Still a Crazy Fan After All These Years

If you ask the average person if they think the game of baseball has changed drastically in the past twenty years, they will probably tell you it hasn't.  There are still nine innings, a pitcher and a catcher, and overpriced concessions.  But in reality, the game has evolved in many ways, and experts say that it's changing for the worse.  Exhaustive analytics, implementing "the shift," and the ability to challenge some plays have eliminated the "small ball" mentality and has players (even pitchers) trying to hit the ball out of the park at every at-bat.  Now, I won't get into the nitty gritty of it, because I know that many of you read my blog just to be nice and truly don't care about launch angles and travel velocity (and frankly I don't really either), but in a nutshell, watching a baseball game isn't as "exciting" and strategic as it used to be (some would argue that it is in fact more strategic than ever thanks to analytics, but it's the wrong type of strategy that is currently being used.  OPS, WHIP, SBPCT... yeah - no one cares!).

And then there are the trades.  Right before the July 31st trade deadline, I was all for trading players because of my "do whatever it takes (within reason) to win" mentality.  Machado to the Dodgers?  Sure - that was a good trade.  Familia to the A's?  Absolutely - I never liked him, so why not send him far away from the NL East?  These players are going to be free agents at the end of the season anyway; they're just being "rented" to help their teams win a World Series and will find more permanent (or "less-temporary") homes during the off-season.  But when the Washington Nationals quietly traded Daniel Murphy to the Cubs and Matt Adams to the Cardinals earlier this week, it felt like a kick in the gut (not that I know what that feels like!).  Murphy is one of those wholesome guys you would want your daughter to date - he's hard-working, personable, and just oozes wholesomeness.  He says things like "gosh darn it" and "dag nabbit" when he's upset (which is rare), and he likes to chat with umpires before stepping into the batters box or with first basemen when he hits a single.  Having him leave DC was heartbreaking, and many of us took it personally (like when you go back to the hair salon and your favorite stylist is gone and they can't tell you where she went so you know you'll never see her again).  And even though Adams wasn't a National for very long, it was nice having him around, especially when Ryan Zimmerman was injured and Adams covered first base.  These trades reminded us that baseball is a business more than it is a game.  Sigh!

So what keeps me loyal to the game I have been following since I was a kid?  Yes, many of the players aren't bad to look at, but at this point, I'm old enough to be the mother of some of these guys (Juan Soto is only 19 and Ronald Acuña is only 20!).  Yes, there is an increasing number of women who are involved with Major League Baseball and are being taken seriously (ESPN's Jessica Mendoza and The Washington Post's Chelsea Janes come to mind), and that makes me happy.  But it was actually a recent trip to the ballpark that reminded me why I still love this game despite the politics, the greed, and inter league play.  

The Washington Nationals have had a disappointing season. mainly because everyone picked them to win the NL East and instead they have had a season full of injuries, lackluster performances, and a new manager that no one likes (OK, I don't like him; perhaps others, like his mother, think he's perfectly competent).  So it has been tough watching Bryce Harper struggle (though he has improved since winning the Home Run Derby last month).  It was hard seeing Stephen Strasburg wince in pain on the mound with what turned out to be some sort of nerve impingement thing in his shoulder.  It has been heartbreaking seeing your team falling in the standings as the Braves and Phillies surged ahead (but at least I'm not an Orioles fan - I don't know how those people haven't all jumped off the Chesapeake Bay bridge yet).  But as an optimist, I have relished every win that Max Scherzer has had this year (another Cy Young award will surely be his at the end of this season).  And what about Juan Soto?  Yes, he strikes out on 3-2 counts a lot, but it has been refreshing watching a 19-year-old show so much poise and promise.  And he has 14 home runs as a teenager, which puts him fifth past Mickey Mantle on the "all-time home runs by a teenager" list, and any time someone passes a Yankee on any list, I'm happy.

