#bart giamatti

[miketownsends]

“[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”

-Bart Giamatti

#baseball #bart giamatti #oh god is this why i am so desperately sad about the #seattle mariners #and everything else #read this quote on twitter and it was an absolute gut punch #doesn’t help that fall is my least favorite season #and we’re about 5 days out from the start of seattle rain #if the weather report is to be believed #which will just compound SAD on top of my garden variety depression #ANYWAY #spring cannot come soon enough

[justinssportscorner]

Anthony Castrovince at MLB.com:

Major League Baseball’s embrace of the Negro Leagues is now recognized in the record book, resulting in new-look leaderboards fronted in several prominent places by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson and an overdue appreciation of many other Black stars.

Following the 2020 announcement that seven different Negro Leagues from 1920-1948 would be recognized as Major Leagues, MLB announced Wednesday that it has followed the recommendations of the independent Negro League Statistical Review Committee in absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers into the official historical record. "We are proud that the official historical record now includes the players of the Negro Leagues," Commissioner Rob Manfred said. "This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible. Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 Dodger debut."

Gibson, the legendary catcher and power hitter who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, is now MLB’s all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS and holds the all-time single-season records in each of those categories. Gibson is one of more than 2,300 Negro Leagues players -- including three living players who played in the 1920-1948 era in Bill Greason, Ron Teasley and Hall of Famer Willie Mays -- included in a newly integrated database at MLB.com that combines the Negro Leagues numbers with the existing data from the American League, National League and other Major Leagues from history. “The Negro Leagues were a product of segregated America, created to give opportunity where opportunity did not exist,” said Negro Leagues expert and historian Larry Lester. “As Bart Giamatti, former Commissioner of Baseball, once said, ‘We must never lose sight of our history, insofar as it is ugly, never to repeat it, and insofar as it is glorious, to cherish it.’”

[...]

Why are the Negro Leagues being added to the historical record?

Essentially, to right a wrong. It certainly was not the fault of Black baseball stars such as Gibson, Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston that they were forbidden from participating in the AL or NL, and recognizing the Negro Leagues as Major Leagues is in keeping with long-held beliefs that the quality of the segregation-era Negro Leagues circuits was comparable to the MLB product in that same time period.

[...]

Which Negro Leagues will be included in the official record?

There are seven, and they operated between 1920 and 1948. The reason for the starting point is that attempts to develop Negro Leagues prior to 1920 were ultimately unsuccessful and lacked a league structure. And 1948 was deemed to be a reasonable end point because it was the last year of the Negro National League and the segregated World Series. After that point, the Negro League teams and leagues that had endured were stripped of much of their talent.

The seven leagues are as follows:

• Negro National League (I) (1920–1931) • Eastern Colored League (1923–1928) • American Negro League (1929) • East-West League (1932) • Negro Southern League (1932) • Negro National League (II) (1933–1948) • Negro American League (1937–1948)

Major League Baseball is recognizing the stats of 7 different Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948 into the record book. This comes almost four years after the league announced that the leagues would be classified as Major Leagues.

See Also:

Yahoo! Sports: Negro Leagues statistics to be officially integrated into MLB historical record

#MLB #Negro Leagues #Black History #Baseball Stats

[collectingall]

MONTE IRVIN SIGNED BART GIAMATTI BASEBALL NEW YORK GIANTS CHICAGO CUBS JSA COA

∀ http://blog.collectingall.com/T7lfxK 👉 shrsl.com/4fuj5 👈

#CollectorsUnite #CardCollecting #CardConnoisseur #Collectibles #CardAuction

[rjhamster]

Joe Moeller

Hi Joe. On my trip to Cooperstown in March I got to see the Bart Giamatti Research Center at the Hall of Fame. It’s the foremost baseball library in the world. Every historian and writer of note uses the center as the foundation of their research. It’s simply amazing. When you put together the book of all your newspaper clippings you gave me a copy. If it’s ok with you, I’d like to donate it…

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[mayliang17]

Book review: A Great and Glorious Game by Bart Giamatti

Book review: A Great and Glorious Game by Bart Giamatti

A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti by A. Bartlett GiamattiMy rating: 5 of 5 starsI like baseball (a lot), but I don’t love baseball. (College basketball is my true obsession.) But Bart Giamatti’s essays about baseball makes me wish that I loved baseball as much as he did (if that is even possible). And his essays certainly make me appreciate baseball and its…

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#Bart Giamatti #baseball #books #essays #sports

[cleoselene]

It breaks my heart because it was meant to, because it was meant to foster in me again the illusion that there was something abiding, some pattern and some impulse that could come together to make a reality that would resist the corrosion; and because, after it had fostered again that most hungered-for illusion, the game was meant to stop, and betray precisely what it promised.   Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.

