Reviews

Why I Hate the Baseball Season to End

9/28/2014

Saturday Night Live, Indeed. Not Often That Duda Upstages Pryor.

There was a commercial break in the 1975 Richard Pryor rerun of Saturday Night Live. Was he brilliant.

I clicked on the Mets. Two outs. Runner on third. Mets down, 1-0. Duda against some lefty.

“Game over. He can’t hit lefties,” I informed my wife.

Clang. Home run off the foul screen in right. Perfect timing for my baseball wisdom.

I texted our son. Doo-dah. Doo-dah.

David was on the phone with his wife, who was visiting family. At the same time, he was watching the Mets.

“Losers to the end,” he said. Duda can’t hit lefties.

Clang. Do we know the game, or what?

Soon there will be no Mets, no season. As mediocre as the Mets have been, they have given us Lagares and de Grom, Mejia and Familia, and Daniel Murphy, who worked himself into an all-star. Collins is really a good manager.

My guess is that baseball fans in a lot of cities feel the same way, bereft. Yankee fans and others now that Jeter-mania is over. Baseball has been with us every day since April.

I’m adopting the Pirates to make a run in the post-season, and I’m adopting the Tigers in the other league. I like the old cities, the old clubs, and root for them in October.

But it’s not like having your own team, every day, even when you are 100 percent positive that Duda cannot hit lefties. Clang. The (imagined) sound will echo all winter.

Brian Savin

9/28/2014 02:41:06 pm

Well, there is a six month dream ahead for a next season with 12 more promised wins according to GM Alderson. Maybe he'd be more convincing if he wore a bow tie to work instead of his usual open collar sports shirt? Anyway, Collins looked happy.....but he'd be happy managing a team of 10 year olds. He said an interesting thing....that he likes to take some credit for a player development when he was talking about Bobby Abreu. Then he said managers don't matter, but I don't think he believes it. He wouldn't work so hard if he did. I like him better than "Loose Leaf Boy."

George Vecsey

9/29/2014 02:37:37 am

Brian, thanks. I didn't know Collins at all before he came to the Mets, but apparently he was a hard guy early on. Nothing like somebody who has learned a few things along the way. The Mets have played for him all along. Very impressive. GV

Altenir Silva

9/29/2014 04:05:21 pm

Dear Brian,

I love that movie. I agree with you, Mr. Redford is a complete artist. The Natural is a great movie.

Best - Altenir

Altenir Silva

9/28/2014 05:01:15 pm

Meanwhile, we can watch the beautiful movies about baseball.

My favorites:
01 - The Pride of the Yankees (directed by Sam Wood)
02 - The Babe (directed by Arthur Hiller)
03 - Fields of Dream (directed by Phil Alden Robinson)
04 - 61* (directed by Billy Crystal)
05 - The Natural (directed by Barry Levinson)
06 - Fever Pitch (directed by Bobby & Peter Farrelly)
07 - The Jackie Robinson Story (directed by Alfred E. Green)
08 - Cobb (directed by Ron Shelton)
09 - Moneyball (directed by Bennett Miller)
10 - Bull Durham (directed by Ron Shelton)

Enjoy with Cracker Jack.

Best - Altenir Silva (from Brazil)

George Vecsey

9/29/2014 02:35:00 am

Altenir, thanks for the list. You as a maker of movies and television in Brazil know more about American movies than I do.
I would say my favorite baseball movie is Eight Men Out by John Sayles -- I once interviewed DB Sweeney about how he learned to hit from the opposite side to play Joe Jackson. Wonderful scene where Ed Cicotte nurses his sore arm, knowing he is about to do something against his nature by losing a game on purpose. GV

Brian Savin

9/29/2014 02:47:36 pm

Altenir, I'll take #5, The Natural. I can't think of a more enjoyable movie. Redford rewrote that story to make a modern-predictable, and essentially mediocre book into perhaps the classic American sports dream. Redford knows baseball and he knows American sensibilities and he knows art. I also think Glenn Close's character created the most beautiful woman I've ever seen on screen -- with the most affecting spoken lines I've ever heard on film ("we all have two lives, the one we learn with and...."; "his Father lives in New York") as well as being perhaps the screen's greatest foil for a leading man, prompting such classic lines as "life didn't work out the way I expected" and "I could have been greater."

