Nintendo and Why I Love Minor League Baseball

Bull Durham is one of the best baseball films ever made.  It's one of the classics like Major League, Bang the Drum Slowly, For the Love of the Game, Fear Strikes Out, and Pride of the Yankees (not a complete list by any means).  One of the things that separates it from those other films is that it is a story about Minor League baseball players who play for the Durham Bulls.  The Bulls are currently Tampa Bay's Triple A affiliate, but were an Atlanta Braves Single-A team at the time of the film.  The film's protagonist "Crash" Davis is a long time minor league veteran who had been playing AAA and is sent down to Single-A to season a pitching phenom.

"Crash" may be the protagonist, but the Minor Leagues are the spotlight character of the film.  If you follow the background dialogue, you get to hear about many of the unique events and promotions that happen in the minors.  Taco nights, Little League Nights, "Clowns of Baseball," hot dog eating contests, and a lot of other classic small town activities abound in their mentions.  Add to that baseball that is played at a level much better than most of us ever played the game, but clumsy in comparison to the play in "the show" and you have a perfect demonstration of why baseball continues to capture the American imagination.  Yes, home runs in the Majors and phenoms like Mike Trout are awe inspiring to watch, but games played by the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes which open with FUNTAINMENT are Americana at its best.  They are filled with hope, inspiration, and the delusion that if we'd only listened to our High School coaches a little more often, that we too might have a fun career.  As Willie Stargell said,  "It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know.

And fun is what it looks like the players of the Dunedin Blue Jays are having.  They recently qualified for the playoffs, and have taken this as an opportunity to create a unique season highlight video.  They have created a fictional Nintendo Entertainment System baseball game that depicts their recent accomplishment.  The video is a good deal of fun, and shows once more why I love Minor League Baseball.

It brings back memories of the 8-Bit version of the infamous Bill Buckner World Series moment.

One Reason Kurt Suzuki (C -- Oakland A's) is So Impressive

Work ethic.



Have you ever tried to jump out of 3 1/2 feet of water onto a pool deck 43" tall? Me either because I would fail. The kind of work ethic it takes to develop that kind of leg strength is impressive, but it is that kind of work ethic that Kurt Suzuki embodies. Catcher is one of the toughest positions in baseball for a player who wants to perform consistently as a hitter. Even good hitters can feel the weight of their legs pulling at them, slowing them down, affecting their timing as a game (or even more profoundly the season) drains their energy.

Kurt Suzuki's 2010 season saw a small drop in number of games played, a large drop in batting average, but little change in number of strikeouts or walks to plate appearances. Given the added reduction in doubles, but not home runs, it is possible that Suzuki's performance at the plate was affected by fatigue. It also appears that Suzuki is taking the time this off season to make sure that he can return to the solid numbers he produced in his first two full seasons in the Majors.

When I first saw Suzuki playing for the Sacramento River Cats, I could see that I was watching a remarkably talented player. He is a 1st Team All-American our of Cal-State Fullerton, winner of the Johnny Bench Award, and a joy to watch play.

Southern California Hates Baseball History

In April of 2003, The Sporting News published a little book titled Roadside Baseball. Given my love for America's pastime, I noticed the book when it first appeared in the baseball section of my local Borders. I am given to browsing that section just as the void ends and baseball season begins, so it was natural that I would find this book just as it was released. I read the book discovering lots of little tidbits of baseball lore, when I came across a particular gem which highlights the one thing I find most frustrating about Los Angeles.

I really like LA but it is a city that seems to be continually trying to forget its past, maybe even destroy it. If America is a country which has no past, then LA is a city that doesn't seem to want one. One constantly reads stories about classic eateries, like the Brown Derby, being demolished. There is some wonderful deco architecture in town, but sometimes you have to really dig to find it.

Case in point -- On October 31, 1924, the one and only Babe Ruth came to the Brea Bowl where he played an exhibition game against Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson. The field where they played this historic game is now the Gateway Shopping Center. So if I want to visit the place where Babe Ruth hit the, arguably, longest homerun ever, I can go eat a Fatburger while looking at a mall. Ironically, the Original Fatburger location might be demolished.

The other day I found this nice YouTube video by Chris Epting, author of Roadside Baseball commemorating the event.