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Sports Arena
Happy Pitchers and Catchers Day
Blessed baseball is back — just as it’s completed its season Down Under.
RET Jr. is right. The 2012 NFL season was one of the best ever. I watched more pro football this year than I usually do, down to the Super Bowl, which was vastly entertaining (save for Above and Beyoncé’s noisy, smoky, and graceless seminar in dry-humping).
For patriots addicted to competitive sports, the period between the Super Bowl and the first spring training game can be arid, and unendurably long. (There was some relief Sunday in the form of some great basketball between Indiana and Ohio State – the Oladipo kid is worth watching, even for those who can’t pronounce his name.) So I happily greet and spread the news that pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Florida today, and get to work Tuesday. Jubilee!
I’m so delighted that the Grand Old Game is back that I’m reviewing our lesser holidays to determine if perhaps one could be traded for Pitchers and Catchers Day. This annual renewal is certainly a bigger event on my calendar than some of the Mondays that bankers and United States Postal Service employees get off now.
Regular readers of this space know baseball is my favorite, and that this time of year I weary of games that aren’t baseball. So eager am I for a baseball fix in February, there should be no surprise that I spent last Saturday afternoon with MLB-TV and the final game of the Australian Baseball League Championship Series (a best of three business), which the Canberra Cavalry won 7-6 over the defending ABL champions, the Perth Heat.
I didn’t have a dingo in this hunt. I was just glad to see my game again. ABL play is about the level of Class-A ball in America. And the stadium in Canberra looks about like a spring training, Class-A minor league ball yard in the lower-48. It’s baseball only, and well kept. The ABL has only been around since 2009, but baseball has been played in Australia since the 1930s. The crowd Saturday was enthusiastic for their hometown team, but baseball down under is a secondary sport, drawing little fan or media attention. The sports Aussies prefer are (not necessarily in this order) cricket, soccer (aka football, or “footie”), and rugby (a bar-fight with a ball).
There was some less than lustrous D Saturday, at least for those used to the Major League product here. A couple of 6-4-3 double-plays (and could-have-been double-plays) looked like they were in slo-mo rather than real time. And infield throwing wasn’t sharp. Saturday was also a lesson, by the opposite example, of how good American baseball is filmed for TV here. On more than one occasion the active camera was not the one focused on the action, including one instance where we were treated to a guy cruising into third standing up while there was a play at the plate.
It took me some time to get used to the speed gun numbers in kilometers per hour. Early on the Perth pitcher got a K on a 133 KM change-up — which the play-by-play guy called a chinge-up (long i). And the game featured many bice hits. Pitches ranged from 123 to 149 KM (this last being 93 mph).
But these are nits. I enjoyed the game, which was played with energy and enthusiasm by the participants on a beautiful late afternoon and evening in Canberra. Many of the players have only competed in Australia, including 40-year-old Michael Wells (Australia’s “Boomer”), whose solo homer in the 8th for Canberra was the winner. But there are several American minor leaguers in the six-team league. As Australia is upside down, the ABL season is November to February — the non-baseball months here.
I regret to see the down-under players copying our tradition of championship game winners piling into a manic scrum on the field. While the Cavalry celebrated, Heat players demonstrated they have their losers’ mope down well. After the series MVP award was presented, the winning manager was presented with something called the Claxton Shield, the prize for baseball excellence down under. I don’t know who Claxton is or was. But I hope he’s not the fruitcake guy. I’d as soon not mix something I love, baseball, with something I could, being charitable, get on just as well without.
So thanks to the Canberra and Perth boys for a couple hours of baseball pleasure. Ahead is a 2013 American baseball season I hope will be as good as 2012 football. Will my Tampa Bay Rays find a way to be competitive, as they have been since 2008, on the smallest player salaries in the bigs? Will the Yankees and the Dodgers buy their divisions? Is the Trout boy for real? We’ll know soon. That suits me fine. So let me be the first to wish TAS readers a happy, healthy, and prosperous Pitchers and Catchers Day.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
About the Author
Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
Frank Drackman| 2.11.13 @ 7:07AM
Ahh good memories, shining up the Spikes, oiling the Glove(Calm down Jack) and playing a little long toss...
with my daughter.
