wakalix » baseball

Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz thanks home plate umpire

Brian — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:07:15 +0000

The Philadelphia Philllies just won their second consecutive National League Championship, and are headed to the World Series. Ronnie Belliard made the last out with a fly ball to center field. On the replay, I noticed what Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz did: Before heading out to the pitchers mound to join the celebration, he turned to home plate umpire Tom Hallion to say something to him, and made a friendly gesture. My guess is that he thanked him for calling a good game. If so, I admire this., as it’s a classy thing to do.

Harry Kalas calls Mike Schmidt’s 500th home run

Brian — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 03:32:46 +0000

Harry Kalas died on Monday. Bob Ford at the the Philadelphia Inquirer has a good story, and are the side bar links. Also check out ESPN’s coverage and videos here, which includes a video narrated by Jayson Stark, who I grew up reading in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It includes a the video and Kalas’s call of Mike Schmidt‘s 500th home run. I get choked up watching it, and remember seeing it on TV, watching it & cheering with my brother Andy and his friend Phil in 1987^*. Here it is on mp3, with some music from This Week in Baseball in the background. Or you can play it right here:

^*OK, I don’t think Phil knew what we were all excited about, but that adds to the memory somehow.

Hero: Eric Cornell

Brian — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:46:44 +0000

A couple weeks ago at I had the pleasure of playing against, and pitching to, Eric Cornell (Nobel Prize, Physics 2001) in the Staff Council Softball League at the University of Colorado. After once again experiencing his down-to-Earth enthusiasm, his volunteering to be the umpire for the first inning or so, I realized that I admire him enough to acknowledge him as a hero on my blog. Little did I know when I realized this was that he’d written a short article in an effort to save the softball league from bureaucratic insanity. The Colorado Daily published it on my birthday. Should that link expire, I’ve saved it on my page here.

He also sponsored a resolution proposed to the student government for them to do what they can – at this late stage of the field renovation plans – to keep the league going next year.

On Thursday of last week I joined a handful of other softball players and league volunteers (I volunteered in ’04 and ’05) to communicate to the student government how important the league was to the campus community. I was happy to incorporate the concept of social capital, made popular by the book Bowling Alone. A handful of the students had heard of or read the book, so that was a good sign.

I mentioned “bonding” among people in the same or related departments, and “bridging” that occurs between people from different department who would not ordinarily interact. Through this, I noted, we get a sense of community by, for example, seeing people we know as we walk through campus. Knowing more people also promotes smooth conflict resolution, or as I said “we’re less likely to be a jerk” when we either know the person or have a know are aware that we know people in common with someone we’re working with. Many students nodded in recognition. I could have acknowledged Guns Germs and Steel for that idea, but decided I’d been academic enough.

Turned a great double play, Bear Peak hike

Brian — Mon, 14 Oct 2002 08:06:05 +0000

Hiked Bear Peak today, and took some good photos, which should look something like this, but with a clearer sky. I also took a nice one of an airplane at eye-level, and pretty close.

Softball was great. A double-header, and I was not really looking forward to it. But both games were close, and, playing 3rd base, I turned a double play on a weak foul-ball pop-up. The guy, a good player who should have known better, was napping off of first base, and when I realized my throw would get him easily, I was so excited that I yelled out “yeah yeah!”. Fortunately, the other team did not take it the wrong way.