BATTER UP!

[belfastboy]

I think my favorite thing about Fenway is the smell -- that sweet-and-sour odor of old hot-dog water that saturates the place, blended with essence of damp concrete. Now that you don't have everything suffused with the reek of cigarettes and cigars, the true aroma of the place is allowed to waft gently to the surface.

I've never smelled that particular old-ballpark smell anywhere else. Olympic Stadium in Montreal, when I used to go there, always smelled like a parking garage.

referencing Montreal's Big Owe is an insult to all parking garages everywhere!

 

[LizzieMaine]

It wasn't much of a park, but there was one good thing about it -- you could have 5,000 people in the place and the acoustics made it sound like there were 50,000. It was a thing to grab the empty seat in front of or beside you -- there was always one -- and slam the seat bottom up and down whenever the Expos rallied, creating a deafening clatter that really did shake up the opposition. It was a fun place to see a game, in spite of the Starfleet Academy architecture.

Plus, the poutine was delicious.

 

[Harp]

That's great to hear. Every once in awhile a real baseball game breaks out even with the home-run-mad Yankees. A little over a week ago, I saw a 1-0 pitchers' duel with the Yankee starter - Tanaka - pitching into the ninth. I'm not a Stoic, I don't want every game to be 1-0, but it was refreshing to see a game not about homers. Hit and run, bunting, stealing, quick throws to first, etc., is where extra joy is tucked into baseball - we need more of it. It was great to see each team value and agonize over every single baserunner and advance.

As I noted earlier - and I'm trying not to become a conspiracy theorist...

I'd like to have seen Tanaka pitch a duel into the Ninth; and he believes the apple is juiced.
Tanaka and Sale, or Verlander and Darvish would be great.

 

[DeaconKC]

Even as a South Sider Sox fan I have to admit I do love Wrigley Field and hope to visit Fenway some day. And yeah, the NL Central is gonna be a dogfight the rest of the year! Go Cards!

 

[belfastboy]

It wasn't much of a park, but there was one good thing about it -- you could have 5,000 people in the place and the acoustics made it sound like there were 50,000. It was a thing to grab the empty seat in front of or beside you -- there was always one -- and slam the seat bottom up and down whenever the Expos rallied, creating a deafening clatter that really did shake up the opposition. It was a fun place to see a game, in spite of the Starfleet Academy architecture.

Plus, the poutine was delicious.

I think the worst park in the majors was Seattle's Kingdome. It sucked up the sound so it was like watching a game on TV with the sound off. Never heard the crack of the bat on ball once. But I did get to watch Minnie Minoso when he was a coach for the White Sox do the infield/outfield warmup. That was one of my all time highlights.

 

[Frunobulax]

My first two ballgames were at Crosley Field. Like Lizzie's description of Fenway, you would walk in off the street and down a concrete ramp where you found yourself under the stands. There were huge murals of Reds just above you - Robinson, Kluszewski, I can't remember who else. Then up the ramp where the field appeared before you, with the iconic scoreboard and Longines clock, the moondeck, and the Terrace in the outfield.

My first game was Reds - Giants. Rose, Bench, Lee May, the Willies, Perez, Bobby Bonds. There were numerous HoF players on the field that day. When I think back, it was a rare treat.

The second time I went, it was Bat Day. All us kids got a small (~2.5 ft) baseball bat. The thing to do was to drum the handle of the bat on the concrete of the stands to make a racket. And it did.

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[Harp]

Nats delivered chastisement to the Cubs, sweeping a weekend home stand series and proving the superiority
of pitching poisonous high four seam fastballs and drop sliders against an erratic behind-the-curve batting line
that could only find the occasional mistaken low hanging apple hung over center home plate.
Perhaps a wild card show awaits, then a probable fast exit.
Looks to be an Astros vs Dodgers World Series.
Go Astros.!!!!

 

[belfastboy]

Nats delivered chastisement to the Cubs, sweeping a weekend home stand series and proving the superiority
of pitching poisonous high four seam fastballs and drop sliders against an erratic behind-the-curve batting line
that could only find the occasional mistaken low hanging apple hung over center home plate.
Perhaps a wild card show awaits, then a probable fast exit.
Looks to be an Astros vs Dodgers World Series.
Go Astros.!!!!

