Harvey Haddix

You'll have to forgive that last entry. I try not to be so maudlin most of the time, but I'll stop short of a full apology because it was sincere on what was a pretty important night. Back to music!

mp3: The Baseball Project - Harvey Haddix

I wanted really badly to fall in love with the first album from The Baseball Project. A group of veteran rockers telling the second-tier legends of guys like Ed Delahanty and Curt Flood had the potential to rise above the standard past-worship seemingly inherent in most baseball literature (speaking of maudlin). The music turned out to be pretty generic jangly guitar stuff. But the songwriting was a peg or two above average, and occasionally quite poignant. One such instance is their take on Harvey Haddix, who threw a perfect game for 12 innings in 1959 only to end up the losing pitcher in the 13th. A recap of the game itself is followed by a rumination on how "the search for perfection is a funny thing," making Ol' Harvey's story all the more tragic for its universality.

No Surprises

The World Series begins tonight, and I cannot think of a single outcome that would surprise me. The way the last six weeks have gone for the Rockies, it seems perfectly feasible for them to be outscored in a game and somehow pull out a win.

Honestly, would it shock anyone if Colorado continues their astounding run and sweeps the Red Sox? Or if they drop a game or two and still claim the title (even at Fenway)? Does it seem unlikely that the Sox will blast the Rockies' mediocre pitching into oblivion? That the Rockies will put up a hell of a fight, but ultimately fall to a decidedly superior Boston roster?

My answers: no, no, no, and no. Luckily, the fun is in getting to the finish. Let's hope for an exciting, well-played series, and maybe some snow.

Renaissance on basic cable

After five days of playoff baseball this is no longer a novel or unique insight among fans, but goshdarnit, it's sincere: TBS is a hell of a station to watch a ballgame on.

As if it weren't already hard enough to sit through a Fox-broadcasted game of even moderate importance, TBS has to go and render Fox all but unwatchable with their competent announcing crews and understated production values. Ted Turner & Friends mercifully realize that the following features are unnecessary when presenting playoff-quality baseball to the masses:

//computer-animated baseball-playing robots next to the line score
//cameras embedded in the ground in front of home plate
//melodramatic, overlong montages during pregame
//planting stars of the network's original programming in the crowd for convenient plugs
//calling players of central importance by the wrong name
//Jeanne Zelasko in any significant role

And that's just off the top of my head. TBS ain't flawless; the lead-off graphic at first base strikes me as redundant, the incessant Frank TV ads almost make me think they couldn't find enough sponsors to fill the air, and as my sister hilariously pointed out a few weeks ago, their logo looks kinda like a pair of briefs. They were also frighteningly quick with a Steve Bartman flashback when a foul pop drifted to that area of Wrigley Field in tonight's NLDS game 3.

But that's all small potatoes when compared with the technology-fueled disaster that is MLB on Fox. TBS keeps it simple and smart. I guess to hope that other networks will follow suit is naive.