The Boys of Summer, an MLB Snippet

Every year at this time, Major League Baseball starts up anew with each team having a chance at the pennant.

Originally a narrative by Roger Kahn about the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Boys of Summer now simply represent America's pastime. From McCovey's Cove to Pesky's Pole, Major League Baseball has started another season this month with "Opening Day", as writer Tim Kurkjian once put it, being the best two words in the English language to a baseball fan.

Unlike the other professional sports in America, baseball has a historic connotation to it. The sport of baseball is historic. Starting in the 1800's, MLB has a leg up on the competition in that regard. It also has history on its side in terms of numbers. Every number in baseball is special.

Home runs totals, stolen bases, consecutive games played, and everything else in between all mean something. They all mean something because, although the stadiums and players have changed, the rules have not. It is still 90 feet to first base. It still takes three strikes to get a batter out and four balls to walk him. An overthrow by the shortstop has always been an E-6. Throwing a perfect game will always mean immortality.

These rules of baseball have never changed. Thus, it opens the door to comparing eras, comparing the greats of the past with the greats of today. Each era has its own quirk or identity, yet all can be compared and argued on the basis of the final tallies.

When the Seattle Mariners won 116 regular season games in 2001, tying the mark set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs, it was neither more or less impressive than the season 95 years prior. Those two clubs will be in the record books side by side because baseball is ageless.

Ender's Game Series is Science Fiction Gold

Orson Scott Card's fabled Ender's Game Science Fiction novel series uses rarely seen writing technique of "companion novels" to perfection.

Readers were first introduced to Andrew Wiggin in 1985. Many science fiction readers know him better by his nickname Ender. Orson Scott Card released the novel Ender's Game in 1985. It went on to win the Nebula Award as well as the Hugo Award for the best Science Fiction novel of the year.

The chronological sequel, Speaker for the Dead, written just a year later, went on to win both awards as well. This story takes place after the events of Ender's Game. It is a sequel by definition.

The more interesting "sequel" to me however is the one written to take place during the exact same time frame as Card's original. The book Ender's Shadow was written in 1999 as a companion novel to Ender Wiggin's first adventure.

Companion Novels

The challenge and skill in writing a companion novel cannot be exaggerated. To write essentially the same story again, yet make it all the more interesting is a testament to Card's brilliance as well as to this world he created.

Writing a companion novel is usually the last technique used by writers, or movie directors for that matter, to continue the story of a beloved character/world. First comes a sequel. This is obvious. Continuing where we, the reader, left off previously and telling us what happens next is the common thing to do. If readers loved a character or enjoyed hearing about a tale set in a distant land, they will want to hear how things progressed.

If a sequel is not an option for some reason, say the main character dies, then the next best choice is writing a prequel. Again, obvious. Tell us how this character came to be who we saw them as. Tell us the back story and past events that shaped our main character's life.

Of course sequels and prequels are child's play. The writing of a companion novel is rarely seen because it is hard to make it interesting. Imagine reading a story you liked. Now imagine the author trying to write another novel that takes place during the exact same time frame, with the exact same characters and covers the exact same events. Would this be at all interesting to read? Simply writing from a new point of view is nice but it does not totally solve the problem. Just look at the movie Vantage Point for an idea of how that can fail.

So when Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Shadow covering the exact story that took place in his award-winning Ender's Game, I am sure people were skeptical. It would be told from the point of view of a different character, namely Ender's Battle School associate Bean, but still. Would it work?

Ender's Shadow

Well, we got our answer. Now this book did not receive the critical acclaim that Card's first few stories did. I am not a science fiction awards expert so I don't know if it wasn't as well received or there was stiffer competition. Nevertheless, I actually was more entertained by the companion than by the original.

