Baseball, Life, and Other Stuff

The Final Pitch

This is the final entry for Baseball, Life, and Other Stuff.  Thanksto all who have faithfully followed me for 332 blog entries over the past two years.  I am moving on both literally and figuratively.  I now contribute to Seamheads.com, a premier blog site for all things baseball, and for those who wish to continue reading my musings on the grand old game, you may do so there.  I have also been asked to contribute to Baseball Digest.com and, as I wrote Wednesday, I will be hosting Baseball in the Valley, a weekly half-hour podcast on the Valley Baseball League beginning in May.  I will also be contributing to the Outta the Parkway podcast as well.  June will see me return to the Rebels' webcast booth.  Something had to give and that something was this blog.

I am also calling it quits out of respect to my readers.  When one runs out of things to say, one should quit talking, or writing, in this case.  Doing other wise might qualify me for Congress--eminently--but I wouldn't feel right if I couldn't give this blog, that is to say my readers, my best effort.

As I understand it, readers may still access any entry that has appeared here before.

It has been a great deal of fun for me.  I hope it has for you.  As I personally know the vast majority of readers, I don't think "good-bye" is appropriate.  We won't be visiting each other through these pages, but we'll certainly be visiting!  Thanks for stopping by.         

                                                                                    --Austin

Baseball In the Valley Debuts in May!

I am pleased to announce that Baseball in the Valley, a half-hour podcast, will make its debut on Thursday, May 19 at 6:00 p. m. EST on the Seamheads National Podcasting Network.  I will host this call-in show that promises to bring fans of the Valley Baseball League the latest news and analysis.

The 6:00 p. m. time slot was chosen so that parents and fans will be able to listen in to the podcast without missing any Valley League action that will be broadcast over the Internet later in the evening.  The Valley League opens its seaon on Thursday, June 2nd when the newest member of the league, the Strasburg Express, plays its inaugural game versus the Haymarket Senators.  Plans are being made to podcast that night's show live from the ballpark.

Baseball in the Valley is part of a larger network that covers most major league teams, the minor leagues, and independent baseball as well.  The network is sponsored by Big League Chew and appears on Blog Talk Radio.  For anyone who cannot listen live at 6:00 on Thursdays, Blog Talk Radio archives all shows which means that fans can tune in at their convenience.  Visit this link for information on the current line-up of podcasts already on the air or making their debuts this week.

I hope that the Valley League fans who are loyal readers of this blog will become loyal listeners.  I'm very interested in any ideas you may have as to topics or guests, so please be sure to share!

A reminder:  Outta the Parkway, the show that covers the Orioles and Nationals will debut tomorrow night at 7:30.  Join host Chip Greene who will be talking to Bob Luke who has written extensively about the Baltimore Elite Giants, a Negro League team, and Dwayne Sims, the founder and CEO of the Negro League Legends Hall of Fame.  Future guests include long-time baseball executive Hal Keller and former Washington Senator Dick Bosman.

Death and Youth and Ernie Tyler

All Baltimore Oriole fans know the name Ernie Tyler.  The long-time umpires' attendant at Memorial Stadium and then at Camden Yards died last Thursday.  His funeral is today.  Ernie began as an usher in the Orioles' inaugural year of 1954 and became the umpires' attendant in 1960.  He never missed a single game, working 3,819 straight until July of 2007 when he attended the Hall of Fame induction of Cal Ripken.  He was there at Ripken's request, which says something about both men.  It is estimated that Ernie rubbed up 350,000 baseballs during his tenure which lasted through this past season.

The Baltimore Sun's Mike Klingaman posted a touching obituary in which he quoted many former Orioles, but no quote touched me more than former Oriole catcher Andy Etchebarren's:  Ernie was a wonderful man who will bypass everything and go straight to Heaven.  I'm sure Ernie is already rubbing up baseballs for Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson who are getting ready to pitch up there.

