Shake, shake, shake

I was surfing the net during lunch hour today and came across JoseCanseco.com, a self-promoting pile of interwebal garbage. You can even win a day with Canseco!

Remember when this guy was a sure Hall of Famer, a member of the Bash Brothers and the A's mini dynasty at the end of the eighties? The guy ended his career with 462 homers. Granted, those were juiced homers, but we'll never know how many he would have hit without the stuff. He hit 91 in his first four seasons when he was still a scrawny dude, so who knows? Just another of the many what-could-have-beens.

I was in sixth grade when the A's went to the series in '88. All of the boys in my class were wearing A's caps at the time, and, well, I wanted one, too, so my mom found a mesh one for me. Back then, wearing baseball caps to school was ok, because baseball caps stood for baseball teams and not gangs.

I remember the '88 Series quite well, which is strange, because I don't remember the '87 Series at all. I guess my twelve year old brain had finally developed some capacity for memory by then. I remember Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, and Terry Steinbach as much as I remember Canseco and McGwire. What a team.

Of course, the '89 Series was even more memorable because of the earthquake. Strange coincidence (fate?) how the two Bay teams were playing in that Series. My mother was having a Tupperware or Home Interiors party or one of those types of things and I was in my bedroom, where I had been permitted to have the television so I could watch the game. I remember Al Michaels talking about the Series when suddenly someone said "Oh my god" and then Michaels said something like "I'm telling you, we're having an..." before we lost the feed. When it came back (I think they played some television show before it did) and I found out what had happened, I remember feeling something like I was watching the Apocalypse. Al Michaels was awesome - I think he won an Emmy or something like that for his account of what he saw at Candlestick. (It's a shame he doesn't do baseball anymore.)

It was a traumatic experience for a kid who'd never before witnessed the horrors that the real world had to offer. I cut out every article from the Dayton Daily News about the quake for weeks and pasted it into a yellow notebook, which I still have today. Then again, these were pre-themediaisinsane days and live coverage of disasters was not something that happened everyday, which helped viewers feel the magnitude of the catastrophe. Today it kind of feels like we're immune to such things.

I stopped liking the A's in 1990 when, of course, the Reds swept them in the World Series. I still like them a bit, but it's funny how they went from being THE team in baseball to a moneyball small market team.

Baseball sure has changed. Then again, so has America.
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This still cracks me up

Make sure to check out Rehab the Crab, too!


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On surrogate teams

I was born a Reds fan in the winter of 1977 when the Big Red Machine were World Series champs. I would not experience the post-season as a living, breathing soul until 1990, and I had October joy only one more time in my life after that. It may have been a blessing, however; I can't imagine many young Yankees fans can truly appreciate the game of baseball, for they don't know what it's like to hope, to have that excitement that maybe this is the year, as they've come to expect winning.

My team's lack of participation in the glory of October all these years has forced me to adopt surrogate teams to root for when October comes around. Some of these teams I have personal reasons for liking, others I root for because of their rich histories. Here's a brief rundown of the teams I root for and the reasons, before I am labeled a "frontrunner." I'll start with the teams in this year's post-season.

SAN DIEGO PADRES - I was born outside of San Diego and saw my first Reds game as a one year old at Jack Murphy Stadium.

NEW YORK METS - Though not steeped in a century of tradition, I will root for this team over others because it is the team I will root for when I finally move to New York City. I also like how the blue and orange are a combo of the Giants and Dodgers colors to fill the void left by the greed of the owners who moved the teams to California. It was blasphemy. And who didn't like Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry before they wore solid orange in another place?

MINNESOTA TWINS - Kirby Puckett and small market winners - how could you not like them?

OAKLAND A's - Bash Brothers. The mesh A's cap I still have was stuck to my head until the Reds put an end to that. Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersly - what more could you ask for?

DETROIT TIGERS - See this post.

BOSTON RED SOX - The anti-Yankees. Have you ever been to Fenway Park? Have you ever seen the whole city wearing Red Sox gear, even on their ties with their suits? One of my goals in life is to have season tickets to Fenway for a summer.

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES - 1993 - Darren Daulton, John Kruk, Lenny Dykstra, Mitch Williams, Curt Schilling.

CLEVELAND INDIANS - Ohio comrades. All of those great years during the nineties were fun to watch with Thome, Manny, and Vizquel.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES - Spent my first two years in DC watching them. Cal Ripken. Brooks Robinson.

CHICAGO CUBS - Yeah, Reds fans hate them for some reason. They are in our division, I know, but it's only been 12 years, and there's never been any competition between them. Ryne Sandberg was one of my favorite players - I collected all of his baseball cards. Wrigley field is Heaven. Except for their crappy hotdogs.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS and WASHINGTON NATIONALS - I've lived in these places and root for these teams at all times, except when they are playing the Reds.

Do you have surrogate teams? Who are they? Why do you like them? (Non-New Yorker Yankees "fans" will be subjected to voodoo.)

Go Tigers!

The loneliest player

I am watching the hated Yankees-A's game right now. In the space where commercials are on, they are simply showing Jason Kendall receiving warmup pitches, an overhead solo shot of the back of the catcher wearing his tools of ignorance. Most of the mics in the booth are turned off, but you can faintly hear the crowd, and The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony (such fond college memories) is playing in the background. It's a pretty awesome picture; something about it moves me, like it is a work of art.

It takes a certain kind of person to be a catcher. You don't quite fit in with the position players, but you don't fit in with the pitchers either. Even though a good catcher is in control of the whole game, it can be a lonely place behind the plate.

I was a catcher once upon a time, all because no one else wanted to play the brutal position. As a kid, I had been on track to most likely play third base, but in eighth grade, no one would don the gear, so I voluteered. I was a catcher for the next five years on some pretty good teams (even once got to go to Australia for an international tournament.) I have a slighty crooked right index finger from foul balls hitting my throwing hand.

Respect all catchers - they have the toughest job on the field. Go A's. At least for this series.

Frank Thomas doesn't look right in a green uniform.

Update: Oh yeah, Yanks lose in the bottom on the ninth.