Baseball In the Time of Coronavirus

At the end of July, into early-August, I took a trip that included a couple of baseball games and destinations in-between. It was a weak substitute for the four or five trips Melvin and I once planned for the 2020 season.

dinosaurs everywhere, not just in Florida

For one, Melvin wasn't there. And this wasn't professional baseball but a collegiate summer league. Finally, almost every stop I made that weekend was by necessity outdoors and isolated from other people.

Its like a season-long rain delay.

When MiLB President and CEO Pat O'Connor announced on Tuesday that the 2020 season is canceled, he was only making official what has been long anticipated.

What is especially disappointing for Melvin and me is we hoped this would be the year when we could say, however briefly, "We have seen every stadium and team in affiliated baseball."

Dinosaurs and More Along Interstate 4

Before the Coronavirus put major and minor league baseball on hold (at best), Melvin planned to return to Florida on his own this weekend to see the Dunedin Blue Jays and Florida Fire Frogs at, respectively, their renovated and new stadiums.

When Melvin told me about his planned jaunt, I thought that might be a timely occasion for me to revisit my 2013 solo trip to the Sunshine State. The fact that he ultimately stayed home seemed insufficient reason for me to abandon the concept. After all, everyone else is broadcasting games of yesteryear.

Happy they were; April 17-21, 2013

It was a compact trip; seven games in five days and four nights. It was also a very enjoyable itinerary, which made me hesitant to write about it at the time. Questioning if there was anything in Florida worth seeing, Melvin opted out. How awkward, then, to report that those five days were pretty awesome.

Jackie Robinson Day 2020

Today is Jackie Robinson Day. Like so many events right now that are usually celebrated in person, we will need to go online to collectively observe the date when Jack Roosevelt Robinson broke into the major leagues in 1947.

Like Jackie in Game 1 of the 1955 World Series, lots of you are safe at home, preventing the spread of the Coronavirus. And if you are an "essential worker," thank you for your service. You don't need to wear a hospital gown or a uniform (or 42 on your jersey) to be a hero.

Joe Henry is not dead

Or, the Baseball Byways winter meeting.

Yorkville

Melvin, Watson and I met in Chicago to see singer-songwriter-producer Joe Henry at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Joe performed half of his new album, The Gospel According to Water. From memory (and not in this order) we recall hearing "Famine Walk," the title track, "Mule," "Orson Welles," "In Time For Tomorrow," "The Fact Of Love" and "Bloom."

He also played the title track from Trampoline (1996), "Odetta" from Reverie (2011) and for his encore, "Gentle on My Mind," the 1967 Grammy award winner made popular by Glen Campbell, and "Don't Let Your Baby Down" (John Prine, 1980). Of course, what mattered is not what Joe played but that he did.

Moving the Goal Posts at the Jackie Robinson Museum

Originally announced to open in 2010, the anticipated debut of the Jackie Robinson Museum was revised a year ago to December 2019. I recently went to the Jackie Robinson Foundation's website and the museum is now—

PDX & PHX

At the end of September, I visited my father outside of Portland, Oregon, where many people refer to the city by its airport code as if coming and going by air was the Number One recreational activity. (I already know their favorite pastime isn't going to see professional baseball.) Maybe it's the "iconic" carpet.

"The iconic PDX Carpet in December 2014," by Travis Thurston, used through Creative Commons license.

As Dad gets older, the visits get shorter, too short now to justify the indignities and cost of cross-country travel. I invited Melvin to meet me in Phoenix to round out the trip with some Arizona Fall League action. And while I am making music for airports, there is no harbor in the sky or anywhere else at PHX, which is of course in a desert.

The Word Is Not "Playoffs"

Well, it came to an end for the Mets today, eliminated from the hunt in the last week of the season—which really is not a shameful condition, all told. It reminded me of the more positive (albeit somewhat generic) prognosis that we got from a Mets semi-legend back in July. While he was here, he also helped us explore the wonderful regions of Port Said.... As the man says, peace out, Flushing!

Are You ... Dick Kryhoski?

Looking out the window of a B41 bus, I spotted a car* with a New York Yankees custom license plate personalized with, "23 1B." It reminded me of Melvin's post, "Are you ... Tony Campana?"

$91.25 initially if personalized, $62.50 annually on renewal.

According to Baseball Almanac, five Yankee first basemen wore number 23. Oddly, two of them did so in the same season, 1949, when the Yankees won the final two games of the season against the Red Sox to become the American League Champions. The team then beat the Dodgers in five games to win the World Series.

Wild West Virginia

Who—or what—exactly is buried here? (Wytheville, Va.)

Happy belated birthday, Murica! Rob and I celebrated the occasion by observing the many contradictory qualities of this alternately great and appalling nation, at least to the extent they were evident in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia. On our earlier trip to Florida, Rob had posited that it isn't possible today for someone to say "Murica" without some kind of ironic self-consciousness. I disagreed, saying that lack of ironic self-consciousness is precisely what's being revealed. Did our trip to Greater Appalachia resolve or illuminate this question in any way? Greater minds than ours—i.e., yours—will have to decide.

Now, come on in and let's have some real fun again!