Sunday diversion / big day in sports

all day screen fest
It does not happen this way every Sunday, but for real fans today there are games to watch at noon, 3, 6 and 9, from the East Coast, to America’s so-called heartland, finishing on the West Coast. Sadly, I have too much work to watch it all, but hope to catch the last two games. The horror is that the 4 baseball division series playoff games have to compete with … what … 16(?) NFL games. Why do they even play pro football during baseball season?? Do people still watch that?

For fans of the small round ball game, here are two recent gems from two widely separated parts of the baseball universe.

Start with a timely piece about the last guy to win “The Triple Crown”, written by a poet as an homage to the guy’s dedication. Not to his results, but to his focus on his craft*. I remember that season by The Great Yaz (after all, I am an Old Manhattan Loft Guy), but not that it was such a big deal. After all, The Mick had just done it, right?

Wonderful essay by Robert Pinsky from the New York Times on October 4, Admiring Yaz, and What Makes a Hero.

The second part of the doubleheader is from the present day about a guy just starting his (probably wonderful, hopefully long) career. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick slows down to look at the gosh-he’s-not-such-an-a$$hole-after-all phenom Bryce Harper through the eyes of his teammates over the course of the season. He should be fun to watch for a long time, especially if the bro’s keep asking him clown questions.

Do serious writers write so well about mere football players??

(*Fun fact I did not know: “he attended [Notre Dame] as a business major on a basketball scholarship”. [And I hope that article about Yaz and the padded socks was written by that young Gammons fellow.])

Play ball! With no rain, please.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012