So I brought my optimism with me to Nationals Park earlier this week, where my husband, 14-year-old son and I endured DC traffic and joined thousands of fans on a glorious evening to halfheartedly root for our team.  We had spent a lot of money on the tickets (we had really good seats), so why not go and try to have a good time?  Armed with our Nationals gear and tater-tot bowls (which are delicious, but I didn't think it was necessary for hubby to tell me that they were 2000 calories each!), we were hoping for a win.  At 7.5 games out of first place and nowhere close to being a Wild Card team, we just didn't want the team to embarrass themselves.  The score was 3-1 Phillies after the first inning, but we were still having a decent time.  Tied at 5 after the fourth inning, all was still good.  We were still full, it wasn't hot out, and the fans behind us weren't too obnoxious.  After the top of the ninth, it was 7-6 Phillies.  The Nationals had three more outs, and the fans started leaving the park, because they flashed a message on the scoreboard alerting everyone that the last Metro train was leaving the nearby Navy Yard station in just a few minutes.  Bryce Harper and Anthony Rendón recorded the first two outs off Phillies' closer Seranthony Dominguez (yes, his name is pronounced "Sir Anthony!"), so we were getting ready to leave after Juan Soto presumably struck out again.  But instead Soto hit a double, and the nail wasn't quite nailed into the coffin at that point.  Veteran Ryan Zimmerman was up, and I knew that he was known as "Mr. Walk-off," having ended games with bottom-of-the-ninth home runs in ten previous games in his career.  What were the chances that "Zim" would hit one tonight?  I have been to dozens of baseball games in my life, and have never seen a no-hitter, a triple play, or a walk-off homer, so why would that happen in this case?  Well, it did.  Zimmerman hit what was barely a home run (but hey, if it goes over the fence it counts!) and the Nationals ended up winning 8-7.  The random lady sitting next to my husband who had been completely silent while she scored the entire game in her scorebook gave us all high-fives.  Everyone who was left in the park was cheering, clapping, and jumping up and down.  My son and I hugged each other.  Zimmerman had the proverbial Gatorade cooler of water dumped on him as soon as he crossed home plate.  These are men playing a kids game, I realized; you hit the ball, it goes over the fence, and you run around the bases.  You celebrate the victories, learn from the defeats, and come back the next day to do it all over again, trying your best and not letting ignorant people bother you.

Now if only life could be that simple!

Bucket List Moment in the City of Brotherly "Eh"

On a recent Monday (my only day off from work), my husband and I drove to Philadelphia to visit Citizens Bank Park - our eighth ball park in our quest to visit all 30 Major League baseball parks.  It was a picture-perfect day for a game between the Phillies and the visiting Atlanta Braves, and because the Phillies have sucked for the past couple of years, we were able to get excellent seats (in the second row behind the Phillies' dugout).  Because I wasn't going to be rooting for neither the Phillies nor the Braves, I decided to use this particular day to check an item off my "Bucket List:" scoring a live baseball game for all nine innings.

Now, many of you might be surprised to know that I, as a downright and legitimate baseball nerd, have never scored a game in my life.  One reason is because when I'm watching a baseball game on TV from the comfort of my sofa (I've been told not to call it a couch), I'm usually multitasking (working on a Sudoku, browsing catalogs for inventory orders for my shop, or checking Facebook).  When I have attended games in the past, I have been too focused on the game itself to take the time to stare at a piece of paper and write things down (how can I check out the players' butts if my head is down the whole time?).  Plus, being legally blind, it's enough of a challenge for me to watch a game let alone try to keep score on an actual paper grid.  But on this day, since I wasn't rooting for either team, I decided to keep myself entertained by keeping score.

First of all, if you're looking for my in-depth review of Citizens Bank Park itself, you're not going to get it, because I honestly have nothing to say.  It was about as unremarkable as Miller Park in Milwaukee, which we visited last year and I didn't blog about because it was the most plain and vanilla-looking park ever.  Or so I thought until I got to Philly.  Citizens Bank Park, like Miller Park, was built in the outskirts of a bustling city, with ample parking and acres of nothingness surrounding it.  Now, I know I've been critical of "shoe-horned" parks in the past (like Camden Yards in Baltimore and Progressive Field in Cleveland) because they make me feel claustrophobic, but at least they provide a better ambiance in and around the ballpark.  You can spot several street vendors, many outdoor dining venues full of fans, and experience an overall exciting and fan-friendly experience before you even set foot inside the park.  Not in Philly.  You drive there, the nice parking attendant takes your money and tells you to park in one of the thousands of available spots in the blazing sun (the only nice person we met the entire time we were there), and you go into the ballpark because other than checking out the Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt statues, there's not much to do outside the park.  Yawn!

