Barcalounge Skipper - From Dodgeball to Slugball

As part of a spirit day at the school where I teach, theAthletic Department organized a dodgeball tournament for students and faculty –that is, each grade level, eight through twelve, as well as the faculty had tocome up with teams to play against each other in a three round tournament.  The faculty could organize two teams, ascould the seniors.

As a huge fan of the film Dodgeball and an avid player in my youth, I couldn’t wait to signup, was eager for the tournament to start. The Athletic Director was nice enough to make up some spiffy shirts,inspired quite clearly by the movie.

The faculty team I was on would be facing the 9^thgraders in the first round, boys and girls of about 15 years old.  Lest you worry for their safety, let me saythat, first of all, we do not play dodgeball with the traditional red rubberball.  No we play with a set of smaller,dense foam balls that can be thrown quite hard but don’t have that slapping, resonantimpact of Old Red.  Secondly, most of thefaculty team are in their 30s and 40s, and while many of us could throw quitehard, we presented somewhat larger targets, and slow-footed ones at that.  Those 9^th graders are small andfast, and very good at avoiding things like hurtling foam balls, vocabularyquizzes, and vegetables.  I know this fora fact.  I used to teach them, when Icould catch them.

All this is to say that when the opening whistle blew andthe crowd began to cheer, and I a brave display of charging to midcourt andpicking up several balls, but my first set of throws didn’t work out.  The foam balls had a tendency to rise and cut– like a classic four-seam fastball.  My devastatingfireball throws sailed over my opponents heads. And while I was hanging out in the back dodging with the rest of thelumbering, perspiring teachers, I caught the most glancing of glancingest blowson the foot, and into jail I went.  The 9^thgraders made quick work of us.

The seniors eventually won the tournament in the end.  They always do with these things.

In talking with the Athletic Director the next day, we came aroundto the subject of other playground or street games: stickball, handball,stoopball, kickball, toss up and cream, and so forth.  The AD, who was from Florida, said that hewent to a school once where they played a game called slugball – an indoor variation I’d never heard of, using avolleyball. 

Slugball follows a basic kickball setup with three bases andhome, and a pitcher whose job it is to serve whoever is up at the plate with asuitable ball for slugging.  That is, theplayer up could punch (or slap, or poke) the ball with his hand orforearm.  Outs are made by a forceout atfirst, but teams could “stack” players on base to prevent a forceout at other bases.  If you were tagged by a player holding theball or pegged by a thrown ball between bases, that was also an out. Both theability to control the direction of the “slug”” and the option to not run thebases seem to give the team on offense a much wider range of options than inkickball.

You might check out Streetplay.comor the Wikipedia article for kickballfor all the variations of rules and codes.

I have two questions for readers – so feel free to offersome comments here on the blog:

1)     Have you ever played slugball, or somethingclose to it?

2)     What unique variations of playground games didyou play as a kid?

PNodcast Unscripted - NFL Preview with 32 Teams

In an extended discussion, 32 Teams co-host Heath Kelts talks real football and real fantasy football.  Subscribe to the PNodcast through iTunes.

Barcalounge Skipper - Revenge of the Football Nerds?

Gilbert and Lewis: Our Heroes

The age ofthe nerd is upon us.  Iron Man, The Dark Knight, ScottPilgrim vs. The World, BattlestarGalactica, Glee, Pixar movies, vampiremovies, video games – heck, the entire freakin’ Internet – all of these thingsare evidence of the arrival of the Nerd Age. The Information Age is the Nerd Age in most aspects.  EBay anyone? E-Trade?  B2B? Need I continue?  The real question is, are you 1337 or are you n00b?  And, furthermore, “Areyou ready for some football?”

To quote Wikipedia – another nerd invention,BTW – “nerd is a term that refers to a person who avidly pursues intellectual activities, technical or scientific endeavors, esoteric knowledge, or other obscureinterests, rather than engaging in moresocial or conventional activities.”  Star Wars, Star Trek, and D&D jokesaside, the “obscure knowledge” is a phrase I would take issue with.  In the age of blogs, podcasts, and the globalinformation economy, there is no such thing as obscure knowledge – simply knowledgethat has a very specific market for people who, well, want to go really reallydeeply into a subject.

