hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders*

the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime was talking with 'the commissioner' about the game and what it's been like pursuing The Record. Not much of interest really until he was asked 'what's been the toughest thing now that you're so close to the record?' The greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime began to give another practiced answer but then paused, thought and said something of much greater interest...

'the only thing that gets me is when they change the balls - I gotta try and not see that change. In my mind, when I see the ball change, that's when you know something different is going on'

Wait? What did he mean 'when they change the balls'? and then it hit me - MLB places a special stamp on balls they want to verify for historic reasons, a way to make sure those moral stalwarts in the memorabilia business don't cheat the public (or at least don't cheat MLB and other moral stalwarts in the memorabilia business)

So in the less than the 0.42 seconds it takes a ball moving in excess of 90mph to travel the distance from a pitcher's hand to home plate, the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime eye/mind (1.) recognizes the stamp (2.) thinks 'hmmm...that's different - ooooh yeah, I'm only a few homeruns away from The Record, they'll want to be able to get that ball back' (3.) determines if the pitch is one he will choose to send hurtling back through the atmosphere at a great distance and even greater speed.
*For those of you unfamiliar with the game of baseball - this is not easily accomplished or really, even fathomed. It's not quite TGHWL© reading the label off a spinning 45 from across the room - but it's close

I'm not naive, I've read Game of Shadows, I've followed his career since his call up in '86 and I've seen all the physical changes... I also know without any doubt, that Barry Lamar Bonds is the greatest player I have ever witnessed in my lifetime.

*attributed to 'The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived'

heroes get remembered but legends never die...

two recent articles, this one by Eric Neel and Joe Posnaski's 'The Legend of Bo', got me thinking about the players I will always remember. The men who's stories I hope to share with my children and theirs when I'm old, senile and can't remember much other than Pedro's line from 1999 (23 -4 2.07 ERA 313 Ks) the geometric perfection in the arc of Griffey's swing or the speed and grace of a man called Kirby who measured 5'8" and 240+ lbs...
so over the coming weeks and months I hope to fill this space with the memories I have of the 'legends' of the game... maybe not a list of all-time greats (although there will be those) and maybe not even everyone an all-star... but a list of the players, the games, the moments that deserve re-telling, to be shared for years to come so they can always be remembered

the breaks of the game....

Rest in Peace, David Halberstam (1934 - 2007)
Harvard graduate, NY Times reporter, Pulitzer by the age of 30, essential works on Robert and John F. Kennedy, The Vietnam War and the American Media... Summer of '49 and The Teammates, two amazing reads about Baseball in the Golden Age and the meaning of friendship... but it is The Breaks of The Game that stands out. It is still possibly the best book ever written about baseketball or any American sport. More than that, it uses the uniqueness of a team (the 1978 Portland Trailblazers) and of an individual (Bill Walton, when he was still an enigmatic, supremely talented athlete and not the hyperbolic voice of ESPN's nba coverage - "THROW IT DOOOOWWWN BIG FELLAH") to examine American culture and society. If you own it, pull it down and give it another read (as I'm about to do) and if you don't have a copy - order one and enjoy...
Mr. Halberstam - you will be missed

**edit** more Halberstam - from the Boston Globe, 'Day Spent with One of the Greats' (spending a day talking with Ted Williams is near the top of my list of 'things to do when I get to heaven/hell' - whichever place people like myself and Mr. Williams come to reside)

in the beginning...

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
call me Ismael...
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
for as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a gangster
back in the days when I was a teenager/before I had status and before I had a pager...