{"id":1460,"date":"2009-07-30T09:17:51","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T16:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/30\/all-you-need-is-love\/"},"modified":"2009-07-30T09:19:44","modified_gmt":"2009-07-30T16:19:44","slug":"all-you-need-is-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/30\/all-you-need-is-love\/","title":{"rendered":"All You Need Is Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amidst the chaos that is the New York Mets, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always something about baseball to love.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a tumultuous week in New York baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 While the Yankees have gone 10-2 since the All-Star break and currently rest atop the A.L. East, as an organization, the Mets hit rock bottom about a week ago.\u00c2\u00a0 This week, they kept digging.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Early in the week, the Mets fired VP of Player Development Tony Bernazard, because he publicly and verbally berated a scout sitting in his seat at Citi Field during a game, nearly came to blows with All-Star closer Francisco Rodriguez, and channeled his inner Macho Man Randy Savage when he tore off his shirt and challenged the entire Double-A Birmingham Mets to a fight.<\/p>\n

During the press conference, General Manager Omar Minaya destroyed the organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s credibility by alleging that Adam Rubin, the Daily News beat writer that had broken the story, wrote the reports as a way to angle for Bernazard\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job.\u00c2\u00a0 By the way, this turned out to be false.\u00c2\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen, Omar Minaya and the 2009 New York Mets!<\/p>\n

Every time I tried to write a full column about the surreal events of the past week, I got angry.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t rationally respond to the absurdity that has become the Mets.<\/p>\n

So, instead, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m rocking back and forth, chanting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Serenity now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and reminding myself of a few more of the 3,756,842 reasons I love baseball.<\/p>\n

Reason no. 402,245: The Little League World Series<\/strong>
\nThroughout the summer, thousands of children across the world compete for an opportunity to play in Williamsport, PA at the end of August.\u00c2\u00a0 Every game features drama, defensive gems, timely hitting, strong pitching, and genuine enthusiasm.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget about the tournament held before the 2009 MLB season, the Little League World Series is the real world baseball classic.<\/p>\n

As an added bonus, where else is it socially acceptable for the twelve-year-old that grew into his body too early and currently shaves to take out all his awkwardness and alienation on the tiny middle-schoolers that have tormented him?<\/a><\/p>\n

Reason no. 3,755,840: Men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s softball<\/strong>
\n Reason no. 3,755,841: Backyard whiffle ball<\/strong>
\nI realized this weekend why I have felt so empty this summer.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t played one inning of softball or whiffle ball.\u00c2\u00a0 Where else can a 42-year-smoking and boozing Artie Lange be believable as an athletic hero?<\/p>\n

I blame my graduate studies for setting my soul adrift this summer.<\/p>\n

Reason no. 991: The MLB trade deadline <\/strong>
\nFor whatever reason, July 31st always seems to carry more weight than the trade deadlines in other American sports. Because contracts are not guaranteed and offensive and defensive schemes have become so intricate in the NFL, the mid-October date often passes without causing much of a ripple.\u00c2\u00a0 In the NBA, trades that are designed to acquire an expiring contract to alleviate a team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cap pressure often dilute the waters and take away from the meaningful exchanges, such as Chauncey Billups landing in Denver this past season.<\/p>\n

In Major League Baseball, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no salary cap and the money in contracts is guaranteed, so baseball trades often involve burgeoning or established stars that small- and mid-market teams cannot afford to pay as free agents.\u00c2\u00a0 As a result, these trades have immediate impact in pennant and playoff implications (see: Ramirez, Manny and the 2008 Los Angeles Dodgers).<\/p>\n

<\/a>Also, because the selling teams are so desperate to receive some kind of value before they lose their stars to free agency, you never know what to expect from the trade deadline.\u00c2\u00a0 Baseball general managers attack the July 31st closing date with the same exuberance as Barney Stinson walking into a packed New York nightclub.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knows what might happen?\u00c2\u00a0 Mark Shapiro might trade Cliff Lee for a handful of minor leaguers to the best team in the National League, or Neal Huntington might trade his entire starting line-up.\u00c2\u00a0 Wait, those things really happened?\u00c2\u00a0 Oh.<\/p>\n

Reason no. 3,756,842: Rickey Henderson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suit at the 2009 Hall of Fame inductions<\/strong>
\nI have never been happier to have an HDTV.\u00c2\u00a0 I happily basked in the Rickey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suit in all its knee-length-jacket, fifty-two-button, silver-thread-embossed, three-piece glory.\u00c2\u00a0 Rickey had it custom made almost ten years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Simply fantastic.<\/p>\n

Reason no. 3: You never know when something truly amazing might happen:<\/strong>
\nMark Buehrle demonstrated this perfectly.<\/p>\n

The unassuming lefty, who possesses a 133-91 record and a 3.78 ERA for his career, now is the owner of a no-hitter, a World Series ring, and a perfect game.\u00c2\u00a0 On July 28, 2009, Buehrle broke the record for most consecutive batters retired, ostensibly pitching one-and-a-half perfect games.<\/p>\n

Baseball has such a rich history and relies so much on the momentum of the day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starting pitching that anything can happen on any given day.\u00c2\u00a0 What are the chances that the people that had tickets to a mid-July game in Tampa Bay expected to see something so rare that it has happened only 16 times since 1900?\u00c2\u00a0 How about the odds that Minnesota fans in the Metrodome expected to give a standing ovation to an opposing pitcher after their team recorded its first hit of the game?<\/p>\n

I still remember watching Anthony Young lose a record-breaking 27 straight games for the Mets in 1992 and 1993.\u00c2\u00a0 By the end, everyone in New York was rooting for Young to lose and cement his place in baseball lore.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfect game; a steal of home; an inside the park homerun; or a milestone win, hit, homer, strikeout, error, or what-have-you; baseball always provides a possibility that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see something truly memorable.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Mark Buerhle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amidst the chaos that is the New York Mets, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always something about baseball to love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}