What Baseball Was Missing -- Fans

4/15/2021

(This just in: fan makes cheesy catch of home run ball.)
* * *
Clearly, baseball missed its fans as much as the fans missed baseball.
Now we fully understand the pandemic pall of the truncated 2020 season -- no fanatics, no diehards, no leather-lungs, no lunatics, adding color and noise to the play on the field.
Never again underestimate fans.

Even with the modest percentile of fans allowed in ball parks in states where governments respect the murderous potential of the virus, baseball feels more like baseball this year.
Fans with distended facial features and thrashing arms try to summon a rally. Fans stand and applaud a gallant catch, a timely hit, a strikeout pitch by the home side.
Even back in our solitary dens, staying safe, we enjoy the game more this time around because some of our fellow fans are out there, doing what we do not yet dare to do – cheering, booing, beseeching, heckling, though their masks.

Those fans are there for us. This was apparent Wednesday night as the Mets won their third straight game on a manic homestand.
Some fans even displayed mid-season form in the skills of the game.

James McCann, the experienced catcher who has already picked a runner off second base – first time in eight years for the Mets! – slugged a long fly ball to left field. Two Phillies made frantic runs to the wall, one digging his spikes into the padding, but the ball was over the railing – and into the glove of a fan in his socially-distanced position. The fan looked like a latter-day Mickey or Willie or The Duke as he softly squeezed the ball.

Fan nonchalantly snags James McCann's homer while Queens zealots watch.

Heroes all around us. Seconds later, a fellow fan applauded the catch, and the TV announcers duly noted the brilliant positioning and soft hands of the civilian.
Better yet, somehow the Mets’ TV crew located his wife, Jessica, and their twin sons, celebrating McCann's first home run with the Mets. Last year that family moment could not have happened.

Thanks to Diane and Laura for capturing these snapshots from mlb.com.

Baseball has life again -- despite the mad-professor innovations in majors and minors: the goofus runner on second base in extra innings, the threatened extra foot from the mound to home plate, other silly little gimmicks in the fevered minds of Major League Baseball executives who apparently hate the game for which they are allegedly stewards.
But at least there are fans again – cheering, heckling, groaning, applauding.
Some fans can even catch a major-league fly ball.
Play ball!

Ed Martin

4/15/2021 08:08:05 pm

Moved to song...”Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack, I dont care if I nevere get back....”

“I’ve seen the beach at Bali Bali,
And the moon over Waikiki,
But I’d give it all for one ballgame,
And Maizie to see it with me.....
....

Permanulatin’ with Maizie,
On Flatbush Avenoo.”

George

4/16/2021 03:54:11 pm

Ed: Thanks for the lyrics, but I can't find them in a web search.
Mazie is an old-fashioned name....honored in present days by the junior senator from Hawaii, Mazie Hirono. It feels that I knew the song you quote...old-timey, just like baseball. GV

4/17/2021 12:20:55 am

GV, it is from my Brooklyn Dodger memories, called, “Oh. Give Me the Moon over Brooklyn.”

First line as I recall,

Oh give me the moon over Brooklyn,
When the long, long day is througn,
I’ll be walkin with Maizie, on Flatbush Avenoo. (Dialect mine.)

Gladys Gooding played it, I think, but not surw where the lyrics appeared, womder if it was “Spike Jones.”

Roy Edelsack

4/16/2021 07:55:23 am

Woke up this morning to this amazing sports report from WCBS:

"Jacob DeGrom brings his 0.64 ERA to Colorado looking for his first win."

Only the Mets could have the best pitcher in baseball pitching better than anyone else in baseball, and yet...

I actually worry about this stuff. Baseball is back!

bruce

4/16/2021 02:06:41 pm

roy....guy named gibson probably felt the same for a lot of the '68 season. often think of koufax in the world series. ERA was, i think, .095 and his record was 4-3.

George Vecsey

4/16/2021 04:07:54 pm

Bruce, 2 things.
World Series records used to be for the two leading teams in their leagues. Nowadays with the playoffs, a hot outsider can make the Series -- no shame in that, As for the last loss for Koufax, I was there, Dodger Stadium, day game, LA sun and haze. Willie Davis, facing the sun, made 3 errors in one inning, two on same play, It could have happened to anybody, Dodgers lost in 4,

George Vecsey

4/16/2021 03:57:40 pm

Roy, good point, I worry, also. DeGrom seems challenged/happy with his hitless wonder teammates but at what point do he and his agent decide there's something wrong with this picture, and you need a 20-victry season or two to get into the Hall of Fame,
He is a delight to watch -- when the louts with bats started with that uppercut arc, he moved a few inches up the ladder. Smarter than they are. But forever...? GV

bruce

4/16/2021 06:02:32 pm

george,

replied to your post, but it came back to me....in the meantime, i'm watching PTI and they're coming off a commercial with a bit on vlad jr.

15 for 31 so far with his other numbers all being great.

dubious he'll hit almost .500 in the next 600 PA.

all the pro leagues have made it more difficult. more games, more teams, more tv/internet/cable money and availability.

i hate when they talk, in baseball for example, about 'post season' records.

the world series in the world series, don't need no stinkin' post season stats included.

as for koufax, a shame that that was his last game and davis had a bad game for the ages.

he was considered the fastest play in baseball, wasn't he?

Alan Rubin link

4/17/2021 11:47:07 am

Yes, baseball season is back. Maybe some warm weather in Western Mass will follow.

Pitchers and catchers, like soccer goalkeepers, are the smartest players on their teams. I'm a bit biased, but probably correct.

My niece had a reputation of not always being correct, but never in doubt.

