March 3rd- Texas at Kansas City
KC 7 TEX 6 @ Surprise, AZ

Part of my passion for baseball, perhaps the impetus for it, has to do with the experience of visiting a Major League ballpark. The term “game” does not adequately describe the feeling, nor does a box score convey the multiplicity of unique happenings, much as I adore the statistical bent. For one, the very aura of a ballpark’s fresh grass, expansive layers and team identification places it squarely between the material and the sacred in a hierarchical ranking system. Religious? Probably not, but for those who buy into the distinction between the spiritual and the religious, I believe the baseball stadium lives up to at least one description.

My experience in minor league stadiums has been qualitatively different. The awe and splendor gives way to familiarity and accessibility. Not that I like paying $6 for a bucket of popcorn, but even such mundane commercialism calls forth an air of great importance. Such proximity transforms transcendent athletes into humans, full of shortcomings like each of us in the bleachers. Small bobbles, grunts of exertion and frustrated expressions differentiate these part-time athletes from the mechanical automatons who we only see from section 300 and higher.

An unexpected result of my sojourn to the Cactus League has been the humanization of the Major League player, once my idol, but a line on a spreadsheet of late. Projection matrices keep me interested for hours and make for an interesting backdrop against which to study statistics in general. But what of this personal element? Certainly, I’m not to be surprised that Brad Wilkerson has tremendous skill supporting his analyst-friendly stat line, but hearing him express an earnest interest in Kentucky high school baseball with a fan goes beyond my initial set of associations with the player. Whenever I though of David Delucci in the past, my train of thought usually went through “injury prone” and “draws walks,” but never included “genuinely nice to toddlers seeking autographs and pictures.” I realize that these comments seem to place the athletes back on a pedestal, but I mean to do exactly the opposite. Aside from having a rare and valuable skill, each one spends a great deal of time away from the diamond, living a unique life with challenges, successes and especially failure that we usually do not consider. My experience in this relaxed context has made me believe that the stadium itself- along with television and other media that put distance between the player and the fan- is responsible for deepening the schism, dehumanizing the athlete. Much as I love the atmosphere of the stadium, it lends a false presence of superiority. The experience of the Cactus League has rechecked my impressions and reconnected me to part of the game I had ignored for years.

Royals Notes

*While games in early March do not necessitate contributions from a team’s stars, the need to use many veteran scrubs is a foreboding signal. Joe McEwing, Wilson Valdez, Rey Sanchez, Esteban German and Mark Grudzielanek have all landed in Royals camp with all but the last appearing in today’s game. Valdez played a solid first base and hit an important two-run HR, but his performance in the short-term is beside the point. A good team may survive with one of these types as a 25th man, but at least one- Grudzielanek- appears to be in line for a starting job with another coming off of the bench. Moreover, the apparent open tryout in Surprise indicates that Royals brass sees the final decision as an important one. For a team who will struggle to win more than 70 games, there are larger issues on the table, and choosing between interchangeably useless spare parts will not amount to much of a difference.

*If I had to choose a player of the game, I would lean towards Mitch Maier, a slick-fielding 24 year-old OF prospect who is a couple years from playing time. Maier entered the game in the seventh with the score tied 3-3. He made a very nice sliding catch in RF on the one hard-hit ball that Ambroix Burgos gave up in a strong inning of work. Next, he led off the bottom of the inning with a sharp liner that hooked around the first-base bag. As he approached second, he correctly judged it wise to test the arm of the Nth string right-fielder with a number barely under triple digits, easily gliding into third. He scored the go-ahead run later in the inning that would keep them in the lead the rest of the afternoon.

Rangers Notes

*Coming into the game, I had heard rave reviews of Phil Nevin from Peter Gammons, from Sportscenter commentary and from the general buzz around Rangers camp that morning. Apparently, he was disappointed with his performance the previous season and wanted to improve his dedication and conditioning, showing up in camp in better shape than any recent season. Sure enough, he bombed several 400 footers in batting practice, getting my hopes up for game time. Luckily, a lineup that included mostly backups also included Nevin and Ian Kinsler, two of Texas’ more intriguing players. Nevin batted fourth, right behind fellow DH candidate Erubiel Durazo, who had singled, and launched a bad pitch well over the LF fence for his second HR and third hit in three plate appearances. He left the game shortly thereafter, but remained the topic of fan chatter the rest of the afternoon.

*D’Angelo Jiminez started at SS and showed off a good glove and a strong arm. He is not nearly as strong as J.J. Hardy, about whom I raved recently, but he gives the Rangers a good defensive replacement for Mike Yount and an alternative to unproven Ian Kinsler at second. He won’t be a star, but Jiminez is the type of bench player who serves multiple purposes, which is several more than the KC’s slag heap.

*The Rangers used Brian Shouse and Scott Sullivan in back-to-back innings, giving me an opportunity to watch two sidearm pitchers warm up in the pen. I have always had a perverse interest in side-arm and submarine pitchers, and it was fun to see the movement up close. As the numbers indicate, it seems almost impossible for a same-handed batter to hit their breaking balls, both of which move away from the hitter at first before bearing back in on the hands at the very end. Either one could succeed as a ROOGY or a LOOGY, but the game demonstrated how easily an opposite handed batter can hit them when they can see exactly what is coming very early in the windup.