more rambling
Apr. 12th, 2002 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanI dreamt that my grandfather was still alive. And dammit, I know there was more to the dream than that, but I can't remember.
There's some stuff I forgot in my paean to baseball yesterday. Like how, when the popular players come up to bat, the fans start cheering even as the guy is walking toward the plate. Often, by the time the announcer starts to say the guy's name, the cheering is already so loud that you can't even hear the announcer -- you sometimes wonder why he bothers. :) I think that's partly a Boston thing. Everyone says that Red Sox fans are some of the most informed, most involved fans in all of baseball. If a player says or does something stupid, in a lot of towns the fans won't even know about it because they just don't follow the news that carefully. In Boston, the very next game after the player's transgression, he'll be booed. And Boston fans have long memories. If a guy leaves the team, the next time he comes back to Fenway, he better expect to hear some booing. Heck, you should have heard how hard they were booing Chuck Knoblauch of the Kansas City Royals yesterday -- as my mom put it, "once a Yankee, always a Yankee." ;)
Another thing to love about baseball is the lingo, and listening to the commentators on the TV or radio. My favorite is the guys on WEEI radio, Jerry and Joe. They are just great. They always have something interesting or amusing to say, they know tons of people in baseball and have stories about all of them. Their jokes are funny (unlike the TV guys' jokes) and they always stay on topic. They've been calling the games together for something like ten years and they have a rhythm going, a rapport that works very smoothly. And every now and then they come up with something that's both really funny and profound, like this afternoon when Derek Jeter came up to bat and the crowd's booing was audible through the radio. Joe on the radio said, "those boos are out of respect." It sounds silly, because, booing someone to show your respect? But it's true. We have to boo Jeter; he's a Yankee! But he's also a great player and a decent person from everything you hear. There's definitely a different character to the booing for guys you respect vs. guys you hate (like Roger Clemens ;) ).
I do have some non-baseball-related stuff to say, but maybe later. First I gotta get some lunch. I can still call it lunch at 7pm, right?
There's some stuff I forgot in my paean to baseball yesterday. Like how, when the popular players come up to bat, the fans start cheering even as the guy is walking toward the plate. Often, by the time the announcer starts to say the guy's name, the cheering is already so loud that you can't even hear the announcer -- you sometimes wonder why he bothers. :) I think that's partly a Boston thing. Everyone says that Red Sox fans are some of the most informed, most involved fans in all of baseball. If a player says or does something stupid, in a lot of towns the fans won't even know about it because they just don't follow the news that carefully. In Boston, the very next game after the player's transgression, he'll be booed. And Boston fans have long memories. If a guy leaves the team, the next time he comes back to Fenway, he better expect to hear some booing. Heck, you should have heard how hard they were booing Chuck Knoblauch of the Kansas City Royals yesterday -- as my mom put it, "once a Yankee, always a Yankee." ;)
Another thing to love about baseball is the lingo, and listening to the commentators on the TV or radio. My favorite is the guys on WEEI radio, Jerry and Joe. They are just great. They always have something interesting or amusing to say, they know tons of people in baseball and have stories about all of them. Their jokes are funny (unlike the TV guys' jokes) and they always stay on topic. They've been calling the games together for something like ten years and they have a rhythm going, a rapport that works very smoothly. And every now and then they come up with something that's both really funny and profound, like this afternoon when Derek Jeter came up to bat and the crowd's booing was audible through the radio. Joe on the radio said, "those boos are out of respect." It sounds silly, because, booing someone to show your respect? But it's true. We have to boo Jeter; he's a Yankee! But he's also a great player and a decent person from everything you hear. There's definitely a different character to the booing for guys you respect vs. guys you hate (like Roger Clemens ;) ).
I do have some non-baseball-related stuff to say, but maybe later. First I gotta get some lunch. I can still call it lunch at 7pm, right?
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I don't even know you but...
Date: 2002-04-13 04:46 pm (UTC)Random remark. But still.
Re: I don't even know you but...
Date: 2002-04-16 10:18 pm (UTC)I know what you mean about the 75%. I *like* that in Boston a player's performance (both on and off the field) yesterday affects the reception he gets today. It even extends to our players; if he made an important play yesterday, he gets extra cheers today. A couple years ago, we had a Sox player who got arrested for beating his wife, and by the very next day he was being booed at Fenway. In a lot of towns, the fans wouldn't even have heard about it, or wouldn't care.
Re: I don't even know you but...
Date: 2002-04-17 09:56 pm (UTC)