Final Grades: F’s for the A’s

It’s all over. The once mighty A’s have been vanquished.

Detroit finally put my beloved Oakland A’s out of their misery on Saturday, completing a four game sweep. They annihilated us. Every aspect of the game was dominated by the Tigers. And as loquacious as I am, I’m at a loss for words, except these: we sucked. We sucked so bad.

There are no words to describe the mixed emotions I’m currently feeling. I’m angry and sad at the same time. I’d break something if I could find something inconsequential lying around. And the worst part about it all is that I have to wait a whole year, another 365 days, to get to this point. And there are no guarantees–my heart might get broken yet again. ‘Tis the life of a baseball fan, something I willingly sign onto years ago.

I know the World Series has yet to be played. I know there’s still championship baseball in the air. Forgive me for seeming like a sore loser, but the numbness I feel will probably retard my ability to appreciate the greater game.

Simply put, I’m done; it’s been a long season, and I need my rest.

 

True Confessions of a Baseball Fanatic

I hate the Los Angeles Dodgers, but as a baseball fanatic, I can proudly say that this piece from Slate is both hilarious and true:

Then this January, I moved. For the first time in nearly 30 years as a Dodger fan, I would actually be in L.A. Despite the fact that Frank and Jamie McCourt, the Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos of baseball, now own the Dodgers, I still count myself as a fan. I’ve come home to the Blue.

My family, sadly, didn’t understand that our move West meant that the Dodgers would be shacking up with us. I’ve molded my life to suit the needs of the team. One Wednesday in mid-April, the Dodgers had a 10 a.m. Pacific start time in Pittsburgh. I chose that day to “work” in bed so I could watch the game.

I’ve definitely had a moment like this before:

Moving in with the Dodgers has made me a moodier person, if that were possible. One evening, in the midst of a miserable stretch where the team lost 12 of 13, my wife, Regina, approached. The Dodgers were about to drop one to the Padres, an extra-inning job that had been mistakenly entrusted to Danys Baez, an overrated reliever now mercifully in Atlanta.

“WHAT?” I said. “What the hell do you want, goddamn it?”

“I was wondering if you could drive Elijah to school tomorrow,” she said. “And hey, asshole, it’s not my fault that your team sucks. Do not take it out on me!

“They do suck,” I said. “They suck so bad. I’m sorry.”

Amazing how baseball can alter emotional states; I still remember Derek Jeter’s flip play in Oakland in 2001. I still cringe every time I replay it in my head, cursing the heavens and condemning Jeremy Giambi to a horrible demise for his inability to slide into home plate…

 

Hot Dogs, Home Runs, and…Hosiery?

Today is the Midsummer Classic, where baseball’s best stars duke it out to the entertainment of all.  While I’m not the biggest fan of the All Star Game, there was an interesting article in today’s New York Times:

Of this year’s 64 All-Stars, only five — Ichiro Suzuki, Barry Zito, Jim Thome, Alfonso Soriano and Brad Penny — routinely hike up their pants to expose a once-crucial element of the baseball uniform: the colored sock.

Socks have also played a key role in baseball players’ expressions of sartorial style. If you played Little League, you probably remember the special feeling you had as you adjusted your stirrup socks, perhaps in exactly the same style as your favorite player. Indeed, the particular ratio of colored stirrup to white undersock was the standard visual calling card for generations of ballplayers. In his classic memoir “Ball Four,” Jim Bouton reported that many players sliced the bottoms of their stirrups and had extra fabric sewn in, so the pants could be stretched ever higher. That way, wrote Bouton, “your legs look long and cool instead of dumpy and hot.”

Read the rest here.

I have always been a fan of the high socks.  They seem so “old school” and genuine, a distraction from steroid talk and multi-million dollar contracts.  They’re a tribute to baseball’s past, interestingly enough, worn predominantly by baseball’s future.

Go American League!  And go A’s!

 

What about them Nationals?

If I haven't made it clear yet, I love baseball.

Baseball gets a bad rap, I don't know why. Maybe its because people perceive it as slow. Or dull. Or uninteresting.

I've heard complaints that it does not have enough action. Not enough home runs, I heard one friend say. Not enough power.

OK son, go watch reruns of the home run derby and chug a red bull, cause this is baseball, not the X games.

Baseball is about the nuances. A good pitch for a strike. A tough grounder turned into a nice 6-3 putout. The pressure of a full count in the late innings.

But what about the experience of going to a ballgame? Dare I say, you are not an American until you have experienced the atmosphere of the ballpark, exuding all the warmth and comfort of a summers night (or day), hot dog relish and all.

Last year saw the arrival (or should I say return) of baseball to our nation's capital. People were elated, and why not: shouldn't the national pastime have a team in the capital? It would only be appropriate.

And for a while it seemed like the Nationals were the team of destiny. That is, until the inevitable choke. Every team hits it hard at some point in the season. At the All Star break last year both beltway teams were first in their respective divisions; both hit the wall in August and fell faster than a drunk at Mardi Gras.

A thought from a Washington Post Blogger:

When baseball returned to Washington last year, 33 years after the previous team, the Senators, was carted off to Texas, we were all ecstatic, and went to games, and watched our Nationals camp out in first place in July and remain in contention until the beginning of September, at which point Atlanta won the division for the 1,745th consecutive year. (The last team to beat Atlanta in the National League East was the Visigoths.)

This year the novelty's gone, and it's hard to avoid noticing that we're a mediocre team playing in an old stadium with terrible food. Will Washington have the patience to support a losing team? This is a town obsessed with poll results and approval ratings, a town in which one of the highest compliments is "electability."

Will baseball remain popular in the district? This is a tough town (not New York tough) and people want results. So how are the Nats doing this year?

Right now the Nats sit in a comfortable fourth place (Editors Note: lowly Florida decided to pursue the "Major League" agenda and lose enough games to get a stadium deal in Las Vegas. Ironic that in "Major League" the Indians were proposing to move to South Florida) and sit 11 games behind first.

But its a long season, and anything can happen. Just ask those White Sox fans from last year. Or those Red Sox fans from two years ago.

 

Viva Cuba!

Today the US Treasury Department allowed the Cuban national team to participate in the World Baseball Classic this March in the United States. The World Baseball Classic, brainchild of Major League Baseball Comissioner Bud Selig, will feature 16 teams from around the world.

Cuba, winner of the past two olympic gold medals in baseball, should be one of those 16 teams.

Thank God the US Government did not screw this one up. I know President Bush has an affinity towards baseball, but somehow this World Baseball Classic would have not been the same had the United States not allowed Cuba to participate. And I don't say that because there are many famous Major Leaguers from Cuba.

I believe that sports is and should always remain unadulterated. Sports are pure, simple, and in the end a passtime. There is a universal truth to sports; that anyone with the right amount of determination and training can hit a home run or shoot the winning basket.

Sports should always remain free from politics. In the 1998 World Cup, the United States played Iran, much to the chagrin of the Arab world. Op/Ed pieces talked about increased tension between Iran and the United States following the game, and how the players represented two different worlds.

But really, how different were they? Sure, they spoke two different languages, came from two different cultures, and had different hometowns, but they all were united through a universal equalizer: soccer. There is something relieving and refreshing about making life, with all of its complications and complexities, simple for 90 minutes. War, religion, poltical strife, and domestic policy get put aside and the only goal is to score that goal. Que bella!

I love sports. I love the olympics. I love how it brings people together. And even though we have our alliegances to our respective teams, in the end sports bring us together on one team.