Taking a page from FIFA’s soccer extravaganza, Major League Baseball preps for a 2006 Baseball World Cup. Sounds like a plan…I’m a very casual baseball fan, but I’d probably watch.
Tag: MLB
Empire Falls.
To the delight of many, the Marlins dismantle the Yanks in six. Instant Karma’s gonna getcha, George.
Season’s Change.
On the eve of the 2003-04 season, the NBA announces its upcoming realignment (the upshot is six divisions, with New Orleans relocated to the West to make room for the Charlotte Bobcats.) To my mind, the NBA can’t start soon enough…especially after Thursday’s baseball misery. Count me among the vast majority of Americans who (a) thinks Grady Little is an idiot (b) prefers this early Post editorial to all other ALCS post-mortems, and (c) will not be watching a Yankees-Marlins series.
A Plea for Beantown.
My friend (and inveterate Boston fan) Seth Stevenson makes the case for the Sox over the Cubs in the battle of underdogs.
October Surprise.
Congrats to the Red Sox on their comeback win over the Chokeland A’s last night (and to the Cubs for breaking their 95-year losing streak the night previously.) As y’all know, I don’t normally talk baseball in this space, but Sox-Yankees is one of the classic rivalries in sports. And just in case anyone got the wrong idea from my love for the Knicks, I think Yankee fans are Laker fans are 90’s Cowboys fans are Jordan-era Bulls fans are Man. U fans…i.e, some of the most aggravating, bandwagon-jumping, fair-weather-only hordes in all of sportsdom. Go BoSox all the way. Update: Speaking of the Lake Show, Phil Jackson hints at signing Jordan to replace Kobe for the duration of his trial. Ugh…how bad would that be?
(U.S.) Rubber Matches.
Jeremy Derfner, a consummate baseball fan and one of my good friends and colleagues in the Columbia program, offers an historical overview of Little League, Inc for Slate. And, to paraphrase Billy Joel, it appears we didn’t start the sellout.
Old School Swing.
Sick of corked bats and sausage attacks? The NY Times delves into the return of base ball, circa 1866. I wonder if the Knickerbockers are doing any better in that century…
The Republican Pastime.
I knew there was a good reason I didn’t like baseball. Apparently the Hall of Fame has cancelled a Bull Durham retrospective because (gasp!) Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are against the war. (The Hall of Fame only allows in all-American racists, drunks, and wifebeaters, not peaceniks.) Tim Robbins wrote a nice reply: “Your subservience to your friends in the administration is embarrassing to baseball and by engaging in this enterprise you show that you belong with other cowards and ideologues in a hall of infamy and shame…Long live democracy, free speech and the ’69 Mets; all improbable, glorious miracles that I have always believed in.” You go, Tim. As Spike Lee pointed out in the first five minutes of He Got Game, basketball is the true American pastime nowadays anyway.
A Change of Season.
Angels win the series. I thought Game 6 was quite exciting. Game 7, on the other hand, was pretty dull. At any rate, it’s finally time to focus on more important matters, like the NBA, which starts tomorrow…
Ho-hum.
While I’ve been busy the past couple of days, apparently MLB players decided to strike. Well, you know what? I really couldn’t care less. At the risk of alienating all the stat-keeping baseball lovers out there, baseball before October just bores me, unless I’m playing or at the stadium watching. Ranks right up there with golf as the sport I most like to nap to on weekend afternoons. I do have a mixture of pity, fascination, and irritation for the legions of Red Sox fans out there, who constantly act like (a) winning a World Series is more important than world peace and (b) Boston is somehow a cursed sports town, despite their winning 16 NBA championships over the years. But otherwise, I have no vested interest in baseball at all…During the summer, I’d rather watch MLS any day of the week and twice on Sunday. And now it’s almost September, so bring on the hoops.