Blue Cord

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the Orioles are filing paper work with Major League Baseball to replace the word “Orioles” on their away jerseys with the word “Baltimore”. The Orioles have not had their city name on their road uniforms since 1972. Orioles fans have been clamoring for the word “Baltimore” to be returned for almost four decades, and it looks like we will finally get our wish. The change will take effect next season.

The tradition is for the home jerseys to have the mascot name on the front while the road uniforms have the name of their city or state (or in the case of the Rays, a nearby body of water).¹ Most teams follow this convention. A few — such as Baltimore and Milwaukee — do not. I like the tradition because it maintains the connection between the team and its geographical location. Baseball, more than any other sport, has always been a place where you root, root, root for your home team. Increased mobility and cable TV have changed this to a certain extent, and you will always have people who cheer for whichever team is winning regardless of whether or not they have any connection to that city.² But true fans root for their home team whether they are winning or losing.

I became a Baltimore Orioles fan in 1995 when I moved to Baltimore to do my doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University. I had been a baseball fan all my life, but I had never lived in a city or state with a major league team. They became my home team and will remain so for the rest of my life. I have rooted for them in good times (the mid-1990s with Ripken, Palmeiro, Alomar, Anderson, Mussina, and Wells) and through the bad times (the decade of losing seasons they have had since 1998). I still have to stifle the urge to yell “O” when singing the National Anthem at stadiums other than Camden Yards. I teach my kids baseball the Ripken way (fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals). And please don’t mention the name Jeffrey Maier around me.

Although I live in Massachusetts, I have not joined the giant bandwagon that is Red Sox Nation. For me, it is a matter of faith.³ I don’t understand carpetbaggers who change their team affiliation whenever they move to a new town.  Cheering for a winning team means little if you haven’t also been with them during the down times. If I can wait 2000 years for the return of Jesus Christ, surely I can wait a few years for the return of a winning team in Baltimore.

1. The Tampa Bay Rays have the distinction of being the only team in MLB that is not named after a city or state. The team plays in Tampa, which is situated on the banks of Tampa Bay. [back]
2. Evidence of this can be seen in the large number of Yankees fans who were not born in or around New York City. [back]
3. Chicago Cubs fans know what I am talking about. [back]

I’ve been watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN for the past couple of weeks. I often have it on the the background while doing something else. I noticed a few nights ago that when someone (often Ryan Howard of the Phillies) hits a home run, Steve Bertiaume will sometimes say “Fill thing horn with oil and go.” For those who don’t recognize the quote, it is what God says to Samuel in the KJV of 1 Samuel 16:1 when commanding him to anoint David as king over Israel.

I am not sure what this expression has to do with baseball. A quick search of the Internet reveals no answers except that this use of the phrase seems to be limited to Bertiaume. Anyone have a clue on this?

On Monday we drove down from Dayton, OH, to Chattanooga, TN. My brother teaches music (low brass) at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, so we wanted to swing by to visit him for a couple of days. After all, Chattanooga is on the way from Iowa to Massachusetts.

We spent Tuesday afternoon at Rock City on Lookout Mountain. For those who don’t know, Rock City is an attraction centered on the rock formations on top of the mountain (the picture at the right is my brother with the kids). The trails wind through crevasses, over dizzying heights, under overhanging boulders, and through caves. The woman who purchased the land and set it up as a huge rock garden went a bit overboard with gnomes as a decorative motif, but it is still a lot of fun. From the vantage point on top of the mountain you can supposedly see seven states. The park is just over the line into Georgia, so Tennessee is only a half mile away. Alabama is only eight miles to the west, while North and South Carolina are 50 and 80 miles respectively to the east. Mt. Pinnacle on the border between Kentucky and Virginia is supposedly visible on a clear day. Since the earth doesn’t actually have lines drawn on it indicating where each state begins, I will have to take their word that I saw seven states.

My brother and I went to Rock City for the first time on July 3, 1986. It was the first big trip the two of us had ever taken alone (we grew up 3.5 hours away). I had just graduated from high school and our parents allowed us to spend the weekend in Chattanooga. We didn’t come just for Rock City, however. We came to attend our first ever Star Trek convention. Yes, I have a long history of being a geek.

As a bit of trivia, the Rock City area claims to be the place where miniature golf was invented.¹ The husband of the woman who started Rock City had bought land to build a housing community centered on a golf course. Those are a dime a dozen these days, but back then it was a novel idea. It took longer than planned to build the golf course, however, so to keep the residents happy the man put together a small putting course, which he called Tom Thumb Golf. The idea took off from there.

Tuesday evening was spent at a Chattanooga Lookouts game. My brother’s tuba/ euphonium ensemble was scheduled to play the National Anthem. Because I also play tuba, my brother invited me to play with them. The girlfriends of one of my brother’s students was supposed to take pictures of the event, but her camera batteries ran out. So, I loaned her my camera. She took the pictures standing directly behind my brother, which allowed her to get a panoramic view of the entire ensemble, with the exception of the person standing directly in front of my brother. Unfortunately, that person happened to be me. So, even though my camera took pictures of the event, the only part of me that shows up in the pictures of the performance is my right leg. The picture above was taken while we were waiting to go out onto the field. I am the handsome gent at the right of the picture in the red shirt. I am apparently the only one who doesn’t know the correct way to hold a tuba.

The game went well. As opposed to the previous two games we saw on this trip, the home team won this game. The got out to an early lead, but their opponents - the Mobile Bay Bears - kept coming back. Chattanooga took a two point lead into the 9th inning, but Mobile tied it up. With two outs in the bottom of the 9th, Shaun Cumberland of the Lookouts hit a double into right field that scored the winning run. Cumberland had also hit a two run homer back in the 7th inning to give the Lookouts the lead then. It was a very exciting ending.

