the baseball diaries

Welcome Back Kendrys!!

More-Alice went deep yesterday against Chokeland for the first time in almost two years!. Finally, after suffering a serverly broken ankle (from celebrating a walk-off grand slam) on May 29, 2010 and up until this spring not being fully recovered, the Angels have their big bat back. Kendrys crushed one in the 1st inning, a three run shot(!) and added a rbi later in the game. Alllll-Bert went 2-4, but still has yet to homer. Then they left it to Weaver who went 6 2/3 with 1 BB and 6 K's, passing the 1000 K mark for his career!! Angels win 6-0!

As great as it was to see this, the Angels have been struggling lately. They managed only one win in the Bronx over the weekend (8-1) but got pounded in their two losses. Their pitching looked silly and amateurish. The hitting, though adequate, lacked the timing and rally setting that we're accustomed to. But you can see it. They stand poised and ready, a breakout is brewing, and we're gonna see some great baseball, I can feel it! It started last night, hope it will continue tonight with Dirty Dan taking the hill vs. Tyson Chicken.

One bothersome thing about last night's game: Errors! 3 of them. Basics boys, basics...

Over the past few nights I've been engrossed in watching "Baseball" by Ken Burns. It's an older documentary series but features a complete (as far as I can tell) history of baseball. It has great old pictures, some really old film footage, awesome almost ghostly quotes from old ballplayers and sports writers alike. They have commentaries by Bob Costas, Mario Cuomo, Billy Crystal, and my favorite; George Will! It tells how distinctly "American" a game it is even though it has roots in Rounders and Cricket, both English bat and ball games. It has American rules (not laws, as in England). It has American pace, no time for lunch or tea. It's played by men, boys, girls, women, lawyers, doctors, factory men, white, black, brown, and yellow. Even if that wasn't always the case. Plus, the cool names of those old clubs are far superior to most now like the Gothams, Excelsiors, Tip-Tops, Pithians, and Trolley Dodgers, to name a few.

"If 2000 years from now someone will research the United States to find something distinctly "American" they will find these three: The Constitution, Jazz Music, and Baseball!" -- Gerald Early

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the baseball diaries

"Here I go it must be four in a row, I gotta get my head down tonight. But you know I know, when the streets are aglow, I'll be heading for the city of light..."

Willllsssssooooonnnnn!!!!!

Nice job CJ! Going seven innings with only one run allowed is pretty nice. He also struck out five and easily cruised to his first win of the year. That brought the Angels back to .500 and only looking better. Huntsman and Abreu had good ab's, Gaybar playing good D and throwing down take-out slides, and Pujols legging out fielder's choices is how we win ball games! Seriously though, this guy needs to start hitting. Earn that cheddah Albert!

Vernon Wells is worthless. 2-14 to start the season. Last year he had a career worst .218 average and this year is not looking any better. Yet he still has a cheerleader in Chocha saying that he's basically trying too hard not to suck, yet sucking all the more in the process. Can we dump this guy already?

"With a matchbox full and a sulfurous skull, trying to set my mind to rights, I'm gonna burn, burn, burn as the universe turns, out of mind and out of sight..."

Weaver and the Angels have a chance to give the Twins their first ever 0-5 start to the season. If Weaver is even remotely as good as he was in the opener, I think that will be easy. This is one of the few guys that "gets" it. He doesn't talk smack, he doesn't make excuses when he struggles, he goes out and wins, or fights hard in losses. A consummate professional. He faces Carl Pavano who struggled in his first outing and no doubt will try to be sharper vs. the Angels. But the Twins are light-hitting. I know that because of the three articles I've read on the match-up and the recap of the last game, they all said that! Bunch of light-hitting "twankers"...

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"Baseball Bill went in for the kill, he blew it when he found his soul. Lost his will to live when he saw someone give, 'cause giving always takes its toll!" - Echo and the Bunnymen

the baseball diaries

Wow.

After a nice showing in opening day by Weave and crew, winning 5-nil, they blew the next two, droping to 1-2 to start the season and lose their first series. OK, I know, long season and our expectations were probably over inflated, but it would have been nice to see them beat Kaci and go on to do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. But we have to face the reality of Wells and Abreu in the line up daily, and guys like Dirty Dan really struggling. Hmm. The Twinks are next and with that new hope. We need wins!

At least the Red Sox are 0-3 to start the season. However much it pains me to see the Angels lose, it is almost balanced out if Boston loses. And the Yank. And Texas. And the gA's...