The best example the explosive growth of the nerd ethos into newand surprising areas is fantasy football. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, The Football Nerd.  Last year, ESPN estimated that each year some27 million people play fantasy football of one sort or another – and one wouldassume that the vast majority of them are US citizens.  This means that some 9 percent of thepopulation of the country is playing, with an average of 9 hours a week spenton watching games, following players and stats, and working out trades and otherplayer transactions within fantasy football leagues.  Perhaps, dear reader, you are alreadylost.  This only proves just how far nerdculture has penetrated into the lives of those of you who, as they say, have areal life.

Keep the Faith: Mint in the box.

I must admit to my own nerd tendencies.  I am 41 years old.  I have a comic book collection tucked away inthe closet.  As I type this, I amsurrounded by several hundred jazz and blues CDs. Nearby sits my 2004commemorative Boston Red Sox World Series Champs Monopoly game and my RedSox-Yankees rivalry chess set.  I haveplayed fantasy baseball for some 12 seasons, although now I belong to onecompetitive league and, aside from draft day, I don’t obsess over it too much.

NERRRRRRDS!

I played fantasy football for one season, and that wasenough.  As fun as it was, and as good agroup of guys as I played with, a seasoned nerd like me simply could not keepup with the serious Football Nerd.  Theymove fast, they hit hard, and they take no prisoners.

Some might say that it’s the ultimate revenge of the nerds.  That specialized, obsessive approach, afterall, is what led to the ultimate triumph of Lewis Skolnick, Gilbert Loweand their pals over the jocks and preps from Alpha-Beta House in thenow-legendary 1984 film.  The profound impact on nerd self-esteem wasdocumented in the 2003 film, American Splendor, based onthe life of the late, great comics nerd Harvey Pekar.  In that film, the character of uber-nerd TobyRadloff, played by comedy nerd JudahFriedlander, speaks to the impact of Revengeof the Nerds.

Toby and Judah: White Castle rocks.

“It's abouta group of nerd college students who are being picked on all the time by thejocks. So they decide to take revenge. . . I consider myself a nerd. And thismovie has uplifted me. There's this one scene, where a nerd grabs themicrophone during a pep rally and announces that he is a nerd and that he isproud of it and stands up for the rights of other nerds.  Then he asks all the kids at the peprally who think they are nerds to come forward, so nearly everybody in theplace does. That's the way the movie ends.”

Nearly everybody in the place. Right on, Toby.

And now we have 27 million Football Nerds gearing up for the NCAAand NFL seasons. There’s an FX comedy series – now in its second season, The League,thatis about a group of guys who play fantasy football.  Oh, the wackiness!  Who watches the show – Football Nerds, or thepeople laughing at the Football Nerds?  Somemen – and most of the players are men, sorry – are okay in their pigskindorkiness and have come out to their families, have given notice that they willbe unavailable on draft day and every Sunday from now until January.  Others, sadly, keep it obscured or secret,like Paul Rudd’s sad character in Knocked Up, a man who isnot cheating on his wife, but is in fact trying to get away for his fantasydraft with his buddies.  “No wives,”shouts one of his friends when Rudd’s wife barges into the draft room.  “No wives!” And that’s just wrong.

So, to return to the original dichotomy of the cinematic classic, Revenge of the Nerds: Who winshere?    Also known as Nerdworld.

Gilbert and Lewis would be proud.

When you’re finished with your little pretend football team, bigguy, why don’t you get off your butt and go shine the yacht?  We nerds will be in the man-cave watching Iron Man on the 60 inch plasma.

Barcalounge Skipper - The Red Sox Are Toast

I'm going to have to admit that it's over.  As a fourth-generation Red Sox fan (no pink hats in this household), now hopeful here in the 21st century after the brutal baseball realities of the Nation in the 20th, I feel comfortable with admitting that the Red Sox are toast.  An ambulance-squad's worth of injuries and good but inconsistent pitching have held them back from the 100 or so wins that it appears will be necessary to earn a playoff spot coming out of the American League East.