How about the recent perfect game pitched by North Texas University's Hope Trautwein, a first in NCAA Div 1. It was her second 21-strikeout game of the season.

Is the time for women on the field in MLB approaching?

Diane Tuman

4/16/2021 09:20:43 am

Wonderful commentary on the return of life as we once knew it. Fans, heckling and more. I want to go to a game! Let's hope the Mets can keep up the magic.

George Vecsey

4/16/2021 04:10:59 pm

Di, long season...let's just hope for some awakening by the people who think masks and shots and precautions are a threat to their civil liberties. Right now I don';t trust crowds...But I've had this ballpark discussion with several other friends...we're in good company, See you soon. G

bruce

4/16/2021 02:11:19 pm

george,

you didn't look at the true north strong and free.

not happening here with the blue jays playing in some obscure place called florida.

joining their nba brothers.

the leafs' seats are empty and they're only playing other canadian teams....not bad this year because we get to see&appreciate connor mcdavid more than usual.

back to baseball,,,,what about vlad jr, eh!

George Vecsey

4/16/2021 04:15:08 pm

Bruce, I have to admit, I don't keep up with the other teams -- dont like network noise, etc. and miss boxscores in the NYT, (I know, they're online....) I'll pick up the pace. I kind of love the Canadian division, but a lot of miles in that one. GV

bruce

4/17/2021 01:05:23 pm

george,

just noticed my editor screwed up agin....davis was the fastEST player etc.

Ed Martin

4/17/2021 12:29:14 am

Eureka! A speedboat racer and restraunteur, named Guy Lombardo wrote it!

Just give me the moon over Brooklyn
When the long long day is through
I'll be waltzing with Mazie
Down Flatbush Avenue,
Just give me the Moon over Brooklyn,
Let me add a thing or two,
Perambulating with Mazie on Coney Island every night.
I've seen the moon at Bali Bali, seen the moon at Waikiki
I'd give it up for just one ball game
And Mazie to see it with me.
Just give me the moon over Brooklyn,
Let me add a dream or two,
Perambulating with Mazie
Down Flatbush Avenue
I don't mean Broadway - Flatbush Avenue

bruce

4/17/2021 12:35:42 am

ed,

another canadian infiltrator trying to subvert 'merika with dangerous ideas of socialism.

brue

4/17/2021 12:56:19 pm

Why did I know we would hear from you? On LI, NYC, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canucks, was a recurring presence, every New Year’s Eve on tv, too! In jazz circles, he was described as a “square.” Lawrence Welk took his place, and Lester Lanin.

I preferred Oscar Peterson, a Maple Leaf.

bruce

4/17/2021 01:10:01 pm

ed,

well, 'and the royal canadians' was at the end of guy lombardo.

i have a contractual obligation to point it out. EH?

oscar of montreal....no gould, krall, four lads? better stop naming names before the list of canuckistanis eats up the entire site.

bruce

George Vecsey

4/18/2021 08:39:36 am

Bruce: I totally forgot Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, Here in Nassau County, Long Island, he was Guy Lombardo from Freeport (street and other places named for this loyal resident.)
But you know my love for Canadian musicians -- Anna and Kate McGarrigle from Quebec Leonard Cohen, ditto, Joni Mitchell, KD Lang, Gordon Lightfoot, Ann Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, and 4/5 of The Band -- Manuel, Danko, Robertson and Hudson.

bruce

4/18/2021 08:55:39 am

george,

lombardo was born in london--not the original--which is about a 90 minute drive from where i am.

ryan gosling, rachel mcadams and victor garber are from there too.

as an aside, i heard father coughlin's name on cnn the other day. he was from hamilton .aimee semple mcpherson is from ontario aussi.

i know of your affection for many canadian musicians.

you probably know more about 'em than i do.

tho i was surprised to see the four lads left off your list, eh!

bruce

Altenir Silva

4/17/2021 07:52:39 pm

Dear George,
Almost quoting Raymond Chandler that said something like that, I say that baseball without the fans is like a pool without water. Anyway, the fan lost the nachos but got the souvenirs. Home run for this guy.
Best/Altenir

George

4/18/2021 08:43:48 am

Altenir: It's true. I was watching fans in Colorado yesterday, after the snow had been cleared -- some were in shirtsleeves for first game of DH, others were bundled up. My heart went out to all of them, watching 2 for the price of one.
PS: DeGrom had another nightmare game - he hit and scored, he gave up 3 runs -- all unearned -- and I did what ball players do in the dugout -- I changed position, storming out of the TV room, And yes, the Mets actually came back and won the dang game, His ERA is 0.45.

Ed Martin

4/18/2021 07:44:58 pm

.From April 7, comment. Any second thoughts, Jim? 14 strikeouts, nine in row, era. About 0.50. Video of strike outs suggests, great movement, wonderful position, breaking balls, and change ups, not just fastball, although the third strike of number 14 was 100mph even at that point.

JimH4/7/2021 01:18:24 pm
George...as great as some of deGrom's numbers are there are others that suggest the current program isn't enough for him to be a truly great pitcher. In 184 starts in his career, he has three complete games and one shutout. As for the third time through the lineup syndrome, with the exception of the handful of games he left before the fifth inning, deGrom has NEVER not faced at least the top of the lineup three times -- only once failing to face 20 batters. It would seem the pitch count is what gets him every time -- except he's thrown over 118 pitches only once in his career, so he's rarely been truly "knocked out" of a game. Given that he averages 19.2 outs per game it would seem the ex-Met has a valid point that he should "stay in" a little longer.

ahron horowitz

4/18/2021 08:02:34 pm

watching willie davis go from 1st to third on a hit to the outfield was a thing of beauty.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

What Baseball Was Missing -- Fans

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