I hate Abner Doubleday.

I don’t care about baseball, but your first paragraph gave me a PTSD flashback to the days when my marriage was circling the drain. Yay.

Bateshorn was actually a diehard Yankees fan until 2004.

This is the gift that will keep on giving long after October has turned into 2012.

Epic collapse.

Wait, were you on the Red Sox in Western Hills Little League?

If so, I knew there was something wrong with you.

WHLL Cardinals, HOLLA!

Sorry for your loss. An interesting season of highs and lows – April proved that September was possible.

I enjoyed all the drama last night especially since my team, the Cardinals, won easily and then made the playoffs. When it’s not breaking your heart, baseball can be so awesome.

I have been following MLB since the 60s ( Rusty Staub! Bob Lillis! Dick “Turk” Farrell! Jimmy Wynn aka the toy cannon! Holla ). Last night was the most epic night I have ever seen. I’m a Rangers fan since the 70s so it was a good night for me. Just unbelivable. Two epic collapses in one season and a trio of huge games all finishing close togethor

I’m not terribly upset this morning because this collapse had seemed inevitable for at least a couple of weeks. The Red Sox were 7-20 in September; the pitching was atrocious all month, the hitting was lagging, and the injuries were piling up. Last night was like seeing a patient who has been terminal for a long time finally give up the ghost. Plus it’s football season anyway. I find it difficult to focus on too many sports teams at one time.

You a SoSHer Bates?

The Impossible Dream was in 1967. Tigers fans know this.

I lurk on occasion. Mostly Surviving Grady. Red’s take to day is pretty solid, although I’m not ready to move on yet.

Nordberg- Everyone in Westlake knows you got a closet full of early nineties Aggie T-shirts, so pipe down.

Huckleberry said: September 29th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Wait, were you on the Red Sox in Western Hills Little League?

If so, I knew there was something wrong with you.
WHLL Cardinals, HOLLA!

Nothing wrong with WHLL MILFs. Luv it when they sashay over to NWLL in their golden sandals, billowy blouses, bronzed skin, and hair pulled back so tight you’d think it was part of their chin tuck.

Bates -
 
I don’t really care about baseball, but always sort of liked the Red Sox because I found Ted Williams a compelling guy and enjoyed Boston Fan’s dogged loyalty. However, two titles, the rise of the Patriots, and a Bruins championship has made the New England sports fan and their national bandwagon insufferable. Eighty more years of seasons just like this one would be good for them.
 
Huck -
 
You had actual mascots? We just had the sponsor name of a lumber store or a service station.
 
Crane Tire, forever.

You just expressed my feelings of sitting in the Rose Bowl in 2009. Wow, that sucked. Your first two paragraphs were epic.

I feel for you so do not take this personally……

That was the biggest fucking choke job I have seen since Bill Buckner let it go 5 hole in the ’Series back in the day.

I fucking love baseball – in many ways it’s the most demanding upon the cerebral resources of players and fans alike… besides, the refs don’t throw a goddam flag every time you turn around, and the game isn’t interrupted for commercials every time someone hits a home run.

One of my favorite memories is walking into Fenway for the first time, sitting about even with third base, maybe five or six rows back, and saying in my best and loudest (same thing, I reckon) Texian voice something along the lines of “JEEZUS fucken KEE-RIST! Look at that God Damn WALL! Boys, this here is a By God BALL park!” I didn’t have to buy my own beer the rest of the night, but that wasn’t the point. That there IS a By God BALL park.

It’s too bad we don’t have football pitches that are as eccentric as some of the old baseball parks.

I do feel weird, as a die-hard Rangers fan, that they’re currently in a class of achievers or, possibly, overachievers.

That’s about right.

I moved to Austin for college and the Cowboys started winning Super Bowls. I move to Tennessee and my alma mater, Garland, wins a state championship, the Horns return to glory, the Rangers start winning, hell, even the effing Mavericks won a championship.

As a child, growing up in Dallas, I think my only taste of championshipness was the Dallas Sidekicks.

I did want to add that I think it’s funny how you came about your Red Sox allegiance. When I was in middle school, my best friend had a Nintendo and took the Rangers for his team. I had to settle for the Cubs and have somewhat rooted for them ever since my boy Andre Dawson batted almost .500 to win the Tecmo season for me.

All that over the Boston Red Sox? It was well written, but I thought I was reading somebody’s digitized suicide note. Go Rangers!

