danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

If you watch much baseball, particularly in person, you have no doubt witnessed it: a frantic rush for every home run and foul ball batted into the stands.  Occasionally, these balls are caught outright, and the happy fan holds up his prize and receives cheers all around.  Far more often, however, the batted ball bounces off a seat or a spectator’s hand, and initiates a mad scramble to retrieve it.  Grown men and boys leap over one another, and crawl along the floor to snatch it.  It would not be exaggerating to say that, for some young boys, the quest for a foul ball holds greater interest than the game on the field.

The same foolish impulse that animates the men who snatch baseballs from one another in the stands, and the boys who race each other from section to section in greedy anticipation, is the same one that prompts fans to interfere with balls in play.  The infamous Steve Bartman incident is the best known, but others occur almost daily, with fans reaching over walls, gloves in hand, to scoop up fair balls.

This obsession reached its logical climax in Arlington last night, when a fan at Rangers Park tumbled from the upper deck to the stands below.  He had been reaching for a foul ball and lost his balance.  He dropped thirty feet onto fans below.  Fans in the park screamed when they saw it happen.  The home plate umpire threw his hands over his head in horror.  The television announcers were similarly terrified.  The game was halted for fifteen minutes, and many players were visibly distressed, with several of the Cleveland fielders clearly mouthing prayers.

Everyone loves a souvenir.  But is a $16 baseball really worth all that?

Filed under: Current Events, Rantings, Sports on July 7th, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Looking for grammar mistakes on websites is a finicky exercise.  I don’t go out of my way, but sometimes they find me.  In a story about allegations of sexism at The Daily Show, Alex Leo writes:

The response from the women of the “Daily Show” reads as earnest and heartfelt, but if one of these women did feel the environment was hostile, it would be difficult for them to speak up without jeopardizing their career.

The problem here, of course, is the singular “they”.  This common mistake is generally found in situations in which the sex of the subject or object of the sentence is unknown: “I don’t know who my new teacher will be, but I hope they are nice”.  The singular “they” is a self-conscious and incorrect effort to avoid sexist language.  But in the excerpt above the sex of the subject is explicitly noted, and given the theme of this story, it is odd to find such an error.  Leo should have written, “…it would be difficult for her to speak up without jeopardizing her career”.  (A good writing teacher would also have a problem with the vague pronoun reference of “it would be difficult”, since “it” doesn’t appear to refer to anything.  You may have noticed that I don’t worry much about that.)

Until the otherwise genderless English language invents a neuter pronoun (besides “it”), this problem will persist.  One correct way to form my example sentence above would be to simply pick “he”, even if the teacher may be female.  Alternatively, one could write “he or she”, though that sometimes leads to wordy constructions.  My writing teacher, Professor McCrea, would advise students whenever possible to “make … nouns that refer to general classes plural and then replace those nouns with the plural (and sexually neutral) pronoun they“.  In that case, Leo would need only to eliminate the words “one of”, and change “career” to “careers”.  But Professor McCrea would agree with me that Leo’s sentence does not allow this without altering the meaning.  The danger of one woman speaking out is central to Leo’s message.

Meanwhile, don’t bother searching for grammatical errors on my webpage; I promise there are more than a few.  I am not a professional writer.

Filed under: Rantings on July 6th, 2010 | No Comments »

Few songs are more evocative than “4th of July, Asubry Park” (“Wild Billy’s Circus Story” is one).  Every single line is a picture of one magic night in “Little Eden”, an amusement park along the New Jersey boardwalk.  Nothing is working out for our hero, who is unlucky in love and life, and cannot even ride the Tilt-a-Whirl without incident.  Still, “the aurora is rising” above him.

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Filed under: Popular Music on July 4th, 2010 | No Comments »

As I have previously declared, this is the Summer of Baseball™.  And though today may only be the first of July, and Major League Baseball may still have months to go, for me some of the joy is ended.

Curiously enough, the Summer of Baseball actually began last winter.  I started attending Florida Gators baseball games back in March.  At that time, it was dusk as the games were getting under way, and I needed to wear a jacket to keep from freezing in the bleachers.  Time sure flies, because the Gators played their last game of the season weeks ago in Omaha, losing to Florida State.  I had had high hopes for the team at the College World Series, particularly since they played so well all season, and pulled out some amazing wins.  But it wasn’t to be.

Still, I have tons of great memories to keep me until next season.  I’ll remember always getting in free with my student ID.  I’ll remember the “Bleacher Creatures” out in left field who psychologically tortured the opposing team: “Hey, center-fielder, look at the left-fielder; he sucks!”  I’ll remember the time that the mascot, Baseball Al, gave me a fist bump (or “terrorist fist jab”) during a Gators rally.  I’ll remember the Dollar Nights, and how I vowed to never eat a jumbo pretzel again.  I’ll remember the fans selected at random to (poorly) sing the chorus to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”.  I’ll remember the time that some poor fan picked to play the Mystery Pizza Box Challenge chose to take the mystery box over the ten free pizzas and got a Tootsie Roll, then the next game another fan chose the ten free pizzas, and the mystery box contained a new HDTV.  I’ll remember how the girl who tosses out the free t-shirts following innings with double plays or home runs never tried to throw the t-shirts more than about three feet from where she was standing at the time.  I’ll remember that even run-of-the-mill foul balls are frightening when they’re coming toward you and you aren’t wearing a glove.  I’ll remember the night that Marty and I looked up toward the lights behind us to see what appeared to be a plague of locusts.  I’ll remember the astonishing NCAA Super Regional series against the Miami Hurricanes, where a bizarre electrical storm threatened to postpone the first game, and a jaw-dropping seven errors cost Miami the second game.  (My favorite joke of the game: “You can’t spell ‘Miami’ without an ‘E’”.)  I’ll remember singing “We Are the Boys from Old Florida”.

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I’ll remember the many great wins, and the very few losses.  And, of course, I’ll remember some great plays and players, including my favorite, center-fielder Matt den Dekker, who is off to join the Hated Mets.  I’m glad for him.

And I am glad for myself, for getting to spend so many nights enjoying our national pastime.

Filed under: Musings, Sports on July 1st, 2010 | No Comments »