Altenir Silva

9/29/2014 03:30:24 pm

Dear George,

Thank you for your suggestion. I have not seen the movie Eight Men Out by John Sayles, but I'll watch when I can.

Best - Altenir

Altenir Silva

9/29/2014 03:36:11 pm

Dear Brian,

I love that movie. I agree with you, Mr. Redford is a complete artist. The Natural is a great movie.

Best - Altenir

Ed Martin

9/29/2014 03:25:02 am

GV. A couple of weeks ago Collins said Duda needed to hit lefties better and he was working on it. That night he got a key hit off a lefty. So last night, being wiser than some professionals I know, I said to Peggy, he is getting better against lefties, and bingo! I also checked, afterwards, his overall hitting since All Star break, about 50-50 on average, but two or three home runs and RBIs. Couldn't find lefty/righty stats, but I expect they would not differ much. Call me anytime if you want any advice, tips, etc. G-d.

George Vecsey

9/29/2014 07:02:13 am

How foolish of me not to have called.
I think the homer off Sipp or Sepp or whatever his name is was only his 2nd off lefties this year.
Alderson surely made the right move balancing Davis & Duda. I didn't think so....I will always consult you from now on
GV

Peter Kennedy link

9/29/2014 04:58:54 am

Like you, George, I'll get sucked up into the Playoff and World Series drama. Before you know it, we're into the holidays. Winter is long, bleak and hard here in the NE, but by January we're counting the days until the pitchers and catchers arrive in training camp. And by then we can be pretty confident that we've survived another offseason. I'm admittedly biased, but I predict there will be some very exciting baseball in my birthplace of Flushing next year... Best regards.

George Vecsey

9/29/2014 07:00:23 am

I was covering when Seaver Koosman and Ryan emerged....but Jones, Agee, Grote, Swoboda were all there, or arriving, too. Different time.
Nothing like young arms.
GV

Peter Kennedy link

9/29/2014 07:19:26 am

And speaking of young arms, I just hope they are consulted before they start tinkering with the right field fence at Citi!

Josh Rubin

9/29/2014 07:41:43 am

That's the team I grew up on, when I first started watching the game and collecting baseball cards, and why, despite my upbringing, I have always been a Mets fan. In some ways, though, it feels like 1983 right now, with the Mets one Keith Hernandez trade away from turning a team of promising young guys into a real contender.

It is so much more fun to root for a home grown team, more investment in watching players and the team grow together than simply wondering if an assemblage of free agents are all going to have good years and gel as a team. I've also wondered why, between the young pitching and big outfields, the Mets have not focused more on building a speed and high average spray hitting team like the mid-80s Cards. That said, I agree on Collins -- this is no time to change horses.

PS No love for Walter Matthau and the Bad News Bears? There's also a better Jackie Robinson breaks the color line movie to be made, one that keys off of Lee Lowenfish's bio of Branch Rickey.

Altenir Silva

9/29/2014 04:03:24 pm

Dear Josh,

Another cool movie is "Taking Care of Business". This film shows a fan of the Chicago Cubs going crazy out to watch his team play. It's a funny movie and without the curse of the Billy Goat.

Best - Altenir

Mendel

9/29/2014 06:55:58 pm

For the off season I have composed a special benediction thanking God for Roger Angel. His printed words on baseball evoke the sights, sounds, and smells of the game more than actual grass, wood, popcorn, and leather.

Xiaolu luo

9/29/2014 09:08:07 pm

Why you hate baseball.Is their any reason for hate baseball.But i like baseball.Its interesting game.I can say its my favorite game and everyday i play this game in my home ground.
Comment by: <a href="http://www.familyacupunctureclinic.com/">acupuncture Jacksonville beach</a>, Florida.

