Why I Like Baseball

Originally appeared on October 14, 2003.

Okay folks, get ready for a really personal one this time.

This entry isn’t about how the Yankees have executed three strike-em-out-throw-em-out double plays, or how they had four men reach base by base on balls and scored none, whereas they gave up only one walk and that was the winning run. This isn’t about ninth inning heroics being too little too late. This isn’t about Soriano swinging at everything off the plate, or about Jason Giambi and Aaron Boone both taking Wakefield deep–but foul.

Or maybe it is. I’ve just come home from the Coolidge Corner Clubhouse, a nice upscale sports bar in Brookline, Mass., where I witnessed the Yankees lose 3-2 to the Red Sox.

I have the urge to break things right now. I have the urge to take some large instrument of destruction like an axe (or a baseball bat?) and smash something into tiny pieces and then lie in a heap sobbing. There are three reasons for this feeling.

1) The aforementioned frustrating Yankees loss.

2) I didn’t take batting practice today, as I have just about every day for the past week.

3) I went to therapy with my boyfriend this morning and I’ve got a lot of frustration to let out there, too.

The Yankees losing normally wouldn’t cause such a mood swing in me. But it is October, and everything seems to mean more at this time of year, not just because of baseball but because of the echoes of September 11th. I’ve written before that for me baseball is my natural Prozac. Even a loss often injects some kind of lift into me. But not this one, not tonight.

The reason I have been taking batting practice all week is that I am getting ready to play in the Women’s Baseball Marathon, a.k.a. 24 Hours For Africa, a twenty four hour long baseball game being arranged by American Women’s Baseball as a charity event for US Doctors for Africa. It’s this weekend at the Chicago White Sox spring training complex in Tucson, Arizona. I’m going there along with 60+ women from around the USA, including some of the top players in the country. (more…)

Originally posted on August 16, 2003.

July 26 2003

I had to miss Wednesday’s game because of the writing class I’m teaching, but I heard we won. That made the team’s record 6-2 (with two rainouts and one game cancelled for lack of umpires) before today’s game. The only two losses were both to the same team: Carter & Carter. We played them today.

We beat them by so much that they abdicated after four innings. (more…)

Originally posted on July 24, 2003.

July 1 2003

Narragansett Electric (that’s my team) beat ISL tonight. The final score was 9-4, I think, though it could have been 9-6. I know we were leading 6-4 in the fourth, having scored all six runs in the first inning when the ISL pitcher/coach, Darry, just didn’t have it. The first three runs came in on walks and hit batters, two more on ground outs. I batted third tonight and walked my first time up, moved to second and third both on walks, and scored on a ground out. My second time at the plate–which was still in the first inning–I faced another pitcher, a woman named Paula who threw such a soft ball that she induced five or six soft comebackers to her in the game. I grounded to first and was tagged out in the baseline, but I think a run scored on that, as well… we lost track after a while. (That’s why they keep a scorebook on the bench!)

In the field I played second for the first few innings. I made one put out at second but had no chance for a double play. (more…)

Baseball Player Diary 2003, Part 3
Originally posted on June 30, 2003.

June 5

Tonight I volunteered at the ABCD Field of Dreams tournament at Fenway Park. ABCD is Action for Boston Community Development, and the Field of Dreams is a tournament where large corporations who donate a heap o’ money get to play in a six inning game on the field at Fenway Park. The game was a cross between baseball and softball, with regular length basepaths, but a softball in use pitched by a pitching machine. The rules were simple: eleven batters per inning, no matter how many outs, two pitches per batter, no exceptions.

The festivities started in the morning, but my shift was 5pm to 10pm. I arrived right at 5pm and collected my “staff” t-shirt and redeemable food coupon, then went down to the Red Sox dugout to change into my spikes and stow my bag. (more…)

Originally posted on June 7 2003: Baseball Diary 2003, Part 2.

May 15

My arm hurt all weekend. Then again, so did my back, my knee, my neck… it has gotten cold and damp again, if you can believe that, and every part of me that has any nagging injury is aching. And the Yankees are on a losing streak, which makes me feel down, which makes me ache more. This is all very annoying, but doesn’t keep me from doing my morning routine no matter how creaky I get. I’ve added some things to the rehab exercises I did over the winter, and here’s what I’m doing pretty much every day: 100-200 crunch sit-ups, 50 leg lifts with the 5 pound ankle weight–each leg, 10-20 “superman” lifts for my back–lying on my stomach, 10-20 “crawl” lifts (lifting left leg and right arm off the ground, then vice versa), 3 sets of ten wrist curls with the blue Theraband for my elbow/wrist, 3 sets of 10 the other direction, both arms of course, and then sets of 10 lifts with a 3-lb. dumbell for my arms, butterflies, etc… I don’t have names for them all. It all takes about 20 minutes with backstretches thrown in. I’ve been doing this routine, gradually adding to it, for several weeks now.