In the introduction to Shadow, Card tells us this story can be read before or after reading Ender's Game. Since they cover the same time frame, there is no need to read one before the other. I actually disagree with his sentiments. I felt like reading the original helped to buoy my enjoyment of the companion. Sure, I knew the ultimate outcome already and where the plot was going, but to see events take place through another character's eyes, getting a completely new view of an event I already made judgments on was fascinating.

The best example I can give is when Ender Wiggin and Bean first meet. Bean is a newbie to Ender's new army. In the first book, the relationship is shallow, if there at all. Ender sees Bean as a little version of himself a bit, the smallest yet smartest launchie in a new army. So he is hard on him, thinking it will help him in the future, just as the teachers were to Ender when he first arrived at Battle School.

However, in Ender's Shadow, we find out oh so much more. The relationship is deeper and more confusing than I ever could have imagined. Without giving too much away, it turns out Bean was not put in Ender's new army by accident or even by chance. And even though Ender may not have known who Bean was, Bean certainly knew an awful lot about his new commander. The relationship from Bean's point of view is just one thing that completely turned my perceptions around from one story to the other.

I wish more authors tried the companion novel strategy. Although it does seem hard to pull off successfully, if done correctly, the outcome can be grand. Ender's Shadow may not be historically remembered but what it did for the award-winning books that came before it cannot be overstated. In fact, it made me want to reread the original tale again, just to see those very same events after knowing how other characters reacted to them.

My Spring Training Voyage Finale

If you missed any of the previous installments of my Spring Training Voyage, scroll down through March's blog posts or click here for Part One, Part Two and Part Three. And now, the exciting conclusion to Murderous Pirates of the Raging Seas!...no, wait, this is not my dialogue to a 90's movie adapted for viewing on TNT.

March 19

Detroit Tigers at Philadelphia Phillies

Bright House Field, Clearwater, Florida

The Phillies’ Florida home was the best stadium of the bunch we saw this trip. It was smaller than the Yankees’ park but had a much more fun and entertaining vibe than the backyard that the Blue Jays played in. Fans circled the field entirely, as there was standing room and picnic blanket seating all around the outfield. The concourse was also charming, giving a pristine backdrop to home plate.

But once the game started, the ambiance and locale was surreptitiously overshadowed by one man: Tigers’ new third baseman Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera last played third base in the Majors a number of years and a few dozen pounds ago. He will most assuredly be one of the poorer fielding men at the hot corner all year long. This game would serve as the foreshadowing scene in books or movies where a future guilty criminal is seen displaying some sort of evil smirk. March 19 was Miggy’s evil smirk.

He started off at bat however. In the top of the first, Cabrera drew a walk (classic) and had a delayed steal of second base. Describing it as a delayed steal is in no way a crack at Miguel’s lack of foot speed, but rather the description of the play which worked so well because of Miguel’s lack of foot speed. He would finish the game 0-0 with a walk, steal and run scored because in the bottom of the first, he took a wicked hop to the eye, shattering his sunglasses and his face and ending his afternoon early.

I wanted to be upset about this because I felt bad for the man and hoped he would be okay. I actually ended up being upset for much more selfish reasons. If he was seriously injured, it would be a huge problem for my fantasy team of which he is the batting anchor (…I know). And even more pressing, he was the main attraction of the game I was currently attending with players like Prince Fielder already getting the day off. Cabrera being forced to leave early was a real downer on the game. Thus, we were forced to find other players and other storylines to follow.

Interestingly enough, around the next inning or so, two gentlemen came up to my dad and me holding a pair of duplicate tickets as the ones we held. It turned out one of us had been hustled. Whoever sold the tickets online had sold one set as paper receipts and resold the same seats using the actual stub tickets. I am actually surprised this does not happen more often. For whatever it is worth and fortunately for us, my dad and my tickets were the “authentic” set and the other men had the phonies. In a normal game it is possible they would have been forced to leave and have had to scrap with the seller to get their money back. In a Spring Training game, they were allowed to stay but ended up having to jump around seats five or six times as different guests kept arriving late and holding the rights to the seats they were trying to use. It put a little scare in me for buying tickets online in the future; that’s for sure.

