Cool but weird
Has anyone done a google image search for "baseball widow"?

Weekend Plans

Baseball Widow and Hubby will be headed to Durham, NC, this weekend to teach a Scholar Weekend for Duke University's Talent Identification Program. While Baseball Widow tackles "The Butler Did It? An Exploration of the Mystery Genre" (Warning: Grammatical errors in the course description are not the fault of Baseball Widow), Hubby will be teaching a baseball course--the very one, in fact, that Widow proposed a few months ago: a look at baseball as a lens for examining American history and culture. I'll have Hubby re-post the description and syllabus along with a wrap-up of the course when we return. . .

Mythbusters

Baseball Widow doesn't buy the whole "Curse is lifted--we forgive Bill Buckner" line of reasoning.

First of all, if it really was a curse, there was never any need to forgive Buckner 'cause he couldn't have helped it anyway. Second, winning the series doesn't bust the curse--it just proves that it never existed in the first place.

Tim's tidbits of wisdom

"One thing about ground balls, they don't go out of the ballpark."
True, Tim. True.

Not suitable for anyone's eyes. . .

I can't even find the words to make a joke about Tim McCarver's suit.
It's as if for each stupid comment he's made during the series, he received a polka dot on his tie and a stripe on his jacket.

Baseball Orphan?

Baseball Widow and Hubby are pleased to announce that they are expecting their first child on March 15, just in time to catch spring training.

Prenatal tests show conclusively that little Jamie's arm has the genetic potential to exceed that of Roger Clemens's, and the doctors are pretty sure he'll demonstrate Barry Bonds's power and plate discipline. The ultrasound also revealed a cutie to rival Javy Lopez. Agents may field requests to the Baseball Widow email address.

Please no jokes about the pregnant widow.

Have you heard the one about the lawyer who managed a baseball team?

Baseball Hubby and Widow, being bizarrely OCD, have certain sayings that we repeat to each other. For example, every time Tony La Russa is on TV, Hubby says, "You know, he's a lawyer." The implication is that since Baseball Widow is a law student, she is, therefore, a viable candidate to replace Bobby Cox when he retires.

Baseball Widow has a different take on Tony. Every time I look at him during a game, I say, "He wears his sunglasses at night." It's just one of those things that keeps getting funnier to me. . .

Hey, no one promised this post was going to be educational or entertaining.

Widow's Peak?

1995--Braves last win the World Series.
1996--Baseball Widow and Hubby start dating.

October is the cruelest month for Braves fans, and let me tell you, folks: Baseball Widow has suffered through many Octobers. Baseball Widow particularly relishes the point in the season where Hubby accuses himself (via his relationship with Baseball Widow, of course) of jinxing the Braves.

There's nothing as pitiful or as inconsolable as Baseball Hubby when the Braves get eliminated. So, Baseball Widow has shipped Hubby off to Atlanta for the day. If the Braves must lose tonight, Baseball Widow would rather that Hubby be 250 miles away.

Baseball Widow has never been one for real-time blogging. Personally, I think that if you have nothing better to do during a game than to read my blog, well, you probably should find something better to do during the game. Still, since I'll be periodically in touch with Hubby during the game, I'll try to post any news I learn that Fox won't show you.

Wish the Braves (and Baseball Widow) luck!

Housekeeping

Added a new link, to the Online Sports Report. Baseball Widow just can't say no to guys named Jay. . . sorry it took me so long to link to you.

Homerun=Homefree (For now. . .)

First, check this out. Seems like Mac at Braves Beat was getting on to Furkie (or, possibly, Furky? Baseball Widow simply can't join Rafael's teammates in calling him "Foogie".) a little prematurely, considering his 11th inning rescue with a walk-off homer. Baseball Widow, for one, understands the mentality. Furcal's playing for his freedom; homeboy's headed to jail when the season's over. Be sure to read the article for Furkie's quote: "I've never been in jail that long."

Baseball Widow is stoked about the Braves win, although she was really rooting for Smoltz to have been the winning run. Smoltz wanted to bat today--did you see him in the eighth in the dugout with his helmet on? Baseball Widow is all for the John Smoltz show. . . I say start him on Saturday in Houston and have him bat clean-up.

Baseball Widow is disgusted about this. . . Braves' Furcal arrested on DUI charge

Suffice it to say that if he weren't innocent until proven guilty, Furky would be getting raked over the fiery hot coals reserved for the specific subset of creeps who drive drunk.

