“Fenway is only a ballpark the way the Sistine Chapel is only a church.”

                                                                                        - Dan Shaughnessy

New York City recently unveiled two majestic baseball shrines - The brand new Yankee Stadium for the Yankees and the brand new Citi Field for the Mets. Just the other day, I stumbled upon a Time Magazine video feature on Citi Field, which highlighted the nostalgic elements of the new ballpark. Designers infused New York’s rich baseball history, with the understandable exception of everything in pinstripes, into the blueprint of the new ball park. It even boasts of large murals and sculptures dedicated to Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It’s where old meets new. Thus, I reckon it’s a place that smells new but feels comfortably familiar.

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Art Shamsky was an outfielder/first baseman for the Miracle Mets of ‘69. Unlike Bill Bradley of the ‘69-’70 New York Knicks, Shamsky was strictly a former athlete, not a writer. As such, his book “The Magnificent Seasons,” reads like a  personal journal. Sincere it is. Lyrical it is not. Read the rest of this entry »

My bud Karl and I would talk about sports constantly even in chat, and with Spring officially here, he’s pretty psyched about Major League Baseball 2009. He’s a bigger fan than I am, really, but me being the huge sports fan, too, who am I to resist the hype?

Now this may seem foolish but I believe one of the best ways to prepare for a major sport coming into the season is to buy this year’s game based on that sport. It’ll help me learn the rosters, understand new rules, compile game stats, and heck, even master player-facial recognition based on their profile photos. Also, it gives me an excuse to spend more time with the PlayStation 3 than my dog, my writing, even my girlfriend (but I’m sure she’d raise hell if I do).

So I have two options: MLB 09 The Show or MLB 2K9. With MLB 09 The Show, gameplay is better and it really utilizes the PS3 platform’s capabilities to the fullest, while I’ve seen a whole bunch of negative reviews for MLB 2K9. Pretty easy choice, right? Well, no. It’ll hurt financially, but I sure would like to buy both because of this:

Tim Lincecum

From last season: 2.62 ERA, 18-5 Win-Loss record, 265 Strikeouts. NL Cy Young Awardee.

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