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My Apologies for the Belated Dave Smith Death Story

February 9, 2018

My apologies for the extremely belated Dave Smith death story news I wrote about earlier today. Did I also mention that Chron.com may be soon running a streamer on the shooting that supposedly took place at Ford’s Theater in Washington last April.

Here’s my derailment tale. The following link and story appeared in this morning’s edition of the Houston Chronicle’s Chron.com site:

https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Former-Astros-reliever-Dave-Smith-dies-at-53-1789418.php

I’ve since deleted the short coupling story I wrote with that way-out-of-date news in anticipation of writing the piece you see here.

Maybe it’s what I get for attempting to write nearly 3,000 columns over nine years while also serving as my only on site personal editor and publisher too. Good friends Tom Hunter and Darrell Pittman have saved me from my own flawed self on numerous occasions. In many ways, I’m surprised I haven’t found this wall sooner, even with all the help in the world. I even had to have Chron.com’s gremlin help to get here today. – Why was Chron.com running the story of Dave Smith’s sudden death some nine years after the fact? It’s hard for me to believe that I couldn’t even remember that Dave Smith was long since dead when I first got the shocking news again this morning. Had I done so, I might have checked the by line. –   It told me what I needed to know. It read:

“By Jose de Jesus Ortiz  Published 6:30 am, Thursday, December 18, 2008″

Wow! Ortiz works in St. Louis now. Hasn’t worked in Houston for years. And December 18, 2008 was quite a long time ago. One thing that held up true was the fact that Dave Smith did die at age 53. He was born on January 21, 1955, and he died just about a month short of his 54th birthday.

Oh well. It just goes to reenforce an old apparent truism: “You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet to be true.” My apologies again for this reinforcing contribution.

I’ll keep trying to get better. It’s the only gear I own for anything I put myself into doing. Fortunately, I don’t write from ego. If I did, I couldn’t find something to write about anytime I found my keyboard. I may spend some of today feeling like either Bill Buckner – or just maybe – the guy that sent the inaccurate incoming missile warning to the people of Hawaii, but that sort of stuff fades quickly in me. We all make our impact by the things we do, or fail to do, but none of us are the center of the universe, even if the nightly news makes it seem like the world is not running out of people who think they are.

TGIF!

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball | 4 Comments »

The Deposition All Star Lineup Quotes

February 9, 2018

“Yes, officer. I always visit the convents of St. Louis each trip.”
~ Babe Ruth

What is this stuff? These are things that a lineup of great MLB stars might have said as quotes from a deposition they each were giving in wildly variable life circumstance situations. We do not think you will find any of them recorded elsewhere since they all have severally and separately incubated in the corners of our own mental digestions over time.

Hope you find some joyful pre-season merriment, a smile, or a mirk – somewhere amidst the group of ten.

The Deposition All Star Lineup Quotes

POS PLAYER DEPOSITION
P Eddie Cicotte “All I ever really wanted was a raise that matched my pitching results.”
C Clint Courtney “If you want to keep your face, don’t slide home head first.”
1B Hal Chase “I don’t fix anything. I simply make winning or losing a matter of art.”
2B Billy Martin “Try not to cross me on a bad day and we’ll get along fine.”
3B Pete Rose “I only bet on my own team to win in baseball games.”
SS Leo Durocher “Me and my friends never discuss base stealing – or vice versa.”
LF Barry Bonds “All I really got out of the stuff was a faster bald head.”
CF Joe Jackson “I never fixed nuthin’. I just kept a bag of money they left in my room for me.”
RF Babe Ruth “Yes, officer. I always visit the convents of St. Louis each trip.”
DH Carlos Lee “I liked the DH spot. It’s a lot easier on cattlemen who also don’t run much, anyway.

Have a nice weekend, everybody!

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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The Last Astrodome NL Game

February 8, 2018

Ken Caminiti Hit the Last HR in Astrodome History
Sunday, October 3, 1999

 

Astros Take Dodgers, 9-4, in last home game at the Astrodome

Sunday, October 3, 1999

Houston (AP). In Houston, the Astros won their third straight NL Central title, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers as Mike Hampton became the NL’s only 22-game winner.

