Scraptastic

My new schedule prohibits me, mercifully, from watching much baseball. For a long, long time, televised baseball was my evening for the better part of each year.

Cubs and Pirates day games? Watched ‘em.

Braves and Cardinals on TBS in the early ’90s? Watched ‘em.

Every Yankees games from WPIX 11 to MSG to YES? Watched ‘em. Watched ‘em. Watched ‘em. Phil Rizzuto and Tom Seaver. Dwayne Staats. Tony Kubek. Al Trautwig. That other guy. Ah, good times.

Now, I almost resent all the time I spent doing it. What did I gain? Some memories, sure, some great ones and some horrible ones and some I don’t know what to do with - Jose Canseco pitching. Jose Canseco taking a fly ball off his head - fortunately they don’t all involve Jose Canseco, but they all consumed time, time I paid for the privilege of giving away.

For while, I lived in Maine, with no access to Yankees baseball. It was during these years they did most of their winning. By the time my wife and I moved, they were cycling down - great timing on our part. We enjoyed the entire 2004 season on YES and watched in disbelief as a stolen base turned a rather enjoyable walkover series into a nightmare. It hasn’t gotten better. (I say it was fixed, just like last year’s Super Bowl).

I caught one highlight from last night’s drubbing at the hands of the Angels. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, the Yankees are getting scrappy.’ Then I realzed the score was 12-1 (apparently Pavano wasn’t horrible though) and I thought ‘Why the hell are the Yankees fighting during a double-digit loss?’ But I suppose if they can’t hit the ball, they may as well hit the other team.