Now, the Red Sox might win 90 games this year, as suggested by Baseball Prospectus, a total that might be enough to reach the playoffs in a couple of other divisions in baseball.  But the whizzes at BP also place the Sox chances of making the playoffs at about 6 percent, and it's been dropping quickly.  The Yankees and the Rays are just too good this year.  David Price looks like a Cy Young winner, and if BJ Upton or Carlos Pena heat up at the end of the season, the Rays are going to be fearsome.  The great Carl Crawford, in a contract year, wants a ring -- and then he wants to get paid, baby.

Alex Speier of WEEI has written about the $20 million in salary and the roughly 1000 player/games lost to injuries to the Red Sox this year.  The gap right there would cost you about 10 games.  Say what you will about losing Cameron, Martinez, Buchholz, Beckett, and Varitek here and there, it's the loss of Pedroia and Youkilis -- All-Star caliber players as well as past and likely future MVPs -- that has hurt the most.  Statistics aside, as well, both Petie and Youk are home-grown guys who personify the Red Sox Way -- be a strong and steady all around, hard-nosed player who grinds it out every at bat.  But I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said before.

2011 Closer: Daniel Bard

So where do you go from here? To 2011. I suspect that the Red Sox are about ready to trade Jonathan Papelbon, who likely will go into an arbitration process that will result in a one-year contract for $10 million.  I say, trade Paps early, make Daniel Bard the closer (at $415, 500), and spend the difference on getting some arms from the 40 or so middle relievers hitting the market.  I believe the team will re-sign David Ortiz, but it isn't going to be pretty, and Papi isn't going to get the money or the years he wants.  If Adrian Beltre makes 640 plate appearances this season, the Red Sox option for $10 million kicks in for 2011.  Free agent Victor Martinez may go, but the Sox have Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the fold, and, at 25 years old, he still may be coming into his own.  Presumably, with players healthy and a little money thrown at a fourth outfielder, a catcher, and the bullpen, the Red Sox should have the means to get their win total into the high 90s again.


Here's my lineup card, so to speak, for 2011:
     C - Saltalamacchia
     1B - Youkilis
     2B - Pedroia
     SS - Scutaro
     3B - Beltre
     LF - Ellsbury
     CF - Kalish
     RF - Drew
   Starting Rotation: Lester, Buchholz, Beckett, Lackey, Matsusaka
   Closer: Daniel Bard


Half the team is made up of products of the Red Sox player development.  If it works out that way, I think that's always an encouraging sign.  As for the rest of the season, I'm putting my money on the Rays.

Barcalounge Skipper - Big Fan

You know how Netflix makes those recommendations, but you never really believe that you're going to like the movies suggested to you? The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock? Really, Netlfix?

But one film in particular had been stalking me from week to week on Netflix, last year's Big Fan, directed by Robert D. Siegel and starring Patton Oswalt. Now, Oswalt is an extremely funny comic, so I expected a funnier film than what I got from Big Fan, but I was far from disappointed.

Oswalt's character, Paul, is an obsessed New York Giants fan who spends most of his time listening to sports talk radio, waiting to hear the latest challenge from his archnemesis, Philadelphia Phil, a trash-talking Eagles fan played by Michael Rappaport.  Paul is in his mid 30s, works as a parking garage attendant, takes public transportation each day home to where he lives with his mother.  He waits on hold for hours most nights just to have his one minute of sports talk radio glory, when he can praise the Giants and, in particular his favorite player, linebacker Quantrell "QB" Bishop.  Paul even has a poster of QB hanging over his bed, and the homoerotic subtext is clear enough.  Big fan? When the Giants play at home, Paul and his buddy Sal (Kevin Corrigan) drive their crummy car to the parking lot of the stadium and watch the game on a portable TV perched on the trunk.  Paul's traditional Italian-American family want him to grow up and get a life.

One night, when a chance encounter with QB leads Paul and Sal to follow the Giant into a Manhattan strip club, Paul tries to approach the football star, but ends up being beaten by his idol.  Paul ends up in the hospital, QB ends up suspended pending further investigation, and Big Fan only gets more twisted from there.