I knew that each of those 20 game winners that Etchebarren mentioned had died, but it stopped me short nevertheless.  McNally, Cuellar, Dobson . . . Mark Belanger, Steve Barber, Curt Motton . . . Curt Blefary, Moe Drabowsky, Elrod Hendricks . . . At these moments baseball is less a restorative and more of an echo; the echo of a boy yelling himself hoarse for every one of those guys.

Of course, my first and greatest hero is still with us, but when a certain third baseman leaves this world, I hope that I am alone when I receive the news.  I don't want anyone to see my crying like a child.

We baseball fans are pretty resilient, though.  Upon such occasions, we take out our memories and sort through them and trade them like baseball cards, those little pieces of cardboard which show our heroes frozen in a moment, forever young.  Slowly, but surely, that sudden sense of age and time recedes like the tide which we discover has not washed away the cleat marks of the ballplayers we adored.

When I was a boy, I thought that Ernie Tyler would always be on his little stool at the side of the backstop, that Chuck Thompson would always be in the broadcast booth, and that Brooks Robinson would always be at third.  Luckily, there's place inside me where that's still true.

Rest in peace, Ernie.

The Greatest Inventions in the History of Humanity

Listing humanity's greatest inventions may daunt some, but not me.  As I have put absolutely no thought into this list, it is impossible for me to be daunted.  The top five in descending order:

5)  The front porch.  Well, the front porch in summer.  It's not much of an invention this time of year.

4)  The rocking chair, especially when combined with #5.

3)  The dishwasher.  If it weren't for this, we'd be spending half our evenings standing over the sink instead of outside on #5.

2)  The credit card swipe at the gas pump.  This is not only convenient, it saves the aggravation of having to talk to the person at the gas station cash register who too often acts like something that rhymes with "gas-swipe."

1)  A tie between the TV remote and the Digital Video Recorder.  Not only can I change the channels with the touch of a button, but if I actually find something that I want to watch, I can pause it, go back, and then skip forward through the commercials.  In addition, it does not require me to house boxes and boxes of VHS tapes, which we never watch anyway, because that requires getting off the couch and fumbling around with that machine that is constantly blinking "12:00."

So, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.  Some may argue for other inventions, but taken all around, I think this is a fine list.

Super Blah

By my count there have been 1,032 gray, overcast days this winter.  I may be off by a couple days, but no more than that.  I can't remember a winter more bleak than this one.  I don't think that I'm in the same stage as my 94 year old mother who has been telling me that "she can't remember" having as much snow as we've had this winter.  She is correct; she can't remember.  However, I can (I think) and this winter is the worst.  Yes, last year it snowed on approximately 389 days during the winter (I didn't keep count back then so that's why I say "approximately"), but once it finished, the sun came out and the days, while cold and white, were at least cheery.

Apparently, it's not just the Mid-Atlantic that's been damp and dreary.  I saw an article relating how zoo animals in northern Mexico died due to the cold.  Where's Al Gore when you need him?  He could have been fed to those poor animals and the extra calories might have kept them alive.  Even better, zoo officials could have had Al speak to the animals and the ensuing hot air might have kept them warm for the next two winters.  The convenient truth is that Al should feel right at home in a zoo since he is a shining jackass.

You may surmise from the above that I don't believe in global warming.  On the contrary, I not only believe it, I'm for it.  I just want to know when it will start.

High Heat a Hot Read!

High Heat, by Tim Wendel is a fascinating, 250 page conversation about the fastest pitcher ever.  Joining Tim in the conversation are Bob Feller, Nolan Ryan, Billy Wagner, and a host of players, scouts, and biographers.  Listening in will certainly warm up these gray winter days, while we are waiting for Spring Training to start.

Wendel's book is not only entertaining, but informative as well.  For example, the author introduces the reader to one James Creighton, "the game's first true fireballer" who instead of lobbing the ball platewards, threw hard and with accuracy.  While others began to throw hard, most had trouble being accurate.  This lead to a series of decreases in the number of balls required for a walk which was orginally set at 9.

