Plenty of Nothing

Bankuba no Asahi

Japanese director Yuya Ishii has made a film about the Vancouver Asahi, the championship baseball team drawn from Vancouver's Japanese-Canadian community between the wars. It stars Satoshi Tsumabuki, and was filmed in Japan, with Ashikaga doubling as 1930s Vancouver.

Carp

The Hiroshima Carp Official Goods Shop keeps coming out with such good goods.

Bleachers

Dock Ellis' LSD/Benzedrine No-Hitter

Baseball has the best stories.

Seven Famous Views of Mazda Stadium

Fans who buy a group ticket at a Hiroshima Toyo Carp home game receive a set of seven towels printed with ukiyo-e views of the concourse, sports bar and party floor at Mazda Stadium, the club's home field.

Hideki Matsui

New York Times photo

Tranquility Base As A Baseball Diamond

It's Apollo 11 Week at Plenty of Nothing.  Here we have a US Geological Survey map comparing of the Tranquility Base landing site to a baseball diamond.  As you can see, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin pretty much stuck to the infield, except for that one ramble into centre field by Armstrong.  In addition to the first walk by humans on the moon, 1969 saw the Mets win.  Source: Talcott Mountain Science Centre.

 

Carp!

 

North American sport is a jungle populated by lions, tigers, panthers and jaguars . . . and comparatively few fish.  Here in a poster promoting a Chiba Lotte Marines home game against the Hiroshima Toyo Carp we sense the destructive potential of koi.  Such a fish could . . . cause a lot of splashing.  Good thing the Marines are at hand.  See the full set here.

Post-War

Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Japan's Central League are preparing to move out of Hiroshima Municipal Stadium and into a new ballpark.  This evocative photo from the team's website speaks volumes about the club's early days.

The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball, by Leonard Koppett

I meant to have this finished in time for the season opener; now the playoffs are on.  Baseball is sure not a huge part of my mental calendar.  I must go years without paying it any mind at all, as I think of Detroit and Pittsburgh as teams that sometimes win the World Series, which would put us in the '70s or '80s (though Detroit are still in contention as I write.)

The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball isn't making me repent my misspent summers, but it does have me wondering, "Do pitchers really get hit more often than batters?"  Now I'm going to have to watch, and take notes, and maybe compile some stats.

I've been thinking about what I like about Koppett's prose style, and there are a couple of things.  He has a great ability to describe action, which shouldn't be surprising considering that he's a sports writer.  But far too many sports hacks rely on hyperbole and metaphor when what they should be using is that big workbench of sharp tools called verbs.  Take this paragraph:

A pitcher actually tries to accomplish two things.  He wants to upset the batter's timing, so that he can't hit the ball squarely.  And, according to the game situation, he wants to induce the batter to hit either a fly ball or a grounder.

Accomplish, upset, hit, induce.

The other thing is that he talks sense.

Complaining about expansion is about as fruitful as yearning for the nineteenth century.  You have every right to wish for whatever you consider the Good Old Days, but they're not coming back.

I find that the most entertaining bloggers have this latter characteristic.  But it only comes across as naked assertion if unaccompanied by thoughtful example, some neat stats, and an interesting link.  Which just goes to show that a good blog is like a good sports page.  Brush up your Koppett, and they'll all kowtow.

Douglas