View My Seats

At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

What If Every MLB Ballpark Had a Seat Dedicated to Ted Williams?

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My brother in law went to Fenway Park for a Red Sox/Royals game last Tuesday night and little did he know that his ticket for the evening assured him a spot in a very exclusive, historic club. And no, he was not about to become the first completely sober adult over the last decade to sit in the bleachers. Actually, he sat in section 42, row 37, seat 21 otherwise known as the Ted Williams seat, site of the longest home run ever hit in Fenway Park.

When I think of Ted Williams I think extraordinarily high batting average not a 502 foot prodigious home run. I had all but forgotten that Williams hit 521 career home runs, tying him for 18th place on the all time list alongside Willie McCovey and Frank Thomas. Perhaps my favorite Williams story revolves around his uber-analytical approach to hitting. Not only did he write a book titled “The Science of Hitting”, but he would apparently rehearse his swing while playing left field. That must have been some sight to see for the Fenway faithful, the Splendid Splinter taking dry swings in the outfield as the pitcher begins his delivery. I wonder if his routine/singular focus ever led to a crucial fielding error. If so, who on the Red Sox was going to challenge Williams to get his head out of his ass and play better defense? He’s Ted Williams. Hall of Famer, arguably the greatest hitter of all time. If anyone gets a free pass for taking their glove off during the game it would have been #9.

The Ted Williams seat in the Fenway Park bleachers is painted bright red to make it stand out amongst the surrounding sea of dark green. Which leads me to the all important question, how many MLB ballparks commemorate long and/or historic home runs? Besides Fenway, we have Camden Yards/Eutaw Street, AT&T Park/McCovey Cove, and PNC Park/Allegheny River. I’m sure there are many more out there but these select few are the most recognizable to me. It would be nice to catalog all of this information so that one day baseball fans can go to Minute Maid Park in Houston and point to the spot of Chris Burke’s famous walkoff in the 2005 NLDS.

Finally, one thing my brother in law did say about his night in the Ted Williams seat is that Red Sox fans were constantly asking him to stand up so that they could take a picture of this historic spot. He didn’t mind the trouble but would have appreciated a few beers for the effort. Maybe next time.

Monday Morning Musings: Trades, Trades, and More Trades

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Check out this view from the right field bleachers at Friday night’s Orioles/Yankees game. A little further to the right and you wouldn’t be able to see left field from your seat. That’s because the Mohegan Sun sports bar, that tinted window monstrosity lording over the center field wall, obstructs the view for hundreds of hard working bleacher creatures. What is this, 19 aught 8? A modern day palace that cost nearly a billion dollars to build shouldn’t include an entire section of seats where you can’t see a part of the field. I’ll give Fenway Park and Wrigley Field a pass because they are relics of a simpler day and age where architects didn’t have the luxury of blueprints. But not the new Yankee Stadium which has become a testament to all the commercial trappings of baseball what with all it’s boutique shops and lounges. A perfect place for a $15 roast beef sandwich!

A Quick Trip Around the Bases

1B – Back to Friday night’s O’s/Yanks game for a second, if you look closely you can see Jeremy Guthrie on the mound for the Birds. Two quick reactions: 1) it’s amazing the Orioles won this particular game because usually they saddle Guthrie, who has been solid again this season, with very little offense making him the quintessential tough luck loser. 2) It was a surprise to many that Guts was still wearing a Baltimore jersey on Friday night. Many experts had him booked on the next flight to Boston, Detroit, or maybe even the Bronx as part of a blockbuster trading deadline deal. But the O’s decided to hold onto their veteran “ace” in hopes that he can steward the next crop of young arms in 2012. The Orioles weren’t totally inactive this last week, trading away veterans Koji Uehara and Derek Lee to the Rangers and Pirates respectively.  Coming into 2011, who would have thought that either the Orioles or Pirates would have been buyers and that they would be involved in a deal together? Good for Pittsburgh, not so good for Baltimore.

