox introduced it, and now everyone loves it, so perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge Fox’s latest innovation, Scooter the Talking Baseball.
Well, there are a couple of faulty premises here. For one thing, I watched Fox’s first preseason NFL game in the summer of 1994 and remember that I thought it was a pretty good idea to have the time remaining on-screen throughout (and was indifferent, at worst, to having the score up there as well).
More importantly, I think even people who hated the on-screen score display could tell that there was a sensible rationale behind it. The entire rationale behind Scooter seems to be “kids will love to watch baseball on TV if there’s an animated talking baseball telling them what a fastball is, even if the game starts at 8:30 Eastern and lasts past midnight,” which I don’t think is sensible.
Also, when the on-screen score display was first introduced, it didn’t make any noise, unlike Scooter.
Levi: I still refuse to believe that Scooter exists.
Well, shop as the folks at Redbird Nation have pointed out, rx someone out there despises Bud Selig as much as I do. And they work for the Cincinnati Post! Either that, or this was the best photo available. You decide.
A correction from today’s L.A. Times: “The box score from Monday’s Chicago White Sox-Kansas City Royal baseball game in Sports on Tuesday incorrectly gave the pitching line for Chicago pitcher Damaso Marte as 1 inning pitched, 0 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts, 0 pitches, 17.00 earned-run average. The correct line is 0 innings pitched, 3 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts, 17 pitches, earned-run average of infinity.”
Levi, you may be pleased to note that Johnny Damon made the L.A. Times sports section’s daily “Quotebook” feature at the upper left of page D2, complete with photo. To quote the quote: “‘[General Manager] Theo [Epstein] told me I can keep it. I don’t think we want to compare ourselves to the Yankees. We’ll do everything the opposite of what they do.’ — Johnny Damon, Boston Red Sox outfielder, on his long hair and beard, which is not allowed by Yankee management”
In other news, the location of this blog will be moving soon. More details later.