All Articles by Patrick Dubuque

Transaction Analysis: Cubs Choose Chavez Over Unimaginable Alternative

Short Relief: Rank and File

For many fans, to love baseball is to love it unconditionally. It doesn’t matter how bad one’s team is or how many disagreements one has with the minutiae of the game. There will always be the next game, the next season, the next great draft pick to root for. But loving baseball is not an…

Cold Takes: A Species Near Extinction

The Yost Line and Delino.

Short Relief: Feels Like the First Time

My grandfather passed away a while back, leading to the sad but necessary chore of cleaning out his apartment. Beyond the willed items, this was mostly wrapping up the odds and ends of everyday life: reuniting an odd silver spoon with the family set, deciding whether or not the yarmulke he wore at a relation’s…

Short Relief: The Field of Play

My grandmother died the other day. I hadn’t spoken to her in nearly 20 years; she was not what most people would define as a “good person.” But my mom wanted to attend the burial, so we packed the kids into their car seats and drove to a sunny afternoon service of short prayers and…

Short Relief: Weird Cardboard Wafers

1966: Lyndon Johnson declares he’ll stay the course in Vietnam. The Beatles are now officially more popular than Jesus. Richard Speck carries out a murder spree in Chicago; the Gemini 10 launches spaceward; Cleveland, OH has its first racial uprising in the Hugh Riots; out in LA, Walt Disney dies. And down South the Arkansas…

Short Relief: Finding Relief Amid Challenges and TOOTBLANS

That’s right, folks, July 31 promises to be a scorcher. Your old standbys (standsby?) like water, lemonade, and sport drinks may not be enough. Try these five under-the-radar options for relief: Saisons – per the Oxford Companion to Beer, the first of the threefold reasons for the existence of saisons is “to refresh the seasonal…

Short Relief: All-Star Baseball Jargon and Dee-sire

The Portable Dictionary of Baseball Idioms-Turned-Americanisms (Part 2) Baseball has always positioned itself as the All-American pastime, tying itself to our nature’s culture. But even I (writer, baseball enthusiast, nerd) hadn’t realized how much baseball has shaped American English. Part 1 of this list appears here. And a few more follow: Home Run In baseball:…

Short Relief: Pranking Some Idiomatic Journeymen

If you were the lucky soul whom Kurkjian called, although it is unlikely you are aware of being part of baseball lore, this one’s for you. The Portable Dictionary of Baseball Idioms-Turned-Americanisms (Part 1) Baseball has always positioned itself as the All-American pastime, tying itself to our nature’s culture. But even I (writer, baseball enthusiast,…

Short Relief: Karma and That Which Can Be Undone

On Friday evening, during a tight game between the Cardinals and the Brewers, a fan crocheted in the stands. The act was, in multiple quarters, erroneously reported as knitting, but knitting uses two needles and crochet a single blunted hook. Much of Friday’s commentary had to do with the idea that if she was crocheting…