{"id":271,"date":"2008-03-20T12:02:13","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T19:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/20\/who-you-callin%e2%80%99-a-seamhead\/"},"modified":"2008-10-06T19:13:12","modified_gmt":"2008-10-07T02:13:12","slug":"who-you-callin%e2%80%99-a-seamhead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/20\/who-you-callin%e2%80%99-a-seamhead\/","title":{"rendered":"Who You Callin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 a SEAMHEAD?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This appeared in NOTES #38, back in October 1993<\/u>, when NOTES was a rookie.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve noticed that those of us who are known in our offices or neighborhoods, or in our families, as baseball fans<\/span><\/em>, attract not just presents of baseball books and shirts and whatever. No, we also attract stuff that our friends think might get a rise out of us, articles clipped from here & there, for our benefit. We are, for better or worse, magnets<\/span><\/em> for baseball gems and garbage.
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

One such item Xeroxed my way, from the October 1st <\/st1>USA<\/span><\/em><\/st1> Today<\/span><\/em> sports section, is a column by Bryan Burwell. Mr Burwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fondest memories of October are of football. Fine. But wait, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no story in that. So he goes on:
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s critical to note this now, with baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playoffs and World Series almost upon us, and its insufferable romantics (I prefer the far more derisive term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seamheads\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) preparing to leave our sports pages all ooey and gooey with so much elitist, fluffy, poetic bunk about how baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s championship chase ought to be the sole priority of autumn.”
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty much Mr Burwell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s point, I think. The rest of his column describes how he liked baseball as a kid, up until 1969, when he discovered football. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was 14, and all I knew was I relished walking this fine line between savagery and artistry every time I picked up a football.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Sounds sort of fluffy & poetic.)
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the term \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seamhead\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has been around a while, and is just now making it to <\/st1>Utica<\/st1>. That happens. Anyway, if you must call names, seamhead is harmless enough. But do you have to call names?
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

If Mr Burwell had been brought up a Baptist, but discovered, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s say, Buddhism<\/span><\/em>, later in life, would he feel compelled to knock his Baptist roots? Well, maybe he would \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the zeal of the convert can be intolerant and downright dangerous. I like to bring religion (and politics \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the two things you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not supposed to argue about in public) into sports, because we are<\/span><\/em> allowed to argue sports ad infinitum<\/span><\/em>, and occasionally ad nauseam<\/span><\/em>.
\n<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

What is Mr Burwell doing writing about baseball anyway. Hey, you jumped ship at 14, fine<\/span><\/em>. Stick to football. Build it up \u00e2\u20ac\u201d don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tear down other sports. We just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need intolerance!<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The above is an excerpt from Issue #439 of Gene’s Notes From the Shadows of Cooperstown. To read the rest of the issue (or past issues), click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This appeared in NOTES #38, back in October 1993, when NOTES was a rookie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}