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…
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…
Head First Strikes Out…Again
As a writer (am I a writer?), I love an evergreen topic. It makes it so much easier to create content. As a baseball fan (I am a baseball fan), however, certain evergreen topics are infuriating. Last week I was listening to the Executive Access podcast (a must-subscribe if you love the inner working of…
Head Shots and Humanity
In honor of Dustin May’s 22nd birthday, there is an issue that has been on my mind for a while. When my son was seven years old, he took a comebacker to his left eye. On impact, he dropped to the ground, the batter advanced to first base, and, as you might expect, everything stopped…
What We Do For Our Kids
When we decided to send our youngest to sleepaway camp in Wisconsin four years ago, I didn’t appreciate that it would require me to make two trips to the Midwest each summer. Of course, there is always the possibility that she could fly alone, but insofar as she was seven years old her first time, we…