My son and I took an overnight trip during spring break to Cooperstown to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. This is my fourth trip to Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame. I have mixed feelings about Cooperstown. On the one hand, Cooperstown is an absolutely gorgeous village and its fun to drive the winding roads through scenic farmland to get to the town and its excellent museums. On the other hands, the story of baseball being invented in Cooperstown is completely fabricated, and places with much better claims on being the place where baseball was invented in New York City, New Jersey, and New England would be a lot easier to get to for most visitors. Cooperstown needs the Hall of Fame more than the Hall of Fame needs Cooperstown.
That being said we had a great time walking through the town that was largely empty of people, visiting the baseball memorabilia stores, and taking in the exhibits at the Hall of Fame. I took a lot of photographs including the plaques of all my favorite Hall of Famers and posted them in this web album.
A stately church building.A cheerful yellow house.All-American Girls Professional Baseball League uniforms.The hats worn by Nolan Ryan for each of his no-hitters.Statue of Ted Williams.The Phillie Phanatic trapped in a glass box.Peter pays due reverences to the 2018 World Series Champion Red Sox exhibit.
Title: Pelotero Release Date: 2011 Director: Jonathan Paley, Ross Finkel and Trevor Martin Production Company: Makuhari Media Summary/Review:
The Dominican Republic is a small nation on an island in the Carribean, yet it produces 20% of the professional basebally players in the United States. Pelotero, also known as Ballplayer, focuses on two young prospects who hope to be signed by a Major League Baseball team, Miguel Angel Sanó and Jean Carlos Batista. Historically, Dominican players have received smaller signing bonuses than players in the United States, Candada, Japan, and elsewhere, but in recent years new records for bonuses have been set. Sanó is expected to challenge that signing record.
July 2nd is the big date in the Dominican Republic when 16-year-old players are able to sign with major league teams. We watch Sanó and Batista over several months of early 2009 as they practice and audition for several teams. They speak of their bonuses which they expect will be able to lift their entire families out of poverty. The bonuses will also be used for the coaches who run the training academies on the island who do not get paid except for a comission if the player gets a bonus. Because players cannot sign until they’re 16 and bonuses are smaller for older players, there is a history of fraud, where players (and their families, coaches, and agents) fake their ages and/or use performance enhancing drugs.
Unfortunately, both of Sanó and Batista fall under suspicion of age fraud, and undergo lengthy MLB investigations. Due to the ongoing investigations, no team will sign them on July 2nd. There’s a suspicion in Sanó’s case that the investigation is being used to force him to sign for a lower bonus, and the effort to prove his age involves a series of humiliating medical tests and confirmation of official documents. In the end, Sanó is signed for less than expected to the Minnesota Twins, while Batista is suspended for one year, and signs with Houston Astros the next year.
Just a side note, this documentary has some excellent reggaeton tracks deployed in the soundtrack.
What Can One Learn From Watching This Documentary:
The grim, exploitative reality of Dominican baseball is played out on the screen. There’s a lot riding on the hope of a signing bonus, although only a smal portion of players will be signed, and then a tiny fraction of them will make it to the major leagues. Many people in this film use terms that make these young men sound like commodities, which I find very disturbing.
Miguel Sanó made his Major League debut with the Twins in 2015, and played in the All-Star Game in 2017, and is still with the Twin but starting the 2019 season on the injured list. Jean Carlos Batista played a few years in the Astros’ minor league system, but doesn’t appear to be in professional baseball anymore.
If You Like This You Might Also Want To …:
The most direct comparison to Pelotero is the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams which focuses on two boys from Chicago who enter into prestigious high school basketball programs with expectations for the future in college and NBA basketball.
The Armis a book that focuses on programs – sometimes exploitative – that focus on training young players in the United States and Japan to become effective pitchers.
Source: Hoopla
Rating: ***1/2
019 Blogging A to Z Challenge – Documentary Films, Part II
The story of the first woman to play on a professional baseball team, most famous for pitching in an exhibition game against the New York Yankees and striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
The acceptance of LGBTQ people in the United States has improved radically in a short period of time. Hidden Brain explores what brought about the change in attitudes, and questions why other groups discriminated against have not seen as much positive change.
