I wrote a brief overview of the Famous Chicken’s exploits away from baseball over at “Hall of Very Good”, so check it out, and also check out some of the great stuff about the rest of this year’s inductees.
The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobbleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jockstraps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects isn’t the first book of it’s kind. By which I mean, it is not the first book to look at baseball based on how things related to it- helmets, hot dogs, and the like. For example, there were two books called Game of Inches that not only looked at off-the-field innovations, but on-the-field ones as well.
However, 34-Ton Bat is one of the best written- in this case, by journalist Steve Rushin. While Game of Inches covered more, Rushin ties together the many pieces of baseball miscellanea into something of a story, connecting both personal experiences- such as working at Metropolitan Stadium as a kid- and old stories- such as the long-forgotten shooting death of a man in the Polo Grounds seats- to objects connected to them, and the history of those objects.
The death at the Polo Grounds, for example, leads to a discussion about the seats themselves and also some more tangential developments. For example, as time has gone on and Americans’ weight has increased, seats have become wider. In addition, the NYPD were the ones who investigated the fan’s death, and starting in 1877 that same police department had been handing out medals for valor that included a charm in which the letters N and Y were interlocked- providing the likely inspiration for the Yankees’ logo.
The book is filled with such wonderful connections, and for the most part they flow and fit perfectly. You would think it strange to somehow connect urinals, radio broadcasts, beer, naming rights, and the national anthem, but in one chapter Rushin does just that, not making it seem forced at all. In fact, he makes such leaps seem logical in nearly every chapter of the book.
This isn’t to say the book is perfect. At times, it will feel like Rushin is spending too much or too little time on some subjects. In other cases, it feels like some interesting things that could have been covered weren’t (for example, I don’t recall seeing much on catching masks and how they have slowly evolved into the goalie-like masks of today). Still, those are just small nitpicks. If you like baseball, and especially are interested in the history of some of the objects and traditions connected to it, you should give 34-Ton Bat a read.
The reviewer received his copy of the book as a holiday gift from family.
You know my love of OOTP 14, but now, another version of Out of the Park Baseball is coming. And this time, it’ll have 3D ballparks, 3D balls-in-play, international leagues with REAL players for Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Cuba, Netherlands and Italy, a new ratings system, the ability for teams to retire numbers and even more!
How much am I looking forward to this?
Perhaps this will give an indication:
YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!
It’s the Continuum Baseball Rankings! Thanks to good performances in basically every tournament that wasn’t the WBC, the United States went to number one in the IBAF’s world rankings, and that helped them also move to the top in the Continuum Rankings. Japan and Cuba also benefited from international play results that the IBAF rankings follow (but I don’t always follow), and Japan further benefited from a 3-game sweep over Taipei in November. This caused the Dominican to fall to fourth, mainly because they didn’t play much after the WBC and weren’t in the best of positions in the IBAF ratings.
Similar things happened to other Latin American teams, and that leads to another issue I’ll have to figure out: due to those country’s baseball systems, which often have financial problems outside of the WBC as far as going overseas. I’m going to try and figure out a way to try and counter this without bringing back in the number of MLB players and MLB Win Shares.
Anyway, these ratings include the 2013 end-of-year IBAF World Rankings, the three games “Samurai Japan” and the Chinese Taipei national team played, games between “professional or equivalent” teams in the East Asian Games and the entirety (since all teams in it were “professional or equivalent”… which is to say, they were all each country’s best players, in this case amateurs) of the West Asian Baseball Cup.
The next update will be after the Caribbean World Series in February.
Go below the jump to see it:
This was cool, and is from May 19, 2013:
You may have heard of the Pepsi Max Field of Dreams game, probably semi-heard during commercial breaks of MLB Network. Well, basically, it’s part old-timers game, and part fantasy camp. Two teams play a 6-inning game… with the catch being that each team is half made up of former MLB stars (almost all of them either Hall of Famers and ones that one day will be) and the other half is made up of ordinary Joes who won a contest. There are also some ringers (mainly guys who either play or coach locally and had professional careers) thrown in to fill spots in later innings. This year, it was was in my home town of Rochester, New York, and myself and 13,715 of my closest friends were there to see it.
(By the way, any picture you see in this was taken by me, and can be enlarged if you click it.)
Go below the jump for more, this is a photo-heavy post.
So, I found this in my family storage. It probably was gotten by my grandfather:
You see that? Well, yes, it’s an image of Pittsburgh’s hopes and dreams being extinguished, but it also is the cover of the Spring Training program for the Atlanta Braves in 1993, when they were in West Palm Beach.
Let’s go inside, shall we (after the jump):
Next week, the Winter Meetings begin in Orlando. And while we no doubt will see funny images on MLB Network like Kevin Millar hanging out with Goofy and Brian Kenny trying to explain to Captain Jack Sparrow why the win stat must be sent to Davey Jones’ locker, ultimately, it will be about one team. What team is that? Why, it’s the ██████████████!
