Reading Material

Lisa frequently gives me things to read. I know it’s just another way she shows me she loves me!

Often, she’ll hand me a piece of the newspaper with an article prominently displayed. Just last week, there was a feature about Nolan Ryan in Parade magazine. There was another celebrating the anniversary of the Little League.

She sends me things by email, too. Recently, I noticed three pieces in my in box pertained to the umbrella term, baseball.

Lisa knows the underpinnings of Coach Jeff’s Blog come from America’s Pastime. Here are summaries of these three articles, with very different subtexts, about my favorite sport. 

The Most Popular Baseball Team by County
One of the articles she sent my way is a piece from Mental Floss. It chronicles America’s Pastime fandoms under a heading titled the Most Popular Baseball Team by County.

At the start of this year’s baseball season, Facebook released data – and produced a map in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal – compiled based on the number of likes of team pages on FB.

The map is interesting. There aren’t a lot of revelations. For example, it’s no surprise that the South is Braves Country. Solid South. All of Georgia and Alabama; most of Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina; parts of Virginia, North Carolina and Florida. Knox County, TN is definitely firmly ensconced in Braves Country.

In a similar fashion, the Mississippi River area of the Midwest is St. Louis Cardinals Country. It encompasses a huge chunk of the Midwest – county by county. Shelby County in TN, for example, belongs to Cardinal Nation.

Other, similar, regional ties exist. Central and Northern Cali belong to the Giants (Sorry A’s); Southern California (except an Angels sliver and a Padres sliver) go with the Dodgers. And just as New England is Dunkin’ Donuts country is is equally Boston Red Sox territory. Most of Texas belongs to the Rangers; a bit goes with the Astros.

And so on and so on. 

The New York Yankees, of course, are the 400 pound gorilla. There are chunks of Yankee turf in the oddest places – Hawaii, New Mexico, Louisianne. Almost anywhere you can imagine. And, of course, in Gotham, itself. 

Poor Mets.

Poor Blue Jays, too. No Canadian voting baseball blocks exist on U.S. soil.

11 Fantastic French Phrases for Baseball Terms
Perhaps because of our recent trip to France, Lisa forwarded an email from Mental Floss titled 11 Fantastic French Phrases for Baseball Terms.

I smiled when I read this piece. It was charming. Also, speaking of baseball in Canada, it reminded me a bit of the time we saw a game in Montreal (Dodgers at Expos).

Many of these terms came into play that day:

I loved “Changement de vitesse” (Change-up) and  Arret-court (shortstop). A couple of my other favorites didn’t make the Mental Floss countdown: le lanceur (pitcher), le recevoir (the catcher) and, of course, le frappeur (the batter).

You can visit the article to see all the great phrases.

30 Parks in 30 Days
Lisa knows me really well. She knows that one of my goals is to see an MLB game in each of the parks.

In fact, I had three goals.

1. One goal was to see 100 games by age 50. I checked that off last summer when we saw Padres play at the Nats in D.C. in July.
2. A second goal is to see all of the teams. For some reason, I have never been able to catch the White Sox. But, I’ve seen all the others (including the aforementioned Expos).
3. So, the third goal – and I’m a little over halfway to it – is to see a game in each ballpark.

The authors of the Slate article she sent – How to Visit all 30 Major League Stadiums in 30 Days – are more ambitious than I am. I might have tried this half a life ago…but I couldn’t do it now.

Their plan includes a trip calculator and a map to show you the best way to max our your roadtrip. The app includes an imbedded MLB schedule.

Like I said, I couldn’t do that. And by the time my schedule is more flexible sometime down the road, I would hope to be closing in on my goal of seeing a game in each park.

Cities yet to check off the list: L.A. (both parks), San Diego, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Minneapolis, Miami, Pittsburgh. I have been to a game in St. Louis, but not the new park. I saw a game at the old park. Same with Old Yankee Stadium/New Yankee Stadium. Also, there is that conundrum with the White Sox, so I need to get back there.

Otherwise, I’m well on the road to checking off this box, too.

I’m not as ambitious as the guys who penned this piece but they have my undying admiration. Oh, to be young, have a flexible schedule (but still have a full bank account).

Ah…. 

JG

Originally posted 6/3/2014