Grip on Sports: Baseball begins to tie together generations again today
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Down in our basement sits a ragged hardbound copy of one the original Baseball Encyclopedias, billed as the bible of baseball. It was my father’s. It contains the record of every major league player up until 1968, I believe, when baseball was about 100 years old. That was 50 years ago. Read on.
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• In 1969 my dad shelled out about $25 to buy a first edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia. It came in a cardboard slipcover, rare even in those days. It was huge, weighing enough to hold a heavy door open or make a 12-year-old boy strain to pick it up, roles it has played over the years.
But to my dad it was a time machine.
It transported him, and many times his buddies, back to a simpler time, when baseball was all the rage and they were dealing with raging hormones.
After the book – you know what that is, right? – arrived at the house, my dad’s friends would wander over occasionally, drink Canadian Club and sit around and argue about players who seemed like ancient myths to me.
Who was a better hitter, Stan Musial or Ted Williams? Who was a better pitcher, Lefty Grove or Lefty Gomez? Were the Reds of 1940 better than the Dodgers of ’41?
I didn’t sit in. After all, I was 12 the summer of 1969 and had a strict and early bedtime. I also had a spot I could hide to hear everything that was being said in the living room without my parents knowing.
I didn’t know Babe Adams (hard-throwing right-hander who hit from the left side) from the original Adam (good range but with a tendency to make poor decisions), but it was fun to hear what my dad’s friends thought about him. Plus, the language was more akin to a dugout than I was used to so that was … instructive.
Baseball was, and is, the glue to our past.
Is it the most exciting sport? Probably not. The most entertaining? No way. The most physical? Nope.
But, in this nation at least, it is the one with the longest history, a history that not only traces its roots to our Civil War, but includes a statistical record that allows grandfathers, fathers and sons to compare the heroes of their youth.
I loved Al Kaline as a boy. Sandy Koufax. Johnny Bench.
My dad had his favorites. Hank Greenberg. Dizzy Dean. Mickey Cochrane.
We could look up their statistics, argue whether Kaline’s best year – in 1955 as a 20-year-old he hit an American League-leading .340 – was better than Greenberg’s best – in 1937 he drove in 184 runs and hit .337 and in 1938 he hit 58 home runs.
No matter which year dad picked, Greenberg’s was better.
But I wouldn’t give in, of course. Neither would my dad. But it connected us. Gave us a language to speak when English wouldn’t work. Through the years baseball and its statistics were always there, keeping the lines of communication open.
Why write about this today? It’s Opening Day, of course. The first day of a new season. The beginning of more numbers etched in the modern-day encyclopedia, though it is online and not printed. More grist for the argument mill.
I will do two things today. I will pull out my dog-eared copy of “Why Time Begins on Opening Day,” a collection of Tom Boswell columns on baseball, and read the title column. And I will open the Baseball Encyclopedia to Mickey Cochrane’s page and study his statistics.
Wait, I will do one more thing. I will think about my dad.
I will think about the time we sat in the car in front of our house and he told me how good he thought I could be at the game I loved. About the time he hobbled to the mound to throw me batting practice just days after his broken leg had come out of a cast.
And all the times he told me, wrongly, that the 1934 Tigers were better than the 1965 Dodgers.
Connective tissue. Binding memories. That’s baseball. That’s today.
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WSU: A third basketball player announced yesterday he was leaving the Cougars, though reserve guard Jamar Ergas wasn’t the impact player Robert Franks or Malachi Flynn were. Still, Theo Lawson has a story. … Theo also talked with Larry Weir for a Press Box pod. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, Washington State isn’t the only school losing basketball players. Another Washington player may be out the door, as Noah Dickerson will test the NBA waters, while UCLA’s Jaylen Hands is doing the same. A USC player is transferring. … Utah plays for the NIT title tonight in New York against Penn State. … On the football field, Washington opened spring practice yesterday and it was an eye-opener for the school’s new quarterbacks. The Huskies open the fall against Auburn. … USC, Utah and Arizona State are also in the middle of spring practice while a UCLA running back will transfer. …California’s athletic department is in financial and Title IX trouble. Changes are going to be made. … UW is looking for apparel money at just the right time.
Gonzaga: USF lost to North Texas, 69-55, and the Dons’ three-game, CTI-deciding series will finish Friday in Denton.
EWU: There is a lot of off-field or court news this week, and Eastern is not immune. Jim Allen has this story on a football player who faces vehicular charges after an early March incident.
Idaho: Athletic director Rob Spear admitted earlier this year he made mistakes in how he handled a 2013 sexual assault complaint. Now that incident, and Spear’s handling of it, is behind a call for his resignation or firing. Peter Harriman covered an ASUI meeting last night concerning the situation.
Chiefs: A series of unfortunate events led to Spokane’s 3-1 home defeat against Portland and gave the Winterhawks a 2-1 series lead. Kevin Dudley was in the Arena and has this coverage.
Preps: Another busy spring day – aren’t they all? – and we can offer roundups from baseball, softball, soccer, golf and tennis. We also have Whitney Ogden’s capsule previews for the softball season and her feature on a Ferris pitcher.
Mariners: Felix Hernandez will be on the mound tonight – as he has been for a decade – as the M’s open the 2018 season. The lineup is pretty darn good, even with Ichiro hitting ninth. The pitching? That will decide whether Seattle ends the longest postseason drought in North America professional sports. … The clock is ticking on the Mariners.
Seahawks: The Hawks need a backup quarterback. … They re-signed one of their defensive backs. … We can pass along a history lesson from recent history.
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• A longtime friend is back in town today. We are having lunch. Baseball will be discussed, as it should be. Until later …