A. Bartlett Giamatti, The Green Fields of the Mind

baseball almost here everyone!!

#bart giamatti #the green fields of the mind #baseball

[ergothereforethus]

Baseball, the opportunist's game, puts a tremendous premium on the individual, who must be able to react instantly on offense and defense and who must be able to hit, run, throw, field. Specialization obviously exists, but, in general, baseball players are meant to be skilled generalists. The "designated hitter" is so offensive because it violates this basic characteristic of the game.

Baseball and the American Character, A. Bartlett Giamatti

#if (when) they start universal DH bart giamatti will SPIN in his grave #and so will I #baseball #mlb baseball

[conlasbasesllenas]

Trampa IV: Pete Rose

Trampa IV: Pete Rose de @richardefx

“Caminaría a través del infierno con un traje hecho de gasolina para jugar béisbol”

La frase se le atribuye a Pete Rose, a quien se le puede acusar de cualquier cosa menos de no jugar con intensidad y en pro de su equipo, un tipo de esos que en el ámbito de los pronósticos llamamos “Money Player”, por ser el jugador que da el mayor chance de ganar a un equipo.

jugaba cada lance como si fuera el…

View On WordPress

#HallOfFame #Bart Giamatti #Baseball Hall of Fame #escandalo de Pete Rose #maquinaria roja #mi carcel sin barrotes libro #Pete Rose #pronosticos #reporte dowd #ron peters #Serie Mundial #Tommy Gioiosa

[aestheticvoyage2019]

Day 288: Tuesday October 15, 2019 - “Swept Away”

The Nationals were a buzzsaw and thats what I’ll remember of October of 19.  Never expected the Cards to make it this far, so tried to just enjoy the idea of October baseball with something to hope for - but those hopes quickly dashed with a 7 run blunder to start the game in the 1st.  I decided to just retire to the backyard and listen to the radio broadcast instead and enjoy the last couple of hours of baseball heaven for the season with Mike Shannon’s raspy voice floating on the Tucson air.  AC eventually joined me and stressed over the idea that some late inning heroics might extend the pain - but not this year.  This team was out of theatre and even though its hard not to be romantic about this game, I knew when I got up this morning that they were due to be swept away by a team from DC that had all the mojo for the past week. I know what it looks like when the baseball God are pulling one obvious way...and this was it.  It was over almost as soon as it started last Friday and I just hope that National League team can stay hot while they wait for their opponent.  

We sat out for a little while longer and spun around baseball memories and history while somewhere in the nation’s capital a team blew out champaign. I read Green Fields of The Mind aloud like I always do on the day summer gives way to Fall, finally, and the last of my teams are eliminated.  ‘Hope to memory once again’  - called my buddy Chad and already started commentary on 2020  - will we sign an ace? get some bullpen help?  will Carpenter make the HOF?  Wanna go to Cooperstown if he does? - I’ll put away my jerseys at least until its time for the voice of the turtle again, and I’ll enjoy the Fall Classic when its on, and I’ll be happy for all the days this summer that the team from The Lou gave us more good than bad, and I’ll love baseball for all it gives me - my favorite of all sports, even on these sad days when it comes to an end.

Song: Shovels & Rope - Patience

Quote: “Mutability had turned the seasons and translated hope to memory once again. And, once again, she had used baseball, our best invention to stay change, to bring change on.” ~Bart Giamatti

The full text of Green Fields of The Mind is here.

[warpwoof]

Bart Giamatti

Of course, there are those who learn after the first few times. They grow out of sports. And there are others who were born with the wisdom to know that nothing lasts. These are the truly tough among us, the ones who can live without illusion, or without even the hope of illusion. I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.

