And then Mike Lupica came on and I vividly remember getting up on a stool and shouting, “Give us Barabbas!” – Charles Pierce on the farewell party for The National
Author Archive - Wee Bey
One Sentence, Pt. III
Posted 10 June 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Barabbas, Charles Pierce | Categories: One Sentence | Leave a Comment
That IS A Tasty Burger
Posted 9 June 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: | Categories: Deconstructing The Random, Hanging Curves | Leave a Comment
Well, we finally got a look inside the briefcase. The new sportswriting website grantland.com made its debut yesterday, to no limited amount of fanfare, both self-generated (a countdown clock? really?) and organic. And the opening three-course menu set off no small amount of text messages, emails and discussion threads in the writing community. Initial reactions [...]
The Math Demands It
Posted 8 June 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Math, Rene Descartes | Categories: 16 In The Clip And One In The Hole, Joe's Sitting | Leave a Comment
Here’s what it’s like to be a fan of an utterly awful team. You find yourself pondering the mathematical possibilities of your team actually getting back into a pennant race. Winning baseball is all pastoral pondering and poetry — the math doesn’t come until the end, and even then it’s a “magic” number. But losing [...]
On Progress; or, The Duality of the Post-Modern Thang
Posted 27 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Bibi Netanyahu, Buster Posey, Post-Modern Thang | Categories: Deconstructing The Random, Hanging Curves | 1 Comment
I love Time-Zone-Inappropriate baseball. Allow me to explain. My evening doesn’t begin until your morning newspaper (heh) is running on the press. Thus, my options for an afterwork ballgame are something that’s already finished (and something about which I already know the ending) or the ass-end of a West Coast ballgame, if I am lucky. [...]
Harmon Killebrew
Posted 13 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Fuck Cancer, Harmon Killebrew | Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
He never played a game whole year in the minor leagues. Harmon Killebrew is entering hospice care, and nearing the end of his fight with cancer. Writing news obituaries follows a pretty standard format, and the defining characteristic is the obit appositive. Essentially, they go like this: “Insert Name, insert defining appositive phrase here, died [...]
One Sentence, Pt. II
Posted 11 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Gangster, Telling Details | Categories: 16 In The Clip And One In The Hole, One Sentence | Leave a Comment
After the information was relayed to Obama, he turned to his advisers and said: “We donated a $60 million helicopter to this operation. Could we not afford to buy a tape measure?” – Bob Woodward in the WaPo
Shut ‘Em Up And Then Shut ‘Em Down
Posted 9 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Now THAT was a no-hitter. If Francisco Liriano was among the American League starters least likely to throw a no-no, Justin Verlander falls into the exact opposite category. He’s a guy who almost surprises you when he isn’t dominant. It’s a testament to how fantastic Major League pitching has been the last few years that [...]
Picking It Up
Posted 4 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Don Quixote, Rashard Mendenhall | Categories: Hanging Curves | Leave a Comment
This is what makes baseball great. Frankie Liriano — Left Arm of God, Head of Rashard Mendenhall — was one more poor outing from leaving Minnesota’s rotation. So, of course, he went out and threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox. But of course, it has to be weirder. It was pretty weak, as [...]
Beat All You Ever Saw, Casilla’s Dropping The Ball …
Posted 1 May 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Coy And Vance, Joe Biden, Sweep The Leg | Categories: Bob Wills Is Still The King, Can't Write Now | 3 Comments
It’s the first of May, and the Minnesota Twins are nine games out of first place. Now don’t get us wrong. The Twins typically start slow. But this team’s struggles are not a matter of degree, but of kind, entirely. They don’t look like the Twins — partly because the lineup ought to be playing [...]
Get Three
Posted 29 April 2011 by Wee BeyTagged As: Men's Fashion, Triples | Categories: One Sentence | Leave a Comment
He hears the crack and the hushed roar when the ball finds the gap and he turns and looks, a few steps from second, and sees it and the rightfielder converging near the track and he turns hard, planting his left foot and he looks ahead, now, as the relay slides together like a suit [...]