watching baseball

Today I stayed home and watched baseball. I thought it would be restful. The game itself a promise of summer and ease, of warm breezes and the langorous afternoons drifting through the middle innings of meaningless games. The sudden shock of a homerun, the slow work of a shutout: hammer curves and fastballs that catch the corner. Baseball: a hint of the golden sun in the midst of this sun of chalk. Following is a little on-line diary of watching the game:

1:22 p.m.
Paul LoDuca's batting. How I hate this overrated bastard. Zimmerman just threw him out on a weak grounder.

I have to watch the Mets, ESPN's blacked out. Listening to Keith Hernandez and some schmoo isn't as bad as the Yankee morons -- there really is nothing worse though. Anyway, I can't get into New York sports teams, maybe the Jets a little.

Beltran continued his descent into the upper reaches of mediocrity: he popped out to first in foul ground. Actually, that sucks.

1:31
Zimmerman, batting 5th, has Royce Clayton batting behind him. He still managed a walk. It must be Glavine, Soriano walked just ahead of Zimmerman. Being protected by Royce Clayton is like having Barney Fife as your bodyguard...or it's like being Bob Dylan and opening for Tiny Tim.

1:34
Clayton just struck out.

1:35
The schmoo just called Brian Schneider "perhaps the most underrated player in the league". This about Schneider from rototimes:
Brian Schneider and the Nationals agreed to a four-year deal Tuesday worth $16 million, according to the AP. "Brian is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball and we're glad to be able to keep him in Washington for at least the next four years," general manager Jim Bowden said. "It is the goal of any organization to sign, develop and then retain their own homegrown players, and this is what we've accomplished with Brian's contract." Schneider hit .268 with 10 homers and 44 RBI in 369 at-bats in 2005.

Schneider just grounded out to the catcher.

1:41
Livian Hernandez just threw the ol' fuck you curveball to strike out Carlos Delgado.

1:55
Ryne Sandberg just doubled off of Gooden. Yep, rain delay.

2:18
The Cubs are winning 1-0, but try finding them on television -- besides the 1988 team, Chico Walker was leading off in that game. Ah, New York, I hate you.

2:43
The Cubs are up 5-1 and I'm watching LoDuca do his usual impression of grit which is going to last the papers the whole year. Meanwhile, I don't give a fuck, he's just not that good.

2:57
Livian's beginning to hang his curves.

2:59
David Wright just homered. Really.

3:00
Tony Womack just doubled off of Zambrano in the Cubs game. Well, he's not as bad as Jose Macias after all. Still, it's kind of a slap in the face to competence.

3:42
Soriano thrown out at the plate with no outs on a double by Johnson. Catcher dropped the ball...but the stupidity of that move by the 3rd base coach almost begs the call. How come I have to teach and this moron collects thousands sitting around the third base box sucking. Horrible. Now the tying run at third and two outs. Way to go idiot. Flushed that down the toilet like a Labor Day goldfish on Thanksgiving.

5:44
Some entries got erased...but really, you didn't miss much. Mostly a long rant about something.

5:46
I'm pretty annoyed by ESPN's coverage of opening day. I think next year I'm just going to let opening day "happen". I'm watching some boring baseball.

5:48
Man...It's almost time to the showers for me. One of the idiots just said about a player: "he is just a professional hitter". Yep. He's said that a lot already.

5:50
Will Ohman pitched 1/3 an inning and got the win against the Reds today. In a 16-7 game that's as good as any. Meanwhile, tomorrow it's back to teaching and thinking about immigration and etc. If they call anybody "a professional hitter" ever again I'm going to start screaming and never stop.

5:57
Yep. It's about time to go and leave.

***
So that was it. Opening day. It sucked but I don't care. The game needs its weight, the numbers to start giving us the skeleton of the season, it takes time. The players are still a little rough around the edges and ESPN sucked in terms of giving us some choice in our games as well and most importantly.

Anyway, last night I took the 4/5/6 back to Brooklyn from Harlem, I was reading this book Cloud Atlas. It was so good, even though I was on the local when we hit Union Square I couldn't believe it. The doors opened and I looked up and then had to sprint for the doors a couple seconds later when it all came together for me. It was late at night at that point, only a few people on the train. On that train, me and those few people and me with my book, it felt more like night than it had felt like in a long time, there in the tunnel where it could have been noon or midnight you could tell that it was two in the morning.