#baseball #october #october baseball #games #giamatti #mlb #world series #summer #sports

[this-day-in-baseball]

February 10, 1971

The Yankees announce Bill White will join Phil Rizzuto and Frank Messer on the WPIX broadcast team, becoming the first African-American to do play-by-play regularly for a major-league baseball team. The former All-Star first baseman will stay in the booth for 18 seasons, leaving in 1989 to replace Bart Giamatti as president of the National League when Giamatti was elected as Commissioner of Baseball.

#baseball #sports #this day in baseball #bill white #mlb #history

[collectingall]

∀ Dusty Rhodes Autographed Bart Giamatti Signed ONL Baseball (JSA COA) http://blog.collectingall.com/T5yw2c 📌 shrsl.com/4fuj5 📌

#CollectorsUnite #CardCollecting #Collectibles #CollectibleCards #CollectingAll

[cleoselene]

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.                                 Somehow, the summer seemed to slip by faster this time. Maybe it wasn't this summer, but all the summers that, in this my fortieth summer, slipped by so fast. There comes a time when every summer will have something of autumn about it. Whatever the reason, it seemed to me that I was investing more and more in baseball, making the game do more of the work that keeps time fat and slow and lazy. I was counting on the game's deep patterns, three strikes, three outs, three times three innings, and its deepest impulse, to go out and back, to leave and to return home, to set the order of the day and to organize the daylight. I wrote a few things this last summer, this summer that did not last, nothing grand but some things, and yet that work was just camouflage. The real activity was done with the radio--not the all-seeing, all-falsifying television--and was the playing of the game in the only place it will last, the enclosed green field of the mind. There, in that warm, bright place, what the old poet called Mutability does not so quickly come.

A. Bart Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind”

I’m sad it’s almost over, baseball tumblr.  Good luck to Dodgers and Red Sox fans.  Hugs for everyone from Javy and Nolan.

#baseball #it's almost over! #bart giamatti #did you know paul giamatti is his son? #i did not

[sumukhcomedy]

Why Does Baseball Keep Refusing to Face Its History?

I loved baseball when I was a kid. Like most kids of the 80s and 90s, I had a baseball card collection. When I went back home to Cleveland recently, I looked through that baseball card collection again. It brought back a lot of positive memories.

Some of my earliest memories were looking up the stats of the Cleveland Indians in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and memorizing them. This tells you I was a nerd as a child and a sad one at that as those late 1980s/early 1990s Indians teams were terrible. Memorizing Scott Scudder’s stats was not fun.

Unlike any other sport, baseball has relied on statistics. Growing up, we knew them all. Roger Maris’s 61 home runs in a season. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Ted Williams was the last player to hit .400. I could keep going. Perhaps because the numbers were so much more accessible or easier to remember but it had a bigger impact than any other sport. And, with the work of Bill James and “Moneyball,” statistics proved to have a major impact on the game, business, and society.  

But now I’m a part of a generation that has only seen baseball be clouded in controversy and that has made those statistics and baseball as a whole look stupid. Most of that is Major League Baseball’s own fault. The organization and its leadership’s unwillingness to acknowledge its history not only taints its stats but makes it look completely disconnected from reality – a reality that its fans invite themselves to by interacting in the game.

My first real interaction with baseball came during the era of the Bash Brothers in Oakland. Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco made home runs even more appealing. They were gigantic men like Roman gladiators. They gave a certain perception of masculinity of that era as well. As we of course later found out, their bulging muscles were produced thanks to steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. That steroid era lasted throughout my formative years as a baseball fan.

Fans loved this era of the long ball. We followed along with every at-bat for McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998. Baseball truly felt like America’s pastime again. But it was all nonsense because of the unfair playing field set by those taking steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. It made a joke of the statistics and records baseball relied so heavily on. It put into question every statistic and result of that era.

