Monday, May 10, 2004
All Quiet
It’s a quiet Monday night. Both here at home, and in the baseball world.
Mondays are typically like this during the baseball season. It is the day with the fewest days on the schedule. A day to travel, a day to rest. However, tonight feels more quiet than usual with only three games on the slate.
Two of the locals in my area are in action tonight, so the slate doesn’t feel as empty as it could. One of those games has been underway for over 90 minutes, and it’s been as ugly as a Jeff D’Amico-Byung-Hyun Kim pitching match-up would promise. In fact of the five starting pitchers tonight who have seen action this season (James Baldwin is set to make his debut with the Mets in Arizona), “BK” had the lowest ERA coming into tonight’s action at 4.32. So I figured we might see some runs scored tonight. But the Sox-Tribe game has exceeded my expectations at 6-4 Cleveland in the middle of the 4th.
Just an ugly game so far with no scent of decent pitching to be found. D’Amico was gone before the end of the 3rd; Kim couldn’t make his way out of the 4th. Balls have banged and dinned off the Wall seemingly all night long.
I continue to wonder if one day I’ll understand what the saber-heads see/saw in Byung-Hyun Kim. Tonight is certainly not the night to have had any new revelations on the subject.
I picked Montville’s biography on Ted Williams on the weekend, and started reading it last night. I’m about 40 pages in, and I can tell I’m going to fly through it.
Baseball lends itself well to providing a space/time for reading. It’s a great backdrop. You read a few lines, maybe a couple paragraphs, and catch a glimpse of a pitch, a swing. What’s the count? 2-1. Back to the words. You hear the crack of the bat, or a murmur in the crowd and glance out of the story-induced haze. You pick up a runner rounding second and heading to third. Base hit, and the right fielder is throwing the ball back into the infield. And you read on.
Kevin Millar has been batting for five minutes now and is about to face the 11th pitch of the at-bat. Fouled off. #12: Fouled off. #13: Low. Ball three. #14: Low. Ball four.
Count reading a great baseball book during the baseball season, especially during a game, as one of the simple pleasures of my life.
Sox have two on, two out, still 6-4, Veritek up.
Strikeout. Onto the 5th.
It’s a quiet Monday night. Both here at home, and in the baseball world.
Mondays are typically like this during the baseball season. It is the day with the fewest days on the schedule. A day to travel, a day to rest. However, tonight feels more quiet than usual with only three games on the slate.
Two of the locals in my area are in action tonight, so the slate doesn’t feel as empty as it could. One of those games has been underway for over 90 minutes, and it’s been as ugly as a Jeff D’Amico-Byung-Hyun Kim pitching match-up would promise. In fact of the five starting pitchers tonight who have seen action this season (James Baldwin is set to make his debut with the Mets in Arizona), “BK” had the lowest ERA coming into tonight’s action at 4.32. So I figured we might see some runs scored tonight. But the Sox-Tribe game has exceeded my expectations at 6-4 Cleveland in the middle of the 4th.
Just an ugly game so far with no scent of decent pitching to be found. D’Amico was gone before the end of the 3rd; Kim couldn’t make his way out of the 4th. Balls have banged and dinned off the Wall seemingly all night long.
I continue to wonder if one day I’ll understand what the saber-heads see/saw in Byung-Hyun Kim. Tonight is certainly not the night to have had any new revelations on the subject.
I picked Montville’s biography on Ted Williams on the weekend, and started reading it last night. I’m about 40 pages in, and I can tell I’m going to fly through it.
Baseball lends itself well to providing a space/time for reading. It’s a great backdrop. You read a few lines, maybe a couple paragraphs, and catch a glimpse of a pitch, a swing. What’s the count? 2-1. Back to the words. You hear the crack of the bat, or a murmur in the crowd and glance out of the story-induced haze. You pick up a runner rounding second and heading to third. Base hit, and the right fielder is throwing the ball back into the infield. And you read on.
Kevin Millar has been batting for five minutes now and is about to face the 11th pitch of the at-bat. Fouled off. #12: Fouled off. #13: Low. Ball three. #14: Low. Ball four.
Count reading a great baseball book during the baseball season, especially during a game, as one of the simple pleasures of my life.
Sox have two on, two out, still 6-4, Veritek up.
Strikeout. Onto the 5th.