2B – Did you ever think the trading deadline would pass without the Yankees acquiring a superstar? I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of August, once the waiver wire closes, to fully evaluate who won/lost this year’s version of let’s make a deal. For now, the clubhouse leaders are (in no particular order): Rangers, Indians, Mets, Rockies, and Giants. I could have put the Boston Red Sox on this list if I weren’t staunchly opposed to the whole Erik Bedard experience. When he pitched for the Orioles a few years back he was more than capable of double digit K’s every time he took the mound. The problem for Bedard in Baltimore was that he was equally capable of pulling his latissimus dorsi or, even worse, slowly sulking off the mound in the 3rd inning after being pulled for ineffectiveness. And, are we sure he’s even healthy? Or that he’s ready to take the ball in a big game?

3B – I could have put both the Braves and Phillies on the list of trading deadline winners, except I’m not quite sure how much of a difference Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn will make heading down the home stretch. Bourn to the Braves makes a lot of sense because he adds a tremendous amount of speed and defense to a lineup that was very well balanced to begin with. I don’t really see how Pence to the Phillies makes all that much of a difference. With their excellent starting pitching they were most likely going to win the NL East regardless of the moves they made. All I know about Pence is that he is a versatile player, with power and speed, who also happens to wear only one batting glove. We need someone to compile a list of “Best MLB players to wear only one batting glove”. I feel like Pete Rose should be somewhere near the top of that list. Any other suggestions?

HR – Switching leagues for a second, I’ll have plenty more to come on the NFL free agent madness later this week but for now here are just a few quick hits. 1) What is Bill Belichick thinking? Albert Haynesworth doesn’t enjoy playing football and Ochocinco lost that step two seasons ago. Looks like a couple of desperate moves by a coach driven for at least one more Super Bowl before Tom Brady hands the keys over to Ryan Mallett. 2) Like the Plaxico Burress to the Jets move. Not sure if he still stretches the field like he did before prison but he should help to make up for the loss of Braylon Edwards. Of greater concern to Jets fans should be the loss of Brad Smith to the Buffalo Bills. New York is going to miss the “Swiss Army Knife” and I hope for his sake that Buffalo will figure out a way to take advantage of his wide array of skills.

 

Adam Schefter Doesn’t Believe in Sleep

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It’s not too often that I concern myself with the general well being of an ESPN personality what with all their handsome salaries, fancy cars, and deluxe two bedroom condominiums in Simsbury, CT. But man I tell you, ever since the NFL lockout ended, and the free agent frenzy began, I can’t stop worrying that at some point Adam Schefter’s head is going to explode on live television just like that poor degenerate gambler who had his head put in a vice by Joe Pesci in Casino. Schefter has clearly usurped Chris Mortensen as ESPN’s go to NFL brown nose. But the WWL should be careful with how they treat members of the intelligentsia because at this rate Scheftie is on pace for a Michael Douglas in Falling Down type meltdown. Who would clog our twitter feed then?

Speaking of free agent signings, what move has garnered the most attention so far? Santonio – who my brother in law continues to call “San Antonio”- Holmes back to the Jets? Matt Hasselbeck to the Music City Miracles? Al Haynesworth shipping up to Boston? Or perhaps it’s Donovan McNabb to the Minnesota Vikings. I just had to ask Deadspinner, and fellow Colby College alum, Drew Magary where he thinks the Vikings and McNabb are headed in 2011. Understand that right now Drew is considerably busier than most “bloggers-who-use-foul-language-to-make-fun-of-Peter King” what with a massive press tour for his new novel The Postmortal and we thank him for taking the time to respond to our trivial inquiries.

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Now that McNabb is about to officially become a member of your Minnesota Vikings, it’s time you tell us what Twin Cities delicacy is going to cause the most significant weight gain and why: walleye on a stick from Target Field, the Juicy Lucy, or beer boiled bratwurst (via Wisconsin)?

Bratwurst, I guess?