In the Astrodome’s final regular-season game, Ken Caminiti put Houston ahead with a bases-loaded walk in the first inning. Daryle Ward followed with a three-run double and the Astros coasted, finally shaking off the late-season challenge of the Cincinnati Reds.

Hampton (22-4) allowed three hits in seven innings and struck out eight, winning for the ninth time in 10 decisions. He also set a team record for (pitching) wins in a season, topping Joe Niekro’s 21-11 record in 1979.

~ Associated Press, Roswell Daily Record, Monday, October 4, 1999, Pages B1-B2.

Historical Note: As you will also note from this following Baseball Almanac depiction of the Astrodome’s last official NL game, Astros third baseman Ken Caminiti also registered the last home run in the Astrodome’s 1965-1999 history as home to the Houston Astros.

Baseball Almanac Box Scores

Los Angeles Dodgers 4, Houston Astros 9
Los Angeles Dodgers ab   r   h rbi
Young 2b 4 1 0 0
Grudzielanek ss 5 0 2 1
Mondesi rf 5 0 2 1
Karros 1b 4 0 0 0
White cf 3 0 0 0
Beltre 3b 4 1 1 0
Hubbard lf 3 1 0 0
Lo Duca c 3 0 0 0
Checo p 0 0 0 0
  Herges p 1 0 0 0
  Cromer ph 0 0 0 0
  Masaoka p 0 0 0 0
  Arnold p 0 0 0 0
  Borbon p 0 0 0 0
  Vizcaino ph 1 0 1 0
  Mills p 0 0 0 0
  Maddux p 0 0 0 0
  Hansen ph 1 1 1 2
Totals 34 4 7 4
Houston Astros ab   r   h rbi
Biggio 2b 3 0 1 0
Javier rf,lf 4 2 1 1
Bagwell 1b 3 3 1 1
Everett cf,rf 4 1 1 0
Caminiti 3b 2 2 1 2
Ward lf 2 0 1 3
  Mieske ph 0 0 0 0
  Barker pr,cf 2 0 1 1
Eusebio c 3 0 0 1
Gutierrez ss 4 0 0 0
Hampton p 3 1 1 0
  Spiers ph 1 0 0 0
  Cabrera p 0 0 0 0
  Powell p 0 0 0 0
Totals 31 9 8 9
Los Angeles 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 – 4 7 1
Houston 4 0 1 0 1 3 0 0 x – 9 8 2
  Los Angeles Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO
Checo  L (2-2) 0.1 1 4 4 5 1
  Herges 3.2 2 1 1 1 5
  Masaoka 0.1 1 1 1 2 1
  Arnold 1.1 2 3 2 1 1
  Borbon 0.1 1 0 0 0 1
  Mills 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
  Maddux 1.0 1 0 0 1 1
Totals
8.0
1
0
0
1
1
  Houston Astros IP H R ER BB SO
Hampton  W (22-4) 7.0 3 1 1 4 8
  Cabrera 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
  Powell 1.0 3 3 3 1 1
Totals
9.0
3
3
3
1
1

E–Arnold (2), Ward (2), Barker (1).  2B–Los Angeles Hansen (8,off Powell), Houston Ward (6,off Checo); Biggio (56,off Herges); Javier (19,off Arnold).  HR–Houston Caminiti (13,3rd inning off Herges 0 on, 1 out).  Team LOB–8.  SH–Biggio (5,off Arnold).  Team–9.  SB–White (19,2nd base off Hampton/Eusebio); Young (51,2nd base off Hampton/Eusebio); Bagwell (30,2nd base off Masaoka/Lo Duca).  CS–Biggio (14,2nd base by Herges/Lo Duca).  WP–Arnold (3), Maddux (1), Hampton (9).  U-HP–Brian Gorman, 1B–Phil Cuzzi, 2B–Jerry Crawford, 3B–Alfonso Marquez.  T–3:06.  A–52,033.

Some players are unforgettable.
Ken Caminiti is one of those guys.

