Author: fartheroffthewall

The book: “Why Baseball Matters”
The author: Susan Jacoby
How to find it: Yale University Press, 224 pages, $25, released March 20
The links: To Amazon.com and Yale University Press.

Our review in 90-feet or less: America needs baseball’s virtues more than ever.
That was the headline on an L.A. Times op-ed piece last week published on Thursday’s Opening Day by John R. Bawden, an associate professor of history at the University of Montevallo in Alabama, just south of Birmingham.
“MLB franchises are businesses designed to make money, but even the league’s distasteful attempts at spectacle — like halftime shows at the MLB Homerun Derby — cannot overwhelm the substance of our national pastime,” he wrote. “At a moment when post-truth politics poisons our discourse, opening day can’t get here soon enough.”
Rebuttal? The next day, read what Paul Moser III from Palm Desert wrote:
“John R. Bawden is rhapsodizing about an idealized pipe dream of baseball. The game is no longer America’s pastime; it is the wealthy elite’s pastime. Prices for tickets, parking and concessions have risen far beyond the working-class father’s ability to take his wife and two kids to a game.
“The Dodgers have pulled their games from broadcast TV and sold the rights to cable television for billions of dollars. No longer do we see Dodgers vs. Giants games on our local TV channels. No longer do most of us see Dodgers vs. Giants games at all. They are reserved for those who can pay the steep price of admission.
“Walter O’Malley is spinning in his grave. I propose that we let this former national pastime die of its own greed and replace it with something more egalitarian. Soccer, anyone?”
Both statements have merit. We can even discuss them philosophically, societal and just plain small talk between innings of a game we’re attending.
(Even if it’s hard to trust anyone who writes “homerun” as one word for knowing much about baseball.)
Continue reading “Day 1 of 30 baseball book reviews for 2018: So ‘if’ baseball matters … wait, as a matter of fact, baseball ‘does’ matter … and thanks for asking” →

The latest sports media post picked up by the Southern California News Group takes an extended Q-and-A with ESPN’s new “Sunday Night Baseball” play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian and attempts to explain better his role with the franchise that now includes Alex Rodriguez and Jessica Mendoza.
In addition to what’s in the version online, we have a few interesting outtakes to put out here:

Q: You have no Twitter account. Do you stay away from social media? Is it like having a loaded gun that can only cause you harm?

A: No, my reluctance to being on there is that I am keenly aware of what I would post if I were to be on there. I guess it’s a reaction to what I see by a lot of peers in the business who are more concerned with the number of followers and responses and likes than they are the actual job they were hired for. The unfortunate part for me is we’re all being judged now by Twitter followers. I’ve been in the office even of some old-school executives who upon talking about adding new talent, the first thing they do is go to Twitter to see what the account looks like and how many followers there are. Really? Even you?

Q: And read the kinds of things they tweet about, and determine if they’re too toxic to have around?

A: I think they do that, but anybody can clean themselves up on Twitter. It’s far from a perfect way to judge an applicant. I like to be a little counter cultural, so that’s my way of staying away, not to mention the access is a little creepy. I can see how it can overwhelm someone who does what I do and I don’t want to be the guy who, every time we go to commercial, looks at my phone to see ‘How did I do?’ I’ve seen a lot of that and I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.

Q: But you’re in a booth with ARod who is very social media savvy, active, accessible.

A: He’s used it well, though. I’ll give him a lot of credit. A huge part of his post-baseball redemption has been how shrewd he has been on social media. He never puts anything controversial or agitating out there. He asks a lot of questions. He posts a lot of pictures. My wife followed Alex on social media before he and I started working together because she was interested in what he was doing with his kids and with Jennifer. I think my wife is a perfect example of someone would never be interested in any baseball player under different circumstances, but he’s reached a lot of people that way. She watches him on ‘Shark Tank.’
The thing that I don’t think his detractors don’t get about him is that he has a really pure curiosity about things. He wants to learn things he doesn’t know. He wants to be finely tuned to things outside of sports. So he’s interested in finance, and photography. He’s a very interesting guy. Continue reading “Catching up with Matt Vasgersian: Even more Q&A where that came from — his no-Twitter policy, ‘The Chamber’ fiasco and Boo Radley’s house in Universal Studios” →

If it’s Thursday, March 29, it’s the earliest Opening Day in MLB history.
It just feels …. Different.
Why?
Maybe we figured it out a little bit when we got a note this week from one our favorite guys, Lou Schiff — the Honorable Louis H. Schiff, to be proper, a Broward County Court judge in Florida. We first connected when we received a 1,000-plus page book he co-authored, “Baseball and the Law: Cases and Materials” that we included in our 2016 30 baseball book review list, including an extensive Q&A with Lou on how this project came together. The book even mentioned a story we did on one of the cases cited — no doubt why it won the 2017 Baseball Research Award by the Society for American Baseball Research.
Judge Schiff  just sent us an email. We thought it was worth passing along as Opening Day is here:

    Today is Opening Day, so it’s time for my annual Opening Day letter.  (Opening Day is a proper noun, like Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Mother’s Day, so it gets capitalized.  Opening Day is my favorite day of the year, even better than my birthday, because some years there is no home game on June 3.)
Opening Day ’18 doesn’t seem to have the same magic or excitement as in past years.  Usually I write about how much I feel like a kid again, waking up at 4 am to go to the game.  The excitement of going to the game knowing that baseball is back, and, if only for a day, the Marlins are tied for first place.  Baseball has always brought me a certain joy and comfort.   Each year I write about the family memories of going to Opening Day with my wife, children, Dad, or brother.
Opening Day is the beginning of a new chapter of life.  This year, Opening Day brings an end to a wonderful chapter.  This year I will again write about family memories, but this year, it will be all about Mom.  Mom passed away on the 15th of March, peacefully, at home, as she slept.  Eighty-nine wonderful years, 65 of those years with Dad.
So, this is a different Opening Day.  This is a day of reflection, of giving thanks and remembering, and of feeling and being loved.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Opening Day I attended, thanks to Mom.  I was 2 months shy of my 13th birthday and I wanted to go to Opening Day at Shea with a friend.  Dad was against it.  Mom, on the other hand, was willing to listen.
After I showed her the plan, getting to and from the game on the Long Island Rail Road, she convinced my dad that I was responsible for the 50 mile round-trip adventure.  She packed me a lunch and told me to take a few extra dimes to call her if there were any problems.  I ate the lunch, used only 1 dime to call her to pick us up when we got back to the Bellmore railroad station after the game.
Mom always gave me opportunities to experience life, even when she may not have wanted me to do something.  She trusted me like no other person.  She always gave me the opportunity to do something new.  She encouraged me to try different things.
So today is about a celebration.  Today it is not about baseball, today is all about my Mom.  She always allowed me to do things that she may not have wanted me to do.  She gave me confidence to succeed and the love and warmth needed to go on a journey.  Today, I will take her to Opening Day with me in my heart, and an extra dime in my pocket to call her if there are any problems.
Hug your family, especially your mom.
Lou

Thanks to the Clippers for being the first official NBA/pop culture gear provider to “The Drill” — We will display it in full force once we get more wall space and drop a few pounds. It was a nice compliment to the unveiling of a vintage 1970s Lakers “Team Attendant” shirt we dug up from the archives.
For Episode 4, recorded Tuesday morning March 27, we have references here that you may not fully understand, starting with:

* Jon has an imitation we thought sounded more like Jim Gaffigan instead of
Andy Rooney but now we see why.
* A reference to Nobu (good luck getting reservations)
* Dwight Howard didn’t like the love he got in L.A? His loss.

* The 1988 movie “Big” with Tom Hanks, which has the fortune predictor Zoltar as a main character.  Not to be mistaken with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who signed with the Galaxy. Zlatan’s full-page ad was discussed here at TMZ.com.
* Will Zlatan be as effective in L.A. as Johan Cruyff, George Best or David Beckham?
* Your Lancaster Jethawks start the season soon.
* The Rams sign Ndamukong Suh. Will they also get Odell Beckham Jr.?
* More background on Loyola of Chicago in the Final Four.
* More about the Dana Jacobson/Leonard Hamilton post-game interview situation after the Florida State loss to Michigan.
* What, the Redondo Beach Cafe has changed owners?
* Another reference to illustrator Jim Thompson, (Twitter @JimmySportTtoons) and the new drawing he has fashioned for Beto Duran:

* What would it take Beto Duran to become the official mayor of Carson?
* When we start talking about how get around in L.A., we don’t want to sound like “The Californians.”
* As we spun some tales about the 45th anniversary of the Bill Walton NCAA championship game in 1973 against Memphis, we have this video… Watch and learn kids:

Perhaps we’ll have a “Show and Tell” segment now each show … Or as my son suggests, “Catholic Tom’s Confession Time.” Whatever cleanses the soul.
Thanks for watching. You can also find it at Facebook.com.

Since the launch of this 30-for-30 project in 2008, and with no hopes of it continuing to be “a thing” in 2018, we come flying feet first at somewhat of a crossroads in the annual list of 30 baseball book reviews during the 30 days of April.
The first 10 years of this project was supported by editors at the Southern California News Group, and we were able to expand upon it for some interesting author Q-and-As for the weekly sports media column.
Since cutbacks have unfortunately occurred in the ‘Group – nothing different from other media organizations struggling with survival in a changing technical world – we’re left to our devices and take this on as a solo project, with this new platform, launching this Sunday, hoping enough will be able to find and enjoy it by the time it wraps up.
For some perspective, here’s what we covered in the previous 10 seasons:
= From 2017
= From 2016
= From 2015
= From 2014
= From 2013
= From 2012
= From 2011
= From 2010
= From 2009
= From 2008 : Actually, where ever the original list once existed, we can’t find it.)
There’s also this explanation we once gave to Ron Kaplan as to why we even try this. And thanks again to some guidance from Ron and others. Thanks too to the recent support from Wendy Parker from her SportsBiblio.com, and her recent list of baseball books to look out for, many of which we will cover as well.