Once inside, we got some lunch (we were told to actually stay away from the Philly cheese steak sandwiches in the park because they were mediocre, so we settled for mediocre quesadillas instead).  After finding our really good seats, I filled out my lineup sheet.  I had printed out a blank score-keeping grid ahead of time, so I was ready.  I didn't know what I was doing, but I was ready!  Luckily, I was sitting next to the most patient and wonderful human being ever (my husband, Tom), who happened to know how to score a game from his days playing Little League.  Yes, that was a long time ago, but slashes, backwards Ks, and numbers haven't changed throughout the decades.  So armed with my scoresheet, a good pen, and a trusty companion, I was ready.

The only thing I knew about scoring a game was that there was a difference between a regular K and a backwards K.  I wasn't sure what that difference was - one was a strikeout swinging and the other was a strikeout looking - but I didn't know which was which. A quick Google search helped me realize that a regular K is when a batter strikes out swinging.  OK; got that.  I then had to label all the positions - Pitcher- 1, Catcher- 2, First Base- 3, Second base- 4, Third base- 5, Shortstop- 6, Left field- 7, Center field- 8, Right field- 9.  OK; got that too.  And because I'm a true nerd, I had to write down the weather, temperature, and umpires.  Now it's time to play ball!

The first batter was Ender Inciarte, the Braves' center fielder.  He hit a fly ball to center field, so I just had to write an "8" on my scorecard.  Piece of cake.

The second batter, second baseman Brandon Phillips, hit to the pitcher, who threw to first base for the out.  That was a 1-3 on my sheet.  No problem.

The third batter, First baseman Freddie Freeman (who was playing third base that day), hit a grounder to second base, so that was a 4-3.  I got this.

In the bottom of the first inning, it got a bit tricky.  When Aaron Altherr, the Phillies' right fielder and third player to bat, got on base because of a base hit, I had to shade in a section of my diamond grid.  Then Tommy Joseph got a base hit, so I had to shade in his section plus add to Altherr's grid.  Not a problem though; hubby was right there, telling me what to do.

In the top of the second inning, I got to do all sorts of shading of the grids, because the Braves' Matt Adams, Nick Markakis, and Danny Santana all got base hits.  The problem was that I shaded the first-inning grids instead of the second-inning ones.  I should have bought a pencil instead of a pen!  But I corrected my errors and kept going.  I was determined to see this through to the end of the game (Note to self:  Bring a highlighter next time to better keep track of what inning we're in ).

This game turned out to be the best game for a first-time scorer.  There were walks, strikeouts (both regular K and backwards K), an error by Freddie Freeman that was later removed (again - should have brought a pencil!) but an error by Ian Krol that was legit, home runs by Suzuki, Herrera, and Franco, and even a hit-by-pitch (two of them, in fact).  It made the time go by pretty fast, and it forced hubby and me to pay attention and keep track of what was going on.

So what did I learn from this experience?  Well, first of all, you have to appreciate your spouse and the expertise they can bring to a certain situation.  I can tell hubby that there are 26 bones in each foot and recite the entire lineup of the 2008 Phillies (and the 1989 Mets), but he can tell me how to score an Infield Fly Rule on a scorecard.  Without my husband there to help me along, I would have given up after the first inning.

I was also reminded of the importance of writing things down.  As an Athletic Trainer in college, I was taught that "If you didn't write it down, it didn't happen." (Thanks, Charlie and Wayne!) So yeah - if I didn't keep score, I would not have remembered a few weeks later that Pivetta got the win for the Phillies that day and Foltynewicz got the loss (the Phillies won 7-6).

I also realized that you can't take cool ballparks (like Fenway and PNC Park) for granted, because of the 30 Major League ballparks, only a handful of them are going to remain fresh in your mind because they're cool or nostalgic or have pretty outfield views.  As long as you have good company, eat decent food (and get a cheap-enough beer, in hubby's case), don't get too lost on your way home from the ballpark, and know the difference between a strikeout swinging versus a strikeout looking, you can have an unforgettable day enjoying America's pastime.  Here's to baseball, husbands, and those who keep score day in and day out. :-)