Suggested Soundtrack: “Ghost,” 9-1-17, Commerce City, CO
Good morning and welcome to the unofficial close of summer. Even in the Era of COVID, fall is right around the corner and while the playoff races are heating up in MLB, it feels like we just got started. Because we did.
Thank you for your patience and indulgence with last week’s entry. I only lost 1 subscriber which is fewer than I thought I might.
This week, I’m trying to move back into a normal schedule, whatever that is. I was hoping to make this a more regular thing but then the pandemic happened and Phish tour was canceled and the baseball season didn’t start until the end of July. And, then, I’ve been a bit all over the place in terms of writing.
I wish I could say I’ve been super busy but mostly I’ve been watching baseball, working, crawling up the walls, and making a lot of headway on the Untitled Long-Term Project (if you’re reading this and you’re a literary agent in search of a book about the intersection of baseball and American culture in the 21st Century OR some hot Jay Buhner Fan Fiction, hit me up, bb).
Equipment issues are also getting ironed out so at least from here on out this will be more regular and some more Phish/Basbeall crossover content is coming, I promise (that can also be construed as a threat, depending on your point of view).
But for this week, I wanted to try to catch up on some of my favorite recent things of the 2020 season. There have certainly been plenty of downer stories — Thom Brenneman’s horrific homophobic hot mic moment, Mike Cleveniger’s bush league behavior, the continuing pandemic — but I wanted to focus on a handful of things that have brought me joy during this weird, surreal season.
(A quick aside: as I was writing this Wednesday night, word of Tom Seaver’s death hit the news, and I’d be remiss in not throwing up an RIP for one of the game’s all-time great pitchers.)
Let’s get to it.
So. Much. Baseball.
One of the difficulties in playing during is that there are constant shutdowns due to positive COVID-19 tests. Two big outbreaks with the Cardinals and Marlins threw a lot of schedules off; 38 games have been affected, including this week’s A’s-Mariners series. And those games don’t just affect the team with the positive tests, they affect other team’s schedules, too. For instance, the Cards and Cubs played 5 games in 3 days to make up some ground.
As a result, there have been just three days so far this season on which all 30 MLB teams have played: July 25, July 26, and August 29. That’s pretty crazy given that we’re generally guaranteed all 30 teams playing at least 3-4 days a week during a non-pandemic season.
Things could get WILD on Friday, then, when there are currently *20* games on the slate. 20! Between weather, COVID, and the Jacob Blake-related cancelations, there will be 5 doubleheaders played Friday with the first game starting just after 2pm and the final game getting underway around 9:45pm.
Additionally, there are 17 games (2 doubleheaders) on the docket for Saturday and a normal 15-game slate for Sunday. Will this smorgasbord of baseball — 52 games over 3 days — actually happen? My spidey-sense says no because something is bound to come up, be it rain or COVID.
I can’t wait to inhale it all because even if it feels like we’re just getting started, these games will be gone pretty soon.
The Rise of Fernando Tatis, Jr.
And if you’re going to watch baseball this weekend, make time for the Padres and Fernando Tatis, Jr. His rise isn’t really a surprise; he’s been pegged as the Next Big Thing for a bit. But it’s how he’s delivered that’s really been so exciting. He is absodamnlutely thrilling to watch at any given time, be it at the plate…
…and in the field.
Plus, he’s single-handedly murdering the dumbest of the “unwritten rules,” starting with that grand slam on a 3-0 pitch when the Dads were already crushing the Rangers. Even Tatis’ own manager threw him under the bus but the court of public opinion is clearly on Tatis’ side.
Let the kid play. He’s electric.
The Dads are GOING For It
Speaking of the Padres, they went ALL IN on this year’s weird trade deadline and, screw it, I’m in. Save me your Bill-Simmons-Sports-Bigamy rants; my heart is with the Cubs. But I’m gonna root for other players and teams, too, and watching late Padres games or (more often) the condensed games/highlights the next morning has become habit for me this summer. I’ve definitely adopted the Padres as another team to root for because why not?
I love Tatis, rookie Jake Cronenworth has been fantastic, and even though I’m pretty meh on the aforementioned Clevinger because of his shenanigans, I have to tip my hat to GM AJ Preller for going all out at the deadline after flexing those trading muscles for years. Clearly a 2020 World Series matters just as much as a full season championship to Preller.