And get your mind out of the Gutter, "Long Toss" is what pro pitchers do to build up their endurance, you know, to pitch 5 innings once a week ...
Too bad I left off the "Warming up" part, and did you know a tearing Rotator Cuff sounds just like tearing paper?
And paid for the repair with cash, savin the Insurance for something more important, my Penis Reduction(Calm down Jack)
And Shoulders good as new now, of course haven't really tested it by snappin off any Circle Jerks(Calm down Jack)
I mean Curves...
Is an elbow supposed to creak??
Frank "Lefty" Drackman
Albert Constantine Jr.| 2.11.13 @ 8:18AM
Having suffered injuries in my throwing shoulder, when I would play catch with my kids, I adapted by throwing with an action that relied more on my forearm and less on stressing the previously injured muscles.
It seemed like a good idea, until I observed the unnatural motion had been adopted by my youngest son in his throwing style (though, when he nailed the runner at the plate with a no hop toss from the outfield last year, I was happy to see he was making it work for him).
Bob Grant| 2.11.13 @ 2:50PM
"throwing with an action that relied more on my forearm"
And no Tennis Elbow? ...Lucky you!
And slightly off topic:
Drackman, real life perv or no? To devote THAT much psychic energy sexual deviance is somewhat troubling.
I'm waiting for him to appear on Dateline, Chris Hansen saying to him "have a seeeet".
Pecos Pete| 2.11.13 @ 8:25AM
Mr. Thornberry: add more rum to the fruit cake.
As for baseball, or any of the major professional games, reduce ticket prices, reduce the cost of stadium food/drink/parking and more people would visit their local stadium. And one more nit, stop trading players like fleas jumping from one dog to another.
Al Adab| 2.11.13 @ 8:27AM
At last the promise of spring. Even with snow on the ground we can dream ahead of the sounds of leather and balls on bats while the scent of green grass lies in the air. A wise man once said one could not understand America without understanding baseball. True indeed, individual achievement and teamwork underlie both.
Frank Drackman| 2.11.13 @ 8:31AM
Mr. Thornberry...
I know the toilets flush the same direction in the Southern Hemisphere as the North(Down, hopefully), and Curve balls break the same(Away from the batter, hopefully)..But.....................
and I've asked countless peoples who've traveled to Down Under(Calm Down, Jack)including my Mom, who has more baseball knowledge in her little finger than Lou Pinella in his oversized head...
Does the Moon look upsound down in Australia? You know, the "Man in the Moon"?(ht REM) shouldn't his mouth be on top, and his eyes on the bottom(Calm down Jack)?? How come nobody ever notices shit like that? Thats what travel's for, to meet interesting, new, strange people, and Insult them...
And I don't remember from the time I went to Australia...Too many Fosters...
Frank
Mike G| 2.11.13 @ 9:42AM
And college baseball begins this coming week end. Come June, there's nothing like Omaha and the "Greatest Show on Dirt".
Turk| 2.11.13 @ 10:46AM
Larry---From Rubio to Pitchers/Catchers Day you are a gem to read. Though from Ohio wife is from Phoenix---get to spend cold winters 20 min from where REDS and Indians train(Goodyear). Those of us from Cinci have had a hard time waiting for our playoff disaster to be rectified. Say hello to Joe Henderson of the Tampa paper(my 8th grade Lebanon History student). I don't know how Phoenix got so many MLB teams for spring training but it's great.
Will| 2.11.13 @ 1:39PM
Afraid you need to brush up a little on Australian sport. Cricket is indeed huge, but soccer and "footy" are, in an Australian context, completely different. Soccer is, well, soccer, but footy refers to "Australian Rules Football" (Aussie Rules), a bizarre cross between soccer, rugby and basketball. Also blokes down under play 2 different types of rugby: rugby union (the version played around the world) and rugby league (only played in New South Wales and Northern England). The two are fairly similar but with significant differences- more, certainly, than between American and Canadian Football. You could do some research but don't bother, as union is far superior.
Kingofthenet| 2.11.13 @ 3:20PM
Lot of Catches here, I bet.
Bob Grant| 2.11.13 @ 5:03PM
By not including the "r" in catcher, your snarky post failed...in epic fashion.
spike59| 2.12.13 @ 5:37AM
Did you expect anything else from Queenofthenuts?