As far as the game went, on the field, the Phillies took home the victory with a four run fifth inning. We witnessed a check swing double, two Hooters waitresses as ball girls, and dueling hat tricks by Tigers outfielders. Austin Jackson, DHing this game, finished 0-4 with three strikeouts, a walk, a stolen base and a run scored: the epitome of Austin Jackson. Meanwhile, teammate Clete Thomas one-upped him, going 0-4 with four k’s: the infamous golden sombrero. I also liked what I saw from Brennan Boesch, both in his parent’s complete disregard for the English language and for his fantasy baseball sleeper potential.

It would be our last Spring Training game of this year’s four game, three city tour and Bright House Field was certainly a pleasant host. And yes, I did buy a Philly cheese steak.

Postscript

The Tampa Bay, Dunedin, Clearwater triumvirate is a great location for any Spring Training trip. We were able to see a handful of different teams without having to travel very far at all between stadiums.

John Mayberry Junior is a monster of a man.

You know how some players have easy gas, where they have such a fluid arm motion, it seems like they are barely throwing yet the radar gun says 96? Octavio Dotel has very hard gas…

The Tampa aquarium is a lot of fun even if you pass on the dolphin excursion.

The games don’t matter in the least outside of players getting in shape and trying to make a roster yet fans seem to not realize this. This is especially true of Phillies fans.

I cannot wait for the regular season to get in full swing (pardon the pun) and to attend a couple games that count in the standings, although it is sad knowing I cannot get seats as good as the ones obtained for Spring Training baseball. It is a special event who's vibe and closeness cannot be duplicated once the corporate structure of big business sports takes over come Opening Day.

Some Hunger Games thoughts

Setup: I am a huge fan and proponent of adults reading kids' literature. The Harry Potter books are fantastic, as are some other selections.

Caveat: I have read The Hunger Games but only book one. I have not read the second or third books in the series and, frankly, do not plan on doing so. I did not love the book. It seems slightly overrated, the Oreo of books: a lot of buildup and popularity when there are far better, lesser known options out there.

Thoughts: The movie left me with the same exact feeling I got after finishing the book. I thought the story and plot were viscous almost to the point of being unnecessarily ghoulish. Obviously the movie plot stems straight from the novel so it is through no fault of the movie producers this exists. Nevertheless, this exists.

With this gruesome, over the top story arc, the scenes progress almost like a fairy tale. It is a juxtaposition I cannot overcome as a reader/watcher.  Everything horrible is happening yet every additional piece of information falls into place perfectly to suit our protagonists, almost on cue. I suppose this is the dynamic that should exist in a children's book but it doesn't do it for me.

Beyond the book problems that carried over to the movie, the film had some of its own drawbacks. Skipping over massive amounts of narrative left emotional holes in the story arc. At one point, when it is revealed two children will be allowed to win if they come from the same district, Katniss thinks of Peeta and the possibility of both of them surviving. So with the turn of her heel, she departs and immediately finds his blood trail and stumbles literally right on top of him, even though the movie never addressed that Katniss ever even knew Peeta was bleeding, let alone hiding.

These skips in plot are necessary for a movie to cover so much from a detailed piece of text yet the movie did a rather poor job. With the omissions the writers chose, they somehow managed to still make the movie feel way too long, as it dragged on much of the pre-Games fanfare that I did not find particularly engaging.

Not everything was bad. There were a few misty moments, a few heartstrings being pulled but I think that may have more to do with kids being in such grave peril and impossibly ridiculous situations that touches my sensitivity rather than how it was portrayed on screen. I felt the eyes water when Katniss volunteered to take her sister's place just because I knew it was supposed to be touching even though the scene itself seemed a bit awkward in its execution. The same can be said for Rue's demise, who I knew I was supposed to care about greatly but the movie failed to build her up as anything more than a squirrely girl in a tree.