 

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball | 3 Comments »

The Best and Worst Baseball Movie Actors

February 7, 2018

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs
About to hit the most memorable homer in baseball movie history
“The Natural” (1984)

10 Best Baseball Movie Actors

  1. Robert Redford – His Monster Shot HR personifies forever – and in beautiful form – the most ancient of our sandlot dreams.
  2. Kevin Costner – His field of dreams in all three of his baseball movies was love, family, baseball, and the passion we share through our love of the game.
  3. James Earl Jones – He swung from the depths and he did on the screen what “Big Pappa” would later do at Fenway as the roar of deliverance from despair.
  4. Charlie Sheen – Maybe. Just maybe. A slight tilt in the aim of destiny and Charlie could have been – the real Wild Thing – and be going into the HOF this summer in the company of fellow eternally great closer, Trevor Hoffman.
  5. Burt Lancaster – Most athletic fine actor ever. All-Time. His Jim Thorpe portrayal convinced that he might have made it big in baseball, again, with another slight destiny-redirection.
  6. John Cusack – How could Buck Weaver have been guilty back in 1919? Not the way John Cusack portrayed him, he wasn’t.
  7. Tom Hanks – The ladies got a great one with old Tom Hanks/Jimmy Dugan at the helm. If there were any crying in baseball, it would have been over the fact that Hanks/Dugan had taken his talent to  the cause of this great ladies league memoir – and not to either of the starring male roles he could have handled in “Field of Dreams”.
  8. Robert De Niro – The guy oozes with the juice of talent – and that begins with his ability to make himself believable in any role he takes on. We don’t see him doing much actual baseball in “Bang the Drum Slowly”, but there is no doubt that he can handle those demands with great skill and competence.
  9. Louis Gossett, Jr. – If you want to be Satchel Paige, you have to convince us baseball folk that you can both throw and see like old Satch did. Gossett, Jr. did both.
  10. Paul Douglas – In my younger days, I could have hung out on the road with catcher Monk Lonigan (“It Happens Every Spring”) or manager Guffy McGovern (“Angels in the Outfield”) through all the late night steak houses we could find to shoot the (breeze) over a few cold beers, a not-too-tough steak, and some strategy and social plan discussion for the rest of the do-able night and tomorrow’s game.

There is no failure in a moment like this one.

8 Worst Baseball Movie Actors

  • Anthony Perkins – These guys were all actors who couldn’t run, throw, catch, or bat like real ballplayers, regardless of their variable acting skills. There’s no 1 to 8 list here. They all stank as baseball athletes. Take Perkins, for example. It’s impossible to find an actor credible who picks up and throws a baseball in 1957’s “Fear Strikes Out” like it’s a piece of dog excrement that he’s found in his rose garden and now intends to get rid of it as quickly as possible. (The rest are pretty much the same. If you go to IMDB.com, you will have no trouble finding the baseball movies mentioned that corroborate this same Perkins finding in some variant form for each of them as well.)
  • Gary Cooper – “Pride of the Yankees”
  • William Bendix – “The Babe Ruth Story”
  • Ray Milland – “It Happens Every Spring”
  • Ronald Reagan – “The Winning Team”
  • Dan Dailey – “The Pride of St. Louis”
  • Jimmy Stewart – “The Stratton Story”
  • Edward G. Robinson – “Big Leaguer”

We could have added two more, but saw no point. Holes don’t get filled by demonstrations of how wide they are. And most actors fall short in some way. Baseball is not an easy game to play or portray, even if you are Jackie Robinson playing yourself in the 1950 movie, “The Jackie Robinson Story.” Great as Jackie was as a ballplayer, he wasn’t much of an actor on the screen, but what non-trained actor really is that good at filmed role playing?

As a baseball movie producer, I’d prefer to place my money on a Redford, Costner, Jones, or Hanks in the key baseball movie roles than I would the actual players.

Wouldn’t you?

Gotta Love It. ~ Eat It Up.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

 

 

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Nix to the Moonlight Graham Base Runner

February 6, 2018

SS: “How many times do we have to run this guy down?”
3B: “Until we either keep him from scoring – or the last fan leaves – whichever comes first!“

Do we really want to fill baseball rosters with a new special talent – a guy that runs the bases like Lou Brock, but never hits because he’s more like Moonlight Graham in that department?