Who's up for a game next Monday?

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the baseball diaries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUjUTG3hwyQ&feature=relmfu

"A heaven, a gateway, a hope. Just like a feeling inside, it's no joke. And though it hurts me to treat you this way..., Betrayed by words I've never heard, too hard to say..."

Angels home opener tonight!! Weave it to Beaver vs. Bruce Lee

Angels Line-up

Gaybar
Howiewood
Pujols
Lorii the Huntsman
Oh-for-Four
More Alice
Trum-BONE
Iannetta
Bourgeois

Here's to the start of a World Champion season!

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"Each way I turn, I know I'll always try to break this circle that's been placed around my. From time to time, I find I've lost some need that wasn't urgent to myself, I do believe.

"Up, down, turn around, please don't me hit the ground! Tonight I think I'll walk alone, I'll find my soul as I go home..." from Temptation by New Order

the baseball diaries

This Field is a Dream

As I step out from the corner of the dugout, dark, dank and stuffy, and take in the air outside, I'm revitalized. It's new life. There's a crowd, but I only hear a whisper. There was a time when I could not hear myself think on days like this, but today is different. I walk, yet my feet feel like they're hovering. I'm conveyed up each step by virtue of what draws me rather than my own efforts to move. I reach out for a bat and will it into my hand. My fingers curl around it and stick to the pinetar. I put my hand up to my nose and am intoxicated by the scent. My uniform gleems white as if I'm robed in an angel's garb.

I survey the scene.

This must be a dream. The grass green. The sky cerulean. A wisp of a cloud. I look down at my feet, my cleats polished, black as night. I raise my head and see nine images staring intently at me. Vested in vermilion, they glare, eyes taunting. "I'm observing a painting" I say aloud. The one crouching behind home plate laughs. Closer to the box the dirt crunches under my feet. I have finally landed. The chalk perfectly square. I look again and it now forms an outline of my body.

Left foot in, I brush the dirt towards the pitcher with my right. I stand poised. Paratus. Contra Mundum. A faint hiss followed by a loud CLAAPPP!!!

Then I realize this is not a dream. This is opening day.

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the baseball diaries

Remember these guys? Doug E. Fresh, Shugga Shane, Poser-Resop Choi, Deaf Cab for Curtis?

Now those were sme bad-ass nick names.

Angels nick-name time!! Let's get our contributors and readers alike to update our long-standing tradition of giving Angels players nick-names that only we would have a clue what they mean. But we can start with the simple ones and please remind me of obscure ones for Angels that are still around after all these years:

Weave it to Beaver; Dream Weaver - Jered Weaver
Magic - Ervin Santana
Gaybar - Erick Aybar
Fiasco - Alberto Callaspo (a rehash, I know, but seems fitting)
Mice Hair - Maicer Izturis
Howiewood - Howie Kendrick
More Alice - Kendrys Morales
Trum-Bone Mark Trumbo, my suggestion
0-4, "O-for-four", Vernon Wells

So that leaves a bunch that we need to decide on, or just start calling them something hoping it will stick. If I remember correctly, many of the names were the result of things happening in games (fiasco) or just random blurtings out (fat tire) so I guess anything goes?!

Peter "Bourgeois"?

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Appreciate Baseball

“The beautiful truth burst upon my mind—I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.”

The remarkable Helen Keller poignantly describes the sensation of learning language, in this case, the word, “love”. This is at once startling and incomprehensible for those of us who ordinarily take for granted God’s astounding gift to us of sight and sound. One of the better ways to cultivate appreciation of our senses is to exercise them actively. It is no effort to passively be battered by all the noise, visual included, encountered in a single day. But it repays to stop and consider. To be still. You don’t chug great wine. You don’t speed-read great poetry. You don’t blare great music. If you do, it’s because you don’t know better. And knowing better is not about how you want to be perceived by others. It’s about improving yourself. It’s about enjoying the gift of life. And like all truth, it’s irresistible once you know it. Truly know it.

In our present world, in 21st century USA, we are uniquely privileged with the opportunity to apply our senses to one of man’s greatest pageants: Baseball. Sight, sound, smell, and if one is acute enough, taste and touch, are all engaged. The senses inform the understanding; the understanding re-directs the senses. Go. Apply yourself and enjoy. Yes, fall in love again and your spirit will feel in the spirits of others so-minded, the same recognition of beauty as it bursts upon, and thereby enlarges, the mind. There is no game like Baseball and it’s here again!