The Lookouts have an nice field which is fairly new (2000). Unfortunately, it follows the new trend of being named after a corporate sponsor. I prefer parks that are named after people (Jacob’s Field), groups of people (Veterans Stadium), or the team (Oriole Park at Camden Yards) or anything else that represents the spirit of the community. Chattanooga’s AT&T Field sits in the heart of downtown, just up the bank from the Tennessee River. For some reason, however, it faces the wrong way. Home plate is in the southeast corner of the park instead of in the southwest corner. This means the sun shines in the eyes of the fans down the right field line. I am told that the old Engel Stadium, where the Lookouts played until 1999, is a classic baseball venue.

1. Whether the claim is true or not is a matter of debate. Tiny putting courses in Europe had been around since the mid-19th century, but the Rock City area may have been the first to introduce whimsical obstacles such as pipes and windmills in place of sand traps and water hazards. [back]

On day two of the 3D Trip we drove from South Bend, Indiana, to Dayton, Ohio. Fortunately, it was a much less eventful trip than our first day of travel, so I will spare my readers the boring details.

Day three was spent in Dayton with a friend who teaches Catholic theology at the University of Dayton. He had gotten us tickets to an afternoon game between the Dayton Dragons and the Clinton Lumberkings. It was raining lightly when we arrived at the field, but by the time of the game it had stopped. It never quite got warm, but we were fairly comfortable. Dayton sells out practically every game of the season. In fact, they have sold out eight consecutive seasons and are the only minor league team ever to sell out a season before it began. Because we had gotten tickets late, we were sitting on the right field berm.

Dayton has the nicest stadium I have ever seen for a Single A team. It is in a fantastic location downtown. The field is sunken, so the top of the lower seats is at street level. It also has an upper level as well as suites, both of which are rare for Single A baseball. Many Single A fields, such as the Beloit Snappers game I attended in Wisconsin two weeks ago, resemble glorified high school stadiums. The field is named Fifth Third Field after Fifth Third Bank. For those interested in trivia, the Fort Wayne Wizards (Single A) and the Toledo Mud Hens (Triple A) also have fields named Fifth Third Field.
Unfortunately, the Dragons’ play did not rise to the level of their ballpark. Their starting pitcher was pulled from the game after giving up for runs (all earned) in the first inning and loading the bases in time for the top of the order to come to the plate again. He left having gotten only two outs. The relief pitcher slowed the flow of runs, but by the end of the game it was 11–1 in Clinton favors. The Dragons’ loss meant that Clinton swept the series.

Afterwards, we went to a wonderful local pizza place called Dewey’s. If you are ever in Dayton, I highly recommend it. My kids liked it because they could watch the pizza being made. We finished the day with a trip to a cemetery to see the graves of Orville and Wilbur Wright. On a side note, Charles Kettering, the inventor of the electric ignition for cars, is buried in the same cemetery, as is Erma Bombeck.

I am going to be taking a hiatus from blogging about the Bible for the next ten days. I just finished up my semester at Wartburg College, so I am heading back to my home in Massachusetts. On the way, I am going to be stopping to see friends and family. My blogging between now and April 27 will be about the trip.

I am not alone in my travels, however. Yesterday, my kids flew out from Boston. I picked them up in Minneapolis and we drove down to Iowa. This morning, we set out on the 3D Trip (the three Ds are dad, Duncan, and daughter). I did a similar trip with Duncan when I taught in Iowa five years ago, so I thought it would be nice to repeat it with both kids. As on the previous trip, we will be stopping to see a number of baseball games along the way.

We set out this morning for what was supposed to be a six hour drive to South Bend, Indiana. We had hoped to visit the site in Iowa where the movie Field of Dreams was made. Duncan and I played baseball there five years ago, but the rain today meant we had to pass by without stopping.

The trip was lengthen by two hours when the front driver’s side tire decided to blow out while I was doing 70 mph on I–80 in Joliet, Illinois. I managed to wrestle the car to the shoulder and set about changing the tire. If you have never had the chance to change a driver’s side tire on the shoulder of a busy freeway, I highly recommend it. It’s a rush money can’t buy. My spare is a donut, so I used it to limp to the next exit. Once there, I found a tire shop. Unfortunately, I have a 4WD vehicle (1994 Subaru Legacy), so when you replace one tire you have to replace them all.

Because of the delay, we got to tonight’s game in the bottom of the 4th inning. The South Bend Silver Hawks were playing an Iowa team, the Cedar Rapids Kernels. When we got there, the Kernels were already up 6–1. The Silver Hawks had already made two errors, and they made an additional one in the late innings. A passed ball also allowed a runner to score from third when the Kernels had the bases loaded. It ended 9–1. The Silver Hawks have a cozy stadium that sits in the middle of downtown South Bend. We had really nice seats two rows behind the visitor’s dugout on the 3rd base side.

After the game, my kids went the side of the dugout to see if they could get some souvenirs from the players. Duncan in particular is a ball magnet. I had never gotten a ball at a game, but during our previous trip five years ago we got balls at three straight games (including a foul ball off Carlos Lee at a Chicago White Sox game). Tonight’s game was no different. Between the two of them, the kids got a game ball, a ball with the Silver Hawks logo on it, and a game-used bat. The bat is cracked but is still in one piece.

One interesting piece of trivia about our trip: I picked up the kids in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN; St. Paul, MN). Today we drove through the Quad Cities (Davenport, IA; Bettendorf, IA; Rock Island, IL; Moline, IL). Next week we will be visiting my parents in the Tri-Cities (Johnson City, TN; Kingsport, TN; and Bristol, which is in both TN and VA). Anyone know where we can find the Quint Cities?