The Cheap Seats of Wrigley

You went there in the off years and there were many. During the summer when the world was asleep and a hot dog and a beer and a breeze off the lake made you think you died and gone to heaven. And a lot of times you came in on SRO's and made your way down to the expensive seats. Nobody seemed to care because the Cubs hadn't won for a very long time and there were open seats. And still it didn't matter because you were in Wrigley and the ivy and the neighborhood and the peanuts and the guy selling beer were something out of a different time.

And then they started to win and the Billy Goat curse seemed to lift. Who knows if it was the reason they had lost all those years but it was a convenient scape goat. No pun intended. And the SROs went up in price and it became harder to get to the good seats. Celebrities started showing up. And ticket prices hit the thousands. Still the Mets stalled them and people cursed the goat and wondered again if 1908 was really it.

But then they came back and even at the end the curse seemed to come back. How could a team be two down in the World Series and come back and win in the other teams town? But they did. And even after they won you knew it was already in the history books. And maybe those old days of cheap seats and the easy walk down to the good seats are gone forever.  Eventually though the ticket prices will fall and the celebrities will go back to Hollywood and it will just be the beer guy and the peanuts and the breeze off the lake. 2016 will be the year people will look back to and say... that was when the Cubs Won The World Series!

Until next year. Go Cubs.

Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson

Baseball is Over...bummer

With the Boston Red Sox winning the Series that ends the season. And it was sort of anti climatic even though it was the first win in Fenway since 1918 and that says something. But I don't know. Watching the guys all have the victory pile in the field you just couldn't feel like wow so that is it. That is the end of the season and it just made you want to get a few more in and wonder if the summer and baseball had slipped by one more time.

Because baseball is associated with summer and summer is associated with being a kid and lazy days and swimming pools and not going to school. Maybe it is just associated with leisure. And those guys in their uniforms and their hats look so much different than the football gladiators. Football players are beginning to look like people from another planet. They are so big and the equipment is so massive and they hit so hard you just aren't sure anymore who is really behind those facemasks. But baseball you know who the guys are.

They are the same guys you played with in some sandlot or in some street or in some yard. And even though they play the game at the very top it is still just baseball. And baseball is something every kid in American learns to play at an early age and then learns to watch as an adult. And both activites take you back to something you just cant get your arms around..

Time. And it does slip away.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The PItcher

Because it's the World Series....Sports Rack Review of The Pitcher

So, have you ever had a dream?  That’s a question that every person is asked time and time again.  Do you have a dream.  If you’re Ricky Hernandez, your dream is the same dream as everyone else.  He wants to be the American Dream.  A kid from nothing that turns into something.
“The Pitcher” is a book about dreams.  The dreams of kids.  The dreams of parents.  The dreams of immigrants.  The dreams of a man who’s lived the dream.  And it’s all brought together in the mind of William Hazelgrove.  After the cut, find out how.

“The Pitcher” by William Hazelgrove
Published by Koehler Books
Release Date: September 1, 2013
Pages: 242 (Kindle Edition)

As you can see from the picture, the Junior Library Guild has selected this book as a must read.  And it really is.  And so, let’s put myself into Ricky’s shoes, shall we?  I am a 3rd generation Mexican American, as is Ricky.  My family isn’t from this country, and my grandmother came to this country to find a better way of life, as did Ricky’s.  And as a Mexican American, imagine the scrutiny faced by a culture that is xenophobic.
Ricky’s constantly in the bottom of the 9th with nobody out in this expertly crafted story.  His mother is dying.  His father is worthless.  He wants to be a pitcher, just to fulfil his mother’s wishes.  But his mother cannot afford the lessons needed.  Hence, comes in the surprise character, nicknamed “The Pitcher.”  A down and out former MLB pitcher who was a World Series MVP.  A man trying to forget squandering his dream.
In this story, Ricky and The Pitcher come parallel.  Two people who aren’t interested in school or life.  All they want is the game.  All while dealing with Mrs. Payne, the representation of that Tea Party mom and Sports Mom who drives us nuts.  Coach Devin, her seemingly spineless husband.  And their “perfect” son named Eric, who represents that “perfect” kid willing to step on everyone on his way to the top.
From the opening pitch in Ricky’s life to his final triumphs, William takes you on a journey that you’ve been on before.  The journey of love, doubt, and self-searching.  All through the eyes of a Mexican boy who thinks the world is against him.
So, get ready to root for the underdog in a social and sometimes political commentary of the kid’s journey.  Kids will pick up the theme of beating the odds.  Adults should pick up the underlying themes of our xenophobic nature.  Everyone should be rooting for Ricky.
William Hazelgrove weaved this book together with mastery, and you should pre-order this now from Amazon.  It’s available for $11.56 USD, so definitely put in your order and get ready for one heck of a baseball story.  Like my last pre-release, this one is a love book, folks.  And that doesn’t happen often.
Cheers, Mr. Hazelgrove.  I’m rooting for this book to make it, too.
The Pitcher

The World Series in the Modern Age

Ok. So the World Series begins. Here in Chicago it is cold. It snowed yesterday. And we are clearly in an early winter mode though it might break again. But the fact that baseball is being played still is nothing short of amazing. Baseball belongs to warm days and a slow summer pace. The ball game playing somewhere on a radio is part of the summer. Time does slow down in summer and we look to our National Past Time to take the measure of the hot months.

In Chicago it is Wrigley Field that takes you back to a time when baseball was the sport. It is an old ivy covered stadium that is now finally going to be retrofitted. But it still has that old tang  of summer hot dogs, beer, peanuts. The game simply cant be played when it is cold out and we don't have that association. When I was researching for The Pitcher I was stuck by how many players were farm kids and how many players hated winters. The off season was just hell then.

But now we have the series and football is in full swing. The two sports are in two different universes. Football is a gladiator sport played under any condition. Baseball seems almost quaint in comparison. Of course it is not quaint. It is a hard fought battle that will be played out over the next two weeks. With football under siege now because so many players are getting their brains scrambled baseball might be the sport we are left with.

I guess that would be one way to make sure The World Series is the only game in town.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

Review of 42 the Jackie Robinson Story

The Jackie Robinson story is one of inspiration. The first African American ball player to break into the MLB. The movie is all this. But Branch Rickey who is behind this move to bring up the first black player quickly moves in on Jackie Robinson. Lets back track here. The movie opens with Branch saying he wants to bring up a "negro player". We aren't given much as to why this should happen except it is the future. And of course he is met with derision.

Cut to Jackie Robinson. Extraordinary player. Has an incredible girlfriend soon to become wife. The movie suffers here from the Hollywood stock African American depiction of the perfect player with the perfect wife the only problem is the incredible racism. We don't get to know Jackie for very long beyond this sort of Deer in Headlights persona because Branch (Harrison Ford) steals the show. In fact the real hero is Branch or so it seems.

He dominates the scenes. He fights the racists. He clears the way for Jackie. But I have to believe that if the whole thing had blown up in Branch Rickys face he would have been fine. Jackie Robinson would not have been fine. He would have gone right down to the Negro Leagues and then into obscurity. None of this is really explored because we are busy feeling for Branch. It makes me wonder if Harrison Ford was the guy who got the movie made. They say there has to be one star who really wants a movie to be made.

Branch Rickey might have been that guy.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...Sometimes a Dream is all you have