We simply want to call attention to a tight series of points made by Davis O. Barker as a comment upon that “Extra Innings Second Base” Placed Runner idea. If Mr. Davis doesn’t write another sentence on this subject, his thoughts and observations here should be worth a pause by the Commissioner before the game ever comes closer to considering this change at the MLB level – or other any level of organized baseball play:

********************

Wow … I could write a book on this one. I’m going to gather my thoughts later and then submit it. But let me say one thing about the Extra Innings Second Base idea … this is nothing new by any means. I remember seeing it decades ago playing Fast-Pitch Softball – especially in tournament play. They used to call it “Olympic Rules”, but I have no idea why. After watching it in action, it really doesn’t help end games if that’s your goal. The reason for that is that a strategy emerged and everybody followed it … and as a result, everybody scores one run and you keep playing … Strategy? First guy up bunts the runner to third … second guy up lifts the ball into the outfield … runner tags and scores. Now you’re left with two outs and nobody on … Bottom half of the inning – same thing. Problem: What are the chances of scoring a second run with nobody on and two outs when you say that you aren’t likely to score with nobody on and no outs without the rule. The only thing good I guess that would come out of it is that the art of bunting may return to its original standing.

~ Comment by Davis O. Barker at the Baseball at the Crossroads: To Be or Not To Be site

Baseball at the Crossroads: To Be or Not To Be

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Res Ipsa Loquitur. ~ The thing speaks for itself.

Thank You, Mr. Barker.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball | 4 Comments »

Viva Cuba Béisbol

February 5, 2018

“Viva Cuba Béisbol: A Photographic Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Cuban Baseball,” February 7, 2018, Whittier, CA

By on January 18, 2018 in news

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2018, 7:00 P.M.

WARDMAN LIBRARY, WHITTIER COLLEGE

7031 Founders Hill Road, Whittier, California 

Byron Motley

“Regardless of political beliefs, differences in governance, or the chasm between cultures, through the decades there has been one common love that Americans share with our Cuban neighbors. Baseball is Cuba’s unchallenged national pastime and most beloved sport. The phenomenon of baseball on the island is a world unto itself.” – Byron Motley, Embracing Cuba

In conjunction with its exhibition, “Feeling the Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage” (on view in the display cases in the foyer of the Wardman Library through March 15, 2018), the Institute for Baseball Studies and the Baseball Reliquary present “Viva Cuba Béisbol: A Photographic Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Cuban Baseball,” a lecture/slide presentation by Byron Motley, on Wednesday, February 7, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. at the Wardman Library, 7031 Founders Hill Road, Whittier, California, on the campus of Whittier College. A Los Angeles-based singer, author, photographer, and filmmaker, Motley will also sign copies of his photo book, Embracing Cuba (University of Florida Press, 2015). The event is open to the public and free of charge.

Intrigued by tales of his parents’ long-ago journey to the pre-revolutionary “Pearl of the Antilles,” Byron Motley traveled to Cuba more than a decade ago and instantly fell in love. Year after year, he has returned with his camera to explore its vistas, its people, and its spirit. Granted unprecedented access to the Cuban national baseball teams by the Castro government, Motley set out to capture the spirit of the game which thrives in this rarely seen remarkable world. His images document Cuba’s national obsession; how the sport of baseball transcends politics, captures the hearts of the island, and weaves itself into the fabric of everyday life.

A man of diverse interests and talents, Byron Motley is a critically-acclaimed singer who has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Celine

Byron Motley: Baseball on the Malecon (2008)

Dion, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, and others. He has performed on Broadway alongside Patti LuPone and has been a featured soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra on three separate occasions under the baton of conductor/composer John Williams. Motley regularly lectures on the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues, and co-authored the memoir of his father, umpire Bob Motley, entitled Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants, and Stars: True Tales of Breaking Barriers, Umpiring Baseball Legends, and Wild Adventures in the Negro Leagues. Motley is producing a television documentary, The Negro Baseball Leagues: An American Legacy, and has co-written a screenplay about legendary Negro Leagues executive Effa Manley, the first woman to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which will be produced and directed by Penny Marshall. An award-winning photographer, Motley’s work has been shown in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe, and Cuba, and has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Advocate, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.

