“Wonder and Wander”

The days of late May and early June are glorious days of wonder, and while the weather is so wonderful, one cannot help but allow their thoughts to wander…

Two Down, Two To Go: Anaheim is halfway to bringing a Cup to the OC after last night’s 1-0 thriller. Sammy Pahlsson scored the Ducks’ lone goal. Were it not for Ray Emery’s splendid performance in goal for Ottawa, the score may’ve been 5-0. Sammy Pahlsson…if that name rings a bell for Bruins fans it’s because he was one of the warm bodies the B’s picked up for trading Ray Bourque to Colorado. So, not only did Ray get his name on the Cup but one of the guys Boston let slip away looks like he’ll be on there too. What do Bruins fans get? 35 years and counting…

Kudos to Bob Ryan for recalling one of the great Red Sox games on May 28, 1971. The buzz around the park was amazing at a time when the post-67 hysteria faded and the mid-70’s hysteria had yet to be heard. You can find the box score here.

Baseball people have quite a bit to say about the latest A-Rod stunt (ON THE FIELD) last night in Toronto. Maybe it’s poor etiquette, but dirty baseball, hardly. Guys like John McGraw, Leo Durocher and Tyrus Cobb would piss their pants with laughter at the idea that a baserunner yelling, “I got it!” constitutes poor sportsmanship. It’s not as blatant as what he did in the 2004 ALCS (when he was caught trying to slap the ball out of Arroyo’s glove on a bang-bang play at first). This latest stunt falls into the murky “gray area” of the game. Stupid, yes; Illegal, no.

During the Red Sox-Yankees series last week, Dustin Pedroia made a lot of noise about A-Rod’s rough play while breaking up a sure-fire 6-4-3 double play. No one must have ever explained the “Leo Durocher Double Play Theory” to the rookie. When a second baseman grabs the ball, steps on the bag and begins to make the transfer to throw to the first baseman, if the runner from first appears intent on breaking up the play, then it is incumbent on said infielder to throw to first at approximately the same height as is the runner’s head. It’s been working well for over a hundred years.

Baseball has a long-standing tradition of players sliding high with sharp spikes and drilling opponents in the ribs with fastballs to make a point. Those guys would’ve stopped at nothing to win. Durocher would have lackeys with telescopes stealing opponents’ signs from the Polo Grounds scoreboard. The players’ union and agents have created an atmosphere where opponents laugh and joke with one another during the course of a ballgame, as if they’re all members of a august club who just happen to perform in different cities. I wonder what Bob Gibson would say about that…the Jays simply had the RA (red ass) going because they were getting clubbed. If the players want an atmosphere like a beer-league softball game after work, perhaps they should be compensated accordingly. No one is suggesting that today’s ballplayers don’t work as hard as in days of old. It’s seems that along with the big money there has been a corresponding lack of hunger and determination that was the norm in the ballplayers of generations past.

The psychology of baseball requires a steady, even mindset in order to endure the rigors of a long season. Nevertheless, the principle of competition and respect for the endeavor requires a team to do whatever is necessary within the rules to win. Some guys, like the aforementioned A-Rod try to bend the rules to the breaking point and engender substantial ill will. It’s too bad, because Alex Rodriguez is the finest baseball player on Planet Earth and will go down in history as one of the Game’s greatest. The problem is that it’s not happening in New York, nor will it work out for him there. He has an “out clause” in his contract that for a lot of personal/professional reasons he ought to consider exercising. The Southern California teams and the laid back environment would afford him the opportunity to excel without having to endure the prevalent demands of playing in the East.

Thank goodness that MLB’s no longer the only game in town. With late May comes the arrival of the independent Can-Am League and the return of The North Shore Spirit. While the “Fenway Experience” practically requires taking out a second mortgage for the proverbial family of four, there is a genuine alternative for baseball lovers in the area: independent baseball. The Can-Am League features ballplayers who have petered out of other major league organizations and are looking to play their way back in. The quality of baseball is somewhere between the Single-A and Double-A levels. There are presently many Spirit alumni whose contracts were sold to major league organizations, and one player who has graduated to the majors.

Moreover, the atmosphere at Fraser Field is great and highly entertaining, especially for kids. The stands are clean, tickets affordable and the park is beautiful, a far cry from twenty-five years ago when Lynn was a Double-A Eastern League affiliate of Seattle and then Pittsburgh. The park was an atrocious dump then. Over the past few seasons, the Spirit have caught on locally to the point where their ballgames are broadcast over a Boston radio outlet. So far, the team is doing OK in the early going and hopefully they’ll make the playoffs come September.