But seriously, wouldn’t you rather just go with Joe Webb or Christian Ponder? And does it really matter who’s playing QB for the Vikings in 2011? Pretty sure they are going to have a tough time keeping up with the rest of the division, even the Lions.

It doesn’t really matter who plays for them this year, which is why I’m okay with the trade.  It’s not like the Favre experiment where they put all their money on the one old QB.  They might even view McNabb as a backup right now.

Have you already purchased a Los Angeles Vikings tshirt? Maybe you would have had a better time trying to publicly finance a new stadium in Minneapolis if the Minnesota state gov’t hadn’t totally shut down.

My guy Rand still says the Vikings aren’t moving, so I’ll stick with him until they end up proving him wrong and we both cry.

How, if at all, do you cover the plight of the Minnesota Vikings in your new book The Postmortal? I hope you reserved a special place in Chapter 4 for the Randall Cunningham era.

No Vikings in the book.  The main character is a Bills fan.

Last one, did you ever put your personal laundry in the Chappy bins and if so, did your clothes come out smelling worse than they did before?

Never.  But not a bad idea.

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There you have it. Move over Schefter! I smell a new football insider. Thanks again to Drew for taking the time to hit send and we wish him the best of luck with his new novel The Postmortal. Here’s hoping the book has more success than the 2011 Donovan McNabb led Minnesota Vikings.

view from Patriots training camp courtesy of @realpatriots

All Of Baseball Bleeds At Least A Little Cubbie Blue

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Al Yellon is the managing editor of Bleed Cubbie Blue, a baseball blog dedicated to the Chicago Cubs and their incredibly loyal, lovable fans. Misery loves company and as the Cubs continue to flail well below .500, thousands of Northsiders flock to the blogosphere, trumpeting their ideas for how to cure 103 years of futility. Al was nice enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the 2011 Cubs, Wrigley Field, and the MLB trade deadline.

As a blogger/independent contractor who has no real direct affiliation with the Cubs organization, how much of your job involves making sure the team does right by the fans? Has Bleed Cubbie Blue ever had direct or indirect influence over a specific front office decision? If so, what does that say about the leadership within the Cubs organization? Frankly, I would find it hard to root for a team that is easily influenced by the fans. Of course, I’m a Baltimore Orioles fan and most of us wish the current owner Peter Angelos would simply just go far far away and leave the team to Cal Ripken.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. I don’t consider my “job” as being anything except trying to write accurately about what’s going on with the team. If I see something wrong, I’ll say it. If I see something right, I’ll say that, too — which appears to me to be different from some Cubs bloggers, who seem to write with the viewpoint “everything the Cubs do is wrong”. I don’t feel that way.

I don’t believe that I have specifically had influence over any front office decision, though I do believe what I wrote last year about the mess in the bleachers did result in some positive changes in how security deals with drunk idiots.

What in the world is going to happen to Wrigley Field? You have people like Peter Gammons calling for massive renovations while a lot of loyalists hope to preserve the great history and integrity of the field. Do you think that the new ownership is going to be willing to spend the money to update certain aspects of the field, sort of like what the Henry/Werner/Lucchino group did in Boston w/ Fenway?

I believe the park will be upgraded and renovated in a very similar way to what happened with Fenway in Boston. Money is currently an issue, so it may take a few years, but I know ownership is committed to getting it done. Gammons’ comment about Wrigley being a “dump” was not only wrong, but misinformed. There’s nothing wrong with Wrigley; it has been maintained well and the team puts money into upkeep every offseason.

As you tweeted last week, the Wrigley Field bleachers were wide open during a summer Sunday for the first time since the ’70s. Is this a case of the dreadful economy making it harder for the good people of Chicago to buy tickets or are we finally seeing Cubs fans take part in a little civil disobedience and say: “unless we start winning we’re just not going to hand over our hard earned money”?

It’s a little bit of both. The team has priced tickets far beyond what the current performance of the team OR the current economy will bear. It will get worse in September even if the Cubs play well for a month or so, after schools are back in session and the weather gets cooler.