Byron Motley: “Conrado Marrero” (2008)

In addition to Byron Motley’s presentation, Whittier College professor and Institute for Baseball Studies co-director Joe Price will speak about his January 2018 course, “Cuba: Baseball as a Caribbean Religion,” and share some of the experiences that he and his students had in Cuba.

“Viva Cuba Béisbol: A Photographic Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Cuban Baseball” is made possible, in part, by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.  For further information, contact the Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647 or by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net.  For directions and parking, phone the Wardman Library at (562) 907-4247 during library hours.

“Embracing Cuba” by Byron Motley

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For further information about Wednesday’s progam and other activities coming in February as gifts of The Baseball Reliquary, please check out this latest public message from Executive Director, Terry Cannon:

Friends & Reliquarians:

Super Bowl Sunday reminds us that spring training camps will soon open, and once again all will be right with the world.  You’ll be glad to know that the Baseball Reliquary is already in midseason form, and we have a jam-packed programming lineup for the month of February.  Here’s what’s on deck, and we hope to see you at one or more of these events.

On Wednesday, February 7, at 7:00 p.m., we turn our attention to Cuba as the Baseball Reliquary collaborates with the Institute for Baseball Studies to present “Viva Cuba Beisbol: A Photographic Journey Into the Heart and Soul of Cuban Baseball,” a lecture/slide presentation by Byron Motley.  This event will be held at the Wardman Library, 7031 Founders Hill Road, on the campus of Whittier College.  Parking throughout the campus is free after 5:00 p.m.  Byron will also sign copies of his photo book, “Embracing Cuba,” and Whittier College professor and Institute for Baseball Studies co-director Joe Price will speak about his recent course “Cuba: Baseball as a Caribbean Religion,” and will share some of the experiences that he and his students had on the island.  Each attendee will receive a genuine Fidel Castro trading card.  Arrive early to view the exhibition, “Feeling the Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage,” in the display cases in the foyer of the library.  For more details, visit:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/2018/01/viva-cuba-beisbol-photographic-journey-heart-soul-cuban-baseball-february-7-2018-whittier-ca/

On Saturday, February 10, at 2:00 p.m., the Baseball Reliquary will present a film screening, discussion, and book signing with author, filmmaker, and historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa at the Allendale Branch Library, 1130 S. Marengo Ave., Pasadena.  Entitled “Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire,” the program will take you inside the concentration camps during World War II, where baseball became a tonic of spiritual renewal for disenfranchised Japanese Americans who played America’s pastime while imprisoned.  The Reliquary will also display several baseball-themed paintings by artist Ben Sakoguchi.  For further details on this event, visit:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/2018/01/desert-diamonds-behind-barbed-wire-february-10-2018-pasadena-ca/

On Saturday, February 24, at 2:00 p.m., the Baseball Reliquary will turn its gaze to the Negro Leagues with a program entitled “From Monarchs to Barons: The Legacy of the Negro Leagues” at the La Pintoresca Branch Library, 1355 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena.  Once again, we turn to author, filmmaker, and photographer Byron Motley, who will discuss the great teams and players of the Negro Leagues, which rose to prominence in the decades before MLB’s integration.  Los Angeles folk singer Ross Altman will join Byron and perform his original compositions “Ballad of Jackie Robinson” and “Civil Rights and Baseball.”  A display of baseball artworks by Bill Cormalis Jr., Tina Hoggatt, and Ben Sakoguchi will also be featured.  For additional information, visit:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/2018/01/monarchs-barons-legacy-negro-leagues-february-24-2018-pasadena-ca/

Last but not least, the Baseball Reliquary and Institute for Baseball Studies recently hit the road and installed a major exhibition, “A Game of Color: The African-American Experience in Baseball,” at the San Francisco Public Library’s Skylight Gallery.  The exhibition will run through March 18, and there are five separate programs being presented in conjunction with the exhibition in the months of February and March.  So if you live in the Bay Area, or plan to take an excursion there in the near future, check out the goings-on.  Here’s a rundown on what’s scheduled, courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library:

https://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1031367001

Please advise if you would like any further information.