This film has a few funny moments -- more funny odd than anything else -- but it's really just endlessly creepy, sad, and truly fascinating.  Oswalt gives a surprisingly subtle and effective performance, and the movie has one of the truly great penultimate scenes I can remember.  The final confrontation between Paul and the detested Philadelphia Phil is both excruciating and exhilarating.  Big Fan is the Taxi Driver of sports movies.

Barcalounge Skipper - Buck Up

"Good game, good game. I'm buying the candy corn!"

     Here come the Baltimore Orioles.  It's about time.
     Although the O's aren't likely to avoid their 13th straight losing season, they now have the -- can I say it -- underrated Buck Showalter managing the team.  Since taking over the directionless, listless Orioles a few weeks ago, Baltimore's boys of summer have gone 11-7 and appear to have a new sense of purpose.  Credit Showalter for turning around the team's attitude, as was clearly evident in Buck's disgusted and dismissive remarks about the Oriole's goofy orange uniforms, worn during a game against the Rays last weekend.
     "Someone said it looked like Halloween candy corn," Showalter said via the AP. "Take a picture. You won't see them again."
     He's right.  Candy corn sucks. Now, it seems, the Oriole's don't.
     If baseball has a modern-day turnaround artist, it's Showalter.  Having previously taken change of three foundering franchises -- the Yankees of 1992-95, the Diamondbacks of 1998-2000, and the Rangers of 2003-2006 -- Big Show has always had a big impact.  Season by season, here's the composite record and winning percentages for all three teams, year by year:


Year One 212-274 (.436)
Year Two 277-209 (.569)
Year Three 234-203 (.535)
Year Four 159-147 (.519)


     Showalter won Manager of the Year twice, in 1994 and in 2004. And he built the Yankees into the franchise that won Joe Torre four championships, as well as the team that beat the Yankees in 2001, Bob Brenly's Diamondbacks.  Since Showalter left the Rangers four years ago, that team has been a winning franchise, certainly better than it was before he got there.
     Buck is the kind of coach I think I'd like running my team, and Oriole's president Andy McPhail certainly sees it that way.  Prepared, focusing on fundamentals and preparation, Showalter should help turn around a historically great franchise in a truly great baseball town.  Baltimore deserves a great team, and it should be coming sooner than anyone suspects.
     And I have to like a guy who has nothing but disdain for Throwback Uniform Night.

Barcaloungue Skipper - PN 2.21 - Plotting for Spring Training

I recall a glorious time in March during the mid-90s when I managed to see four baseball spring training games in two days – at the old Devil Rays’ field in downtown St. Petersburg, at the old Phillies’ park in Clearwater, then the next day at the Blue Jays’ field in Dunedin and the Yankees’ place in Tampa. There couldn’t have been more than two hour’s total driving to all those parks, my total for tickets didn’t crack 40 bucks, and there was much beer and sunshine. And the world was good.

These days, spring training is a bit more swanky here in the land of the Grapefruit League, but it’s still a wonderful way to see baseball in a more raw form. Plus there are guys playing who have three digit numbers on the backs of their jerseys. “Let’s get on base, number one-hundred-and-twenty-one!”


I’ve got the Mets and the Marlins/Cardinals a short drive to the north. I can tolerate the Marlins, and the Cards are fine, but the Mets just suck. What I really do is look for the Red Sox – who train on the West Coast in Fort Meyers -- to come through the area for that rare away game here on the East Coast. And I have my game in sight – March 9 – with Marlins tickets going on sale very very soon. In the meantime, maybe I’ll grab myself some actual Sox tickets. They go on sale this coming Saturday at 10:00 am. I’ll have my redial button ready.

I include a photo of the 1912 Red Sox, who trained that year in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The many pleasures of Arkansas aside, it does not appear to have been a particularly hot spring in Hot Springs.

I could go MLB's official website for all my spring training gumbo, but I prefer Spring Training Online, a blog which does away with much off the razzle-dazzle and garbage.