The Cubs will have to significantly lower some prices in order to get people back in the park.

How do you see the 2011 season ending for the Cubs? Who stays? Who goes? Hope for the future? You can have Felix Pie back if you like.

This will be a very interesting week leading up to the trading deadline next Sunday. It’s very possible that several veterans will go. Current rumors involve Kosuke Fukudome and Carlos Pena, but many others might be dealt before the deadline — or even after, since they’d probably all clear waivers.

That will give hope for the future; the 2007-08 core, that won two division titles, did well, but it’s time to turn the page and start fresh.

No thanks on Felix Pie, incidentally.

views from Wrigley Field courtesy of @SmartAlexander and @ChiStreetStyle

Talking Shop with Talking Chop

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Martin Gandy is the lead writer for Talking Chop, a baseball blog dedicated to the Atlanta Braves and their fans. The Braves are once again competing for a spot in the NL playoffs, and with a big series opening tonight vs the Pittsburgh Pirates, the blogging business is booming. We asked Gandy, known throughout Talking Chop circles as “gondeee”, about the View from Your Seat feature on his site as well as his feelings on Turner Field and the secret to the Braves success in 2011.

Having people share a view from their seat is such a great way to allow fans to network with other fans. Why did you decide to add this feature to your site? Where do you see this particular idea heading? For instance, do you think non Braves fans visiting Turner Field for the first time will stop by Talking Chop to see where to sit, what to eat, etc?

I got the idea from Andrew Sullivan’s blog and his View From Your Window series. I’m always looking for ways to bring more reader interaction into the blog, and I also like how the View From Your Seat posts break up the page as one scrolls down the blog. Even if you’re in front of a computer screen you’re still able to peek into games, from all angles. Including minor league Views also gives people a window into all the different levels of baseball that exist out there.

I see this series continuing for as long as folks will send in pictures, and there’s been no shortage of late. Last New Years I put together a slide show that scrolled through dozens of Views from the previous year — that was well received, especially during the height of the baseball off-season.

In general, are Braves fans happy with Turner Field? Seeing as how it was built to host the ’96 Olympics, can it sometimes feel a little too multi-purpose/cookie cutter like say Fulton County Stadium?

It was refitted to just be used for baseball after the Olympics, and is one of the better stadiums to watch a game in (I can say that after having been to all but seven current stadiums). Every year they continue to add features to improve the stadium, like the huge HD screen in the outfield. The Braves don’t do the best job of creating a wonderful fan experience, but they do a pretty good job of it. There are a lot of things to like about the Ted.

As far as MLB south of the Mason-Dixon line goes, the Atlanta Braves are pretty much the only show in town. Why is it then that the team struggles to draw fans? I feel like the Braves, one of the top organizations in all of baseball, should be higher than #15 for average attendance this season. Is this just a case of an apathetic Atlanta sports base or perhaps something as simple as say the weather?

Fans can sometimes get spoiled by winning, Braves fans certainly were for a long time. There are a myriad of reasons for not filling the stadium. Traffic in Atlanta can be an obstacle to attending games during the week, especially during the school year. Keep in mind most folks live outside the city, so it’s at least a 20 to 30 minute commute to and from the game, and much more during rush hour. The heat is certainly a factor for some. I would say that Atlanta is also primarily a football town, as is most of the South, so baseball can take a back seat to football even during the football off-season.

The 2011 Braves are once again competing for a spot in the NL playoffs. What has made this particular team so special and what kinds of move do you think the Braves will make before the trading deadline?

The rookies and young players have really shined this year. Craig Kimbrel, Freddie Freeman, and Brandon Beachy are all rookies who will likely compete for the ROY at the end of the season. Other young players like Jason Heyward, Jonny Venters, Jair Jurrjens, and Tommy Hanson have really come into their own as stars of this team. The pitching has been the thing that has paced this team. The Braves go as their pitching staff goes, that was true in the 90s and it’s especially true this year.

views from Turner Field courtesy of Talking Chop