Is Dave Roberts That Bad?
My dad is in good company. Although he LOVES Dave Roberts for that certain stolen base in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, he DESPISES Dave Roberts as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is at times exasperated by moves that Roberts makes, or – just as often – moves he doesn’t make.…
Baseball is Hard
Baseball is hard. There remains nothing more difficult to do in sports than hit a round ball with a round bat. Case in point, one Mr. Shaq Thompson. That name may sound familiar to you, as he has played five seasons as a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers. But before Thompson was collecting 356 combined…
Opening Nay
As we all know, today was supposed to be Opening Day. Yes, I capitalized it because for those of us who love baseball more than any other pastime, Opening Day is every bit as sacred – and considerably less profane – than the Super Bowl. No one ever bitches about the “S”uper “B”owl. All over…
Anatomy of an Apology
About ten days ago I was on the phone with a friend when I got an alert on my computer that Carlos Beltrán and the Mets had agreed to part ways. One can parse that statement any way they want, but there is simply no denying that Beltrán was fired…before he managed a single game…
Punishment Almost Fits the Crime
The dominoes have fallen – well most of them, anyway. Around Thanksgiving I wrote my initial opus regarding the Astros’ cheating scandal. Little did I know that the cancer would spread eastward to New England, and right into the dugout of my beloved Red Sox. But here we are. MLB is still investigating the BoSox,…
“What If”: The Butterfly Effect
One on my favorite things to think about when watching baseball is the “what if…” “What if” that last pitch had been called a strike…? “What if” that ball had been an inch to the right? “What if” the third baseman caught that foul ball? But now that the baseball season has been in the…
Crime and Punishment
A few weeks ago the child of a good friend got in trouble at school. When the dust settled and the punishment was doled out, he/she was suspended for five weeks. You read that right, he/she was essentially given a grade-level death sentence. I am not sure what the school hoped to accomplish with this…
Lying Only Makes it Worse
When I got home from work the other night, my 10-year old daughter had ink all over her arm. I asked her – maybe in a somewhat pointed way – what happened? She looked at her arm, and with feigned shock she said: “Hmm, that must have rubbed off from my paper.” I asked her…
The Two-Strike Pitch (Redux)
Four years ago I wrote an article about what I love most about baseball. In case you have forgotten, or – more likely – in case you never read it, what I love most about baseball is the two-strike pitch. And if that is my favorite aspect of the game, then boy-oh-boy did I get…
Game Day of Atonement
The email came in a little before 8pm Monday night. It was so simple, so pure, it didn’t require anything in the body; just the “re” line: “game 5?” I didn’t get the message right away, but upon reading it, the response was also simple: “Can’t do it.” I have omitted the first two words…