Now, not even truly fully removed from the “steroid era,” the Houston Astros have provided my adulthood as a baseball fan with a cheating scandal I find far worse than steroids. And we see with the sign stealing scandal that Major League Baseball hasn’t changed either. We may have a new commissioner in Rob Manfred but we have the same time of lunacy in reaction and acknowledgment that we saw from the likes of Bud Selig or Fay Vincent or Bart Giamatti. Major League Baseball would rather sweep the Astros sign stealing scandal under the rug as quickly as possible than to acknowledge it and come to a sound judgment on it. They would rather let the media, fans, and even their own players decide on it and rail against it. Not surprisingly, it’s not going away, and it’s making Major League Baseball leadership look dumber in the process.

The manner in which the steroid era was handled still hasn’t even been resolved in a sensible way. The stats remain but, as a baseball fan myself, I don’t even care about them as I once did. All stats are under a cloud of suspicion. I’ll acknowledge that Barry Bonds holds the single season home run record but I don’t even care. That record-breaking moment holds no special place in my heart as a fan. Bonds and other such players of the era are now at the whim of the media on whether they enter the Hall of Fame or not. The Hall of Fame does not hold any real acknowledgment of the steroid era or its impact on the game.

The sign-stealing scandal now holds the same status as the steroid era but it’s also showing that Major League Baseball hasn’t improved at all. I agree with Manfred in that the Astros shouldn’t be removed as the 2017 World Series Champion. It sets a poor precedent. We’ve watched the NCAA strip teams of its championships and it’s made no real sense in the long haul. It may simply say there is no champion on Wikipedia but fans remember who won those championships. Just in the same way, fans should remember Louisville’s sex scandal or Jerry Sandusky at Penn State or Reggie Bush accepting money or whatever violations that range from the absurd to the psychologically horrible that have occurred that leads to the removal of wins or championships.

These wins and championships are tainted. Organizations like Major League Baseball must acknowledge that. They don’t have to remove the championship. They just have to identify and emphasize they were won under the wrong means. If so, they align themselves appropriately with history and how fans and other players interact with it. They should acknowledge that the Astros players should not have been given immunity and that was a mistake on their part as those players should have received punishment for being actively involved in cheating. They should also acknowledge that these mistakes will be recorded and discussed in the Hall of Fame, which despite its name, is also simply the major source and location of history for any sport and can and should include moments that can be considered “shame.”

Baseball’s history is filled with suspect decision-making and poor ethics. To like baseball is to accept that. There are not good people inducted in the Hall of Fame. There are now multiple cheating scandals in baseball’s history.

But, Major League Baseball and the sport as a whole has never made sensible, uniform decisions. On performance-enhancing drugs, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz are now heralded for some reason with jobs on major networks broadcasting baseball while Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens continue to be vilified. Astros players cheated and stole signs and admitted to doing it but those players are provided immunity and left to give us not particularly heartfelt apologies so what punishment is in that? We’re left to have Astros owner Jim Crane talk to the fans and the media like we’re unaware and stupid.

It's a tough situation but the situation could be ameliorated if Major League Baseball acted like true leadership for a change. It has to truly acknowledge its mistakes and assess proper punishments that rectify situations both in the current time and for history. It doesn’t do that as it prefers to sweep situations under the rug and run away as fast as possible from any controversy. This leaves fans and the media to decide and, not surprisingly, many of us have lost interest in statistics or even wanting to give our money to support this sport that now gets accused of being “slow” and “boring.” The Hall of Fame feels like a joke because it also isn’t granted the proper direction to be a source of history and acknowledgment from Major League Baseball.

On a personal level, there is still no better live environment in sports than a sold-out baseball game. The smell of the food, the grass on the field, the sound of the bat off the ball, the roar of the crowd. It’s unlike anything else and tickets are still at a reasonable cost for the average person unlike so many other sports now.

Baseball could still be “America’s pastime” but it now seems to reflect more negative American qualities than positive ones. It has to do better to answer a question I have and that most fans likely do:

What motivates me to love baseball and look at it sensibly when its own administration refuses to?

#baseball #mlb #major league baseball #astros #houston astros #sign stealing #sign stealing scandal #rob manfred #steroids #mark mcgwire #barry bonds #alex rodriguez #david ortiz

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews: American Animals / Ocean’s 8

This week I got to review 2 very different movies within the heist movie genre. I’ve always liked heist and caper movies (going back to The Great Muppet Caper I suppose). There’s been some classics and some lesser titles. Here’s two very different approaches to films about a team of criminals pulling off a heist.

