It Begins...

It may not officially be spring yet, but the Giants pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today, which is close enough for me. That means we will soon be deluged with reports out of Scottsdale about the dazzling skills and bright futures of some Giants prospects -- whether they be accurate, or cobbled together out of sunbeams, optimism, and the laughter of children -- as well as the always-popular "He's in the best shape of his life" and "Last year's bad season was actually due to an unreported injury" stories. Not to be confused with the slightly less exciting "If you squint just right it looks like the Giants might have actually chance at contending" and of course, the de rigeur "5 Questions about the Giants" stories.

Soon (11 days), there will be actual games, which means cracks of the bat, pops of the glove, and Jon Miller, Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow on the radio. It also means some prospect/reclamation project will become the dazzling phenom who hits .460 and fools you into thinking they might contribute this year (see: Ellison, Jason). It means sore hammies, and tendonitis, and various tweaks and turns which will worry me that they'll become the next catastrophic year-ending injury a la Kevin Frandsen (Note: If a season-ending injury to Kevin Frandsen can be reasonably termed "catastrophic", your team may in fact suck").

This baseball season, the first since I started this blogamajig, I plan on writing something about the Giants each and every day -- however short and superficial it may be -- as a type of Giants Diary (or Gaints Dairy, if I'm feeling dyslexic). That likely won't start until the regular season (let's be honest, it likely won't happen at all if my prior inconsistency and lack of sticktoitiveness is any clue), but since I'm going to at least attempt to do it, I thought I should try to ramp up to that during spring training. That means posting something nearly every day during the spring to get into writing shape. I may interrupt those posts with something about entertainment -- I've been wanting to write something on the Oscars, and also the fact that 'Damages' is making a serious run at being the best show on TV this season -- but I'm going to do my best at coming up with at least one Giants-related (or at least baseball-related) piece per day. For reference, Vegas has the odds of me keeping this up all season at 1,500,000 to 1.

Baseball

Last week, I wrote about the NFL Films' show, 'America's Game', and said, "If you've never seen it, and you like football, you're missing out." Well, that goes double for Ken Burns' documentary, 'Baseball'. If you're a baseball fan, it's mandatory viewing. It's definitely the best documentary on baseball -- the history of record for the sport, really -- it might be the best documentary ever, period. Granted, it's 18 freakin' hours long (and about to get longer).

It airs on the MLB Network, one inning a week (the first covering the invention of the game and its history prior to 1900, each successive one covering a decade (2nd inning = 1900-1910, 3rd inning = 1910-1920, etc.). Tonight, I'm watching the 5th inning, about the 1940's, which might be the best one them all. Ted Williams and .406 (and the triple crown), Joe DiMaggio and the hit streak, World War II, Jackie Robinson and the color barrier, etc. The episode begins with a scene from a World War II movie where one group of soldiers overseas tests another with questions about what a "Texas Leaguer" is, and how the Brooklyn Dodgers did the previous season.

The next bit, just before the opening credits, which are always accompanied by a different rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner, really resonated with me. Baseball historian Robert Creamer describes a moment when in the army, he was listening to a World Series game, and a sargeant blew cigar smoke in his direction, and the smell took him back to Polo Grounds: "It smelled of cigar smoke, it smelled of urine, it smelled of stale popcorn. But it was my place." It's not often you hear an educated man of letters speak nostalgically about the smell of urine, but I could really relate to it. It's sort of like I feel about Candlestick Park -- it was windy, cold, ill-suited fro baseball, and the seats were too far from the field. But it was mine, and I miss it sometimes.

I think this might be representative of a larger truth about life: If you hate something hard enough, and long enough, you're bound to miss it once it's gone.

Yes, Pecan!

That's right, Ben and Jerry have done it again, perfectly capturing our country's zeitgeist in a pithy ice cream title. Yes, they have joined the crowd in saluting this new and historic era we've entered by naming an ice cream flavor after President Obama. On his show, Keith Olbermann quoted from an e-mail suggesting some names for a George Bush-inspired flavor. here are my favorites:

"Abu Grape"
"Credit Crunch"
"Heckuvajob Brownie"
"W-M-Delicious"
"George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate"

In all seriousness, it's crazy how many people are going out of their way to salute Obama in some way, naming food and drinks and babies and whatever they can think of after him, appearing on the covers of magazines like 'Entertainment Weekly', which never features politics, etc. When I was in Boulder, my buddy was drinking a batch of coffee he bought called "Obama Blend" which supposedly had beans in it which came from his father's home country.

I can't remember this much interest in any president. I don't know if that matters much -- or if the country's morale can have a real effect on tangible things like the economy -- but it sure is different. The only historical comparison I can think of is John F. Kennedy, but that's a total guess since not only had I not been born during his presidency, but my father hadn't even met my mother when he was elected (though my father was an economic adviser to JFK while he taught at MIT).

WTF?!

Remember how Roberto Alomar went from being really good to really bad in like 15 seconds? Well, we might've found a pretty good explanation. It's hard to maintain a .300 average when you have FULL BLOWN AIDS!!!

Are you kidding me? I can't believe this hasn't come out yet. How does a future Hall of Fame-type player get full-blown AIDS, have to leave the sport abruptly, have his skin turn purple, foams at the mouth, gets sores on his face, and reveals he was once raped by two Mexican men after a minor-league game, the media completely misses it until now? Are they so wrapped up in the steroids no baseball fan I know cares about, that they didn't have five minutes to spare in the last three years to run down a teeny, tiny little story about all-time great who's career was derailed by AIDS, was warned by team doctors of this, and insisted on not getting tested?