I hope you don’t get homesick, Ty. The winning is good.

At least you’re not an Astros fan.

Dallas Sidekicks. Holy shit that brought back some memories.

Braves fan here, so I feel your pain. Yesterday sucked.

One of my favorite memories is walking into Fenway for the first time, sitting about even with third base, maybe five or six rows back, and saying in my best and loudest (same thing, I reckon) Texian voice something along the lines of "JEEZUS fucken KEE-RIST! Look at that God Damn WALL! Boys, this here is a By God BALL park!"

That is awesome.

Doperbpwn3d!

With two titles in the last decade, you’ll get no sympathy from me. The Astros just wrapped their 50th and most futile season. I did have tears in my eyes at the first pitch of Game 3 of the 2005 WS but that’s as good as it has been.

Texoz, you a NWLL dad?

That is awesome.

The really awesome part was that I got to yell “Fuck the God Damn Yankees!” at the top of my lungs, repeatedly, and was rewarded rather than lynched.

A number of Junes ago, when one of my nephews got married and all and sundry were giving the happy couple stupid shit like silver spoons and chip-n-dip trays, I called them over just before they left the reception, headed for their honeymoon cabin in Maine, and told ‘em since they were going to be in Bahstin for a couple of days, I’d checked, and the Yankees were going to be in town for a set. I handed them a fist of Franklins and told ’em the only acceptable way to spend it was take in a game at Fenway – and wear the Stetson, not the TCU ballcap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MISL-Authentic-Dallas-Sidekicks-Game-Used-Jersey-Tatu-/310339765517

Tex- That’s a great story.

I was in Boston last August for work and got a single ticket, fenway home infield side, about a dozen rows up. Cost a fortune, but I didn’t care. First, Heidi Watney, the NESN reporter, is an absurdly hot POA.

The Red Sox lost to the Jays 16-2 (you read that correctly). Made no difference. In that park, it’s all good.

Congrats to the Rays (and the O’s for treating it like a playoff game). They deserved it regardless of what the Yanks did or did not do. I rarely agree with Skip Bayless but Beckett and Lester are at the top of the September melt down. Four starts in the last week between them and not one win.
It could not have ended more appropriately than with Carl Crawford’s Fat Albert attempt at the line drive. Thanks Bates for the venue to vent. May the winner of the Rangers/Rays take it all.

Crawford pathetic flop was the piece de resistance. Although Papi’s absurd attempt to stretch a double against one of the best throwing left fielders in the league was pretty tasty as well.

Agreed on the Orioles. First time I’ve seen life in that team in a decade. Buck Showalter might be an asshole, but he delivers.

Let me add one more. Scutaro’s out at the plate. But who is counting?

Calvin Schiraldi lives up the street from me. Good guy. I always feel bad for him when his name gets brought up every time the Bosox shit the bed.

In that park, it’s all good.

Love a place with soul, seats close to the action, field peculiarities, and – maybe most of all – real fans. Fenway brings all that.

It wasn’t his fault, nor was it Buckner’s. It took an avalanche of mistakes to bring the 1986 World Series to the Met’s. But that’s not the way things work in New England.

“But that’s not the way things work in New England.”
Exactly. I feel this is why Crawford, for the whole season, and Gonzales, in Sept., disappeared. They were not use to the scrutiny that comes with playing in Boston. A lot different than Tampa and San Diego. (Calvin was just a passenger on the train to nowhere).

Buckner == Gideon

Would it have won, if made? Yes. Was it the only reason for the loss? Not by a fucking long shot… but it’s still the most memorable, since most – if not all – of the rest of the fuckups were not potential game-WINNERS if played correctly. That, and the fact that you were already on your feet, with the first fist pump in progress when…

And, something I learned as a young Engineer: “A Single AW SHIT! Can Wipe Out a Thousand Attaboys.”

WHLL. Where professional baseball dreams go to die, and you figure out what sport you’re actually supposed to be playing.

Boston is well past the Buckner stuff. You’re having a 2003 conversation.

While watching Papelbon go through his totally absurd pre-pitch routine, I couldn’t help but hate him. Boston losing is good for baseball. The batters were standing in the box for 30 seconds watching that ass-hat pucker his lips and wiggle his hips. It was incredibly time effective to fast forward between pitches. I’d be embarrassed if I took someone who didn’t know much about baseball to see him pitch. They need to make a rule so that if the batter is in the box and ready to hit for 10 seconds, a ball is automatically issued.

