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Friday, March 8, 2013

Baseball Esoterica is one year old today!

                                             While the Spring Training games slog on, and the World Baseball Classic is starting to show games before 2am, I thought I'd do a little retrospective on my blog.  After all, it's been a year since I started this thing, and 58 entries in, I thought a look back might be in order.  Now, I know the first few entries had many spelling and grammar mistakes, and were worded more like a ransom note rather than a blog, but thanks to a lot of constructive criticism, I've turned it into something viable.  I mean sure, some entries have been better than others; there are a few I almost wish I hadn't written : " Coincidence , probably", was kind of a weak entry, as I tried to make a connection between winning and the number of syllables in a team's name...I know, I wrote it while hanging out at Coney Island, and wasn't focused.  There was also the well intentioned, but ultimately arduous task of going over the playing career of present managers.  Of course, by the time I got about halfway through the list, a few managers had been fired, so it made the whole project superfluous.



                    In the year that it's taken to do 58 blogs, some other changes took place; a few former players and managers died, most notably Stan Musial and Earl Weaver ( I wrote a blog almost immediately on Earl, not knowing that "Stan the Man" would die later that day)...Miguel Cabrera hit for the triple crown and I wrote on that as well, but...I always try to write things that could be read years from now, and not seem like I was just reporting on current events, so my best blogs, I believe, are ones like, "You old bastards got a lot of nerve", which was based on something that I experienced, or silly ones like "Back in my day, we had bullpen cars, dagnabbit", which is about a particular time we may never go back to.



             Also in the past year, I had a chance to read a great baseball book by Dan Epstein entitled, "Big hair and plastic grass", which deals exclusively with baseball in the 1970's. Who wouldn't want toread about  no hitter on LSD, Disco demolition night, Ten cent beer night, the Big Red Machine and such? He goes into greater detail than I ever could about the decade's events, so, check it out if you can.  I've also rediscovered Bill Lee's "The Wrong Stuff", which I bought about 10 years ago; the man is never less than entertaining, and his hatred for the Yankees is always appreciated by moi. I've since lent these two books out to friends, so we'll see when I get them back (only kidding, Brett)...



                            I really can't wait for opening day, though...even though my best blogs may deal with the past, there wouldn't be a past without the present. (deep, Pat) There's always going to be some weird story that'll pop up and remind me of something that happened before.  Like this whole Blue Jay situation; it could be a dynasty, or it could blow up in their face.  The Yankees seem to be getting more hurt by the day...the Sox?...Who the hell knows...The Tigers look unbeatable, but I said that last October, and look what the Giants did to them...the Angels have a fairly scary lineup, unless Josh Hamilton gets hurt like he always does...can the Orioles (probably not), Nationals (probably) or Reds (either way) return to the postseason?  I love not knowing...



                    And finally, with the World Baseball Classic going on, who will be the emerging stars from countries who don't have many players in the Major Leagues ( think, Cuba, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Israel  etc.)...will any of those players impress scouts enough for a tryout?...Oh, and not for nothing, I'm watching the Netherlands about to beat Cuba; what's up with that?...that's why I love baseball...you never know.  BTW...I would like to thank everyone who has read my blog; it's almost up to 3,000 views...once it reaches that milestone, a book deal can't be far behind.  That's how it works, right?

1 comment:

  1. Hey call your brother brian he seems to have lost your phone #, world baseball classic, I sometimes forget how much you love baseball. Talk to you soon, (or e-mail me)
    Brian.

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