All the light lifting must be helping. I know because tonight we had batting practice in Pawtucket. (more…)

Cecilia’s Baseball Diary 2003
May 7 2003 : Out Standing In The Field

Here I am again, trying to play baseball. For those who are new to my endeavors, here’s a quick recap.

March 23, 2000 — While surfing the Internet, I discover the existence of “organized” women’s baseball in the US. While there’s no “major league” per se, there are several organizing bodies, including the AAU and the loose confederation of leagues that form the “feeder” system for Team USA for the annual Women’s World Series and such. I wrote in my journal that day: “Does every fan long to be in the game, somewhere deep in his or her heart? Or is it just me?” A dream is born.

April 10, 2001 — I decide that sitting around dreaming is not enough. (more…)

Starting later today I will begin at WHY I LIKE BASEBALL to re-post my diary entries from the 2003 season, when I was cut from playing part-time in the New England Women’s Baseball League and took up full-time with the Pawtucket Slaterettes, then capped off the season with the 24 Hours for Africa women’s baseball marathon in Arizona.

Follow “whyilikebb” on Twitter for daily reminders when the posts appear.

When I first posted these, “blogs” didn’t really exist and Why I Like Baseball had no way for folks to post comments other than to email me. So please feel free to comment this time around!

Disclaimer: I’m reposting these without editing them or fixing former typoes. Also many of the images may be missing at first until I fix all the links.

• @Ledger_Yankees Replacing #nyy Why? #
• I worked a little late today so by the time I got home it was 10 minutes into the game and the #nyy were already up 2-0! Nice news. #
• Wow. Jorge drilled in the soft tissue of the knee by a pitch. He barely made it around the bases, but he made it. By the way, 5-0 Yanks now. #
• Ah, I'm caught up now, @Ledger_Yankees. 1) Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2) Ketchup. #rollcallnyy #
• The Cisco Kid is in for Posada now. Better hope he doesn't get beaned or take a backswing or we'll see if Swisher can catch. #nyy #
• Cano has such a pretty swing. It's almost Griffey-esque. And he's hitting .392. And he just hit a home run. No slow start this year! #nyy #

(more…)

• A-Rod infield hit and a triple tonight. But the eyes are all on Hughes. #nyy #
• Aww, dammit. Hughes gets hit with a comebacker that ends up an infield hit. His parents are in the stands, though, must be proud. #
• So I guess this kind of quiets the arguments about how Hughes should've stayed in the bullpen, eh? #nyy Now let's win the game, guys. #
• 22 A's Ks in 2 nights. CC tomorrow. What's the record for strikeouts in 3 games? #nyy @YankeesWFAN @Ledger_Yankees @BobKlap @BloggingBombers #
• Ok Joba, now don't blow it for your pal. #nyy #
• Phew! Joba gets out of it, Yankees clinging to a one-run lead. I can haz insurance run nao, plz? kthnxbye #

(more…)

I’ve been feeling very spoiled lately watching Derek Jeter and thinking about how much we’re going to miss him when he’s gone. He’s be “The Man” for so long, it’s hard to remember what it was like in the days before he arrived, since when he arrived in 1996 he and Joe Torre and a World Series win transformed the franchise out of a very moribund phase.

Two media pieces have come up recently worth noting about Jeter. First, Michael Hoban points out at Seamheads.com that ranking Jeter by Win Shares and Core Value (win shares for a player’s top ten seasons), Jeter is #6 on the shortstops since 1920 list. (A-Rod is number one.)

Jeter moved up from 8th to 6th thanks to his outstanding 2009 season. Not too shabby. He still has a way to go though to surpass Cal Ripken:
(more…)

• @ed_price All time low at Jacob's Field tonight, too. Coincidence? #

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• Weather is beautiful! And I have mango bubble tea, an apple and beef lo mein, all bought inside #Yankee stadium! #
• The only thing that could ruin this day is Javier Vazquez… #

(more…)

I’ve been at every home opener since 2000 except 2009, which got rained out and so I drove back to Boston in tears instead of staying in the city another day to go to the make-up game.

Today made up for it.

My two favorite Opening Days of the past decade were in 2001, seeing the actual raising of the Championship Banner and the “ceremonial golf cart ride” to Monument Park, and in 2003, when after the game was delayed one day by snow, Matsui finally took the field in pinstripes for the first time and hit a grand slam.

