Starting Nine.: first pitch

Showing posts with label first pitch. Show all posts

Friday, July 24, 2020

The New Normal: Opening Day.

Today is opening day! *looks at calendar* Holy shit! It's July 24th. Like most things these days, things are a little different. They are going to start playing baseball today amidst this pandemic and they are going to do it with slightly different rules and a very different atmosphere. Since we can't go out the the old ballgame today (but we can watch on TV) let's breakdown what you might see and what you definitely won't see.

Famous people throwing out the first pitch:

Yes! Last night during the Nationals opener, Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch, and while it wasn't exactly a strike, I like to think he has more important things to be focusing on right now. With any luck, the people in charge might even start listening.

Topps needs to bring these back, I always liked these cards.

Mascots: Nope.

The stadiums will be empty and the large costumed buffoonery will have to be on hold for a while. If you want to dress up in the privacy of your own home, I am certainly not going to judge. UPDATE: I may have been misinformed about this one...

Cardboard cut-out fans:

Yes! Real fans will not be in the ballpark but most teams (including my Mets) have put up cardboard cutout fans behind home plate and around the stadium. On TV, it looks like an old computer game with the graphics turned to simple - I can only imagine what it looks like to the players. They also pipe in crowd noise, which is strange to say the least. Whoever has been on the button for the cheers and boos needs to be a little faster on the draw, at least from what I saw on SNY last weekend. Maybe they'll have the bugs worked out by tonight.

Exuberant celebrations: No way.

The players are under orders to socially distance as much as possible. This means they sit wide in the dugout and the reserves have been sitting in the stands. Also, no spitting, no high fives, and definitely no walk-off dog pile insanity. I went to a baseball game and a golf match broke out!

Overpriced delicious fatty foods:

Only if you make them at home. I am ordering the old ballpark staple Chinese food this afternoon to watch the Mets. Like I said, this is a very different world we live in. "Buy me some peanuts and crab rangoon!"

Players going all out to win:

Absolutely. This 60 game season is, antithetical to baseball history for 150+ years, a sprint and not a marathon. Also, 16 teams will make the playoffs with some very short opening round series. I like to think the players are rested and the ones who have chosen to play are coming to win. This season is going to count, these games are for real; the world is all asunder but better late than never, it's time to Play Ball!

Monday, April 3, 2017

First Things First.

Ah, Opening Day. There is nothing else like it. Except, well, it is now stretched out over a few days so I guess MLB should just trademark Opening Few Days and get it over with. But enough with the awful march of commerce, let us embrace the wonderful march of time. The sun is up, the sky is blue (etc.) and the Mets are out in Flushing adding to baseball's best record on Opening Day.

This year at CitiField, the ceremonial First Pitch was very emotional.

My favorite meaningless statistic is that the Mets are now 36-20 on opening day, the best percentage in baseball history. Also quirky - and often pointed out - is that they won a World Series (1969) before they actually won on opening day (1970) which means they are 36-12 since that Miracle happened. Fascinating and stupid.

On a more card related point, this is what the 2017 Topps page ended up looking like:

I am still not crazy about the design and it has yet to grow on me. That along with this year's Heritage being the burlap abortion that is 1968 Topps, I am not in a collecting happy place right now (and let's not even bring up that Panini decided that the 1990 Donruss design needed to be brought back, ugh).

I did, however, follow through on my threat to tweak the Salute inserts into a better looking base design:

My photoshop skills are weak at best, but I think by making the photo a tad larger by dragging out the half-border and replacing the insert title with the position, you have at least a good starting point for a much better and cleaner design than the inception angle boxes Topps gave us this year. With a little more skill and time, I am sure the gold stripe could match the team colors and the city name in that right border could be something else as well (though I kinda like the half-font thing going on there). But this is what I was driving at when I critiqued the 2017 base design and in a rare instance, I don't think I am crazy or wrong here. What do you think? Has anyone else done something similar recently? Let me know since this is the first year I have been that turned off by the Topps design since I started the blog.