August 27, 2008
The Baseball Odyssey
The “Baseball Odyssey” is over. In the company of two high school classmates, I made my way around the state of Ohio last week taking in four baseball games in three days. Of course, a good time was had by all. We had great weather and baseball games to enjoy. You would have to be a direct descendant of Oscar the Grouch not to have a good time under those circumstances. Nevertheless, a few things along the way demand a curmudgeonly commentary…
Granted we had a small sample of only four games here, but if I were to draw a conclusion from these games, it would be this:
Ohio is where baseball fundamentals go to die.
In four games, we saw five – count them, five – dropped pop-ups/fly balls. I am not talking about an outfielder jumping to catch a ball over the fence and having the ball hit his glove and go out of the park. I am talking about a pop-up to the short stop in the infield that hits the glove and falls to the ground. We saw that twice. In addition, we saw a single to left center field with a runner on first where the outfielder made a throw toward third base and it was cut off by the shortstop. Nothing wrong there - - except that the second baseman was standing between the shortstop and third base leaving no one to cover second. The batter took second base in a walk. That can happen in Little League but by the time a player gets to high school, failure to cover the bases is a cardinal sin.
On this trip, we saw a major league game (Cleveland/KC), a Class A Game (Lake County/Lakewood) and two Class AAA games (Columbus/Richmond) and (Toledo/Richmond). Interestingly, the only game where there was not a dropped fly ball was the Class A game. Oh, and there were no mistakes with regard to where a ball was thrown and all the bases were covered in that Class A game too.
The Indians’ ballpark, Progressive Field, is a nice facility. The sight lines are excellent; the concourses are spacious; entrance and egress are simple. The last time I took in a game in Cleveland, the Indians played in Municipal Stadium – I think that is what it was called – and it had all the charm of a mausoleum. The new stadium is a huge step up…
The stadium in Lake County is also new. Being a Class A stadium, it probably does not seat more than 6,000 folks but there is not a bad seat in the house. On a Thursday night, the crowd was sparse even in this small stadium but the players hustled on every play. Clearly, their aim was to make it to the next level on the baseball ladder. The Lake County Captains offer fans the kind of rah-rah enthusiasm and silly contests that one comes to expect from minor league baseball teams. If minor league baseball is attractive to you, this is a fine place to go; if you do not like baseball or only like it at the major league level, you will be disappointed.
The Columbus Clippers are playing their final games in their old stadium - - and it’s a good thing. The old stadium was probably satisfactory 25 years ago; it was outdated 10 years ago; it has obviously been “going to seed” for the last five years and now it is ready for the big wrecking ball. [Cue Maynard G. Krebs…]
The Columbus Clippers are the AAA affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The Nats are basically a Triple-A team playing at the major league level and these guys are the ones who could not make the Nats. Elijah Dukes was down there and he wasn’t tearing it up against AAA pitching; the starting pitcher had a stint with the Nats and he gave up seven runs in the second inning to the Richmond Braves. Basically, every batter just clubbed ball all over the park.
There was a good crowd at the Clippers’ game. Sadly, it seems as if the reason was that it was “dime-dog nite” and not the game. It wasn’t until about the third inning before the fans stopped streaming in from the concession stands laden with food…
In Toledo, we dined at Tony Packos – Klinger’s favorite Toledo restaurant from the TV series M*A*S*H – and the Hungarian Hot Dogs lived up to their reputation. The restaurant is right across the street from the first base entrance to the stadium so dinner and a few adult beverages prior to game time are easily accommodated. The Mud Hens play in an excellent facility; Newsweek called it the best minor league park in the country. It was a sell-out crowd on Saturday night but our seats were just fine - - except for one small problem.
Toledo fans seem to go to the Mud Hens game as a social event and not to see a baseball game. Adjacent to our seats, there was a cadre of “fans” covering four rows of seats. None of them saw a single pitch; they spent the entire game looking at each other and talking about family and friends and vacations and the like. As one who lacks a full measure of the milk of human kindness, I was hoping for a screaming line drive to come into that knot of fans and hit someone hard enough to knock out some teeth; I said to one of my companions I was hoping to “see Chicklets on the ground”. My companions have a far greater generosity of spirit than do I. Nevertheless, one of them said in a voice loud enough to be heard:
“Imagine that. In the middle of this great conversation, a baseball game broke out.”
The Mud Hens are the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. And if I might offer a tad of free advice to the Tigers’ organization, they ought to send someone down to Toledo to work on baseball fundamentals with these guys. The number of catching/throwing/base running/failure to charge a ground ball mistakes exhibited by that team in nine innings was frightful. Even worse, there was no exhibition of frustration or anger or even resignation to this shoddy play by the manager or the coaches. No one seemed to give a rat’s ass – everyone seemed to ignore this stuff the same way the fans adjacent to out seats were ignoring that stuff. If the Tigers think that this is where they have players ready to come up and help out the parent club in a pinch, they are sorely mistaken.
The three of us have tentative plans for next year’s baseball excursion - - pending the interest and availability of a fourth high school classmate. We hope to be able to visit “the fourth classmate” in Arizona sometime in March so that all of us can take in a bunch of spring training games there. My assignment at the moment is to begin negotiations on dates for that proposed trip and to begin the logistical planning processes. The e-mails to get this started shall go out later today.
The day-night doubleheader from this trip made me realize that sometime in the next decade I need to take my grandson to Chicago on a day when the Cubs play in the afternoon and the White Sox play at night. One of the subway lines runs from one stadium to the other. My grandson needs to do that - - but of course, he will need adult supervision…
Finally, Charlie Walters had this quote from Twins’ first baseman Justin Morneau in the St. Paul Pioneer-Press when Morneau had been asked if he could win the MVP Award. Would that every athlete faced with a similar question would have such insight:
“If you set out to do that, it gets too personal. I just try to do one thing every day to help us win, if it’s making a pick in the dirt, if it’s making a diving play, if it’s driving in a run, taking a walk, whatever. Then, at the end of the year, the people who decide that stuff decide that stuff. There are a lot of guys who are having great years.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