Today might top both of those. (more…)

The 2010 baseball season kicked off on Sunday night with a gala ESPN debut. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Neil Diamond, and Pedro Martinez were on hand to lend star power to the evening, which featured the Yankees and Red Sox facing off at Fenway Park on a pleasantly warm April evening.

Unfortunately, the game turned into something more like a dress rehearsal, as both teams had their star turns, but also their lapses, duds, and missed cues. (more…)

It’s not every day you get to talk to a major league umpire. Today I got a chance to have an extensive interview with Jim Reynolds who has been a major league ump for more than ten years, to help kick off the UMPS CARE charity auction online. (Auction kicks off today onlinewith some truly amazing items, including a #44 All-Star Game jersey signed by President Barack Obama, the 44th president.) I picked his brain on a lot of topics, from concussions and the recent firings of umpire supervisors to how statistical analysis has changed the game of baseball and umpiring in particular.

Reynolds didn’t initially plan to be an umpire. As a student at UCONN, he studied communications, and had a job all lined up with a television station after graduation… but peer pressure led him to give umpiring a try.

Peer pressure? Yeah. It was during a fire drill in his freshman year that Jim struck up a conversation with another student standing around waiting to go back into the building. They became good friends and he suggested that Jim take a one-credit class on umpiring that UCONN offered. The students in that class got to work the games for the college team and then in the summer Jim was able to work a regular daytime summer job and then make extra money calling a few games a night. Then his friend told him when they were getting ready to graduate, that he wanted to go to major league umpire school, and wanted Jim to go with him.

“450 kids go and only 40 make it, he told me,” Jim explained, “So my TV job was waiting, and they told me go ahead and give it a shot, and if you don’t make it, your job is here. So I went for it and not only did I make it, he and I both made it.”
(more…)

Cano not in lineup today. He did extra hitting work with Kevin Long on back field. Hitting power to right field–a Yankee Stadium swing?

Cloudy and muggy here in Tampa today. Dad getting a sandwich for us to share. We have a half hour still until baseball. Mom teaching aqua.

Starting pitchers today. Sabathia for #Yankees, Charlie Morton for Pirates. Still looking for Pittsburgh’s lineup.
(more…)

Today’s game in Tweets! Here’s a compilation of all the tweets I posted from the game live today. If you want to follow my live tweets next games, find me at http://twitter.com/whyilikebb

Kid in front of me has NY logo shaved in his hair. #Yankees http://twitpic.com/17dylm

Phillies caps are neon red, with their bright blue jerseys looks like a college team. Now time for anthem

Must be warmer today. Umps switched to light blue shirts. Feels like about 70 degrees. Lots of phillies fans here. #Yankees

No Jeter, no Arod today. Kevin Russo 3b, Ramiro pena ss. When did we get Marcus Thames back?? He is in left field. Gardner, Swish, Teix.

Rollins whacks Vazquez first pitch for a home run. #Yankees

I know, I know. At least he threw a strike… Next batter, polanco, Cano robbed him on a soft liner.
(more…)

Today’s game was one long round of “who is that player?”

This is a typical spring activity, but one would think that with modern information technology things would get easier.

One would be wrong.

I started out this morning trying to print out the rosters from MLB.com which was all well and good, but what about the non-roster players? Those are the guys you need to know the most. So I went next to SpringTraining.com and printed out lists of the non-roster players, too. But I couldn’t help but notice the Phillies hadn’t assigned numbers to them by the time they went to press… so the list could be of limited usefulness. (more…)

I think I burned my ear.

Hello and welcome to another Spring Training! I’m in Tampa all week, and with any luck I’ll also be stopping by Lakeland. I’m not working on any high-powered books or articles at the moment (the YANKEES ANNUAL just came out so that is all done!) so this week I get to be just a fan, and sit in the stands and eat all the hot dogs I want.

Well, actually, I’m on a diet, but you get the idea.

Today’s fun in the sun took place at George M. Steinbrenner stadium, the place formerly known as Legends Field and still called that by many locals. (more…)

It’s officially SABR day in America (America includes Canada, too, as there are chapters/meetings in Toronto and Montreal, plus Puerto Rico has a chapter and meeting today, and presumably Mexico would be included if there were a chapter there…). Many SABR chapters are having Hot Stove meetings today and other shindigs to celebrate. (Schedule).

I’m a member of the Boston chapter, but also one of the first “online chapters,” the SABR charter community of bloggers known as the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. Since I’m feeling a bit under the weather and may not make it to my Boston chapter meeting, I figured I’d offer this trivia quiz for seamheads everywhere to enjoy.

(more…)