1. I just can't shake myself loose from the question of what lay behind Kevin Cash's decision to replace pitcher Blake Snell in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series.
Wondering what some of the baseball experts at ESPN were thinking, I played the October 28th episode of the ESPN podcast, Baseball Tonight, with Buster Olney. Every voice on this podcast, especially Karl Ravech and Jake Odorizzi, expressed profound disbelief that Cash replaced Snell. They all discussed how they thought Kevin Cash was hamstrung by analytics (which measure trends from the past, not what is happening in the present) and so didn't seem to take into account what a dominating outing Snell was having and that he didn't appear to be getting tired, didn't appear to be weakening at all.
The point they made, though, that I hadn't thought about, was that Cash's decision robbed fans of entertainment. Wow! I thought. Of course! Mathematical analysis doesn't factor entertainment into its equations and projections.
Olney and Ravech remembered past World Series outings by Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax and I thought of Jack Morris, Orel Hershiser, Madison Bumgarner, and other pitchers who pitched stunning complete games in past World Series and realized that the suspense of how long these pitchers could maintain dominance in the games they had started was highly entertaining and gave us baseball fans the opportunity to see all of these pitchers' character tested to the max. I used to think of these tests in Shakespearean terms.
I agree with Olney, Ravech, and Odorizzi. Never knowing how Blake Snell would have performed with his dominating stuff as he faced the Dodgers' lineup for the third time robbed us fans of seeing what we all love, an elite athlete employing his elite skills and having his inward fortitude sternly tested.
The guests on Baseball Tonight wondered if the organizations who have gone all in with data driven baseball decisions might moderate their approach some after what we saw in Tuesday's game, if we might see, yes, teams continue to learn from the mathematical calculations, but also see a return to decisions also relying on what things look like in the moment (the eye test) and on that unmeasurable inner strength in players which they draw upon to rise to the occasion and blow away the numbers, averages, probabilities, and mathematical projections.
2. After a solid half an hour talk with Debbie on the phone, it wasn't long before I decided to retire for the night. I checked out Podbean, the podcast app I use, and discovered a show called The Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the episodes that have been released so far are track by track discussions of, first, the Dead's album, Workingman's Dead and then American Beauty. This year marks the 50 anniversary of both albums.
I didn't know how long I'd be able to listen before falling asleep and selected the episode devoted to American Beauty's track, "Sugar Magnolia", not only a favorite cut from this album, but one of my favorite of all Grateful Dead songs. The song was penned by both Robert Hunter and Bob Weir. Bob Weir was this episode's primary guest and it was fun, until I fell asleep, to hear him talk about the evolution of "Sugar Magnolia". I'll go back soon and listen again. I missed the later parts of this episode.
3. I hadn't listened to J. J. Cale for many months. I haven't been driving much since the beginning of March and my J. J. Cale cds were in the Sube. Finally, today, I brought that box of music into the house and popped Disc 1 of Anyway the Wind Blows: The Anthology and immersed myself in J. J. Cale's easy, I got nowhere to go, unhurried rhythms and tight, wise to the world, and, on occasion, romantic lyrics.
In the summer of 2019, I drove around quite a bit -- had a great overnight in Missoula, attended services at St. Luke's on Sundays in Coeur d'Alene, took drives up the river, and spent several days in British Columbia. J. J. Cale accompanied me for many of the miles I drove last summer, and tonight I got to go on those drives, those trips again, to my great satisfaction, without leaving the house.
A limerick by Stu:
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