“Spring Training,” by Lynn Rigney Schott
Posted: April 22, 2020 Filed under: 20th Century, Pop culture | Tags: Baseball, Bill Rigney, California Angels, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Lynn Rigney Schott, Major League Baseball, Minnesota Twins, MLB, New York Giants, poetry, San Francisco Giants, sports, Spring Training 1 CommentI’m still holding out hope that Spring Training won’t be the only baseball we get this year. In the meantime, we look for other ways to stay engaged with baseball. This piece by Lynn Rigney Schott was first published in The New Yorker on March 26, 1984. The author’s father, Bill Rigney, had played Major League Baseball with the New York Giants from 1946 to 1953. He then went on to serve as the manager for the Giants, making him their last manager in New York as well as the team’s first manager when they moved to San Francisco. Rigney would also manage the Los Angeles/California Angels and the Minnesota Twins.
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The last of the birds has returned —
the bluebird, shy and flashy.
The bees carry fat baskets of pollen
from the alders around the pond.
The wasps in the attic venture downstairs,
where they congregate on warm windowpanes.
Every few days it rains.
This is my thirty-fifth spring;
still I am a novice at my work,
confused and frightened and angry.
Unlike me, the buds do not hesitate,
the hills are confident they will be
perfectly reflected
in the glass of the river.
I oiled my glove yesterday.
Half the season is over.
When will I be ready?
On my desk sits a black-and-white postcard picture
of my father — skinny, determined,
in a New York Giants uniform —
ears protruding, eyes riveted.
Handsome, single-minded, he looks ready.
Thirty-five years of warmups.
Like glancing down at the scorecard
in your lap for half a second
and when you look up it’s done —
a long fly ball, moonlike,
into the night
over the fence,
way out of reach.

Bill Rigney, 1953 (Wikipedia)
Quote of the day
Posted: May 23, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, life, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, Mike Trout, MLB, quotes, sports Leave a commentThe adrenaline is pumping before or during a game – you’re excited, you’re anxious. But the biggest things are just having fun and being confident. There really is no alternative because you just can’t be negative. And a huge part of developing that confidence is by working hard every day, and I don’t think that is limited to the baseball field. I think that bleeds over to all aspects of anything that you’re doing or working on in life.
~Mike Trout
This day in baseball: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Posted: January 3, 2019 Filed under: 21st Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Anaheim Angels, Anaheim Stadium, Baseball, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Major League Baseball, MLB, Orange County, sports 2 CommentsIn an attempt to make the team more appealing to a broader market, on January 3, 2005, the Anaheim Angels announced the franchise would henceforth be known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The idea was to imply that the Angels were from Southern California in general, and not just from Orange County. The “of Anaheim” phrase was included to comply with the terms of a 1996 lease that called for the city to fund renovations to Anaheim Stadium, and required the team’s name to contain the name “Anaheim.” The city of Anaheim filed an injunction seeking to immediately reverse the name change, but this proved unsuccessful, and the Angels began playing under the new name for the 2007 season.

Wikipedia