For business reasons, my friend had to stay overnight in Queens. His hotel window looked out on the architectural jumble that is New Shea and the lumpy mounds of Chop Shop City (foreground), under ice and snow.
The good news is that the ball park did not sink into the muck over the winter. In this most unlovely of places, something glorious will happen on April 13, the home opener against the Phillies. Perhaps the Yankees will also be starting another season around then. My question is, what is it that baseball junkies miss the most in the off-season? Is it the games themselves -- outfielders going back on a fly ball, hitters putting the ball in play to advance a runner, the fundamentals that drive the sport? Is it the arguments, of theological nature, about saving a few seconds on every pitch, or the use of instant replay, or all the new mathematical gauges? Shaun Clancy of the Irish baseball pub Foley's on W. 33 St. advances the theory that it is history: something we see today reminds us of the past. It is true. Juan Lagares, going back on a ball, reminds me of Curt Flood, 40 years ago. A pitcher who can hit in the National League, where they play Real Baseball, reminds me of Don Newcombe or Bob Lemon or Bob Gibson. Then we start arguing about the Designated Hitter gimmick. If we start now, we may settle things by opening day. What do you miss in the off-season?
Altenir Silva
2/21/2015 04:16:17 am
Dear George,
George Vecsey
2/21/2015 04:45:27 am
Altenir did you read that John lost his apartment in a fire a month ago? I'll send you a link. I' m sure he had a lot of memorabilia there.
Hansen Alexander
2/21/2015 06:42:23 am
George, what is missed about baseball in the months in which it is in hibernation, is the sport itself, not discussion of the sport. Over a century and a half baseball has offered high quality art every year. Today professional football suffers sloppy play for a good fourth of the early season due to a cut back of exhibition games. Professional basketball is no longer a team game but rather gymnastics for individuals. Professional ballet has declined drastically since the death of George Balanchine, while films are in the hands of bottom line bean counters. Only professional baseball parades out the consistently good product every year. Even if the quality of the game were not consistently good, the nature of the game and its movements, would leave us waiting every winter for its return. Yet its high quality does not desert us, and neither does its fundamentals. At least since the 1880s a bemoaning that the games fundamentals have declined has been paraded out every decade. When I was playing in the 1960s and early 70s supposedly nobody could hit the cut off man, run the bases properly, bunt properly, cover first base properly, and so on. And then decades later persons of my age were bemoaning that nobody in the game knew the fundamentals. All this is nonsense. Every year I see bunts that make me ecstatic, cut off throws that thrill me, pitchers covering first with lightening speed, first basemen backing up the catcher, center fielders running all the way to back up the left fielder, perfect pick off throws to first, and on and on. That is why I'm anxious for pitchers and catchers to report. There will be no call center representative at the gate to tell me my claim to a ticket is no good or hot dog seller refusing to sell me a hot dog at the advertised price just because it was intended to get me into the ball park. There will only be a fun experience, of the highest quality, that I can depend on, and marvel at.
Mike from Whitestone
2/21/2015 09:02:49 am
Thanks for the props GV!!
Ed Martin
2/23/2015 11:32:04 am
Like Mike, I love the look of the field. I still remember the first time I saw Ebbets Field. Having seen high school and semipro fields on Long Island, I could not believe my eyes. Next, I love to watch the storyline emerge--will Harvey have his winning stuff, will a first rate shortstop emerge? Will someone start hitting frequent home runs now that the distances have been tweaked. For me reading ismimportant, I already am surfing online to read about the Mets. It is baseball's version of "The roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd."
George Vecsey
2/23/2015 12:45:14 pm
The 40-ish warmth in NY last Sunday reminded me....weather has to be better by Opening Day, no?
Ed Martin
2/24/2015 03:06:41 am
The good news is the the NYT says that alternative side parking is cancelled for today. OH, I forgot, doesn't apply in P.W. Bradenton beckons or as Adam Clayton Powell used to say "Keep the Faith."
George Vecsey
2/24/2015 04:44:02 am
Ed: Bradenton, one of my favorite old spring sites.
bruce
2/24/2015 03:36:54 pm
George,
George Vecsey
2/25/2015 12:53:39 am
Bruce, it is true, Ichiro is one of a kind, in NA or Japan. He honed well-known skills and procedures into a very personal style and excellence. He was great fun to watch in Seattle and with the Yankees. His routine never varies -- like other sports obsessives. The one-off players are a treat in any sport, perhaps more so in baseball because in a way it is so much an individual game. Just pitchers alone in "my time" -- Koufax, Gibson, Ryan, Rivera, you couldn't take your eyes off them. Barry Bonds in the 2002 Series, just owned it. (Cheating a separate issue.) Pete Rose (ditto). Reggie. Individual traits stand out in baseball. Not just the stars. Forty days to opening day. Comments are closed.
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