One more before I go
Stupidest play ever.
Giants vs. Braves in Atlanta.
Bottom 6th. Tied 3-3. 1 out.
Giants pitcher Matt Herges loads the bases.
Atlanta pitcher Jaret Wright at bat.
Wright bunts. (Runner on third is stationary; this is not a squeeze bunt.)
Herges grabs ball and throws to. . .first!
Runner scores when he should have been out by 20 feet. What should have been a inning-ending double play gives the lead to Atlanta.
Tie game, Giants in a wild card race. Go-ahead run scores on a brain fart?
Stupidest play ever.

Anyone following this Paul Hamm thing?
Here's Baseball Widow's take: there's no instant replay in gymnastics. A sport that relies upon subjective judging in any area (be it somersaults or strike zones) requires a willingness on the athlete's part to go with flow and realize that sometimes you get the calls and sometimes you don't. If you want computers and robots to judge your sport, then you might as well have computers and robots compete. This idea might have some merit, actually. Baseball Widow would like to see Curt Shilling face Questec in the bottom of the 9th with the bases loaded.

And that's all Baseball Widow has to say about that.

In other news, Baseball Widow is heading to London for a week. Go make other blog friends, and be sure to tell me about them. (Yeah, yeah, Baseball Widow vacations as often as Pedro Martinez pats himself on the back. Baseball Widow will send you mental postcards.)

Baseball Widow couldn't have said it better herself

. . . well, she might be capable of it, but she's not going to bother. Check out this article at Braves Journal. Mac makes several great points, the chief of which is that no one is giving the Braves credit for their success during the second half of the season this year. Writers (and fans) tend to skew the story as "how the Phillies lost it."

It's no secret that Baseball Widow is a Braves fan. Still, Baseball Widow readers know that Baseball Widow is also an advocate of truth in media. Unfortunately, that's hard to come by, especially in the realm of sports reporting. It's easier to sell a line than to craft a piece of analysis. From payroll to performance-enhancing drugs, from interleague to international play, and from winners to whiners, issues in baseball are more complicated than your average Terrence Moore can comprehend. Many of those sports writers who probably could grasp the complexities of the various subjects are too entrenched in the business of selling columns to concern themselves with good thoughts (and good writing, but Baseball Widow can't hope for miracles).

Okay, so it's not just baseball; we're a sound-byte nation. We manage to take original ideas and corrupt them into cliches as fast as (insert tired simile here). How many times this week have you heard someone reference "thinking outside the box"? And how many times was that person truly engaging creative thinking processes? Baseball Widow says forget the box--just start thinking, people.

Olympic Edition
Baseball Widow loves the Olympics. They are the perfect collection of spectator sports: the events move quickly (especially thanks to TV editing), the average viewer can understand the action, and you always know who to root for. (Although Baseball Widow hasn't been rooting for Team USA in Basketball; she thinks they have attitude problems.)

That said, Baseball Widow thinks that some events just don't fit at the Summer Olympics. . .

Individual athletic events make sense, so do those team events that compile individual results to create a team medal. Likewise, relays, which are simply consecutive individual performances, should have homes at the Summer Olympics. It is the events that Baseball Widow characterizes as team sports that just don't seem to belong. Perhaps more specific than team sports, Baseball Widow should say team games. Soccer, Basketball, Softball, and Baseball seem particularly ill-suited for the venue.

The Olympics seek to glorify the grace and beauty of the showcased athletic events. Baseball is a sport whose style and power are best examined over the course of a season, incorporating the ability to rotate roster spots, the strategy of team trades, and the excitement of pennant races. You just can't condense the sport into a two-week tournament. The attempt to do so results in a mockery of the Olympic spirit of competition; what kind of international Olympic event limits itself to representation from only eight countries?

Quite simply, you can't judge a baseball team until you've seen long-term performance. If you haven't seen every starting pitcher play, then you really haven't seen what the team is.

The problem in trying to condense baseball into tourney-friendly bite-sized pieces isn't limited to the Olympics. The postseason suffers from time-crunch as well. Five game series are fundamentally different from seven game series, and they result in advancement for some teams who otherwise wouldn't have a prayer in a long series. Okay, Baseball Widow realizes that spectators demand a postseason. . . you just gotta have an identifiable champ, right? I'm not trying to say that we should score teams like we score fantasy baseball and declare a winner after the regular season, but I do feel that every postseason series should benefit from the same ground rules--and shorter series result in playing by different rules.

So that's what Baseball Widow thinks, and she's promises it's not (entirely) motivated by her fear of Randy Johnson.

Music to Everyone's Ears

ESPN has a great series of links and short blurbs about at-bat music in the major leagues.

Yes, this is a few days old--still thought it was worth passing on, especially as Baseball Widow has previously written about her interest in at-bat music.