The origins of kindergarten date to the late 18th-century when Friedrich Froebel came up with the idea of teaching young children through the structured use of educational toys.
Time begins on March 28th, when a new Major League Baseball season starts and all the teams are tied for first place (well except in the AL West where Seattle and Oakland have already played two games in Japan).
Here are my predictions for how the 2019 will come to an end.
NL East
The Phillies aggressive offseason will give them the NL East title, although the Nationals will be neck-and-neck with them over the season. The Braves will regress a little after last season’s division championship. The Mets sadly will continue to lack the offense to support the stellar pitching. And Miami will continue to be mediocre.
Philadelphia
Washington (wild card)
Atlanta
New York
Miami
NL Central
The Cubs will reclaim the NL Central and Milwaukee will capture the wild card. I’m honestly not sure how the rest of the division will shake out, because the Reds and Pirates have the talent to surprise, but then again the Cardinals could be better than 3rd as well.
Chicago
Milwaukee (wild card)
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
NL West
The boring old Dodgers will continue to dominate, while improvements in the Padres will help them snag a distant second place. The Rockies will regress after their 2018 Wild Card season and Arizona and San Francisco will each drop down a notch.
Los Angeles
San Diego
Colorado
Arizona
San Francisco
AL East
The Red Sox won’t win as many games as last season but neither will the Yankees. The Rays, Blue Jays, and Orioles will each be a little bit better than 2018, but the division will still shake out in the same order. Excepting the Orioles, this is probably the strongest division in baseball & its a shame that only 3 teams can make the postseason.
Boston
New York (wild card)
Tampa Bay (wild card)
Toronto
Baltimore
AL Central
Cleveland will once again win the AL Central, largely for lack of competition within the division. I expect the Twins will be the only other team to finish over .500, and the remainder of the division could shake out in any order.
Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago
Detroit
Kansas City
AL West
The Astros, like the Dodgers, will continue to make the regular season a formality. Oakland may challenge for the Wild Card, but I don’t expect much from the rest of the division.
Houston
Oakland
Los Angeles
Seattle
Texas
WILD CARD PLAYOFFS:
Washington defeats Milwaukee
Tampa Bay defeats New York
DIVISIONAL SERIES:
Houston defeats Tampa Bay
Boston defeats Cleveland
Washington defeat Chicago
Los Angeles defeat Philadelphia
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES:
Boston defeats Houston
Washington defeats Los Angeles
WORLD SERIES:
Somehow the Miracle Mets swoop in and win it all on the 50th anniversary of their first championship!
In a world where every movie trailer sounds exactly like every other movie trailer, how does one make their trailer stand out? The story of The Booj and other elements common to the blockbuster movie trailer formula. Confession: I love the sound of The Booj, but can live without the cheezy song covers.
This episode investigates several mysteries, including people who don’t clean up their dog’s poop, racist dogs, and why the New York City subway plays the opening notes of a song from West Side Story.
The first story is the oddly fascinating story of how discrimination against Black and gay people, a radio shockjock, and a baseball double-header collided to become a disastrous promotional event and The Night That Killed Disco.
The Electoral College is anti-democratic and despite what its supporters say does not help smaller states. This episode discusses alternatives such as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, replacing “winner take all” with proportional allotments, and eliminating the Electoral College entirely.
Author:Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller Title: The Only Rule Is It Has to Work Narrator: Kirby Heyborne and John Pruden Publication Info: Tantor Audio (2016) Summary/Review:
A pair of stats geeks with a podcast are given the opportunity to run a baseball team to see if they can test the concepts of sabermetrics – the empirical analysis of baseball – in a real world setting. The team they get to try this on is the 2015 Sonoma Stompers who play in the low-level independent league, the Pacific Association. They face challenges of having a manager and players go along with their unorthodox suggestions for playing baseball, as well finding talented players to sign to the team, since the Pacific Association doesn’t attract the best talent. To surprise of many, the Stompers do very well, dominating the league in the first half. The authors are honest enough to admit that it wasn’t always their ideas that contributed to the overall success. But success has its downside as it leads to many of the Stompers’ best players getting signed to contracts on teams in better leagues, leaving the Stompers weakened for the second half and postseason. Nevertheless, I did find myself drawn into their account and caring very deeply about how the Stompers would do that season. The book is an interesting case study of putting sabermetrics into action and the real life challenges it may face, as well as just being an interesting baseball story.
