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
