2021, Family, Food, Games, Gatherings, Mysteries, sports, Uncategorized

Buy Me Some Peanuts & Cracker Jacks

55 Comments

You all know I am not a big sports fan.  In fact, I think I’ve probably only been to 10 baseball games in my life.  Maybe 15.  I do enjoy the games when I’m there, but like Monday night, I come away with more questions than answers.

    • Why so many huddles? Visiting team did this six times.  Six!
    • Why don’t the outfielders get to huddle?  Don’t they feel left out?
    • Why is Hansel Robles called Caballo Blanco?
    • How many times can you actually hit a foul before you’re out? Seems like way more for some than others.
    • What’s with all the fidgeting on the pitcher’s mound and on the plate?
    • Why don’t relief pitchers get much of a chance? Four relief pitchers for home team, each only pitched 1 inning each.  Visiting team sent in one relief – but at least he didn’t mess around on the pitcher’s mound and just threw the ball!
    • Why do much spitting?
    • Why do they need to replace the bases halfway through the game?
    • If the game is tied at the bottom of the 9th and the bases are full when you come to bat, why do you keep swinging? Why not just hunker down and let the pitcher walk you?  Especially if you’re not all that tall?
    • Why do people go wild when they see themselves on the big screen?
    • Why, after paying so much to get in and then paying a boatload more for food, drink and merchandise galore, do so many people depart before the game is over?

Obviously none of these are burning, social-issue kinds of questions (well, maybe the spitting), but clearly not everything makes sense to me.  However, questions aside YA and I had a great time even when it went into overtime.

What is the meaning of life?

 

55 thoughts on “Buy Me Some Peanuts & Cracker Jacks”

  3. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    The meaning of life is a good political cartoon addressing VS’ opinions about the Norwegian Olympic women’s beach volleyball costumes. How satisfying:

    If this link does not work I will try again below.

    strib.mn/3rBbQmK

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      1. I am not subscribed.
        Baseball wants to hurry up the game. Real fans of the game itself like the rituals? Everything has to be in a rush; baseball used to be the exception. But, yes, who can afford it.we used to go to the Mankato Moondogs games. 7 bucks to get in, $2 for hotdogs and for bottled pop. You are close to the field. The one beer guy in the stands is a hoot. Takes us 15 minutes to get out of the park and go home. We live 1/2 mike away.
        But we can no longer attend. Wicked stairs she can no longer climb. Only 10 handicapped seats all sold as season tickets. They say she can sit on bleachers way down third Baseline. Yes bleachers are a grand choice for handicapped people. Or we can sit on folding chairs down first baseline by the toilets. City, which owns the stadium, says it meets handicapped requirements.
        Sorry but I am one of those lowlifes who likes the game.
        This is Clyde

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        2. Not offended at all. Just because I have a lot of questions doesn’t mean I didn’t have a fine old time on Monday night!!

          Liked by 1 person

  5. The meaning of life is to share your garden produce with your neighbor who comes over to ask what he should do with one of the four laying hens he keeps in his back yard that turned out to be a rooster. We gave him peas and rhubarb and a recipe for rhubarb syrup.

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    3. Our neighbour Antonio gave me a courgette yesterday. Then he gave Jane a tomato about as big as a house. Now I’ve got to admit to Antonio they were beautiful. See, he’s goodhearted. But he’s a knowall and thinks we know nothing. Specially about growing courgettes and tomatoes.

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  6. Maybe the meaning of life is an individual choice. 7+ billion different lives; 7+ billion different meanings of lives. Each of us can choose (within certain limits of age, ability, circumstances, environment, etc.) what our lives should mean to us and how we should live that life.

    (Hmm, wondering if that’s wayyy too deep for me this early in the morning.) 😉

    Chris in Owatonna

    Liked by 4 people

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  8. The Twins come to play the Reds next week. I’ll be attending the Wednesday afternoon game. The meaning of life is change. Go REDS! Sorry.

    Liked by 3 people

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  9. I don’t have any baseball answers.
    For the meaning of life I’ll offer this:
    The meaning of life is accepting and embracing the mystery of existence without presuming to solve that mystery.

    Liked by 6 people

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        1. And to answer one of your many good questions, VS, there is no limit to how many foul balls a batter can hit in an at-bat. If the batter has zero strikes against him, or one strike, when the foul occurs, the foul is a strike. But if he already has two strikes, the foul is never the third strike. For the third strike, the batter either strikes out swinging or strikes out looking.

          Liked by 3 people

        2. And regarding the tied in the bottom of the 9th inning with the bases loaded scenario, it’s not an option to not swing at pitches that are good, i.e. not balls. To get a base on balls, also known as a “walk,” the batter would have to receive four pitches that are called balls by the umpire.

          Liked by 2 people

        3. But if you’re a short little guy and you scrunch down wouldn’t that make it easier for the pitcher to go awry

          Liked by 2 people

        4. Theoretically, yes, a short guy would have a smaller strike zone. But the batter has to be in batting position, so he can’t just scrunch down to make himself small.

          Liked by 2 people

  12. Just one tractor story. Pete Snell used to spit on the footplate in his tractor cab. Name and shame. Catch me driving that thing.

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  13. I came away from a Twins game looking for answers about balks a number of years ago. Maybe fifteen years ago or so. The Twins had a second baseman named Luis Rodriguez at the time, and he was not a big home run hitter or anything, but he was scrappy. In this game, against Detroit, the Twins were not having much success against the Tigers pitcher, eremy Bonderman, who was mowing them down But Rodriguez kept getting on base by hook or by crook, bunting or working out a walk or whatever it took. When he came up to the plate, I think the third time, he worked it to a full count. Bonderman was doing a lot of walking around the mound and appeared to be muttering to himself a lot. Then, at a suspenseful moment, Rodriguez calmly stepped out of the batter’s box and turned to the umpire and pointed toward the mound. And the ump called a balk and that put Rodriguez on first.

    Bonderman really lost it, stomping around and yelling and gesturing wildly. After that, he couldn’t seem to throw a strike, and Rodriguez came around to score. The Twins scored another run or two, and the Tigers had to take Bonderman out, and in the end the Twins won.

    I watched the sports show that used to run on Sunday nights because I wanted to see what exactly Bonderman had done. I had missed it in real time, because I was watching Rodriguez, but of course there was video. So he had been looking at the catcher and made a twirling motion with his index finger near his ear, some sort of signal to the catcher. On the sports show the Twin they had on as a guest commented, “Yeah, he’s supposed to step off the mound before he does that.” I was still puzzled, so it required more research. Here is an article that explains it in detail – https://www.mlb.com/news/what-is-a-balk-in-baseball-a-definitive-guide – but essentially he had come to a set position and then didn’t follow through by throwing the pitch.

    I was so disappointed when the Twins traded Luis Rodriguez.

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    2. Barbara, I didn’t expect to like that, but I did. Much easier to understand than that baseball stuff. I thought you just hit the ball and then ran, like we did in rounders in school.

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