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| Sideburns sharper than the razor that sculpted them. |
I go to a bunch of Jays games. Each time, I empty my loose change to get random retro Blue Jay baseball cards from the vending machine. When I was a kid I remember these cards were some of my most prized possessions. Now they are 25 cents.This is, of course, exactly what needed to happen. I myself have bought old Blue Jays singles for a quarter from many a 500-level vending machine. Now, I buy old Topps team sets for no money on eBay, and can't believe my luck -- like seriously can't believe it -- when they even include cards from the Traded/Update series.
So yeah, what I was saying is that Retro Jays Cards interests me right now much, much more than the fact that the Blue Jays just traded, Nestor Molina, a hot Double-A pitching prospect with an amazing name, for young, quite possibly legit, eminently affordable closer Sergio Santos, even though that is totally a move worth thinking about. But in the offseason, for whatever reason, I am not at all about the future; I am in fact all about the past. I could grope around trying to explain why that might be, or I could just quote Roger Angell and save us all a lot of trouble:
Baseball has one saving grace that distinguishes it -- for me, at any rate -- from every other sport. Because of its pace, and thus the perfectly observed balance, both physical and psychological, between opposing forces, its clean lines can be restored in retrospect. This inner game -- baseball in the mind -- has no season, but is best played in the winter, without the distraction of other baseball news. At first, it is a game of recollections, recapturings, and visions.And that's just at first. For more like that, I totally typed up all of "The Interior Stadium" a while ago if you'd like to read it. I read it every winter and get overcome. It's kind of pathetic, but it totally happens every winter! Give it a try!
KS
It is weird because one thing I was thinking about was listening to Nats games this coming year on the internet, but how baseball is that strange thing where you build up this database of things - listening to games, having cards, just sitting there at a game - that is like a sponge that you can wipe your fandom with somehow. It's nothing you ever get vigilant about, like you don't go around smacking people on the ass like, "FUCK YEAH BRO BASEBALL DOUBLEHEADER TONIGHT!" in the middle of the summer. It's a very weird thing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have very much avoided even looking up baseball cards on ebay because I know how that would go - like 30,000 second-tier cards to gawk at.
i am also going to read that nerd thing you just linked, later tonight, probably while laying in bed, before midnight on a Friday night, like a nerd.
ReplyDeleteonce you have uttered even a single word about baseball on the internet it is basically game over; there is no going back. you might as well just embrace it.
ReplyDeletethe thing that I love most about roger angell, other than that he is obviously the greatest sportswriter since at a. j. liebling, is that he is not at all an old man about things despite literally being a super old man: he is as excited about the game that's going to be played tomorrow and the players who are going to play it as he is about anything in the history of the game, most of which he has been around for.
idk. it's inspiring. so many people become curmudgeonly assholes by the time they're thirty, you know?
also your first comment sees through to the heart of things and is extremely true imo
Kendall, Roger Angell died . . .
ReplyDeleteGOD DAMN IT NEIL EVERY TIME YOU SAY THAT I HAVE TO CHECK
ReplyDeleteJust found this now but wanted to say thanks. I'm the guy who does Retro Jays Cards and I really appreciate the kind words. Glad to know people have been enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteGreat site!
ReplyDelete