Sincerely,
Terry Cannon
Executive Director/The Baseball Reliquary
Co-Director/Institute for Baseball Studies
www.baseballreliquary.org

phone: (626) 791-7647
e-mail: terymar@earthlink.net

********************

Regards,

Bill McCurdy

Pecan Park Eagle

and

Registered Baseball Reliquarian

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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That Springer-Dinger Astros Star

February 3, 2018

George Springer
A Champion of Many Talents

 

Have you yet purchased your copy of  “Houston’s Team, Houston’s Title, 2017 World Series Champions” by Astros broadcasting legend Bill Brown? If not, you need to do so. You’re missing out on the tightest, most accurate picture of the 2017 Playoffs and World Series, but also a compact, blows-your-mind-away picture of the club stars that contributed so much to team’s regular and fall season success.

Beyond the incomparable Jose Altuve, how could any of us who there to see the Astros kick Opening Day into a high gear with a roaring lead-off homer by George Springer and ultimate win over Seattle possibly have known back in April 2017 that we were witnessing the first of two bookend home runs that would bracket our entire scoring and long ball production for 2017 – going all the way through the 2nd inning, Game 7 two-run homer that he ultimately would bash as the last bell and whistle on the final, 5-1, victory score pasted against LA in Dodger Stadium back on November 1st?

Incredible.

As Bill Brown points out on Page 182, the following outcomes were the major achievements of 29-year old outfielder George Springer in 2017:

1) He was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2017 World Series.

2) He tied a World Series record by hitting 5 home runs in the World Series,and one in each of the last 4 games.

3) George Springer also tied Barry Bonds on this mark. They are the only two players in history to register a homer, 3 walks, and 3 runs in a World Series game.

4) Springer also set a World Series record by banging out 8 extra base hits in the 2017 event.

5) Credit George with this one too. – His 29 extra bases in 2017 also are a World Series record.

6) In 2017, Springer won the Silver Slugger Award.

7) He set an Astros club record in 2017 with 34 home runs by a lead off man.

8) His 9 lead off home runs as the first batter in the game led MLB and posted up also as an Astros club record.

9) His 112 runs scored tied him for 2nd place in the American League 2017 season.

10) George Springer his .392 w/RISP and two outs.

11) Finally, he also lowered his season strikeout rate in 2017 to a measly 17.6%.

Need any more reasons to digest why We, The People of Astros Nation, are getting to enjoy this slide into 2018 on the wings last year’s surreality? Get your own copy of Bill Brown’s book and watch what happens when talent and destiny combine on the wings of hunger and desire.

Amazon.com is the place. $15.00, plus S&H, is the price – and the informational empowerment is priceless.

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

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Baseball at the Crossroads: To Be or Not To Be

February 2, 2018

MLB to experiment with starting runner on 2nd in extra innings

Proposal to speed up play would be used in spring training, All-Star Game

By Ronald Blum · The Associated Press ·

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has long vowed to make changes for this season with or without an agreement with the Players’ Union. (Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press)

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/mlb/mlb-proposes-pace-of-game-changes-1.4510434

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Please read the referenced above article and give it some thought – some deep thought.

1) Is the proposed free second base runner rule to start extra innings (10th or 11th) in spring training and this year’s All Star Game really a simple way to shorten games of no great consequence and something that will only be used as a protection step against pointless player injuries? Or is it a Trojan horse attempt by the Commissioner to get the practice into the “no-big-deal” phase on its way to becoming serious damage to  baseball’s “earned opportunity” idea about how games should be won?

2) Do we really want to try to convert baseball into a game that is controlled by the clock? And if we were to “succeed” in knocking off a half hour average for each MLB game, would it still be baseball – and I mean the kind of baseball that most of us grew up playing and watching?