George Vecsey

9/30/2014 01:48:29 am

Dear Luo: Thank you for your note. I think the people writing in these Comments love baseball, and particularly the artistic movie views of baseball. I am glad you get to play baseball. When I covered the 2008 Olympics in Beijing I met a young journalist from Xinhua named Hu who had played for his university in Beijing. One day he brought his glove and we played catch outside the Media Center, One of my favorite memories of Beijing. Play Ball!!! GV

Alan Rubin link

9/30/2014 03:34:07 pm

Altenar—great list of movies!

It Happens Every Spring is about a college professor who invents a substance that repels wood. Naturally, they rub it on a baseball and begin winning games. I loved it in 1949, a fun movie, but I have no idea of its appeal today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Happens_Every_Spring

Same for The Stratton Story about Monty Stratton, a strong young pitcher who had three good years for the Cubs. He lost his lower leg in a hunting accident and came back to be a fine minor league pitcher.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stratton_Story

Any movie by John Sayers is a must see. Matewan, about a 1920 coal mine strike in Matewan, WV, is on par with Eight Men Out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan

Any New Yorker must see The Brother from Another Planet, a film about a black, three-toed slave who escapes from another planet and finds himself at home among the people of Harlem.

There is a scene on an uptown A train where the Brother announces that he is a magician since all the white passengers will disappear at 96th street.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brother_from_Another_Planet

As a ten year old in 1945, I had a weekly round trip from 190th and Fort Washington Avenue to Hudson Terrace on 23rd Street for swimming practice. I made the NYT in my first race, coming in last.

I believe that the Mets are on the correct path. The winning Yankees of my youth had a great farm system and mostly home grown talent. Their famous late season trades that cemented pennants were successful because the team was so solid.

It took a while for Casey Stengel to get the credit he deserved. It was often said that anyone could win with his players. I did not agree since he was a master at platooning his players for maximum results. Also, his pitching staff had many excellent hitters, who were often used as early inning pinch hitters. They would often stay in a game rather and hit for themselves.

I could never understand why today’s pitchers, and for so many years, are such poor hitters.

George Vecsey

10/1/2014 01:44:20 am

Alan, spot on with the two other Sayles movies. I love Matewan because I lived and worked in the region. And Brother is one of his first, a classic. Great sense of uptown.
GV

Thor A. Larsen

10/1/2014 01:53:05 am

I am a die-hard Yankee fan and I am very happy to see the season end! How long could the Yankee brass keep flashing Derek Jeter, Derek Jeter etc, to hide the fact they have a very inept team. Beltran, McCann, Ellsbury are not the playes they thought they 'hired'. They let Cano,a superb batter and fielder, escape. They overpaid for all the older pl;ayers they keep bringing around. CC Sabathia is unlikely to last, now maybe Tanaka a question mark. .Nova will also be a question mark. (Is there a problem with the pitching coach in handling these pitchers?)
The only hope I have is for some of the young players from the minors they are now brinigng along will mature to be long-term contributors. I think the team is at least two years away from the playoffs.
I need some time to recover from this last season disaster, so I turn my interst to the NY Nets!!!!!

Ed Martin

10/3/2014 04:23:38 am

GV. I appreciated your kind note to Luo, so typical of your concern for others. I noticed you mentioned meeting Hu, who had played at a university in Beijing. First base, I assume.

George Vecsey

10/5/2014 03:24:50 am

Ed, thanks, very good. Strangely, it never occurred to me.
Hu was a catcher...has his own glove. I borrowed a glove from our photo editor, who never went anywhere without his glove.
The security guards were amused to see a Chinese guy and an American playing catch in the plaza outside the media center.
Playing catch is a wonderful feeling...moving back a few feet and opening up....
I think Hu moved to the UK to work...

GV

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Why I Hate the Baseball Season to End

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