yfsf.org

As always, people get excited by streaks, and inevitably find a reason to talk about spikes in stats. Especially when the season is still relatively young. Yes, a win in April matters as much as a win in September in the standings. What is critical is to separate team wins from individual statistics, when thinking about approximately seven months of baseball.

Two weeks ago, the Yankees were pilloried, some people calling for a change of management, but so soon into the season.We shall see.

Judge has a 186 OPS+ as of yesterday. I don’t think he can maintain that, as much as I would like. Yady Diaz for the Satan Fish has a 188 OPS+ and I know he can’t maintain that, just as the team can’t maintain a +111 run diff.

That’s why the season is 162 games in the reggalar.

One of the things about being a fan of the New York Yankees is you get to be a Yankees fan even if you are not near them.

Which is I wanted to write about the Knothole Gang. For many years, a span that actually is quite enveloping to consider, the Rochester Red Wings were the AAA farm team for the Baltimore Orioles, the longest affilation in history to my best knowledge.

I am trying not to cheat on this, no background research, just going off my memories. I think that Rochester and Baltimore linked up in 1965. Silver Stadium held about 15k people and was a wreck when I got to hang out there because it was built somewhere around 1929 and Rochester wasn’t a place to write home about in the recession of the early 80’s. I know for certain that $10 got me a punch card where I could go to a game at Silver Stadium ten times, and see future major-leaguers stretch their legs.

I saw Cal Ripken Jr. debut there and play a few games before he went up. I saw another whipper-snapper, just called up from Single-A. Some kid named Derek Jeter who legged out a single in his first at bat, stole second, and then came home on a liner to the outfield, all within less than two minutes, but at that point I was paying full penny for the price, so I felt ripped off.

The point of this is that the place you watch baseball affects you, and not for the short term. If you care about it, the charisma and character enthrall you, and you are stuck with it for life.

I find so much art and inspiration in baseball. Not the rah-rah go *team* stuff, but when the play happens, from the release of the pitch to the reaction of the batter, maybe one out of six times, the ball and bat make contact and there is action, but for all the waiting, it is such rapid and vivid action that you do not see in any other sport.

Yes there is much more that happens when the situation is complicated, with base runners and pitchers and fielders adjusting to a batting talent, but baseball is the only sport where there is such enormous anticipation, and when that anticipation is met with action, it’s the greatest game ever invented.