Villains on Broad Street: The Phillies and Embracing “The Bad Guy”
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
2y ago
It’s been a long time since I watched professional wrestling. We’re talking like riding your bike to your friends house to watch the monthly Pay-Per-View because they had a “black box” and could get it for free (that friend shall STILL remain nameless because i’m not sure how vindictive the cable companies REALLY are), on pins and needles to find out what was going to happen to Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Degeneration X and whatever the latest incarnation of the NWO was up to. The WWF and WCW were still separate circuits and no matter what they tried to do in terms of crossovers ..read more
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Hall of Fame: The Post I Said I Wouldn’t Write
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
2y ago
For amature bloggers like myself, voting for the Hall of Fame is like playing online poker for fake money. You want to do well out of principle, but I mean, let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter. It’s a big stress reliever in that way, and it one would think that would make it something fun to look forward to every year. It invites interesting discourse, unique perspectives and forces us to take an honest look at MLB and it’s history. Of course, given our real life experience with Cooperstown discourse, we know this to be aggravatingly far from the truth. Every year we sit through the same frivol ..read more
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Atlanta, At Last
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
2y ago
There’s a whole lot of real life in baseball. The road to success if often poorly paved and filled with twists and turns that test not only our sense of direction, but our faith in reaching our destination at all. Reaching that glorious endpoint isn’t always as picturesque as the TV shows we’ve watched our entire lives make it out to be either. Often times, you’re without someone who picked you up off of that bumpy road, or maybe the journey itself took something that you were so sure you needed when you got there. It’s hard to take inventory when you’re missing the pieces you feel make you wh ..read more
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Dirty Laundry: The Shaking of my Braves Fandom
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
Let’s start with the basics here, because it’s important to contextualize what i’m about to opine about: These are first world problems. Being a white man in America gives me the space, by virtue of nothing much more than a particular amount of melanin and quantity of chromosomes, to complain about things like my allegiances in a game. In a year where there is so much at stake for people of color, women, and LGBTQ Americans, the musings of someone like myself should be taken with a mill of salt in comparison to the troubles people in other walks of life are beset with. It is inherently unimpor ..read more
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Hank Aaron: He was the Hammer, and Nails.
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
It was April 14th, 2014, and it was gorgeous. The same couldn’t be said for the Atlanta Braves season that year, with the recent retirement of Chipper Jones, and a rebuild looming after another violent and disappointing postseason exit the past year. Regardless, my wife had gotten us tickets to the home opener, where Brave legend (giggle) Julio Teheran was to make his second of what would be six consecutive opening day starts. I’ve been an avid Braves fan all my life, but this was my first home opener in the city of which my baseball fandom was born. I grew up mostly in the greater Philadelphi ..read more
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Whose Hall is it Anyway?
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
What is the Hall of Fame? In America’s past time, it is the common thread that weaves generations together, and sets the bar for excellence in a game built on failure. It is a display of the standard bearers, the outliers, the mold breakers. It is the spool of thread that weaves generations together, binding together the legends of our grandparents, the heroes of our youth, and the stars of today. It is as close to sacred as those who don’t frequent a house of worship can get. It should not surprise anyone, then, that not unlike those houses of worship, when you peel back that first layer of i ..read more
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The Home Whites: Diversity (or Lack Thereof) in Baseball Managers
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
It’s often been said that, one day in the distant future, when we look back at what made “America” what it was, three things will be presented: jazz, the Constitution, and baseball. The underlying thread that connects all three? It’s the one thing no one ever wants to talk about. Race. It’s not as obvious as it used to be, with slurs shouted from the grandstands or the dugouts of opposing teams. A player of color can travel with his club, stay in the same hotels, drink from the same fountains, even share the same team showers without the fears that gripped his parents or grandparents. This is ..read more
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BOOK REVIEW: “Stealing Home” by Eric Nusbaum
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
Rating: 5 out of 5. Eric Nusbaum’s first book is as fantastic in execution as it is powerful, seamlessly weaving very human stories together in an odyssey that feels timeless in its principles. If you read ONE “baseball” book this year, make this the one. On April 10th, 1962, in a place known as Chavez Ravine, the house that O’Malley built opened its doors and hosted about 56,000 people. The common purpose was to see their beloved Dodgers play the Cincinnati Reds. For many Angelenos, this was the validation they had been looking for. When they parked their cars on Dodger Stadium’s massive ti ..read more
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The Art of the Steal: What’s Happening with Stolen Bases?
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
It’s one of baseball’s most intense showdowns. The pitcher comes set, tense but stone still. The runner comes square with home plate, wanting to be seen but not noticed as the batter waits patiently at the plate. It only takes a few seconds to play this tense game of chicken between the guard and the thief, but it can seem like an eternity. Sure, the pitcher can opt to throw over to first to keep the runner close, but ultimately, they both know he has to come to the plate some time, and that’s when the runner makes his move. The pitcher begins his motion, and the runner twitches toward second ..read more
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Book Review: “Summer Baseball Nation” by Will Geoghegan
Romantic About Baseball
by Adam C. MacKinnon
3y ago
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Overall, Will Geoghegan’s story of the summer leagues is engaging, even if it loses a lot of steam toward the end. Full of familiar names and colorful characters, it’s a worthwhile read for any baseball fan looking for some non-MLB fare. Across the country, as college baseball season winds down and the hopefulness of spring slowly morphs into the dog days of summer, another type of season begins. Places like Cape Cod, Fairbanks, and Kenosha begin to hum with the sights and sounds of new beginnings and old traditions. The summer baseball leagues across America play host ..read more
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