all things baseball. if you swing that way

Lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan here. Over my lifetime, they have averaged a pennant about every 7 years and an actual championship every once in a while, so I'm luckier than other fans in this city with their teams. Love catching games at both parks because they balance each other out in pluses and minuses. Basically, Wrigley Field is beautiful to look at, with tons of history and tradition behind it, with very few bad viewing angles. It is also cramped, dingy, with bad plumbing, ridiculous bathroom accommodations and scary chunks of concrete falling everywhere just to keep you on your toes. Sox Park is sterile and functional, with little aesthetic appeal, but plenty of parking/public train access and great food and beer choices. You can also take a piss in a toilet that was designed post-WWII, which is nice. Both parks are very bicycle-friendly, which I appreciate.

So there's my chamber-of-commerce pitch (low and inside!).

More baseball chatter from me later. Great thread idea...

I'm a Mets fan these days.
Baseball is in my blood. I was raised in minor league parks all over the country (dad played int the Pittsburgh system). My uncle played for many years in the big leagues in the 70's, I hung with him there during some homestands. Me, I played division one college, University of Houston. Many of my teammates, roomies and opponents played in the bigs.
But alas, Art was my calling; and despite my ability to hit a high fastball 500 feet, I had to follow the calling of my soul (and I could not hit the curveball nor left-handed pitching in general...oh, and I was slow, had no arm and didnt know the rules of the game all that well).
Anyhow...I LOVE baseball and cant wait for life to begin again in April. The evening news will have purpose and the wonder of events will tease me all day long.
LETS GO METS!

Uh-oh, here comes the girl... I don't claim to be an expert to any degree, but 2 things I know: I really like going to baseball games, and the PGH Pirates SUCK! But to sit at the park on a warm summers day with an over-priced beer in hand...ahhh...there is no other fun quite like it!

That's cool. My grandfather played in the bigs. For the Philadelphia Athletics.

so show us his card. I have quite a collection, even from those days. Maybe I posess it.

I don't know if they made cards back in 1917. But we have tons of newspaper clippings, etc. Especially from his minor league days. And photos all over my boy's bedroom. And, contracts signed by Connie Mack, etc. Baseballs; and even the Louisville Slugger Bat with his name on it from back then. All private family collectible nostalgia. He wasn't a star, but played. What I find most interesting are the photos with grass up to his ankles. Field of dreams, for real, if you know what I mean. It was his second job, which was common back then...

I have cards going back to 1910 (tobacco cards).
I used to have my uncles bats but of course I played with them and broke them, same with much the gear he gave me. Used it up...as it should be.

Yep, after an all-rookie season in 73, Yount made sure Uncle Tim stayed on the bench thereafter. So it goes. He did have one of the best arms from short of his day and was know to to take gruesome hit for the sake of the double-play.

So, my fellow baseball fans, who do you consider to be the all-time Home Runs leader and the single-season Home Run king ?

Yeah, I wish the stats didnt get all messed up by the roid era. I have a feeling Bonds and A-Rod could have broken the record without the enhancers; but we'll never know.

My favorite home run hitter of all time is Dave Kingman (who I unfortunateled modeled my approach to the sport after). I still dream about driving a fastball excessively out of the park. Theres no feeling like it.

Purest stroke ever: Mickey Mantle. If he didn't get hurt, Roger Maris wouldn't be alone at 61. And if cows had wings... But for raw power and grace of swing, the Mick. The only one ever to hit the lights (and almost knock it out) of now dead The House That Ruth Built.

Sound like anyone we know?

Don't get me started. My Pistol Pete Maravich thread, the greatest hoops player ever to wear canvas sneaks, will be born...with much admiration to the most creative player to have ever passed and shot an orange ball.

Yep, Maravich was my favorite player growing up too...of course, Wilt was a giant amongst children. The game was small and low to the ground. Few could even dunk. But its funny how whenever the chips were down Bill Russel (the only other 7 footer) stopped him cold.
It could be that Lebron will turn out to be the greatest of all time...even better than Jordan.

It doesnt seem productive to compare eras in sports because the level of athletics has gotten so increasingly better. But some superstars are simply superhuman and would have excelled no matter what (Mantle, Mays, Clemente, Ruth, Gherig etc,).

Its a damn shame that the roid things has cast a shadow over most of the great careers of late. I'm not sure the game can recover - anyone who has an amazing year will be suspected from now on.

