I once wrote about baseball being played on ice during the 1860s for a brief spell. If you’d like to see what that might look like today, this team of ice skaters put on a brief demonstration of “biceball” in the modern world:
Free agent Tom Glavine signed a three-year deal with the New York Mets on December 5, 2002 worth $35 million, with an option for an additional year that could increase the value of the contract to $42.5 million. The southpaw hurler would log his 300th career win with the team in 2007.
To all my American readers, I hope you all have a restful holiday surrounded by people you love.
Congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers on their second consecutive World Series championship! Regardless of how you might feel about the Dodgers, this Series was undeniably an exciting one, full of drama and emotional roller coasters. And congratulations to Yoshinobu Yamamoto on being named World Series MVP!
I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday, whether you are Trick-or-Treating or watching Game 6 of the World Series!
ICYMI: A couple days ago, MLB posted the covers of old World Series programs on their Instagram. These go as far back as the first World Series in 1903 and features some of the best designs over the years.
Congratulations to the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers on their World Series berth! This year’s Fall Classic begins tonight in Toronto. Here is the anticipated schedule for this best-of-seven match up (all times Eastern):
| Game 1 | Friday, Oct. 24 | Toronto | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 2 | Saturday, Oct. 25 | Toronto | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 3 | Monday, Oct. 27 | Los Angeles | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 4 | Tuesday, Oct. 28 | Los Angeles | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 5* | Wednesday, Oct. 29 | Los Angeles | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 6* | Friday, Oct. 31 | Toronto | 8 p.m. | Fox |
| Game 7* | Saturday, Nov. 1 | Toronto | 8 p.m. | Fox |
*if needed
In honor of the Seattle Mariners, who won their ALDS battle against the Tigers in exhausting-but-exhilarating fashion last night, here is a poem from 2001 that is a parody of the original “Tinker to Evers to Chance” rhyme. In place of the original Cubs trio from Franklin Pierce Adams’s “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” are the infielders from the 2001 Mariners team: Carlos Guillen, Bret Boone, and John Olerud.
*
Under lights in the dark at the edge of the Sound
With a crack of the bat the ball flashes to ground
And leaps to the left through the glorious green
Of the SAFECO Field grass to a fielding machine
Comes a grab that is sure and a toss that is shrewd
Guillen to Boone to Olerud
The big hits distributed, heroes galore
Edgar and Ichiro, Mark McLemore
With Wilson or Lampkin ready to score
And Sprague in the circle, poised for one more
But second to none in their plate fortitude
Guillen and Boone and Olerud
A shot to the gap but a double it’s not
For Cameron’s a-sweeping, he’ll run it down hot
A towering pop-up a mile in the air
To Martin or Gipson or Stan Javier
Or a grounder to Bell, the outcome’s the same
The table is set for an end to the frame
In the stands and the mezzanine, bleachers and box
As one the fans rise, the stadium rocks
From Freddy to start or Sasaki to end
It’s the pitch upon which we’ve all come to depend
A fastball inside, Fang at low latitude
Guillen to Boone to Olerud
Yours truly spent the week last week in the Seattle area. Now that I have been back home a few days and have semi-caught up on my usual routines, it is time to share my experience attending the Mariners game I attended whilst there.
We took the light rail out to T-Mobile Park on Tuesday evening, September 9th. It was my first time on Seattle’s light rail, but it was not my first time in this ballpark. I attended a Mariners game almost twenty years ago — the stadium still called Safeco Field at the time — watching the action from the left field bleachers. This time around, we were able to get lower-level seats just to the third base side behind home plate.
It was a giveaway night, and we made a point to arrive early enough to snag a Logan Gilbert Funko Pop. I’ve never owned a Pop prior to this one, but I suppose if I’m going to have one, it’s nice to have one of a baseball player.
And I am a huge fan of having a hot dog while at the ballpark, so we traversed the concourse until we were able to score Seattle Dogs and cans of cider.
The game itself proved an exciting one, complete with home runs, a couple stolen bases, a caught-stealing, double plays on both sides, and more. St. Louis struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second. Then Seattle took the lead in the bottom of the third before the Cardinals tied it up in the top of the fourth. However, the Mariners managed to pull ahead, 5-3, in the bottom of the fourth, and this went on to be the final score for the game. As a Royals fan, it was quite satisfying to watch the Cardinals lose.
Joe Posnanski wrote for the Kansas City Star throughout my teenage years. In retrospect, I have come to realize that he is a big part of the reason that I became a Royals fan. Because during those years, the Royals were bad. Like, really bad. All the other kids at my middle school and high school would not be caught dead wearing Royals gear, that’s how embarrassing this baseball team was during those years.
Every weekend, my dad would buy the Sunday edition of the Kansas City Star. And every Sunday, I would snag the sports section out of that bulky stack of newspaper and spread out on the floor to read anything that looked even mildly interesting.
It was not long before I became a regular reader of Joe Posnanski’s columns, because this man can write. And he wrote about the Kansas City Royals in a way that I just could not help but love the team, no matter how badly they played. So when my parents gifted me a copy of Why We Love Baseball this past Christmas, I knew I was in for a treat.
The book is subtitled A History in 50 Moments, and the combination of the two titles sum up the book quite aptly. Posnanski writes about fifty moments over the course of the history of the game that demonstrate exactly why we love baseball so much. From Babe Ruth to Shohei Ohtani, from Shoeless Joe to Cal Ripken, Jr., this book curates the greatest moments and retells the stories behind them in a truly captivating style.
But the book doesn’t stop at just those fifty moments. As a bonus, Posnanski throws in multiple collections of five shorter stories. For example, “Five Barehanded Plays” or “Five Catches” or “Five Blunders.” And just before revealing the number one moment in the book, there is “A Moment for Every Team,” that way every fan can find something they can enjoy, regardless of which MLB team they might root for.
And that, I think, is the true value that this book presents: it is a book that any baseball fan can find pleasure in. I also love the fact that this book does not have to be read continuously to be understood. It is essentially a collection of short stories, and, as such, it can be picked up at one’s leisure, anytime the reader is in the mood for a little baseball.
And in the same way Posnanski made me fall in love with the Royals, this book will make any reader fall in love with baseball all over again.