Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Just last week, I attended my final New York Yankees games of the season but unfortunately had to see them lose to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday and then again to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday for Paul Skenes' final start of 2024. Had I known that the Pirates would pull Skenes after just two innings, my decision to venture to the Bronx on that rainy afternoon might have played out differently but  despite the loss  I am grateful to the Yankees for putting forth their best efforts as well as their fans who by dumping their tickets for cheap allowed me to see the potential Rookie of the Year strike out Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisolm Jr. This "load management" that is de rigueur makes sense to a point but teams not competing because their last games "don't count" is disenchanting to fan. I experienced similar feelings of dismay  the following day when Blake Snell opted to skip his final start for my San Francisco Giants because the game "h

While writing this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post, I am also watching the telecast of  this year's special  "MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues" with the   St. Louis Cardinals (as they wear the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars) playing my San Francisco Giants (wearing uniforms of the San Francisco Sea Lions) at the oldest professional ballpark in the United States in Birmingham, AL. The Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues called Rickwood Field home as did Willie Mays when the  Alabama-native  got his first professional baseball assignment playing for the Black Barons as a 17 year old in 1948. All three scheduled events were set to honor  Mays who was the last living member of the Black Barons but died two nights before Thursday's finale. There were so many tributes (both large and small) to Mays when news of his passing arrived during Tuesday night's MILB showcase in which the  Birmingham Barons (playing as the Black Barons) hosted