I love baseball but I tend to root for the team with the best uniform....subjective I realize. The upside of a Dodgers/Astros WS is you have the two teams with the best uniforms....although it does present to me a conundrum.

 

[belfastboy]

I watched the LL World Series, semi final and final game. That team from LA was most impressive especially when at the plate. For a team of 11 and 12 year olds to have such impeccable batting strokes at that age is really incredible. These kids must have spent many hours in the batting cage under the watchful eye of a trained hitting coach. You don't get that level of perfection in your stroke without many hours of repetition.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Although the Astros belong in the National League and should have stayed there, I'll second the praise for their uniforms. Blue and orange is a distinctive and classy color combination, and the block lettering reminds me of the St. Louis Browns.

 

[belfastboy]

Although the Astros belong in the National League and should have stayed there, I'll second the praise for their uniforms. Blue and orange is a distinctive and classy color combination, and the block lettering reminds me of the St. Louis Browns.

I played on a team in the late 70's (if I recall correctly) and we had replicas of the horrid Astros 'rainbow' uni's except ours were in understated shades of brown to match our sponsor's corp colours.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Someone once described those uniforms as "old Whopper run over in a Burger King parking lot."

 

[Harp]

I love baseball but I tend to root for the team with the best uniform....subjective I realize. The upside of a Dodgers/Astros WS is you have the two teams with the best uniforms....although it does present to me a conundrum.

Sartorial issue settled easily: Chicago Cubs own the best togs; so you can now root for the Astros.

 

[belfastboy]

Sartorial issue settled easily: Chicago Cubs own the best togs; so you can now root for the Astros.

I do like the Cubbies uniforms, mostly the blue/red combo. But I have never warmed to their weird bear logo. Prob will root for the Astros as the Navy blue/Orange is more striking than the classic Dodger blue.

 

[Harp]

I do like the Cubbies uniforms, mostly the blue/red combo. But I have never warmed to their weird bear logo...

The cub logo ain't everyones cuppa. But speaking of the Chicago Bears, I doubt that the team will score more than nine
games this season. Hope Mitch stays inside the pocket and stays safe and sound.

 

[Frunobulax]

I do like the Cubbies uniforms, mostly the blue/red combo. But I have never warmed to their weird bear logo. Prob will root for the Astros as the Navy blue/Orange is more striking than the classic Dodger blue.

The heck with the uniforms. I'll pull for anybody playing the Dodgers.

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[LizzieMaine]

The red number on the front really makes the Dodger uniform pop. A brilliant piece of design, even if it was Walter F. O'Malley's idea.

The Red Sox uniform would be perfect if they'd (1) bring back the twin lines of red piping on the ends of the sleeves, (2) go back to navy blue undershirts, and (3) bring back the blue-white-blue-white-red striped stirrup socks.

Yeah, like that.

 

[DeaconKC]

Even as a White Sox & Cardinals fan, I have to admit that I still love this play by the Cubs and then Tommy Lasorda getting into it as well.

 

[Fading Fast]

I love baseball but I tend to root for the team with the best uniform....subjective I realize. The upside of a Dodgers/Astros WS is you have the two teams with the best uniforms....although it does present to me a conundrum.

This past weekend, billed as "players weekend" I think, saw every team in either all white or all black uniforms with each player choosing his own nickname, etc. Whatever, I though it felt gimmicky, plus I love the uniforms (since, boiled down, that's pretty much what we're rooting for).

All that was a preamble to this: even the almost-always pro-MLB announcers of the Yankees-Dodgers games that weekend acknowledged it was not a smart move to not have teams with two of the most-iconic uniforms wear those uniforms for one of the very few times they meet in regular season play.

I still enjoyed the series and thought the nickname thing was okay as some of the backstories the announcers told to them were fun and personalized the players, but I really missed seeing those two classic uniforms.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Those white-on-white uniforms were ridiculous. Could barely see the lettering, which made the point of the whole thing moot.

I am not a fan of alternate uniforms in general. The Sox wore those red alternate shirts at the game we went to, and it was nearly impossible to read the numbers from where we were sitting, especially with my eyes being as defective as they are. A white jersey with red numbers is easy to read no matter where you're sitting. A red jersey with blue numbers dissolves into a blur.

As to nicknames on uniforms, how far we have come. Charlie Finley tried to institute that on the A's uniforms in the 60s, but the league office made him stop.