Category Archives: Thinking

More Zen: In Search of Quality in Baseball

Continuing the Chatauqua I began a few weeks ago with the examination of the now-rejuvenated Chone Figgins, I’d like to ride along with Phaedrus, the protagonist of Robert Pirsig’s novel, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The first part … Continue reading

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Jeff Blauser Should be in the Hall of Fame

I saw this headline on Google News: Voting for Hall of Fame too complicated these days I so badly wanted the enclosed article to be about the convoluted and absurd process of electing members to the Baseball Hall of Fame … Continue reading

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Why I Want the Rangers to Win the World Series

Sometimes it takes the games starting for the compass needle in my heart to flicker and point me to my true north. My true north this year lies a few miles outside of Dallas. In other words, I want the … Continue reading

Posted in Talking Baseball, Teams, Thinking | 3 Comments

Why I Write (About Baseball)

Recently I sat amidst the fog of a Seattle summer morning and read a short essay by George Orwell entitled “Why I Write”.  Like Orwell, I recognized at a young age that I was a writer whether I actually wrote … Continue reading

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Style, Sin, and Matt Kemp

Matt Kemp might be the most exciting player in baseball. He has two less home runs than Jose Bautista. He has as many stolen bases as Ichiro. He plays center field (not exceptionally well, according to advanced statistics, but with … Continue reading

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Nothing is Frivolous

When I first met Clay Huntington, he was only my friend Janelle’s grandfather. He seemed like an important man. He sat in the press box at Mariners games. He drove a red Crown Victoria. He had something – I didn’t … Continue reading

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The Angel of Life

I turned on NPR yesterday to hear a couple of people who were not Frank Deford talking about the Dodgers being taken over by Major League Baseball. If you weren’t aware, the Dodgers have been taken over by Major League … Continue reading

Posted in Myth, Thinking | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Milton Bradley Revisited

I’m getting to be like a concerned parent with all this Milton Bradley stuff. My friend Brett (who blogs about the Mariners’ AAA affiliate Rainiers for alt-weekly Tacoma Volcano), said he can barely stand to watch Milton Bradley play. Brett … Continue reading

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An Unpretentious Jovial Appreciation for Everything

Mike Sweeney never hit 30 homeruns in a season. For this and many other reasons, he was the kind of ballplayer children with big league dreams but a strong sense of their own limitations could aspire to be. If you … Continue reading

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What I Learned from Scorekeeping Week

What did I learn from Scorekeeping Week, after baseball fans of different stripes and styles weighed in on their scorekeeping tics and habits? I learned, mostly, that a scorecard is a living text, and that the act of scorekeeping far … Continue reading

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