But that was arguably the best 3 minutes of sports I’ve ever seen.

chitwood said: September 29th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Texoz, you a NWLL dad?
yah, my kid will play in the 9s in the spring. With spring/fall ball, It’ll be his 7th season there.

Longtime Astros fan. Got sloshed a few times with Dome Foam. Saw games there when the scoreboard lit up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZn_CS4MVx4

However, Fenway Park is amazing. Went there 3 years ago. Would love to go back again. I pay more attention now to the Red Sox just because of that trip.

Small world, Texoz. We might know each other. My son played AA8 last spring and D11 after that. He’s moving to AAA/9 next year and is playing fall ball right now on the Phillies.

Fenway is the best park in baseball, hands down. It’s like Wrigley, if Wrigley was full of fans who cared about their team, knew what the fuck they were talking about, and weren’t all black-out drunk.

My favorite memory from Fenway came during my first trip to the park for a game against the Rays. We sat in right field, three rows up, right behind the fat guy with the squeeky voice. You know the guy. He was sitting alone in the stands, giving merciless shit to Jose Cruz, Jr. and he loved my line after Cruz half-heartedly chased down an obviously out-of-play foul ball:

BH: “Hey where were you on that one, Penelope?!?”

FGWSV: “Haha! Penelope Cruz! That’s a good one!”

Inspiring such an obviously genuine Fenway fixture to laugh would normally serve as the night’s highlight for me. Bostonians aren’t quick to dole out compliments; the polite Southern laugh is a foreign concept to them. But the true high point that evening came when some Tampa Bay no-namer walked up to the plate and the entire stadium immediately started booing. I had no idea who this guy was, and couldn’t fathom a reason he was singled out for Fenway’s unanimous ire.

So I leaned up to Fat-Guy-With-Squeeky-Voice and asked “Why’s everyone booing this guy.” I’ll never forget his answer until the day I die.

“He played for the Yankees’ rookie league team back in the 90’s. ONCE A YANKEE, ALWAYS A YANKEE!”

If any one sentence encapsulates the passion of the Boston fan, that’s it.

On another trip to Fenway, I was booed for an act of sheer brute strength – smashing a beachball completely out of the stadium (i.e. tapping it three rows above our seats). I stood up, took a bow and endured the heckling, and then got back to the business of enjoying the game.

No one will ever convince me that there exists a better place to watch baseball than Fenway Park.

chitwood, I’m working in Houston for the next 7 weeks so I’m missing fall ball. You’ll see my kid next Tuesday when your Phillies play the Giants. He’s the jovial one with all the hair and the funny name.

Tell him he needs to throw with top to bottom spin instead of wrist-twisting, curve ball. He won’t listen to me, and he wonders why his wrist hurt after his last pitching outing.

fyi, if you haven’t figured out by now who I am here’s another hint. The odds are good I probably coached your kid. Over the last 3 years I’ve coached about 1/2 the kids in my son’s age group.

Why the $&*# is your 9 year old throwing curve balls?

All he should be worried about is his fast ball, change up, and proper mechanics.

email me at gregshields@akllp.com. It’s driving me nuts.

I think that is what he is saying. He’s telling his kid to throw it straight, but his kid is twisting his wrist. Mine does that some as well-not trying to throw a curve ball, just twists his wrist. All it does is cost him velocity.

texasengr said: September 29th, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Why the $&*# is your 9 year old throwing curve balls?

All he should be worried about is his fast ball, change up, and proper mechanics.

Turning the wrist is a common bad habit of kids this age. I thought I had corrected over the summer, but the little bugger was doing it again last weekend when I went back to Austin.

Trust me. I do not want him throwing anything but straight fast balls. My dad says he could have played college ball if he hadn’t thrown curves when he was in high school (at St. Thomas), and my uncles back him up. I seriously doubt my kid will play college ball anywhere, but he’s a decent little league player and I don’t want to blow out his arm/wrist while he’s having this much fun. In fact, I told him he won’t pitch anymore if he doesn’t correct it.

And chitwood, yes I coached your kid in D 11 last spring. My kid has the funny name that can also be the name of a plant? Hellooo? I’ll shoot you an email in a little bit.

Sorry, it took me a bit to figure it out. I was wondering if your boy was playing this fall, I hadn’t seen him around yet. I’ll deliver the message from you.

