Reel Baseball

It’s been quite some time since I’ve added a baseball book to my list. Surely I must have read some baseball books during “the lost years” – and maybe someday I’ll track them down. But yesterday I finally finished with Reel Baseball, so I thought I’d mention it.

DVD inside! I must admit, that was the selling point. Plus, $2, discount shelf at Half-Priced books. So I bought this thinking it had possibilities, but I’m afraid it didn’t quite live up to its potential. The text was pretty standard Baseball History text, that I’ve likely read in maybe a dozen other books, and the pictures in the book – and there are a lot of pictures, of course – are the usual pictures.

The DVD was okay. Joe Garagiola narrating, doing his thing. The game action was fun to see, but I wish there had been more of it. Maybe that’s a good thing, it left me wanting more. (Not sure if it’s very possible to get more, though. I think a lot of these newsreels are in the public domain now, but maybe not very accessible online.) Nice to see Ducky Medwick, Babe Ruth, Teddy Ballgame. Lots of World Series action. It was fun. Baseball is fun, to quote a famous philosopher. And it’s fun to compare yesterday and today. To me, today does not do well in the comparison. Today has a little too much CGI polish, if you know what I mean. I guess dollars will do that. Things were a bit grittier back then. A bit more “real.” Relatable? (Ahhh, nostalgia…. Things ain’t what they used to be.)

No Bulldog Bouton in the DVD. (Not that everything must revolve around Bouton.) But, pro-tip, to see the Bulldog in action, you can watch the highlights from the 1964 World Series on YouTube. If you want.

Video quality is not hi-def, of course. But, watching him throw, wow. He threw HARD. It does make my arm hurt to see, a little bit. Throwing over the top like that? Ouch. I think you might get too the low-def feeling of the game back then. Things are not so orderly and plastic as they are now. Every pixel perfect.

Meanwhile, back in Pixel Perfect today, the Twins take game 2, 2-0, and sit alone on top of the black-and-blue Central Division of the Junior Circuit. A long way to go. One game at a time. Joe Ryan on the mound today. Let’s play some ball…

Good ol’ Halsey Hall

 

Halsey Hall, for those not in the know, was a newspaper reporter and broadcast journalist in the Twin Cities, and covered the Twins on radio with WCCO and Herb Carneal from 1961 to 1972. He passed away in 1977 at age 79, but the legend lives on, and the local branch for SABR is named the Halsey Hall chapter.

They’ve put a nice little bio of Halsey on line, it’s practically mandatory reading for all true fans of the Minnesota Twins.

Holy cow!

Halsey said it first, and he said it best.

Good game, Halsey

Killebrew or Mantle???

Ahhh, the eternal debate. Who was the better Home Run hitter? Harmon Killebrew, or Mickey Mantle?

Well, we don’t need to guess at the answer. This question has been asked and answered, on Home Run Derby!

There’s more than pride on the line here. There is Big Money at stake.

Enjoy!

it is good to be in first

Let’s enjoy. Blogging at the start of the season last year was like a death march. Let’s make some hay while the sun is shining. We’re Three and Oh!

I little quick research tells me that the Twins’ best start ever, since coming to Minnesota, was 6-0, back in 1968. I think I got that right, scanning through the years. That year they beat the Yankees in game 3 (we used to beat the Yankees occasionally,) 6-0. Batting order?

Tovar, 3b
Carew, 2b
Oliva, rf
Killebrew, 1b
Allison, lf
Roseboro, c
Uhlander, cf
Hernandez, ss
J. Perry, p

Who hit the home run? Jim Perry, of course, off Stan Bahnson.

Hey, Bulldog!

Mickey Mantle played first, went 0-3, Joe Pepitone was in centerfield(!) and got a hit. The bulldog, Jim Bouton, got into the game for two innings. Not good. Five hits, a walk, three runs. But at least he didn’t get taken over the wall by the fat kid.

Those were good days for the Twins. And so was yesterday, as the boys scored two in the bottom of the seventh to win the game, 5-3. Polanco played short, got a couple of hits, and drove in two. Sano got a couple of hits. Gibson looked good, went five innings. The Twins are trying to make us forget about last year.

Hey, it won’t take much. We’re easy. A pushover. Let’s play some ball.

My previous post mentioned the old Atlantics playing baseball on skates, which reminded me today about that Twins commercial from a few years ago. It’s a classic:

 

 

take me out to the library

This just in:

You’ve probably all seen the recent article in the Library of Congress blog, but for those who may have missed it, I’ll recap.

The Library of Congress is taking some (large facsimiles) of its vast collection out on the road, though not very far. They’ve opened up an exhibit at the National’s ball park, with some 30 large-scale reproductions of the Library’s baseball treasures. The Library contains the world’s largest collection of baseball material, including such items as photographs, newspaper clippings, baseball cards, sheet music, and even the first baseball film (1898), by… who else? Thomas Edison.

Perhaps not an Academy Award winner.

On display will be many pictures of interest to loyal Twins fans, covering the bygone days when the Twins were known as the Senators, and Walter Johnson ruled.

Best of all, from the standpoint of all us fans who don’t live out in Washington, the exhibit is also online. So check it out. Well worth the price.

Meanwhile, speaking of the Twins, they have been playing some pretty good ball. They’re up tonight, 10-0 in the bottom of the 8th, and Eddie Rosario, making his major league debut, hit the first pitch he saw for a home run in the third inning. Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Rosario!

The Twins will be 2 over .500 if they hang on to win this one; tip of the cap to Kyle Gibson, with six innings of shutout ball.

Uh, make that 13-0, as Vargas piles on in the 8th with a three-run homer.