Monthly Archives: October 2018

Let’s Wrap This Up. (Plus, My Baseball Experts Were Awesome.)

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I’ll be brief. (Brief-ish.)

Baseball Is Shorter Than You Think.

For those who believe that baseball games are too long, I have a gift for you … the postseason was shorter than it could have been.

Each World Series team takes a percentage of the profits from the games they play, which means that following this five-but-coulda-been-seven game Series, the Red Sox and Dodgers are each a little poorer this morning than they could have been had only the Dodgers been a little better and the Red Sox a little weaker.

And, while Game 3 took 18 innings, seven hours and 20 minutes, and was the longest game in World Series history, baseball still ended three days early. (I guess some of you “it’s too long” whiners are happy about that.)

Hooray For “Little Yankee.”

“You people have a little pet name for everybody.”

Whether he played for the Orioles (in stints over five seasons), the Rays, the Blue Jays, or the Red Sox, we always call Steve Pearce “Little Yankee.”

Continue reading →

“All Up For The Lucky Seventh”

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There are three lessons I hope you will learn from The Baseball Bloggess today:

1) The Seventh Inning Stretch has a special place in baseball history. It’s been around longer than you have. It’s what sets baseball apart from sports that make no demands of its fans.

2) The Seventh Inning Stretch is not a suggestion. It is not an invitation. It is a requirement. It is a job. Your job. All the instruction that you need can be found in its title. During the seventh inning, you stretch. It’s not hard to figure out. It’s not the balk rule, people. It’s simple.

Who – You.

What – Stretch.

Where – Are you here? Then, here.

When – The Seventh Inning.

Even a cat could figure it out.

3) Sitting can kill. Continue reading →

A Two-Headed Copperhead & A Weird Postseason

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This was the summer of snakes.

And, not just the long black ones that prowl one’s property looking for mice. The harmless ones.  Well, harmless to people anyway. Mice, not so much.

Not them.

This was the summer of copperheads.

courtesy of Clinton & Charles Robertson, via CC2.0

Like this.

There was a point this summer that my Facebook page should have been brimming with pictures of homegrown red tomatoes and zucchinis as big as a strongman’s arm posted by Virginia friends with far more gardening skills than me.

But, it was a too-wet summer. And, a snaky one, too. There were copperheads hiding in gardens, amongst the tomatoes and the zucchini vines. (And, coiled up in flower beds, on front porches, and, for one of my friends, in her garage.)

It was unusually snaky. Continue reading →

Goodbye Summer. Goodbye Adam. (I Think I’m Going To Cry.)

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It was bittersweet, that last day of baseball.

If your team is still playing … and eight teams still are … well, good for you.  Your summer goes on, at least for now. At least for a few more days.

This note is not for you. (Come back later, ok?)

This is for the rest of us. Whether your team was good, but not quite good enough. Or, your team was meh.

Or, whether your team lost 115 games which put it so far below meh, that a meh season seems like something one should aspire to.

The Oriole Bird has smiled through all 115 losses. Stupid bird.

No matter what your team did last Sunday, if your team was one of the 20 that weren’t quite good enough to play this week, that Sunday was the end of summer.

The Orioles won that day. Continue reading →