3) Is the problem that baseball games are too long? Or is it the fact that 21st century high-tech cultural attention spans are too short to even appreciate the chess-game mental aspects of the game? Or maybe its just a combination of both, plus the fact that games start late, mainly for the sake of maximizing the television commercial audience that is watching. If MLB played more day games during the week – or if they began more weeknight games at 6:00 PM, than 7:15 PM, people who want to get home earlier could find more games that do make that possible. – Newer fans would still need to learn and have to dig the idea that baseball is not a TV network sitcom. It lives the life that most of us wish for – one that is not controlled by the clock. – And in return for that kind of understanding, baseball will always rare up at its own special moment – and in its own way – and give us contests like Games 2 and 5 of the 2017 World Series as our reward for patience and appreciation of the game’s timeless beauty.

4) Look! At my age, I really do get it that the forces causing change are far larger then any of us alone. In the end, right or wrong, all of us little people can do is either make the decision to speak up – or shut up.

So far, I still choose to speak up for the game of baseball I love. Let’s speak up and do what we can to preserve what makes baseball great. If we do not, then we are giving up the only voice we have against the larger tides of commerce, politics, power structure, and personal ego that will step in someday and swoop up baseball as just another personal trading chip in the larger game of empire-building.

Whoops. Maybe it’s already happened. What do you think, Commissioner Manfred?

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Baseball | 6 Comments »

A Tale of Two Poems

January 31, 2018

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

 

 

Altuve

By The Pecan Park Eagle

 

I think that we shall never see

Another Jose Altuve.

 

A fire to play and never rest

Burns within this hero’s breast;

 

A fire that feeds from God all day,

And lifts his supple arms to play;

 

A fire that bears the summer wear

For laurels in his autumn hair;

 

A fire that holds its winter glow

Just waiting for the springtime go.

 

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only a God could make Altuve.

 

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Morals:

(1) The forests deserve our protection. There’s more to life than forests filled with trees, but the game of baseball would be stuck with the ping of all those ugly metal bats without them.

(2) If every batter could hit like Altuve, the forests would be thinner than they are today.

(3) Never take a natural wonder for granted. And that goes for beautiful forests – and remarkable human beings like Jose Altuve.

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Posted in Baseball, culture | 4 Comments »

Finally – Here’s the Dirt on the World Series

January 29, 2018

A Bottle of World Series Dirt
~ a Wedding Anniversary Gift from Darrell & Susan Pittman

What a way to cap off a belated anniversary celebration!

Norma and I had just returned home yesterday from our three-days-late celebration of our January 25, 1986 wedding to find a nice card and gift from Darrell and Susan Pittman at our front door.

Same 4″ High Bottle
Other Side, From Game 7
Dodger Stadium, 11/01/2017

What could have touched the heart from and to a diehard Astros fan more? It was 4″ high bottle of dirt – dirt extracted from the played fielding field at Dodger Stadium after the November 1, 2017 Game 7 got settled on a 4-3 play at 1st in the bottom of the 9th. It could have been dirt taken from the same infield area of the batter’s box from which George Springer launched his 2-run homer off Yu Darvish of the Dodgers to make it 5-0 Astros early – forever this night finally breaking the spirit of the Dodgers and elevating the Astros to the winning side – and forever, forever, forever pointing out the Houston Astros as the 2017 new World Series Champions.

I wasn’t aware that this MLB authenticated field dirt package was even available until it arrived as a gift from the Pittmans. Darrell says it was advertised by MLB over the Internet fairly soon after the World Series was done, but that’s all I know. If you are interested, you may want to check on these field dirt bottles and their ongoing availability with MLB.com.

The only other dirt field sample I’ve ever previously owned still sits in its own small bottle at my I-10 Houston office. It came from our Pecan Park Eagles sandlot home in the East End – a place called Eagle Field.

Eagle Field was small, but our dreams were big.

Now comes another small bottle. And this one contains the fulfillment of one dream that’s been alive since the days of Eagle Field.

Houston is now champion of the baseball world!

Thank you again, Darrell and Susan, for this eternal reminder.

 

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

Tags:
Posted in Baseball | 2 Comments »

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