Closing: Haymitch is no Mad Eye Moody.

(Image courtesy of thehungergames.wikia.com)

Sustained Mediocrity

Long-time New York Giants running back and recent Super Bowl victor Brandon Jacobs just signed on to be a member of the San Francisco 49ers ending his tenure as a Giant.

More accurately, his Giants' time ended earlier this year when they released him but there still remained the option that they could bring him back, until today that is.

Jacobs was never a star, nor even a full-time starter yet his career accomplishments are surprising. He is the Giants' all-time leader in rushing touchdowns. He had four consecutive seasons of at least 800 yards rushing even though he was the starting back for only roughly half that time. His career year, 2008, was a sight to behold: 1125 yards from scrimmage and 15 touchdowns in just 13 games. And more important than the individual numbers, since being drafted in the fourth round of the 2005 draft, Brandon Jacobs has been on two Super Bowl champion teams. Not a bad career for a big boy out of Southern Illinois.

The question of how successful someone is always comes up when a chapter of their career comes to a close. Jacobs is no longer a Giant, so how impressive was his Giants career? Taking a broad view it seems he was nothing more than a cog in a good franchise and yet his numbers are pretty impressive and he was a main part of those two title teams. So who's career has been more successful, Jacobs or a man like LaDainian Tomlinson?

Obviously this is a ridiculous query from a talent standpoint. Tomlinson is a Hall of Fame back and one of the most impressive runners in NFL history. His numbers are nearly peerless. And yet, his teams always came up short in the playoffs. He never made a Super Bowl, let alone won one. He was a very high pick (fifth overall in 2001), meaning the production was almost expected. So was he actually more successful than Jacobs? It comes down to how you evaluate success and what qualities are more important but the interesting thing to me is that the question can exist at all.

In the basketball world, a more extreme yet common analogy is between a player like Chris Webber or Charles Barkley and Robert Horry. Would you rather have the Hall of Fame career from the highly drafted player or the championship-laden career from the often forgotten "role player"?

It is a fascinating quandary, one that just cements the fact that Brandon Jacobs, Giants career finalized, had himself one heck of a time in Big Blue.

(Image courtesy of nypost.com)

My Spring Training Voyage Part Three

On my journey through the Grapefruit League, we already touched on game one here, and game two here. Below is part three:

March 18

Philadelphia Phillies at Toronto Blue Jays

Dunedin Field, Dunedin, Florida

After scrounging up tickets for this afternoon’s game, we found out why the game was sold out to begin with. If Steinbrenner Field is the Yankees’ version of a Spring Training home, Dunedin Field would be the bullpen. The Blue Jays spring home could hold no more than 6000 folks, if that. Needless to say, our tickets, in the “upper deck” were probably closer to the field than our seats at the first Yankees game. To finish the analogy of Toronto being quite a bit minor league compared to our previous host, Dunedin had their own in-game announcer to keep the crowd engaged and to give away stuff. But we were not discouraged. Cole Hamels would be on the mound for the Phillies and Jose Bautista would be in the lineup for the Jays. There would be no Brett Lawrie today but instead, at third base for the Jays, we got to see the ageless, glove wonder, Omar Vizquel. The crowd loved Vizquel partly because he is easy to root for and partly because the Dunedin crowd’s mean age was pushing 70.

In the bottom of the first inning, Jose Bautista’s first at-bat of the ballgame, he was fooled by a Hamels’ pitch and launched his bat into the stands and down one of the spectator tunnels. (I told you the field was small.) On the second pitch of the same at-bat, Bautista ignited an inside pitch deep and way foul onto a practice field next door where, for some odd reason, someone had parked a car. As the ball was approaching the car, the crowd began to rumble. It ended up missing the vehicle but I think the reaction would have been louder for that connection than if Bautista had hit a home run. And we got our control variable later in the game as Joey Bats did indeed mash a huge home run to left center. P.S. the crowd loved it.