Wendel also paid a visit to the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama where he learned first-hand the biomechanics of the fastball.

The core of High Heat, however, is the ongoing discussion of who was the fastest pitcher of all time.  That discussion continually returns to the same names, some of which most recognize--notably Feller, Ryan, Walter Johnson, and Sandy Koufax--and others--Amos Rusie and Steve Dalkowski--many do not.  In many ways, this last hurler, Steve Dalkowski, is the central figure in the story.  Dalkowski, who was the model on which wild-armed Nook LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham was based, epitomizes the theme that the fastball is a gift which one may never master.  For example, Sandy Koufax was 36-40 after his first 6 years in the big leagues; Nolan Ryan almost quit baseball very early in his major league career.  These two hurlers mastered their high heat.  Dalkowski, however, never did, registering such mind-boggling numbers as his line during the 1960 season for Class C Stockton when in 170 innings, he struck out 262 batters and walked 262 batters.

Wendel makes his selection as to the best fireballer of all time, but I'm not going to spoil the ending.  It's well worth your time and effort to read High Heat, whether you are a baseball fan or someone with an interest in how the gifted sometimes struggle to suceed.

Boots Poffenberger

My little home town of Williamsport, current population around 2,200 has produced three major league pitchers over the years:  Nick Adenhart, who died tragically in 2009 in a car accident, Dave Cole who pitched in the 1950s, and Boots Poffenberger, who pitched in the big leagues just a little over 2 years in the late 1930s, but is easily one of the game's most colorful characters ever.  Recently, his grandson, Jeremy Knode invited me to look at the family scrapbooks, a fascinating experience indeed.  Headline after headline in those clippings indicated that Boots was going to amend his wild ways.  He didn't.    Click here to read more about Boots' exploits!

The Real All-Americans by Sally Jenkins

It's been a winter for reading some excellent books in the Gisriel household and The Real All-Americans by Sally Jenkins, a Washington Post columnist, is no exception.  Subtitled, The Team That Changed a Game, A People, A Nation, Jenkin's book details the founding of the Carlisle Indian School and the rise to national prominence of its football team.  This is not simply sports history, however, it is cultural history and it is told with a swiftly moving style that covers some 300 pages.

Jenkins begins by interweaving the history of the Indian Wars in the West with the biography of the school's founder, Richard Henry Pratt, a cavalry officer who took a genuine interest in the plight of the Indians.  He firmly believed that the only way for the Indians to succeed, indeed to survive, was to shuck their Indian identities and become fully Americanized.  Hence, he felt that founding a school in which this could occur would be a service to the Indian children.

The school was opened in 1879, just as football was gaining popularity on college campuses, especially on the East Coast.  Pratt was at first opposed to his charges playing the sport, but he began to see that this was a way to show the country that his Indian students could achieve anything that the white man could.

Jenkins traces both the early history of football and the contribution of the Carlisle Indians to the game.  Football was a brutal sport at the beginning and there were no set rules.  For example, 1904, writes Jenkins "was among the dirtiest and most violent college football seasons ever played.  There were twenty-one fatalities and more than two hundred serious injuries across the nation."  To combat this no-holds barred style, the Indians, who were almost always lighter than their opponents, but also faster and quicker, began to experiment with various formations and trick plays.  It was the Carlisle Indians and not Notre Dame who introduced the forward passing game and captured the imagination of the football world in 1907.

With legendary coach "Pop" Warner at the helm and legendary athlete Jim Thorpe running around and over opponents, Carlisle moved to national prominence.  Attitudes about Indian education began to change, however, and with Pratt no longer superintendent of the school, the fortune of both the students and the football team began to wane.

Sally Jenkins has superbly woven the history of the school and its football team into the story of the nations' history and the history of football itself.  I recommend The Real All Americans for football fans and history lovers alike.