Playoff Bubble
Speaking of a championship, the idea of a “bubble” format for at least the final rounds of the playoffs seems more and more likely and I’m alright with it. It keeps the players safer and, well, at this point, why the hell not? At least one prominent baseball columnist said the bubble prospect “ruined” the 2020 trade deadline buuuuuuut that’s a bad take and I’m not linking to it.
Surprise Teams In The Playoffs
Back at the beginning of the season, I mentioned I was looking forward to a surprise surge team. Well, now that we’re over halfway through the season and we know that 8 teams (the top 2 from each division and two wild cards) will make the playoffs from each league, we’ve got a few contenders*!
(* - as of the evening of Wednesday, September 5, when this was written)
In the AL, we’re talking about Minnesota (who’s good and will likely make it), the Buffalonto Blue Jays (a mild surprise), the Detroit Tigers (!!!!), and the Baltimore Orioles (!!!!!!!!). The Tigers and Orioles combined for just 101 wins total in 2019, less than the Astros (107), Dodgers (106), Yankees (103) and the same as the Twins. And, yet, at least one of those teams could claw their way into the playoffs this season.
Meanwhile, in the NL, the surprise teams lurking for the wild card bids are the Rockies (!), Giants (!!), and Marlins (!!!!!!). None of those 3 teams were in the playoff conversation heading into the season, particularly the Giants or Marlins.
Take out the Twins and those remaining 6 teams in contention as mentioned above were all in the lower third of World Series odds heading into the season. (While the Padres were pretty middling in terms of those odds, their breakthrough shouldn’t come as a HUGE shock given the sheer amount talent.)
Will any of those teams actually pull off an upset in the best-two-out-of-three first round? It’s entirely possible and I am already excited to watch Twitter explode.
Daniel Bard’s Comeback
Bard is the feel-good story on the field this year. If you don’t know his story, here’s the TL;DR version:
Bard was a pretty decent pitching prospect for the Red Sox in the aughts with a solid run in the bigs from 2009-2011 before he flamed out in 2012 and 2013. He bounced around the minors for a few seasons but, going into this season, hadn’t pitched in an MLB game since 2013. He made a comeback this season with the Rockies and he’s been (mostly) terrific out of the bullpen. Sure, he’s had some ups and downs, but he’s been pretty good overall and his last 3 appearances (as of this writing) have been Save-Save-Win.
There’s a decent chance Bard plays a key role in the playoffs for Colorado and that’s going to be a hell of a storyline.
Baseball Books
I love to read and my brother-in-law blessed me a few weeks ago by clueing me into a sale being put on by the University of Nebraska Press which is a baseball publishing powerhouse (thinking face emoji). So I dropped some change and came up with this haul.
I’ve already read Summer Baseball Nation — about the collegiate wood-bat leagues across the country — and I enjoyed it. I wished there had been more exploration of the players’ experiences and more about the host families and what the routine of the summer is like for those kids, but it was still a fun read. I’m excited to check out nearby games (SANDUSKY!) when these leagues crank up again; it also includes the Midnight Sun game up in Fairbanks, a permanent resident on my baseball bucket list.
Next up: a biography of underappreciated Black baseball legend Oscar Charleston, then back to the stack.
Stadium Cutouts and Stuffed Animals
Okay, they’re kinda goofy but they’re also really fun. Big ups to teams who have rolled these out and a side-eye to the teams that haven’t (looking at you, Cubs). My favorite cutout/seat-filler fun comes courtesy of Oakland.
But don’t worry! The bear was fine!
Also, I myself got a cutout inside Progressive Field thanks to the aforementioned brother-in-law. (Again, Cubs, I’d much rather have a cutout in Wrigley but certainly happy to support the Cleveland Baseball Team as a resident.)
At least I’m kind of seeing professional baseball games in person in 2020.
The Philly Phandemic
Finally, leave it to Philly to make the best of a weird season. The Phillies ballpark, like a lot of MLB parks, has a part where you can actually sorta see the field from outside the stadium. (Cleveland has a big spot like this in left field, for instance.) In Philly, fans have to use a ladder and only a few at a time can actually see the field while other gathered fans can watch the game on stadium flatscreens that are broadcasting the TV feed to no one.
But that hasn’t discouraged this group of Phillies fans, dubbed the Phandemic crew, who gathered to watch the team’s games against the Yankees and were so loud they got the Yankees to complain.
Jah bless, Phillies fans. No matter what else is happening in the world, you never change and I love you for it, airhorns and all.