Finally!

Okay, folks, Baseball Widow is making an attempt to return to the semi-daily grind. I tried to post a few days ago but couldn't get Blogger to cooperate.

Thanks, as always, for your patience with me, and I'll try to write more later this afternoon.

Friday already?

Baseball Widow regrets to say that she has no time for posting--her summer teaching gig is wrapping up, and that means paperwork and parent conferences! As soon as Baseball Widow gets settled back in Knoxville, she'll attempt to update more regularly.

Pitching unlikelies--UPDATED!

Baseball Widow and Hubby were able to catch the Braves game last night. (Their summer jobs don't allow much of an opportunity for TV.) In the excitement over the Braves' first-place position, we began speculating about the post-season.

Baseball Widow thinks it's pretty obvious that the Braves don't have the pitching staff to make it in the postseason, and, even if they do have the stuff, they certainly aren't using it as well as they could. This holds true for most of baseball as well. . .

Why has everyone given up on the fifth starter? If almost every team has a terrible fifth starter, then why not slash the season by a fifth to raise the quality of the play? Or, why not go to a four man rotation and use the extra spot on the roster for someone who can do some good?

Why is it that a certain subset of pitchers can pitch six or seven innings but that another subset of pitchers never pitches more than four outs? They're major league players--they should be able to handle two innings, even if it's almost every day. Constant pitching changes slow down the game significantly, and you can't convince Baseball Widow that there's any worth in bringing in a set-up set-up man to get the bottom of the rotation out.

Why is it that the best closer is brought in during the ninth for all save opportunities? Almost any pitcher in the bullpen should be able to hold off a 3 run lead. Why not bring in your dynamite closer when it's tied or close in the eighth? Isn't that where he can do the most good?

And with specializations creeping in, why have a starting rotation at all? Why not go to a complete rotation--one pitcher per inning. You can use it strategically:
--always be able to use a weaker pitcher for the bottom of the rotation, and similarly, always have one of your best for the heart of the order
--never put in your ace against Randy Johnson
--bring out your weak players when it looks over, but if it turns around, trot out your best for the last few innings
--make scouting impossible, because the opposite team can never predict who it's facing
--what better way for a low-budget team to put together a winning pitching staff?

Yeah, yeah, the Red Sox tried closer by committee, but did they ever give it a real chance to work? It's only by stepping outside of conventional wisdom that you discover breakthroughs.

UPDATE
Baseball Widow would like to clarify the above post to credit the ideas of The Red Flash, who was present for the above conversation, and who contributed ideas of much importance. The Red Flash doesn't have a blog yet, but when he does, I'll be sure to let you know about it.

Happy National Ice Cream Day!
(If Dave Pinto can wax poetic about ice cream, so can Baseball Widow)

Baseball Widow doesn't pretend to be a wise person. She knows precious little about this life and nothing at all about any life that might follow. She doesn't know if hell is a fiery lake or seven circles of torment.  She does know, however, that there is a promised land, and it is a land flowing with ice cream and coffee. 
 
When Baseball Widow was two years old, an ice cream cone saved her life, and Baseball Widow, in grateful recompense, has honored the most excellent dairy product ever since.  It is no accident that she attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a city widely hailed as birthplace to the world's greatest ice creams.  Similarly, it should be no surprise that, as far as mass-produced commercial brands of ice cream are concerned, Baseball Widow's loyalties lie with her good friends Ben and Jerry. 
 
Baseball Hubby, a kind and patient man, feels little jealousy toward the two others who will always come first in Baseball Widow's life.  Hubby even joins us in a yummy foursome, keeping our marriage happy and full of diversity--from Brownie Batter to Vanilla Swiss Almond. 
 
Don't ask how, but Baseball Widow and Hubby managed to make the VIP list at the grand opening of a Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop and affiliated coffee house.  (Baseball Widow's second great love is a good iced coffee, but that's another post.)  Do you have any idea what happens when you put 50 people in front of an open ice cream bar at Ben & Jerry's?  Let me tell you, if everyone could have his fill of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, all manner of warfare would cease.  (Probably because we'd all be too fat to fight them, but, hey, whatever works, right?)  At one point in the evening (probably around his fourth scoop), Baseball Hubby was actually skipping with joy.  Baseball Widow was sobbing quietly in the corner, overcome with the beauty of it all.
 
Baseball Widow and Hubby returned home to watch Ken Jennings kick butt on Jeopardy, and then, to top it all off (pardon the pun), Baseball Widow and Hubby noticed that the Braves were tied for first place. 
 
God bless Marcus Giles, God bless Ken Jennings, and God bless Ben and Jerry.