2/24/19: Peoria, AZ. Felix Hernandez Vs. San Diego Padres Top of the 1st You’d never had an easy relationship with your dad. He was stern, usually at work, and had little patience for your youthful liberties. But it’s 2005, and you’re married now; young, very dumb, and very broke, but married. You’ve taken a job…
Hisashi Iwakuma returns to Japan, Julio Urias returns to Los Angeles, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia returns to the majors.
I think many people, including myself, learned to love baseball because of its dependability. It’s not a new or original idea that, in a world that regularly reminds us of our insignificance and helplessness, we find comfort and safety in what we perceive to be bigger than ourselves. I imagine divinity, from Jesus to Zeus,…
As a thirty-something father of two, I spend a lot of time sharing. Sharing space, sharing money, but most of all, sharing time. I’m a personality easily overwhelmed by stimuli and socializing, and well, parenting supplies a large dose of both of those things. The usual social retreats — video games, exercise, drinking alone in…
With the success of the Little League Classic and the outpouring of support both it and the LLWS received this year, changing baseball at the Major League level, the one through which we largely absorb it, becomes an annual conversation. Each year, we gush over the event in Williamsport and ask each other, “Can you…
My son, age 10, looked up from his video game. “Wait, they aren’t letting King Felix start anymore?” *** Once we reach a certain age, society allows us to ponder our mortality out loud. Too young, and we draw the concern and chastisement of our elders. Too old, and we’re perceived as giving up. Around…
Hey guys, Wow. Twenty years already! The time really flew by, didn’t it? Feels like just yesterday we were watching me invent the Jeter Jump Throw to nail Travis Fryman in the ALCS, laughing with each individual member of the press (never understood why people thought the writers were so prickly!!) and then hitting the…
Yesterday, I left my home of two years. Like any move, this one was physically and mentally draining. That we scheduled our departure for the hottest weekend of the summer didn’t help. The emotional toll proved even more taxing. This was a house where I grew immensely as an adult. It was here that I…
It was hot, and he was beginning to notice the sweat pooling up in that little spot on the bottom of his back, sealed into the wool sack with a leather band around his waist. He had torn through the top of the order in the first with a series of fly balls, wearing only…
INT. RED SOX LOCKER ROOM – JULY 11, 1914 The RED SOX COACH stares out a window as it rains. COACH: We won four times in April and tied twice. People are furious. My wife is trying to convince me to fake our deaths and leave town forever. Ah, what to do, what to do……
He spit, near his shoes. Here we go again. The ball came flying back from right field, bouncing a few times to hit the cutoff man before landing back in that spot of loose leather underneath his cushioned thumb. Next up was Pinky Higgins. Years later, Higgins would stand in the Fenway park home dugout…
There’s a video circulating of a young man striking out his best friend to win a high school championship game, then skipping his team’s celebration to hug and console his buddy. This footage has inspired the nation to rise up as one and say, “Love is a part of baseball.” What I’m here to tell…
When the phone rang he was in the kitchen. It wasn’t that he didn’t expect a call–there were talks between scouts promising this and that since September. No, instead it was only eight PM, and he thought there would be time to refill his glass of Tab and wait for the returns to roll in….