February 18, 2022
1. Baseball is postponed until March 5th at the earliest
And water is wet.
And the MLBPA response, snarky as usual:
2. Here’s The Today Show on the status of baseball
It’s a bad sign and bad publicity when this story, never-ending, crosses over into the mainstream everyday media.
3. Now for the interesting stuff: Some vintage Ernie Banks
Greetings, from Mr. Cub:
4. And Fergie Jenkins as a Harlem Globetrotter
Who knew?
5. There was baseball today, at a major-league stadium
The NCAA season just started, and Oklahoma had a home game down at the Rangers ballpark in Arlington, Texas.
6. Wander Franco has been practicing on the dirt field he grew up on
Always very cool, whenever videos like this get put out.
7. The back-of-a-baseball-card anecdote of the day
Don’t make seafood smoothies, people.
8. Juan Soto turned down a massive contract extension before the lockout
$350 million on the table, and he chose to bet on himself — which you absolutely have to respect.
9. Buck Showalter is at spring training fending off a wild panther
Can’t they sort this whole lockout thing soon so Mr. Showalter can have some help down there?
10. Paul McCartney will be playing at Camden Yards this summer
If we never get baseball back, let’s all get tickets for this.
11. Aaron Judge hints that this could be his last year in New York
There’s no way they’ll let him go.
12. Two great old winter baseball photos, from Reddit
13. Yoshi Tsutsugo is funding a baseball facility in Japan
And he insists on natural grass and dirt:
“Tsutsugo said that using natural grass instead of the ubiquitous artificial turf was one of the things he was most fastidious about when planning the ballpark.
He was inspired when he saw children playing baseball in the dirt and natural grass at a stadium in the Dominican Republic that he visited during the Winter League in 2015.
‘When I play in the United States, the ball often bounces irregularly on natural grass,’ Tsutsugo said. ‘Players must predict the unpredictable when they take the field, so it helps them to think ahead. It also reduces strain on the body (compared to artificial turf).’”
14. And lastly, another vintage photo: Joe DiMaggio in 1936