Here’s how it will happen, of course:
The ██████████████, after all, will no doubt be the ones that will be rumored to be signing ███████████ on the first day, and the team that will be behind the massive three-team trade involving ██████████████████, █████████████, and ██████████████, which will feature ███████ and top prospect ███████, amongst others. Everybody will think the deal is nuts, but some will praise the ███████████’s GM, █████ ██████████, for his initiative and brilliant thinking. Others will call for his firing.
Meanwhile, the ██████████████’s current star, ███████ ███████, will then make a funny comment on Twitter about how he fell asleep in his █████████ home a few hours ago and is honestly wondering if he missed anything, and then make a second comment saying that this is the first time he heard about the ███████████ trade. It’ll be retweeted by everyone and become a meme, with people talking about how “█████████ is sleeping, make sure you do your deals now” or what-not. Everyone will be sick of it within 48 hours and it will then be resigned to the dustbin of baseball memes.
Then, however, a lull will fall upon Orlando for most of the second day. Instagrams of Joe Maddon walking around EPCOT and Alex Rodriguez showing up for reasons beyond mortal minds will fill the void while Ken Rosenthal is forced to tell Twitter people that A) he is tall enough to ride Space Mountain so stop asking and B) he’s too busy to go to Disney World right now. But then, the ██████████████ will be rumored to have been talking to Scott Boras. But about who? The speculation will go throughout the day, until finally, we hear that █████████ has signed a deal! Except, it’ll turn out that that report is actually a fake account, and that ██████████ is actually going to somebody completely different.
Overnight, people will start talking about how lots of pizza is arriving at the ██████████████’s suite, and wonder whether this is proof that ██████████████ will be signing ████████. Nothing will really materialize, but, hey, it’ll kill time.
Then, later on, the ██████████████ will make that one final splash, signing ██████████. People will instantly declare them to be World Series favorites…
….and then, in 2014, they’ll miss the playoffs.
Whoops. Well, at least the ██████████████ will always have their great 2013-2014 offseason to remember.
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
So, for the first time ever, we have a very special DOUBLEHEADER in Bizarre Baseball Culture, as we belatedly celebrate Thanksgiving with TWO comics. The reason behind this is because both of them are kind of short- one of them is only 3 pages! We’ll open up with the aforementioned 3 page story, a public-domain tale starring “Dick Blaze” (seriously, that’s the name), and then move on to celebrating the family time we have at Thanksgiving with a look at a short comic starring Franklin Richard, son of the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards (AKA Mr. Fantastic) and Susan Storm Richards (AKA The Invisible Woman).
So, let’s get started:
First off, the 3-page story of “Dick Blaze, Four Letter Man at Yardley” can be found in Whirlwind Comics #2, viewable here on page 45. I can find basically nothing about this character, at least partially because I’m not going to be putting “Dick Blaze” into Google because I’m afraid of what might come up (shivers). The GCD doesn’t know a thing either. However, this came out in July 1940, published by Nita Publishing, which would later become part of Holyoke Publishing. Holyoke was one of the various comic companies that existed back during the “Golden Age” and then disappeared.
Anyway… the story.
We begin near the end, which isn’t a surprise, given that this story is just three freaking pages. As the little info-box on the page says, it’s the final game of what seems to be the College World Series, and Dick Blaze’s (STOP LAUGHING, YOU JUVENILE) Yardley team is down by one but with two men on. Also, Yardley has very, very blue uniforms. It’s obvious, based on the situation, that Dick (STOP IT) is the best hitter, something that the Wentworth battery confirms as they deviously scheme:
This is a rather suspect strategy. I mean, for one, it’s mean and unsportsmanlike, unless Dick has broken some unwritten rules earlier in the game. And for another, it’s dumb. There are two men on. You are going to load the bases to send a message, and, what’s more, your going to do it with a intentional HBP that could well go to the backstop if you miss the guy’s head?
On the other hand, Old Hoss Radbourn (or at least his Twitter incarnation) would be pleased.
The first attempt to bean Dick in the head (you’re probably the same type of people who laugh when you read “Uranus”, aren’t you?) fails. But the second one succeeds, and he’s shaken up. Everyone is trying to tell him to get out of the game, but Dick doesn’t care, he says he’s FINE:
Dick succeeds in convincing his coach and teammates that he can stay in the game, which isn’t really a surprise, since this is the Golden Age: When Men were Men and concussions weren’t considered a major threat to an athlete’s future physical well-being and mental health. After all, nobody who suffered from concussions back then became erratic and violent…. right?
(Jeez, this is up there with Dash Dartwell in ironically-uncomfortable-in-retrospect comics)
Anyway, you can probably guess how the rest of this comic (which has about… a page and a line left in it) goes: Dick comes up in the 9th inning despite still being dizzy and socks a walk-off homer….
and then goes to the opponent locker room and beats up the pitcher:
So, remember kids: if you get a serious injury from having a fastball hit you in the head, ignore the pleas of your teammates and stay in the game no matter how dizzy you are. And then, make sure to take revenge against the pitcher who hit you by storming into his locker room and knocking him out.