American Animals movie poster

American Animals is based on a true story of a 2004 library heist that happened at Transylvania University. Four college students (including Dunkirk’s Barry Keoghan and Blake Jenner, so good in Everybody Wants Some!!) decide to rob the school’s library for priceless Audubon prints and books. In telling this story, there are the actors portraying these characters and there are the actual real life students (now a few years after their prison sentences) commenting throughout. This is not the most original idea in the world, just look at American Splendor which combined the real life Harvey Pekar, Paul Giamatti playing him and an animated Harvey Pekar. But in this, it had a unique editing approach that set it apart: characters are seen with conflicting views and differing opinions, as if to re-write the history as it was happening. Director Bart Layton has a documentary background and he uses that to his advantage here.

One of the cool things about this is that the characters prepare for the heist by watching heist movies. In one scene we see the characters arguing about who gets to be Mr. Pink, then arguing about how their situation differs from Reservoir Dogs in that they already know each other’s names. Its like a meta commentary about heist movies where the characters are addressing Reservoir Dogs before the movie is even over. Its reminiscent of Boiler Room, where the characters are watching Wall Street and quoting it line by line, only American Animals goes a step further and addresses the character (and filmmaker’s) fandom.

Jared Abrahamson, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner and Barry Keoghan in American Animals

While I do wish the film dug a little deeper into why these young men carried this out beyond wanting to leave their mark, I have to give this movie credit for its approach, which gave it an edge. Also - Ann Dowd (excellent in Compliance) as the librarian is great in everything!

American Animals is currently in limited release from The Orchard: https://www.americananimals.film/

3.5 out of 5 stars

Ocean’s 8 movie poster

1960′s Ocean’s 11 was a swinging Vegas heist movie starring the Rat Pack. It was fun for what it was, but was by no means a classic. Steven Soderbergh remade it in 2001 with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and a cast of all-stars. It was fun and cool to see this team come together and pull off the heist. 2004′s Ocean’s Twelve was a meta caper where the cast seemed to be having more fun than the audience. But then 2007′s Ocean’s Thirteen was better than expected. Now in a stand-alone spin-off Danny Ocean’s sister Debbie (played by Sandra Bullock) puts together an all-female team in Ocean’s 8 to steal some priceless jewels at the Met Gala. Director Gary Ross (director of the highly underrated Pleasantville) does his best Soderbergh impression and gives this the fun cool vibe of the 2001 remake. The entire cast are off the charts: Cate Blanchett (so cool as a stylish rocker gal à la Debbie Harry), Anne Hathaway (having a blast sending up a vain celebrity), Mindy Kaling (stealing every scene she’s in as a jewelry expert - can she get her own movie please?!), Sarah Paulson (as a suburban mom who never went legit), Awkwafina (as a Millennial petty thief), Rihanna (a regular at the Met Gala herself, playing a computer hacker), and Helena Bonham Carter (as a washed up fashion designer).

The ladies of Ocean’s 8 ride the subway: Bullock, Blanchett, Rihanna, Kaling, Awkwafina, Bonham Carter, Hathaway, and Paulson

Overall this movie is fun. Nothing more, nothing less. It was definitely better than Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen. There were some problems with the screenplay, especially in the third act (I could have done without so much of the ex-boyfriend revenge subplot). There’s also a ton of things that happen according to plan. Bullock predicts something will go a certain way and it does. In a high stakes situation like ripping off the MET gala for $150 mil. worth of jewelry, I kinda wanted it to be a tad more suspenseful. Having said that, this cast rises above it. The fun vibe is there, which counts. Also a good soundtrack too (just try not tapping your foot when Nancy Sinatra’s remix of “These Boots are Made for Walkin’”)! For a Summer reboot / sequel, you could do a lost worse. 

Warner Brothers is releasing Ocean’s 8 nationwide today: http://www.oceans8movie.com/

3 out of 5 stars

#american animals #bart layton #heist movies #ocean's 8 #gary ross #ocean's 11 #steven soderbergh #movie reviews #film geek

[neonbender]

It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings.... You count on it, rely on it, to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive. And then, just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone..

Bart Giamatti, on baseball

#baseball