So with visions of .500 baseball, and maybe a run of good luck at the blackjack table, I planned a trip to see Amed Rosario play. At the time, it felt like he could be the missing piece to salvage the Mets’ injury-plagued season.
Through dry, desert-stung eyes and ears, a few details broke through: the third-base umpire with a black cast on his right arm; the young boys in the stands pummeling an inflatable green alien; the vendor’s regular bark of “beer, water, NUTS.”
I never expected to get my baseball fill from a board game until I picked up a copy of W. M. Akers’s Deadball: Baseball with Dice. Funded in under four hours on Kickstarter, the baseball simulation uses simple player statistics, dice, and traditional baseball scorekeeping to a surprisingly realistic effect. A few weeks ago, after playing a few rounds with the early, unfinished rulebook, I reached out to Akers to talk about the origins of the game.
As the iridescent fog settled into Chavez Ravine during the 7th inning of the World Baseball Classic’s second semi-final, the tension in Dodger Stadium simmered low. The crowd was sparse, yet dedicated, having shown up during the height of the day’s rain shower and persevered throughout under umbrellas, rain jackets, and ponchos.
Maybe next year will be our year, maybe it won’t. Maybe next year I’ll find myself making another pilgrimage to Cleveland to watch the team I’ve loved all my life celebrate their first World Series victory in my lifetime.
Baseball can wear you out, mentally I mean, and San Francisco was always there to help you change the channel and just chill out.
In July, ESPN premiered a Judd Apatow-directed 30 for 30, “Doc & Darryl.” The documentary pairs Gooden and Strawberry once more and traces the ascent of the ’86 Mets and the drug-fueled downfall of the two players. It is poignant to see the two reunited. Strawberry is enjoying a new life, and things even seem to be looking up for Gooden.
On the first timeline I am 40 years old, husband, father of three children, builder of things, writer of things, breaker and fixer of things. On the second timeline I am watching baseball, and it has all just happened, is happening, will happen in a moment. Time does not elapse.
On Saturday, the New York Mets clinched a postseason berth. Their reward? Madison Bumgarner and his even-year specialists, the San Francisco Giants, in the single-game elimination NL Wildcard. The winner of which also earns the right…
Keeping score takes an extra half-beat in order to allow the brain to translate. A left fielder is avoltigeur de gauche. A pitcher is a lanceur. A shortstop is an arrêt–court . At the end of each half-frame we tally up points, coups surs, erreurs, and runners laisses sur les buts. All 3842 of us await a coup de circuit, though no one manages to clear the ad-plastered wall.