He knew all he had to do was pulled his hands apart and he could look away, get up and the Team Owner would let him. He’s still play, still be part of the team but he wouldn’t belong to the Team. All he had to do was pull his hands apart. But as he looked into the man’s eyes, heard his voice….he didn’t want to pull them apart. He didn’t want to walk want. He wanted to belong. To his Team, to his Owner.
My favorite genre of pictures that i just discovered is baseball players in middle of doing their silly little high kicks to launch the ball at bastardly speeds
Golden opportunity to present my favorite blorbo from my shows doing this
MWW Artwork of the Day (4/12/16) Paul Sample (American, 1896-1974) Sand Lot Ball Game (1938) Oil on canvas Arkell Museum, Canajoharie NY (Gift of Bartlett Arkell)
Spring is definitely here and summer beckons, the sun is shining, there’s finally some warmth in the air, and professional baseball leagues all over the globe are getting into full swing: time for all red-blooded boys and girls to dust off the mitts, grab a bat, and head to the sandlots. Baseball, like Hope, springs eternal.
Future historians may well decide that baseball was America’s greatest contribution to world culture. As the great American poet (and baseball fan) Walt Whitman observed when the game was still in its infancy: “[Baseball] — it’s our game: that’s the chief fact in connection with it: America’s game: has the snap, go fling, of the American atmosphere —- belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life.”
But the most memorable oration about the Great American Game remains this:
“I don’t have to tell you that the one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has been erased like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked time with America as it has rolled by like a procession of steamrollers. It is the same game that Moonlight Graham played in 1905. It is a living part of history, like calico dresses, stone crockery, and threshing crews eating at outdoor tables, It continually reminds us of what once was, like an Indian-head penny in a handful of new coins. It reminds us of all that once was good and that could be again.” – J.D Salinger in Ray Kinsella’s “Shoeless Joe,” p. 213. [but hear the wonderfully deep and melodic voice of James Earl Jones as Terence Mann in the film adaptation “Field of Dreams”]
* The Museum Without Walls also has a special collection of baseball photos, with accompanying original essays on the history and characters of the game:
Nolan, after initially boasting his change of allegiance from the Yankees to the Mets, realizes his true feelings for the Yankees after someone (me) hates on Jeter and is gifted a new Yankees cap from Geoff to reunite him to his true team. Each photo was taken minutes apart through the arc of his reaction.
My favorite genre of pictures that i just discovered is baseball players in middle of doing their silly little high kicks to launch the ball at bastardly speeds
Recently fell in love with the characters in this wonderful novel by Chad Harbach, The Art of Fielding. Set in a fictional “Westish college” and focusing on the members of their baseball team, “Harpooners”.
I’m decidedly not linking to any further information sources, for should you be curious, it is always recommendable to go in totally unaware.
If/when you’ve read the book, you probably recognize this scene, which was the igniting moment for this inspiration. I was absolutely floored by the structure and conclusion of this particular chapter; what a way to get you invested.
Pins, sweater, lamp and glasses all appear in the book.
This shirt! Moby Dick themed “Westish college” gear, as described in the book. I loved how the novel tied a fictional college with a fictional team convincingly to a real life figure and their legacy (Herman Melville).
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This serves also as my tribute to a personal long time favorite from the legendary master, Norman Rockwell: “The Dugout”.