…
Man, that’s dark. Let’s go to something a bit more happy: Franklin Richards. A look at his story can be FOUND UNDER THE JUMP:
…and we’re back! And today, we’re doing a little bit of a geography lesson, finding the most extreme baseball fields in the United States! No, I don’t mean that they are “extreme” as in “radical”, I’m talking extreme as in geographical: the highest, lowest, northernmost, etc.
Northernmost Baseball Field in the USA:
By definition, this has to be in Alaska. Presumably, it would be in Barrow, Alaska. Barrow is the northernmost town in America, and, guess what? They have a diamond! Oh, it’s all dirt and gravel (it’s hard growing grass in the arctic circle) and looks like it’s also used for softball as well, or perhaps Little league, but I’ll count it. It’s not far from Barrow’s schools, which makes me think it’s for their use. It can be found at 71.290189,-156.75865.
Here’s how it looks on Google Maps:
And here’s a “bird’s eye” image of it from Bing:
Northernmost Baseball Field in the Lower 48:
Due to a quirk of history and a mapmaking error, the northernmost part of the Lower 48 is the Northwest Angle in Minnesota. However, not many people live there, and based on looking using Bing and Google Maps, I couldn’t find any baseball fields. This doesn’t mean that there definitely aren’t any, of course, merely that I couldn’t find any sort of permanent structures. If you live there or have visited there and are willing to correct me, let me know.
Instead, it’s likely that the Northernmost Baseball Field in the Lower 48 is in one of the border towns of Washington State. For example, there is this group of diamonds in Sumas, Washington (Bing calls these “Howard Bowen Memorial Park”):
The northernmost of these is at about 48.989888 degrees north. On the other hand, though, Blaine, WA has these High School fields ever so slightly more to the North, at around 48.992121 degrees north:
There are no doubt plenty of other fields in border areas that are ever so slightly north, and it would likely take awhile to find where, exactly, the northernmost ballfield in the lower 48 is. Still, you now have two good candidates.
Southernmost Ballfield in the USA:
Hawaii is by far the southernmost of the United States, with Naalehu being the southernmost town, located on the Big Island and being home to about 919 people. And guess what you can find there, at about 19.06045 degrees north?
A baseball diamond! Bing calls it “Naalehu Park” and it looks like this from the air:
Given that basically everything south of Naalehu is fields, farms, parks and scientific facilities (radio antennae, etc.) this is almost certainly the southernmost ballfield in America.
Southernmost Baseball Field in the Lower 48:
While there are some small softball fields (as in, so small there’s no way they can be used for baseball) more to the south of it, I’m going to say it’s this field in Key West:
Easternmost Baseball Field in the USA:
None of the Aleutian Islands that jut past the 180th meridian have ballfields, or even much as far as inhabitants, so far as I can tell. So the easternmost field is in Maine.
One possibility are these all-dirt fields (seen here in the dead of winter, so you have to look closely for them):
These are near an Elementary School, so it’s likely that, in addition to being softball fields, they serve as baseball fields for kids.
Westernmost Baseball Field in the USA:
The westernmost parts of the USA are in Alaska, in the Aleutians. There is a small field near Adak, Alaska, not far from an airport and a school, meaning it likely is used by school kids for baseball and softball. Another possibility is this field in Unalaska.
Westernmost Baseball Field in the Lower 48:
Probably this diamond in Port Orford, Oregon:
Highest Baseball Field in the USA:
Probably one of the fields in Leadville, Colorado. I don’t know how to check altitudes on them in a quick and accurate manner.
Lowest Baseball Field in the USA:
Calipatria, California is the lowest city in the Western Hemisphere, 180 feet below sea level. And, guess what? It’s local High School is the site of what is likely the lowest baseball field in America, unless there’s some place in Death Valley I don’t know about:
…
Have any corrections? Let me know. Also let me know if you live at or near those places- I’ll put up any pictures you send me.
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
I’m coming to you from the Auxiliary Headquarters of the Continuum… AKA a Living Room instead of my usual Family Room or Bedroom writing area, due to the great Wi-Fi Crisis of 2013. The reason I have braved such perils is simple: Cosmic Slam. The sequel to Shortstop Squad, and another great epic from the folks at Ultimate Sports Entertainment (AKA “Ultimate Sports Force”). Just as Shortstop Squad brought us late-90s shortstops fighting monsters and aliens, Cosmic Slam does the same with late 1990s sluggers. Jeff Bagwell, Sammy Sosa, David Justice and Mark McGwire all grace the cover, and Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Frank Thomas all show up in the story as well.
It also involves Bagwell complaining about missing a fishing trip, Sosa making a corked bat joke, Greg Maddux‘s fastball being insulted, and of course, the making of a baseball bat out of the body of your defeated foes.
No, I’m not joking about the last one. Seriously, that really happens.
So, place your tongue firmly in cheek and go below the jump for Cosmic Slam.
The Baseball Continuum 