The Phillies got beat up pretty good in the game, leading even more to everyone’s desire to mark the Blue Jays as a sleeper pick this season, with the extra wild card spot available. Toronto put up a couple crooked numbers, in the third, fourth and sixth innings on their way to victory. The batting hero of the game was, in Spring Training fashion, catcher Yan Gomes. He went 3-3 on the afternoon with two doubles and three RBIs. We also got a glimpse of one of Toronto’s new closer options, veteran reliever Francisco Cordero.

After the contest, the story, other than Jose Bautista’s at-bats, ended up being the stadium itself. So quaint and tiny, Dunedin Field is the epitome of Spring Training baseball: where you go to see the best players in the world, the Major Leaguers, play in little town parks and get closer to the action than you ever could during the regular season. I mean the Jays’ park was so backwoodsish, they didn’t even have a recording of Take Me Out to the Ballgame playing during the seventh inning stretch. 

Tune in for the conclusion of my Spring Training trip coming soon...

My Spring Training Voyage Part Two

If you missed Part One of my journey south to check out Florida's MLB Spring Training, you can catch it here. Below is part two:

March 17

Houston Astros at New York Yankees

George M. Steinbrenner Field, Tampa, Florida

Five games in four days quickly dissolved into four games or perhaps three games. The original Sunday double-header underwent a schedule change since the last we checked as the Yankees-Orioles game went from being Tampa-hosted into being held in Sarasota, an Orioles home game. It also came to light that the Blue Jays game, in very tiny Dunedin Stadium, was sold out on Sunday afternoon. My dad and I scrambled for tickets, trying to salvage at least one Sunday match but in the mean time, we had our second Yankees game to attend: a sunny, Saturday tilt against the Houston Astros.

The Astros are actually quite an ideal Spring Training team to see play. It is hardly impossible to be disappointed with the lineup they trot out as their normal, Major League, April starting lineup is pretty Triple-A-ish to begin with. The highlights existed in the forms of Jason Bourgeois (because of the spelling of his name and because he was traded within a week of this game being played), Brett Wallace (because of the massive post-hype sleeper potential of this once prized prospect), and Chris Johnson (because he might actually just be plain good at baseball). The Yankees again rose to the occasion, giving us a semi-normal squad featuring Gardner, Granderson, Cano, Rodriguez and some bench guys. The pitching matchup was also fortunate.

Bud Norris, probably Houston’s very best starting pitcher, would be facing new Yankee Hiroki Koroda. This was my first chance to see Kiroda and he did not disappoint, breezing through the first few innings before making way for the bullpen. Norris, on the other hand, struggled mightily, walking four men in just the first two innings. But the bullpens were the story anyhow. Houston brought in former starter, former closer, former starter, new closer Brett Myers to pitch the middle innings and he was pretty good. The reason for Houston, a team going nowhere this season, to transition one of their top starters back into being a closer is suspect but Myers can certainly close out games at the Major League level.

On the home team’s side of things, the middle innings were host to another closer sighting as Mariano Rivera entered to Enter Sandman to pitch the fifth. Not that it mattered how he fared but Mo was just fine in his one inning of work. To close out the game, the Yankees, having already used their regular season closer, turned instead to a prospect hoping for big league glory this season: Dellin Betances. Standing at 6’8”, saying Betances is an imposing figure on the mound does not quite do him justice. Pardoning the pun, big things are expected of this man by 2013 if he does indeed spend this season in the minors.

To wrap up the Astros match, and the Yankees half of our Spring Training pilgrimage, we had two great Brett Gardner sliding catches, a Dewayne Wise sighting, a Bill Hall home run and Chris Johnson cementing himself as perhaps the only Astros hitter worth drafting in fantasy baseball this season by tallying two doubles. The Yankees won, if that sort of thing matters to you, but we would be saying goodbye to Steinbrenner Field and making our way west for some new pastures.

Part three on the way...