Nice going, Mainstream media! Pedro Gomez should've been all over this one. Of course, that's easy for me to say -- an unemployed guy sitting on the floor in his boxers, paging through Alomar's stats on baseball-reference.com to find the exact moment when the AIDS set in (I'm going with 2002).

A-ROID!!!

It's official -- everyone in major league baseball has taken steroids at one time or another. Today, A-Rod admitted he did steroids from 2001 to 2003 (no way to know if thats the actual extent of his use or not). Whether that's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, we'll probably never know, but even if true, it's hard to say what effect this had on his career -- past, present, or future. It's a little easier, however, to discuss what impact this revelation will have on his P.R. profile.

I think the way this was handled thus far has been a master stroke by A-Rod. Or, more precisely, whatever P.R./crisis management firm he employed to advise him. He didn't let the S.I. story claiming he tested positive fester for days while he looked like a fool (kind of like his recent playoff performances for the Yankees). Instead, he acted fast, came (at least relatively) clean, and shouldered the blame. Except for one weak moment, where I felt he tried to cop out by saying the pressure and the climate at the time in baseball were factors in his decision to cheat, and that he had merely been "naive", I thought he performed strongly. Given a chance to blame the player's union for keeping the samples and letting the positive hit the news, he demurred, taking all the blame himself for creating the positive sample in the first place. In short, I think he hit this situation out of the park. So, for once, A-Rod came through in the clutch.

That being said, this might be the toughest situation involving drugs any athlete has ever had to deal with. We've seen future Hall of Famers like Bonds and Clemens have to deal with the accusations towards the end of their careers. We've seen very good players like Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte admit to steroid use (though Giambi never actually said it). But we've never seen a future Hall of Famer admit to steroid use in the middle of his career. A-Rod will likely play 10 more years, and approach or break all kinds of records. How will fans deal with this? Like Bonds, he's not the most adored superstar out there -- even by his own home fans. Speaking of Yanks fans, how do you think they'll react to A-Rod coming to the plate at the new Yankee Stadium on opening day? I think it's safe to say there will be at least a few boos.

But how will fans as a whole react? I'd imagine somewhere between Bonds/Clemens, who are pariahs outside their long-time fans, local area and small circle of friends, and Pettitte/Giambi, who continue to play with nary a boo or steroid chant to be heard when they take the field. But which side will it lean towards? I'll say closer to the Pettitte/Giambi treatment, though it could be a little rocky at first. I think the first few times around the league, he'll hear quite a few boos and chants, and see some embarrassing signs -- and not just about Madonna. But within a few years, people will concentrate more on how good he still is (presumably without drugs, but you can't assume anything anymore -- he could be on any number of untestable drugs), and how he at least admitted it, which is what everyone claims Bonds and Clemens (and Pete Rose before them) should've done. You can't say dirty players should just come clean, then refuse to forgive someone who does just that (presumably).

As he said himself in the interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons, he's got a 14-year sample to show what he's done without steroids (presumably) -- the five he's already had, and the nine more he's got on his Yankee contract. But A-Rod has been called "A-Fraud" before these whispers of his steroid use even began. He's been hated for his lack of clutchness, his selfishness, his pretty boy persona, etc. How will this affect that? Will it slow the forgiveness? Stop it altogether? Or will this, along with his admission he's been selfish and immature up until this point, open people up to him? As crazy as it seems, there is an outside possibility this could be just the thing to personalize A-Rod to people. To be perfectly honest, I actually like A-Rod more today than I did yesterday. Not by much, but just a little bit. That's all he needs -- for people to soften towards him ever so slightly. Even if it takes years. In this case, I think A-Rod has time on his side.

Words of Wisdom

"Fight on my men, Sir Andrew said
A little I am hurt, but not yet slain
I'll just lay down and bleed awhile
And then I'll rise and fight again"

That quote from an unnamed old Scottish warrior, was used as an inspirational tool by former Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy. That was one of many interesting, touching, and surprising nuggets to be found in the episode of 'America's Game' about the 1990 Bills. For those who don't know, 'America's Game' is a great show by NFL Films which airs on the NFL Network. The first edition featured all the Super Bowl winners, and the second edition, titled "Missing Rings", chronicles great teams which fell short of a title. If you've never seen it, and you like football, you're missing out. The Bills episode is especially good, mostly due to Levy, who's one of the great character's in the history of football.

Levy was a master of inspirational quotes (Winston Churchill was his favorite source), but this one stuck out to me. The poem is sort of apropos to how I feel after the whole Boulder debacle -- I feel a bit deflated, and disappointed, but I also know I have to re-group. The trip out there was fun, and nostalgic, and an adventure, and while it had quite a cost -- in terms of money, time, maybe even a friendship -- I can't afford to dwell on the past. I have to move forward, and that means interviewing for work and looking at new apartments in LA traffic. May God have mercy on my soul.

Update: Back to LA

Remember all that stuff I wrote about moving to Boulder? Well, that might've been a tad premature. Really, it was more of a test drive than anything else, and as it turns out, I'm not buying. Although I'll always love Boulder, and visit as often as I can, all things considered, LA has more for me right now -- in terms of career opportunities, friends, and of course, my wife and kids, er, pets. So now I'm headed back this week, and looking for work. If you hear of something, you just let me know.

It's amazing what a little taste of something new can do to remind you of the upside of what was old. It's like the backup QB for an NFL team without a stud starting QB. Every time the starter stumbles, you imagine the backup might be better. But when the backup plays, you usually see pretty quickly why he's the backup. After living apart from my wife, my home, and my routine for a week and a half, I'm ready to get a big ol' heaping of the old.