I’m of the opinion that any time spent trying to teach a kid to play baseball prior to 9 or 10 is a waste anyway. They should be enjoying unstructured play — not struggling to understand such a complex game. Too many kids get bored to tears by tee-ball and turn into soccer players…

Tell him he needs to throw with top to bottom spin instead of wrist-twisting, curve ball.

Here’s what I was taught… maybe modern kinesiology has new methods, but I’ll bet this still works: Wrist/arm-twisting is not particularly effective and will eventually ruin elbows. Take him to a Home Depot or such, buy him a hammer he can swing well, get some 2×4′s and a shit load of ten-to-twenty penny nails. Take him home and teach him to swing that hammer properly and start driving nails down into the board, all the way flush… that’s the “top-to-bottom” spin action you’re looking for – that same wrist-snap that finishes the hammer blow is your curve ball release. The arm motion is the same as the fast ball/change motion, but the hand is rotated 90 degrees, and the end of the motion is basically the same as that hammer strike. The more nails you hammer, the better your curve will become.

Trust me. I do not want him throwing anything but straight fast balls. My dad says he could have played college ball if he hadn’t thrown curves when he was in high school (at St. Thomas), and my uncles back him up. I seriously doubt my kid will play college ball anywhere, but he’s a decent little league player and I don’t want to blow out his arm/wrist while he’s having this much fun. In fact, I told him he won’t pitch anymore if he doesn’t correct it.

Ha… I started playing at 10, made the all-star team at 11, and was a serviceable pitcher by 12. My best pitch was always my curveball. Unfortunately, it allowed me to neglect my legs and change up, which created an 80 mph ceiling for me in high school. After shelving my arm for 5 years for school (engineering is hard, m’kay?), I throw harder today than I did in HS. Ah, if only I’d had quality pitching instruction… I’d have probably played at some juco and gotten a worthless liberal arts degree.

bates – #1 in the hearts of many Longhorn fans is Spike ‘Still Safe’ Owens, also a teammate of Calvin and Roger on the Sox. Fun little piece of baseball trivia.

As a military brat, I fell hard for the Sox after we spent my 7th grade stationed just outside of Boston. New Englanders were often tiresome, but I loved the Sox and I loved that city.

@ Brickhorn —

Riiiiiiight. Wrigley is full of fans who care nothing for the Cubs. Next you’ll tell us that Philly fans are too passive. Stick to waxing rhapsodic about Fenway (a fine place, BTW) next time.

@ Bateshorn

Quitcherbitchin’. At least your Sox won a couple WS in your lifetime.

Sincerely,

A Cubs Fan.

I lurk on occasion. Mostly Surviving Grady. Red’s take to day is pretty solid, although I’m not ready to move on yet.

Haven’t regularly read Surviving Grady in a bit but that guy is really funny.

If you want to dwell on failure a while longer, the SoSH thread on the collapse is worth a read.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/topic/68340-collapse/

The real Ken Tremendous posts in that thread fwiw, which is a lot.

Calvin Schiraldi? Spike Owen? Roger Clemens?

Damn Newbie.

Ray Culp — Austin Hi HOLLA!

Dannny Cater — Travis Hi HOLLA!

Fightin Phils win it all.

I second Dagga.

As the guy who paid $600 to a large Italian man in a track suit at the counter of a run-down hotdog stand a couple of blocks away from new Comiskey in 2005 to watch Roger Clemens mail it in while an anemic offense remained anemic in Game 1 of the Astros four game choke against the White Sox, after watching team after team lost to Atlanta od the Mets every year, I speak for all Astros fans everywhere when I say:

Screw you Boston.

Oh, also, how much better would that DBT song be if Patterson hadn’t ineplicably thrown in that “And I ain’t too crappy” line at the end? Kills the song, IMO.

Wow, a major leaguer played @ Travis? I hope the field was in better shape back then …

@ Brickhorn –

Riiiiiiight. Wrigley is full of fans who care nothing for the Cubs.

I’ve been to Wrigley more times than I can count. It’s a great park. But the Cubs have lousy fans, especially in Chicago. You’ll find people who actually care about the Cubs downstate. Half of my extended family are die-hard, life-long Cubs fans. I pity them. The nominal “fans” in Chicagoland, however, hit up Wrigley mainly to swill beer in the sun. To say the result on the field is secondary to the broader drunken experience is probably generous.

@Brickhorn—

Too bad your personal experience has been so jaundiced, but you’re still painting with waaaaaaay too broad a brush when you state that “the Cubs have lousy fans.” Yeah, that’s right — each and every one of us is a terrible, know-nothing pseudofan who goes to Wrigley simply to be seen and guzzle beer. Overstate much?