My two HR champs are Aaron and Maris also. This steroids era has disgusted me but so has the insane salary explosion that helped fuel it. (They actually fed each other.) 1998 was something I got caught up in, I admit, and I suspended my disbelief like a fool. But Mark McGwire's ridiculous "testimony" before Congress changed everything. I hope he never makes the Hall of Fame. Tony LaRussa is a jackass who defends McGwire to this day ! Ha !

I had the pleasure of seeing Aaron play with Atlanta vs. the Cards at the old Busch Stadium circa '70 or '71. Too young to remember much about Maris, but I know he wrapped up his career with the Redbirds with two trips to the post-season in '67 and '68.

When Bonds broke the record I was glad to see that Aaron refused to appear in person and instead taped a very bland and robotic-sounding "congratulatory" speech. That worked just fine for me.

Looking forward to tonight's Cubs vs. White Sox exhibition game (WGN-TV 9 for those with certain cable/satellite systems). Watch for the Sox's Alexei Ramirez (SS/2B). He is the antithesis of today's muscle-bound steroid freak. Speedy infielder with respectable power (21 HR last year) and smart base-running skills. I doubt he's ever seen an illegal syringe or a weight room, for that matter. And if he weighs more than 155 lbs., I'll eat my baseball cap.

In the eighties weight training became a normal thing for a baseball player to do. the desire to get results from lifting weights causes an individual to think about diet and lifestyle. Players began to consider their drinking (and smoking) habits and sought out the usual suppliments (protien powders and amino acids etc). Unfortunately the shady characters eventually followed the smell of money offering up the fast track to maximizing physical potential. So down the tubes went the credibility and integrity.
Amazing gains can be made by a dedicated lifting regimen, the roids buy you far less than you would think. No enhancer can make chicken salad outta chicken shit, the ability was already there in all of the offenders. Its a damn shame (again) that these individuals sacrificed so much for so little.

Kingman hit balls farther than anyone...quite unmeasurable blasts. 6'6 200 lbs (a beanpole). Pure unsupplimented power at its best.

Happy St. Paddy's Day to my favorite team

And mine...

I'm not very familiar with baseball. Is it true it is the most popular sport in the US? more so than football or basketball? I'm sure I have heard that somewhere, but it could have just come from that part of my brain the congures up vague/false facts!

I used to enjoy rounders (laugh it up) at school. I used to be pretty good actually at batting, sadly the last time I played I seemed to have lost all my timing and co-ordination. ah well. I was gonna try and get into to baseball when I was younger. I went as far as buying a glove and a ball but I think that was mainly cos' I liked the look of the equipment since I never furthered the interest.

I know John Fante writes about baseball in a few of his books. Apparantly he was a pretty fine player in his youth. I think before his death he was planning to write a novel about a female baseball player trying to make the big time. This surprised me since his books are so male orientated but it would have been interesting to read if it had ever materialized.

Baseball features heavily in 'Wait Until the Spring Bandini'. '1933 was a Bad Year' is about a baseball player too iirc. Didn't know about that other book he'd planned though. I love John Fante, I must say.

Yeah, along with catholicism, gambling, bricklaying, family ties etc. it's one of those re-occuring themes in his books. I think it was 'Wine of Youth' had a a whole short story about a baseball player who leaves home with a friend to become a big time baseball player. The naivety and enthuthiasm of the two children as they travel the box cars to fulfill this dream made me smile...it reminded me of my un-realistic chidhood dreams to become a pro-football player. At that age you think anything is possible, you really think you can make it but then the pessimism of teenagehood creeps in and destroys everything.

I love 'Wine of Youth', I could relate to so many of the stories. Man I wish there was a Fante forum like this one, but there's nothing!

There's just such a purity and truth to his work, isn't there? He really wrote from the heart. Another reason to love Bukowski is that he introduced me to this other great writer in John Fante.

Yeah it's like he doesn't mull over thoughts or feelings, they just go straight to paper from his heart regardless of how absurd or irrational they might appear at first, but it's the honesty is something that strikes me, more so than in Bukowski's novels.

I actually did it all the other way round. I came across 'Ask The Dust', got into Fante then after reading Buk's intro to 'Ask The Dust' gave him a shot. I love them both for the similar reasons, yet they are quite different. I couldn't name my fave Fante book as I love them all, but there's something about 'Dreams from Bunker Hill' that stays on my mind, maybe it was the circumstances it was written under but it got me that book.

Ooops, sorry for polluting the baseball thread everyone! my bad.