“This would be the ideal town for weather bureau headquarters. It would take an army of clerks to keep account of the rise and fall in the temperature alone. … No one would be surprised upon awakening tomorrow to find that the north pole had suddenly located here or that we had moved during the night to the tropical zone. Most anything can be accomplished overnight in the town of Charlottesville.” ~ The Washington Post, March 6, 1915
College baseball fans know the deal. There is little room in a tight collegiate season for rain delays. And, there is no room at all for cancelled games.
While big leaguers unroll the tarps at the first rain shower, college players soldier on.
Matt Thaiss, Catcher.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons came to Charlottesville this weekend to play a Friday/Saturday/Sunday series against the University of Virginia Cavaliers.
But, with the promise of rain and snow and wind and cold, things required a bit of shuffling. Keep up with me here.
Ernie Clement, Second Base.
Friday evenings’s game was moved to Friday afternoon. Sunday’s game was moved to Friday night. Saturday afternoon’s game was moved to Saturday morning.
Got it?
(This is why I can already tell you that UVA won tomorrow’s game. Blows your mind, doesn’t it?)
“Baseball is the most perfect of games, solid, true, pure, and precious as diamonds. If only life were so simple. Within the baselines anything can happen. Tides can reverse; oceans can open. That’s why they say, ‘the game is never over until the last man is out.’ … Anything is possible in this gentle, flawless, loving game.” ― W.P. Kinsella, Shoeless Joe
First, let’s get to the important things. The temperature during the last two games at Davenport Field, home of the University of Virginia Cavaliers (or, the NCAA National Champion UVA Cavaliers if you go for things like that) has been below 45.
And, you know what that means …
Free hot chocolate!
The NCAA champions are playing the Monmouth Hawks this weekend.
I vaguely know where Monmouth is (somewhere New Jersey-ish).
If you visit Monmouth’s Wikipedia page … which you can do here … it will kindly request that you fill in the blanks and tell it something – anything – about this team.
I can tell you only that they seem to have a good time when they play – they’re a joyful bunch – and that goes a long way with me.
UVA won on Friday night, 4-2, in unspectacular fashion. The highlight of the game was that it took my feet, which were double-socked, nearly one full hour to thaw out. They were completely numb.
It was brutally cold – it had snowed that morning – and my main take-away from the game is that I’m certain I wouldn’t last a week in a world without central heat.
Friday morning. Snow on the cat.
Let’s skip to Saturday. Still cold.
More hot chocolate!
Daniel Lynch, Saturday Starter.
Behind string-beany, first-year pitcher Daniel Lynch, the Hoos jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the 2nd in one of those they-batted-around innings – six singles, one double, two sacrifice bunts – that messes up your scorecard in a totally-worth-it sort of way.
They love to bunt, these fellas.
Matt Thaiss, Third Year, Catcher/1B/DH. 2-for-5 on Saturday, 1 Run, 1 RBI
“Our small ball is what makes us an offense,” Thaiss, who homered on Friday night, told The Daily Progress. “We always talk about not having a good hitting team, but having a great offense. That’s what we preach here. We practice bunting just as much as we do hitting.”
The high temperature in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday was 47.2 degrees.
Just 2.2 degrees colder and there would have been “free hot chocolate for everyone” at Davenport Field where the University of Virginia Cavaliers — the Hoos — play ball and where the free hot chocolate flows at 45 degrees.
There was no hot chocolate. There was no win for the Hoos.
It was cold.
But, it was my first game of the spring. Even though it’s still winter.
When The Daily Post asked bloggers to show their “Happy Place” on their blogs this week I wasn’t going to play along. After all, what do you expect me to say?
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere.
Home! Home! Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home! There’s no place like home!
Funny thing. 1823 is also the year that we can find the first known references to the game of “base ball”:
“I was last Saturday much pleased in witnessing a company of active young men playing the manly and athletic game of ‘base ball’ at the Retreat in Broadway.” ~ The National Advocate, April 23, 1823.
UVa defeated the Canadian squad (an 18-and-under team featuring some of the best young players in the country) 12-5 last night in a strange 14-inning “exhibition” game that was a more a showcase for scouts, I think, than an actual game. Players batting out of order. Pinch runners pinch running and then disappearing. Really odd.
But, still … even really odd baseball is Happy Place worthy.
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Happy Place.”
On to summer, when the sun runs high and hot, the nights turn steamy, and the hottest teams go on sweaty win streaks and the homers fly out like crazy because, as every fan knows, baseballs love the heat and humidity.
Hey, kid! Don’t freak out! The Baltimore Orioles have had plenty of seasons worse than this one.
Sure, the Orioles will finish a crummy third in the American League East this season. They’ve hovering a game under .500 with just one left to play.
But, it coulda been worse.
In 1899, the Baltimore Orioles finished 4th in the 12-team National League with a 86-62 record.
The Baltimore Sun, September 9, 1899
“The Poor Orioles”
Their .581 win percentage, good enough for 4th place in 1899, would have won them this year’s AL East pennant. So, there. Take that, Blue Jays.
Those Orioles weren’t that bad, especially when you realize that 1899 was also the season that the Cleveland Spiders went 20-134, the worst team in baseball history.
(The Spiders were so bad – and attracted so few fans – that most teams refused to travel to Cleveland for games, forcing the Spiders to play most of their games on the road. Teams don’t get to do that anymore. It doesn’t matter if raw sewage is seeping into the dugouts, you still have to play in Oakland.)
But, finishing 4th wasn’t good enough. At the end of the season, the League decided to cut its “deadwood” and the Orioles were tossed in the chipper along with those lousy Spiders, the Washington Senators, and the Louisville Colonels.
