as we may blog

Photo of Camden Yards by wallyg on flickr.

In a fascinating essay about the design of new baseball stadiums, Michael Beirut asks a simple question: “Why is it so hard to build a baseball stadium that looks like it belongs in the 21st century?” It’s been sixteen years since Camden Yards opened in Baltimore and he is discouraged by the Camden-esque design of seemingly every new baseball stadium built since. He feels the Mets missed an opportunity to break out of this pattern with Citi Field, due to open in 2009.

But in reality Flushing Meadows is hardly the middle of nowhere, and has a potent design tradition of its own. Originally a city dumping ground memorialized as The Great Gatsby’s “valley of ashes,” it was cleared by parks commissioner Robert Moses for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and fifteen years later, the 1964 World’s Fair. Its grounds were the site of some of the most iconic and entertaining visionary architecture ever built in North America: Wallace Harrison’s Trylon and Perisphere, Norman Bel Geddes’ Futurama at the General Motors Pavilion, not to mention the Unisphere, which still stands today within sight of the new Citi Field. Wouldn’t any of these have made great precedents for a new pleasure dome to be built in Flushing Meadows?

“True Cubs fan catches Spring Training ground rule double without dropping beer.” Some fans are already in midseason form.

I just tore through an excerpt from My Right Arm by Buzz Bissinger about the tumultuous career of Kerry Wood. It’s a great Saturday morning read.

Bissinger shows that the downward trajectory of Wood’s career was, in hindsight, predictable and probably inevitable. He resists the temptation to highlight a specific moment in Wood’s career where it all fell apart, a temptation that many Cubs fans, myself included, gave in to during Dusty Baker’s reign of error.

Is there someone to blame for what happened to Kerry Wood? As in “Murder on the Orient Express,” everybody took a turn with the dagger. A high-school kid never should have thrown 175 pitches in a single day. Jim Riggleman never should have let him exceed 120 pitches eight times as a rookie, or brought him back for that one game in the 2003 playoffs. Dusty Baker, who allowed Wood to exceed 100 pitches 24 times in 2003, should have taken greater note of his injury history. Wood should have kept himself in better shape and paid more attention to his mechanics. But whether we like it or not, professional athletes are meant to be sacrificed, not preserved. And the most fatal dagger-thrust of all has been fate’s. Wood threw the way he did because that was the way he had learned how to pitch. And he continued to throw that way because for a brief moment it made him the most exciting pitcher in baseball.

This site needs to be mentioned.

I’ve always liked the Brewers. Sausage races, a beer slide in the outfield, and a first baseman named Prince. They got moved to the National League several years back for no good reason, sort of like that kid in 3rd grade who had to switch classes because the other teacher had five fewer students. The 2009 Disney production of Brewers in the Outfield will feature Lyle Lovett as Ned Yost, Don Cheadle as Bill Hall, and Bob Uecker as “The Brewmaster.” After the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards, the Brewers became the only team in professional sports with a vice-themed nickname. Really, what’s not to love?

And now this. What an amazing time to be a Milwaukeean.