Baseball has been very, very good to me?

 

About 45 years ago, Saturday Night Live had a fictional ex-baseball player (Chico Escuela, played by Garrett Morris) who used a simple phrase as part of the gag: "Beisbol has been berry berry good to me."  Well, I can't say that the sport has been very very good in taking care of itself.

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The other day, I decided to watch some baseball on TV, and found it hard to find out who is playing and where the games are being played.  "Why?" you might ask.  Well, MLB has tinkered with the playoff format for 2022, and we now have 3 game wild card playoffs, followed by two more rounds of playoffs before reaching the World Series.  Gone are the days where the world series was determined simply by who is at the top of the AL and NL.  There is now a much greater element of chance that allows for a merely decent team to make it to the world series.  And this is part of what has disillusioned me about baseball as a sport.

Luckily, I am still interested in the history of the game.  Instead of putting an asterisk next to Roger Maris's name, as they once did for his 61 season home runs, they should put asterisks next to the names or McGuire, Sosa, and Bonds because they achieved their records in the "juicing" era.  No, I am not trying to deny these players their rightful places in the record books.  Instead, I want the asterisk to be used as an indictment of MLB as a whole, because they turned a blind eye to "juicing" to improve ratings for the sport.  One day, I hope, Aaron Judge and Hank Aaron will be considered the true record holders for MLB, as they played without juice.

Yet, I can still find humor in baseball.  Players such as Phil Niekro and Gaylord Perry were well known for their ways of doctoring a baseball before it was pitched.  It's too bad that I couldn't have gotten the two of them to do ads for Brylcream touting the advantages of this product, closing the ads with: "Oh, and it's good for your hair too."  They would have brought a smile to people with this type of ad once they were safely retired from the game.

All too soon, the baseball season will have to end.  I hope to hear Yankee Stadium's PA system take a break from playing Sinatra's rendition of "New York, New York", and again play a tune by Queen after the last game of the World Series - "We are the champions (of the world).".

 

It's kind of fitting that I'm watching this movie

I am more interested in the history of baseball than of watching the game itself.  The sport reflects all which is good and bad about America in its history.  And it's fitting that I'm watching the movie 61* at the end of a 162 game season, 60 years after Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's home run record.

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Today was an interesting day.  I started it out with a visit to my doctor.  As usual, he hectored me about losing weight, when it should have been to get more active.  But that's another story for another day. Once done with him, I had a quick breakfast sandwich, then changed into Marian Mode to go to work.

As usual, I had to fight off the urge to nod out at my desk. But this time, I knew the cause - there was way too much blood in my caffeine stream, and I knew I needed a cup of coffee at the earliest chance. Once this was taken care of, it would be smooth sailing to the end of the day.

Something I usually do during each day is to write a list of things that need to be taken care of.   Almost always, there are things on my to-do list that never seem to get done - such as cleaning my apartment. But one thing of note is coming to mind again.  I need to flesh out one part of my feminine wardrobe.  In the winter, women tend to wear more utilitarian clothing, and that includes denim jeans.  I need to do the same, and yet I still need to look as feminine as reasonably possible.  So, while taking care of business, I let my mind wander to figure out what clothing I need to buy.

Later on, I got a text from Vicki telling me that her cell phone died, and that she is also having to recover apps to her new phone.  Although she was having thoughts about it, she decided to restore Facebook - something I consider a big time suck.  (She barely uses it, but her friends do.  So it was worthy of consider installing on her new phone.)  It took a while, but she eventually was able to do so. At this point, I told her about my clothing "dilemma" and she came up with ideas similar to what I had - getting jean like garments (read: "Jeggings") to be worn under some of my tunics.  Then, I should consider adding more basic tunics and long sweaters to the wardrobe.  Yes, I'll have to set a budget for these garments, but I should do so in order to blend in with the other women I encounter on a regular basis.

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By the time this entry is made public, the baseball season will have ended.  If I'm right, the wild card playoff will have taken place and the divisional series in each league should have started.  This is a far cry from what baseball's post season looked like in 1961.  I wish we could turn back the clock 60 years, so we could see baseball before it got (more) corrupted by the use of "Juice" (Steroids).  Roger Maris will always have my respect unlike other home record holders, as he was the last to break a Ruthian record before the game tolerated "Juicing" to put fans in the seats....