In 1902, a patched-together Baltimore Orioles, now in the American League, finished 8th – 34 games out of first – with a 50-88 record.
The Baltimore Sun, September 30, 1902
“Almost Like a Funeral”
At the end of the season, that team was packed up and moved to New York.
Damn Yankees.
In 1988, the Baltimore Orioles started their season 0-21, the worst start by any major league team ever. They finished the season 54-107.
I mean, how can they be better than Saturday, right?
But, good days come in all shapes and sizes. And, this Monday was good.
Let’s check the “Good Day” box score …
Time in my day – and some jingle in my pocket – to sit down at Miso Sweetfor lunch. Good!
Ramen. And, Donuts. Charlottesville. Very Good!
I know that not everyone has the time to sit down for lunch or the money to have a nutritious meal. It is not lost on me.
In the bathroom I find this note:
Good advice!
Photo: My trusty four-year old Droid. Permanent thumbprint on the lens. Not a good photo, but then, sometimes, even on good days, you are caught camera-less and only have one thumbprinty photo to show for yourself.
After lunch, I still have time to get to my Yoga studio for my own practice before my classes start. Awesome Good!
Yoga classes are full. Bountiful Goodness!
Sure, the Baltimore Orioles were swept by the Twins over the weekend. Sure, they will lose again on Monday night … and Tuesday night. Sure, they look not so good and that’s six straight losses and the chances for Orioles baseball in October are looking a little like this:
But, still. Delicious lunch. Good advice from a restaurant bathroom. Yoga.
There are few things as wonderful as an egg salad sandwich on a summer Friday when you’re not working and everyone else is.
Yum!
Today is, I thought, one of those “salad days.”
Because, as with many turns of phrases, I am using “salad days” incorrectly.
(I will occasionally say someone is “over the moon” when they are very, very angry, and I once advised a new mother not to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” which I thought was darned good advice.)
And, so I thought “salad days” simply meant good days.
Like seeing an Orioles walk-off home run against the Oakland A’s last Saturday … or, that whole egg salad sandwich thing.
Chris Davis. Home Run Swing.
Turns out, these are not salad days after all.
“Salad days,” as Shakespeare meant it and as you probably already understand it, are the days of youthful naiveté when things were good and we were green – just fallen off the turnip truck. (Fun Fact: “Just fell off the turnip truck”? Not Shakespearean, but popularized by Johnny Carson … so, Carsonian.)
Salad days are the frivolities of our youth.
So, today’s egg salad sandwich? Not a “salad day.”
But, maybe Baltimore’s four wins against the Oakland A’s last weekend – outscoring them 34-13 – were salad days after all.
Because, for a brief moment we O’s fans believed we had the post-season in the bag.
me.
Playing a worked-over, tired-out, reeling team like this year’s A’s will do that to you. You forget the worked-over, tired-out, reeling part and you just jump up and down every time you win.
Such carefree, naïve fans were we.
(Although a little credit here. Our salad days did include a win over Sonny Gray.)
But, not all teams are reeling and you can’t play Oakland every day.
In fact, the O’s have pretty much seen the last of the reelers this season. And, today, they’re a half-game back for the second Wild Card.
Ahhh … the Salad Days of last Saturday.
Look how happy we were!
Jonathan Schoop. Second Base.
Miguel Gonzalez. Starting Pitcher.
Raise Your Hand If You Want To Go To The World Series. Steve Clevenger. Catcher.
And, Gerardo Parra, too!
Parra, the new O’s outfielder, is doing the Wave with the fans!
I know. I didn’t believe it either. That’s why I watched him do it two more times when the Wave came through the outfield bleachers. And, he did it each time.
You know that egg salad? It wasn’t so great. First, the bread was sliced top to bottom, not on a diagonal, as perfect sandwiches are. And, it’s kind of made my stomach funny. Also, no pickle. What’s up with that? Although it was wrapped in deli paper, which is always a nice touch.
And, the Orioles?
Sure, they’ve only won one game since Oakland left town. Sure, there are some awfully good, surging teams that they will need to elbow out of the way to get into the post-season.
But, you know what they say – it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.
“Pretty soon the ball player will not have rest enough between seasons to get acquainted with his folks.” ~ The Sporting News, November 7, 1912
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge:“Off-Season.”
They call it “The Grind.” That long baseball season. That life ballplayers choose.
For the pros, it begins in February at spring training and, if you’re lucky, it will extend to the far reaches of October.
College ball starts in February and stretches through four months, then summer league teams, and a “bonus” fall season tucked in before the snow falls.
Whatever’s left, that’s your “off-season.”
I thought “off-season” was a baseball term that had worked its way into the rest of the language. But, “off-season” is a business term that was first used in the 1840s.
The Sporting News, November 7, 1912
In 1912, The Sporting News complained that Charles Comiskey, President and Owner of the Chicago White Sox, was running his players ragged by shortening the off-season and putting his team on a train to California in the middle of February to begin spring training, forcing his players into exhibition games along the way, stopping at any place where a pick-up game might put extra “coin” into the owner’s pocket.
We don’t lay fallow much. There’s not much off-season for anybody these days. Apparently, there never was.
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Vivid.”
The very first time I went to a baseball game — a real game, with a real diamond and a manicured field — the grass made me blink.
I don’t think I’d ever seen grass so green, so bright, so lush, so … vivid … as the outfield grass around a baseball diamond.
When Little League fields and ad hoc diamonds in public parks start to brown in the heat of summer it always makes me a little sad. Because every player deserves some lush vivid green grass under their cleats.
Photo: University of Virginia Starting Pitcher Brandon Waddell, warming up in left field before his start on Saturday in the NCAA Super Regionals. Virginia defeated the University of Maryland and will advance to the College World Series this weekend.
The Baseball Bloggess 