My experience has been exactly the opposite of yours. Perhaps you are projecting the behavior of your extended family on Cubs fans as a whole. In any event, I’m extremely comfortable in saying that you are in a distinct minority when you write (or imply) that Wrigley is full of fans who don’t care for their team and don’t know anything about baseball. Cubs fans as a group are incredibly passionate for their team — there’s no other legitimate reason why we would continue subjecting ourselves to yearly disappointment.

Wait . . . are you a White Sox fan? That would explain it all.

Cubs fans as a group are incredibly passionate for their team — there’s no other legitimate reason why we would continue subjecting ourselves to yearly disappointment.

Of course there is — the one Brickhorn postulates. I have always thought a passionate fan would eventually demand a return on their investment — other than the setting.

srr50 hit the nail on the head. Simply put, there is no such thing as a Chicago Cubs fan. There are only beer fans who happen to live in the Northside of Chicago.

The exception, of course, are the pitiable downstaters. These are poor saps who genuinely root for the Cubs – who actually place their hope in the Cubs – because they are too proud to admit the folly of their regionally-derived loyalties. That class of Cubs fan includes my family, although some have managed to escape to rationality.

My life-long, die-hard Cub fan of a father, who conditioned his approval of our Catholic upbringing on my mother’s promise that we would be raised Cubs fans (true story), has seen the light. When I asked him why he was rooting for the Cardinals in a recent St. Louis – Chicago series, his words conveyed the kind of wisdom to which all Cubs fans should aspire: “Son, I just got sick and tired of those losers ruining my life.”

Welcome to the Redbird Nation, Dad. Welcome to sanity and satisfaction.

Go Redbirds!

@srr50 —

I suppose you would have made the same pitch to Red Sox fans leading up to the 2004 season. You’re kidding yourself if you think Cubs fans don’t get irate and disappointed with their team. We certainly do. But we also don’t give up — well, at least the diehards don’t. At some point, the reward will come just as it came to diehard Sox fans in ‘04. And then we’ll see all the bandwagoners come out of the woodwork . . . like Brickhorn’s old man.

@ Brickhorn —

Ah, a Cards fan. That explains the Cubs-related hostility as well as asinine statements such as “there is no such thing as a Chicago Cubs fan.” [Holy shit! It seems I don’t exist. Now I just need to get the IRS to believe it as well.]

But we also don’t give up — well, at least the diehards don’t. At some point, the reward will come just as it came to diehard Sox fans in ’04. And then we’ll see all the bandwagoners come out of the woodwork . . . like Brickhorn’s old man.

In all seriousness, I envy you, CalHorn. Your team’s season is over. Hell, it pretty much wrapped up back in June. You get to relax and start building up irrational hope for next year. I, on the other hand, have to sit on the edge of my seat for at least the next few days and hope the Cardinals can keep a surprisingly successful season going.

June? Hell, try May. But I didn’t expect much this season, and likely won’t next year as well. It won’t stop me from rooting for ’em, though.

I’d say good luck to the Cards but I’d be lying if I did so I won’t. I’m hoping the Phils rip St. Louis, though I won’t be surprised if St. Louis upsets Philly given the success St. Louis had against the Phils in the regular season. I’ll be in a real quandary if St. Louis ends up facing the Brewers. Would it be bad to hope for a meteor strike at Busch or Miller Park in that event?

What I really want to see is a bunch of good games in the next few weeks — similar to the high drama of Wednesday night. That would be alright . . . if I existed.

What I really want to see is a bunch of good games in the next few weeks — similar to the high drama of Wednesday night. That would be alright . . . if I existed.

Ha. I’ll grant you this: you may very well be the exception that proves the rule. I tip my hat to your unwavering loyalty in the face of overwhelming disappointment. True fanship is something to admire.

And I agree on the drama. Man, Wednesday night kicked all kinds of ass.

Rumors in Boston today is that Francona will not be back. With Ozzie moving on in Chicago what a shift in personalities if Tito was his replacement.

@ brickhorn

Yeah, only Red Sox and Braves fans didn’t appreciate Wednesday. It’s a good time of the sporting year, what with baseball pandemonium, college football getting into conference play, and the NFL.

Oh, and nice use of the Great Pumpkin cartoon . . . you bastard. Even I had to chuckle at that.