Baseball

[Murphy]

Was converted by Fighting Phils nuts and their recent numbers are surreal for double figure scored games. Seen a host of games along the east coast, Orioles, Red Sox, Nationals, brutal crowd burns for outfielders, Phillies vs Cardinals when McGwire was roid banging, rituals tied to sport, drinking, peanut shells building up under foot

Yanks, Dudes, what’s your take? I can watch baseball the way the the English watch test cricket, for days, but let’s not drone on about whites, Lords and silly mid offs even though every culture throws. Anyone else? Throwing a ball around a pretty small target to order, at speed, with different grips? Hitting with a bat that doesn’t have a flat face? Hundreds of yards into the stands? Coaches feverishly spitting, the food and smells, I miss the real thing but broadcasts are available here and it’s on

 

[Leo]

Perfect timing, the league playoffs just started, leading up to the World Series (well, North American, really) later in the month. Phillies are on a roll, just won their first round, but now face defending champion Atlanta Braves. FiveThirtyEight has LA as top seed, I kinda like 'em but generally not a fan rich teams who just buy up lots of top stars. Speaking of which, fuck the Yankees as always (born/raised in Massachusetts, will always be a hater).

Would love to see one of the underdogs -- someone other than the top four (LA/NY/Houston/Atlanta) -- take it, Phils or maybe Guardians (formerly the Indians, yeah I know). Time for a crown for the Mistake by the Lake. Mets need to win tonight to stay alive.

 

[Murphy]

 

[version]

Luke says DeLillo made him a baseball fan.

 

[Leo]

@WashYourHands have you been following? Your beloved Phillies eliminated the defending champion Atlanta Braves to move into the National League championship series against the San Diego Padres, who eliminated the LA Dodgers (who won a franchise record 111 games this year but once again choked in the play-offs). And Cleveland is on the brink of eliminating the Yankees, lead series 2-1. Yanks are sending star pitcher Gerrit Cole, who they signed for $323 million, to the mound tonight to try and keep their hopes alive. Would be sweet sweet justice if he gets hammered.

 

[line b]

Ive watched maybe 14 innings in the past two days for the first time since highschool, the 3rd dodgers/padres game and the last few innings of last nights yankees/guardians game. All really good, but playoffs for any sport always are

 

[line b]

the best part of baseball is the espionage

 

[Murphy]

Dipping in and out on night shifts depending on the fixture times and shift rotations

Saw most of game 3, a few innings from y’day with the kids where the crowd was clearly loving it

Love the psychology of pitching choices, their variety, fast balls creating a bit of (what my son informs is from cricket) chin music. Arcs, changes in flight, curvature, meditative

 

[Leo]

still pretty amazing that someone can swing a stick and hit a ball coming at them at 100 mph.

 

[Leo]

Also cool to see how players from Latin America have really taken over of the game. A tiny island like the Dominican Republic can basically field an All-Star team.

 

[Murphy]

On the phone with work as the Padres smoked 5 runs with 5 hits 7th innings

Be better to see the whole game but too much chaos going on, warms autumn up wink

 

[Murphy]

 

[Murphy]

Phils were 0-4 up in game two, conceded back to back crunching home runs to make it 2-4, now it’s 5-8 in the background while working

Quality game

 

[Leo]

I used to be able to throw a decent fastball, would start out right down the middle of the plate and then rise up and in to a right-handed batter (almost the chin music you mentioned earlier). Never mastered the curve or slider.

 

[Leo]

@linebaugh grew up in Texas, he must have played ball. they're bred there for football and baseball.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

listen baseball is something I can speak on authoritatively

having both played it and been a rabid fan during my entire youth, plus a couple years in my 20s as pretty serious A's fan

baseball is dead boring. dead ass. it's almost as boring as golf, which is a serious achievement.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

not as boring as cricket granted, but only bc cricket games can literally go on for days

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

having said that I don't want to yunno gatekeep joy from people who like baseball (or cricket)

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

there's also something specifically irritating about baseball when you're American

the hokey Norman Rockwell Americanism. mom baseball and apple pie. "the national pastime" (solid self-mythologizing, that).

it's like how if you say you don't like the Beatles some people will assume you're just being contrarian bc no one could actually just not like The Beatles

that kind of cultural oppressiveness. Obv that's diminished w/baseball a lot over the last few decades but a hint of it still lingers.

 

[Murphy]

The pace, or lack of it, is a big part of the draw, meditative even

By degrees I’m removed from some of the baggage you cite. A big chunk of my adult life was surrounded by febrile Phils fans who were animals on game days. Fun! Going to watch a game was such a treat after slogging up and down the east coast. Affordable tickets or tickets passed on by mates who couldn’t get there in time. My brain would quieten down once in, ease into your seat, get a sausage n peppers and an iced water. Tremendous

I mute the sound too due to emitting background noise at work. It might be like you watching British or Euro football @padraig (u.s.) because its associations aren’t embedded in your psyche or the larger cultural foolery malaise like firms, salty chants about deaths of your rivals in minor disasters and the strange world of Crystal Palace

Watching (partially) Astros/Yankees with Virlander pitching, whoever the broadcaster was split the strike zone into 9 blocks and the analysis was fascinating. I’m interested in the skill sets, not the hokey distractions