I Miss Baseball

by DrLefty

I miss a lot of things. Carnitas at Tres Hermanas for Saturday lunch. Going to a movie. Being able to see my family members or chat with my neighbors without setting up a Zoom meeting. Popping spontaneously over to the supermarket because I need a particular ingredient for dinner or because I have a craving for Trader Joe’s peanut butter pretzel nuggets. Everything is so pared down and yet so complicated.

I do not miss being in my office on campus dealing with all the ap-cray that comes with being a program director, but I do miss being in a classroom with my students.

Yesterday would have been the Giants home opener. We have attended the last three of them, and they haven’t been particularly great memories–two lackluster losses and a win marred by Buster Posey getting beaned in the first inning. Here are my reflections on last year’s opener, which was very emotional–tributes to Willie McCovey and Peter Magowan, both of whom passed during the offseason, and a long heartfelt ovation for Bruce Bochy in his last home opener as the Giants manager. Before all of this happened, we hadn’t decided if we were going to the home opener this year.

We probably would have.

There is (obviously) very little Giants news to discuss. Gabe Kapler and Scott Harris did interviews on KNBR this week. Tim Kawakami, in a piece for The Athletic, mused about how Kapler’s getting kind of a do-over, a fresh start, as Giants manager. And he’s right. When baseball returns, we’ll be so happy that Lou Seal or the Crazy Crab could be managing the Giants and we wouldn’t care.

MLB.com this week did a story on “the next ace for every MLB team,” and I clicked interestedly on it: For the Giants, would it be Logan Webb or Sean Hjelle or Seth Corry? Instead it said (spoiler alert) Tyler Beede. And yes, it mentioned that Beede just had Tommy John surgery. I found this a little depressing.

Speaking of the young pitchers, Alex Pavlovic, in a mailbag article this week, speculated that–to the extent there is a 2020 MLB season–Logan Webb will be in the rotation for all of it. Before things shut down, they’d been talking about managing his innings this year. Webb has previously had TJ surgery, and he missed 80 games last year with a suspension. But when (if) baseball returns this year, there will be no need for that, and Beede is not standing in Webb’s way, either. Alex also predicted that Seth Corry will be a top- or near-top of the rotation starter in several years and is surprised he hasn’t gotten more love on prospects lists after having such a great year for Augusta in 2019.

Hunter and Lexi Pence made an appearance on MLB Network’s Intentional Talk, and if you want to see Brandon Crawford make PB&Js for his kids and ride his Peloton, we’ve got you covered right here.

Rich Aurilia did a podcast with Alex and Kelli Johnson this week, and have I mentioned that I met him a few weeks ago? Here’s proof.

 

Finally, here’s how to watch the simulated game from MLB The Show 2020 of how the home opener would have gone. Commentary by Kruk, Kuip, and Amy G!

Oh, and Jon Miller and Dave Flemming have highlights from the Strat-o-Matic version of the home opener, with Flemming’s kids acting out the highlights in their backyard. (Wait. Brandon Belt is leading off? Billy Hamilton is batting ninth, with Samardzija hitting eighth?)

 

TWG family business

Shout-out to Hummbaby, as he recovers from the virus. Shout-out to Foothills Ryan, who traveled south to help his dad move from the family home to assisted living.

I’m going to take Kodachrome’s suggestion and add a featured comment for weekly check-ins. Please comment to let us know you’re still kicking, still reading, and doing OK. And if you’re not doing OK, let us know that, too, so that we can send you all the good TWG community vibes.

 

We’ll let Mike Krukow take us out today. I dare you not to get choked up.  Lefty out.