I love baseball. Always have. Yet with life being as it these days – dad, spouse, employee, dad again – I rarely make much of an effort to sit down and watch for any extended period of time. But I miss it. The rhythm of baseball gives me comfort and peace. So I made a deal with myself, to watch an inning a day for the duration of the 2017 MLB season. The daily dairy won’t deliver much in the way of research or analytics – there are enough high quality experts out there with an academic grasp of the sweet science – but I am hopeful it can provide some mildly interesting observations about a game that has given me so much.
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April 20, 2017: Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres
9:45 EST
Top 2. 2 outs. Runner on 3rd. Score tied 2-2.
I’m running a little late on this one. It’s playoff hockey’s fault. At some point I’d like to watch a playoff game in Montreal. Or Toronto. Or Calgary. I guess anywhere in Canada would suffice.
The Padres starting pitcher tonight is wearing #3. You don’t see a lot of single digit pitchers. I wonder why not? Also these Dbacks uniforms have only been around for a couple of seasons and they are are not aging well.
A.J. Pollock ground out to 3b. Three outs.
Or did he? Could be a review situation. Arizona manager thinks Wil Myers pulled his foot off the first base bag. And the survey says….nope, he kept his foot on the bag. This raises an interesting point about converting players to first base. I think many fans incorrectly assume that the switch, even for an athlete like Myers, is relatively easy. However, in the wise words of Ron Washington in Moneyball the movie “it’s incredibly difficult”.
Bottom 2nd
Yangervis Solarte ground out to shortstop. One out.
I can think of worse places to spend an early spring evening than Petco Park. San Diego weather really is perfect. I visited last summer during what my friend referred to as the “June Gloom” and let me tell you, what SoCal calls gloomy we in the Northeast would celebrate with a sacrificial offering of hamburgers and hot dogs. Reminds me of another funny weather related story this time from Los Angeles where on a perfectly beautiful 82 degree afternoon a couple of friends decided not to take part in a backyard BBQ and badminton gathering opting instead for the climate controlled surroundings of a multiplex cinema for a double feature. Again, if it were New England we would be setting up every piece of living room furniture on our front lawns.
Austin Hedges grounds out to short. Two outs.
Erick Aybar slow roller to 3b. Three up Three down. Move to the top of the 3rd score still tied 1-1.