Fascinating stories from the Soviet Union trace the origin of the classic video game Tetris and its unrecognized designer, and the people of Leningrad who protected a seed bank against Nazi invasion.
Have You Heard? :: Closing Time: In a Gentrifying City, are Some Students Expendable
A must-listen story of the effort to close, privatize, and segregate Boston Public Schools.
Once again, the Red Sox paraded through Boston aboard Duck Boats, carrying their four trophies and receiving cheers from fans (and returning the favor). My kids and I watched from the same spot on Tremont Street opposite Boston Common that we watched the 2013 parade.
The photographic highlights are below, with my full photo album also available at http://www.othemts.com/redsoxparade18/.
Construction workers get in some welding while waiting for the parade to arrive.Big Papi rides in his fourth parade.Chris Sale victorious.Beer toss!David Price with a big David Price head.Craig Kimbrel.The trophy!Puerto RIcan pride on the Common.
I’m not quite a fan of The Bee Gees but I am fascinated by their story, especially their versatility and ability to remain big hit makers over decades without people even noticing.
This episode of an ongoing series about clothing focuses on the pocket, the unfairly gendered feature of clothing with a history dating back to its origin as a completely separate article of clothing. I’m definitely a Pocketist.
Author: Skip Desjardin Title: September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series Publication Info: Regnery History (2018) Summary/Review:
It’s a running joke that the Boston news media will try to find the Boston angle to any major news story. The thesis of this book is that Boston was essentially the center of world events for the month of September 1918, and in many ways Desjardin is not exaggerating.
The 1918 World Series became famous for being the Boston Red Sox last championship for 86 years (after winning 5 of the first 15 World Series). But the World Series that year is remarkable for other reasons. First, it came at the end of a shortened season. As part of the work or fight edict from the US government, Major League Baseball agreed to end the season at Labor Day, with the Red Sox and the Cubs given an extra couple of weeks to complete the World Series. Baseball was then to be suspended for the remainder of the war, and when the World Series ended on September 11th, no one knew the armistice would occur exactly two months later. The war also depressed enthusiasm for the World Series with a low turnout in both ballparks. The players concern of getting the smallest bonus ever offered to World Series participants combined the uncertainty of future employment lead them to strike briefly before one of the games.
The first World War lies heavily over this book as the Wilson government heavily encouraged all-out participation by recruiting and dedicating the homefront to the war effort. One of the first American war heroes, the flying ace David Putnam of Jamaica Plain, died over Germany on September 12. The same day the American forces under General John Pershing began the three day offensive at Saint-Mihiel which included the Yankee Division, primarily made up of New Englanders. This was the first time American divisions lead by American officers took part in an offensive and the successful battle gained respect of the French and British, while making Germany realize their hopes for victory were growing slim.
The War also played a part in spreading the Great Influenza across continents and oceans. The flu made it’s first outbreak in the US in Boston at the end of August 1918 and by the early days of September it was infecting – and killing – great numbers of sailors at the Commonwealth Pier and a great number of soldiers at Camp Devens in Ayer. Patriotic events like the Labor Day Parade helped spread the flu to the civilian population. The official response tended towards prioritizing keeping morale high for the war effort rather than reporting the actual deadliness of the disease, and military officers repeatedly stated the worst was past even as the number of deaths in the ranks increased. The flu would burn through Massachusetts by the end of September while having an even more deadly October in the rest of the US in places like Philadelphia.
I’ve long thought that the period circa 1918-1919 in Boston is an historic era uniquely packed with significant and strange events. Desjardin proves that just picking one month from that period provides the material for a compelling historical work.
Recommended books: Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata and Red Sox Century by Glenn Stout Rating: ***1/2
Panorama of the Mountains 