Take Time for Paradise

Mike:
If anyone has evah wondahed...

 

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Mike:
(And I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't wondah)

 

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Mike:
What Giamatti means in Take Time for Paradise when he speaks of the "rage to perfection" and the artist's/athlete's drive to achieve that "state of complete intensity and complete relaxation—complete coherence of integrity between what the performer wants to do and what the performer has to do..."

 

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Mike:
And the spectatah witnessing this on the field or stage in astonishment as the "precise random movements had never before come together in this form to challenge the players" and is "privy to the realized act of imagination and assents, is mastered, and in that instant, bettered."

 

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Mike:
If you've evah wondahed what Giamatti means by all that, well, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the agon.

 

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Susan/Circle:
5-4-3. Quod erat mothafuckum demonstrandum!

 

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Comments

[Bob]

That was the 681st triple play in MLB history. In related news, I ate 681 pieces of sushi last night.

[Natalie]

That was fucking awesome last night. I screamed aloud in joy and my chocolate lab leapt onto the couch to lick my face. She KNEW she was witnessing the best of baseball...You know, if asked, I would always say that the most beautiful play in all of baseball (to me) is a well-turned double play, with it's elegance, symmetry, grace, and atheticism. Now I realize, that's only because I had never seen live a triple play. Dayum.

[soxinsix]

Sure was a sweet play. And Bedard didn't pitch badly again, too bad he has nothing to show for his efforts yet. On the bright side, is Ellsbury still on a fucking tear or what?!

[vermonter]

Nat-related is that somehow the penalty shot in hockey has been called "the most exciting play in sports". I've always thought that nothing is more exciting than a play at the plate. Single to the outfield, runner rounding 3rd...

(That triple play was damn cool too!)

[vermonter]

Oh, and 3 horses hitting the top of the stretch...and I have $50 on one of them.

[HunterStars]

I agree with the play at the plate and the penalty shot (in hockey or soccer for that matter).

I'll add when the QB rolls out into the flat and heaves up a Hail Mary into the end zone- just for those few seconds when it's in flight and a game might be won or lost...

[pseudosanity78]

The one irritating thing about that amazing play is that not even the frigging MLB website had it attributed as such until HOURS afterward. Clowns.

[vasoxfan]

Doess Niemann own us or what. The homers and the TP were the only thing that made that game bearable.

[Natalie]

HunterStars and vermonter, agreed with your other suggestions for "most exciting" play in sports. I was making a bid for well-turned double play to be "most beautiful" for the sheer athleticism of it... But I am open to rebuttals there. :)

[Kaz]

I suggest a different view of last night's game: The Tale of Two Lowries.

I like Jed at shortstop. Let's leave him there. Why was Aviles at SS? Just because he was at SS in Game 1 with Youk on third?

So, the triple play was the best of Lowrie, but the botched throws (plural) home were the worst of Lowrie.

[Kaz]

Natalie: "I am open to rebuttals".

I always knew you were that kind of girl.

[pablo in nh]

July 17, 1990, Red Sox hit into TWO triple plays in the same game, and still win 1-0.

Let's see somebody else try that.

[Biodude]

I'd vote for an inside the park homerun as the most exciting baseball play. Go look at the video of when Utley hit one a couple weeks ago. It's worth it for the look of pure joy on his face when he sees the third base coach waving him around. http://deadsp.in/neuOda

[ParkerStPete]

Don't forget Jacoby's straight steal of home off Petitte. I can watch that over and over again.

[da kine]

I've always looked for an excuse to tell people what my favorite sports plays are, but nobody ever listens. I think I even posted them on Facebook one time. Here they are:

Baseball: a close play at the plate. Two dudes smashing into each other and the winner gets/prevents a run.

Football: any trick play. Statue of liberty, direct snap, fake punt...they're all pissah.

Basketball: a true blocked shot, when one dude goes up and gets denied so hard his children feel it.

Hockey: this one's a tie between the penalty shot and the 2-on-1 breakaway.

Soccer: who gives a shit, we're talking about sports here.

[Jeff in NC]

Da kine, you have never seen Messi's magic then. Agreed on all else, especially the blocked shot.

For soccer its hard to define a single "play" that is exciting as goals are usually the culmination of a series of ball movements (heh, thats almost a funny). But when you see the ball and players begin to set up, and some part of the offense finally slip free of the defense, and his teammate see it and react, and that final serve of the ball to the one who will score, and then the ball in the net... GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL! A lot like hockey in that respect.

I have often thought soccer and bseball were similar. Simple games, no real surprises about what the other team is trying to do, just seeing who can and cannot execute. "Trying harder" in both sports usually results in failure. Calm, a bit cerebral, staying within your abilities...

[joe lahoud]

I was at that game Pablo...funny how the mind works (or how 21 more years of beer drinking effects it)...I thought or "remembered" that the Sox had turned 2 triple plays not hit into them both.

[da kine]

That isn't to say that baseball is the bee's knees. If my Irish relatives talked shit about America's pastime after I took them to a game at Fenway, I would totes understand. If one isn't raised to appreciate a game that takes our hometown team 4+ hours to play every fucking night, then I can't try to convince them it is exciting. Similarly, no matter what someone tells me, I find soccer boring as shit.

[da kine]

That isn't to say that baseball is the bee's knees. If my Irish relatives talked shit about America's pastime after I took them to a game at Fenway, I would totes understand. If one isn't raised to appreciate a game that takes our hometown team 4+ hours to play every fucking night, then I can't try to convince them it is exciting. Similarly, no matter what someone tells me, I find soccer boring as shit.

[da kine]

Christ, I tried to talk shit about soccer in the above but it somehow got cut off. Anyhoots, I talked shit about soccer to a sickening degree, then wrote that.

[Jeff in NC]

Ok ok its all good. I think any sport where you dont have a favorite team to root for is dull. I cant sit thru a cards-cubs game for nothing. Wont try to convince you soccer is exciting any more than a fellow fan at a soccer game recently couldnt figure out how i could like baseball.

Now, if we are gonna talk shit about something not being a sport - NASCAR. Noone will ever convince me that a stock car driver is an athlete. Just because its hot and he sweats and its dangerous for 3 or so hours? Then that 350lb steam roller operator on the highway job with the full size igloo for a lunchbox is also an athlete. Most exciting NASCAR play? Not even any to select from.

[Kaz]

Jeff, I respectfully submit the final three laps from Darlington about 8 years ago. Great racing and exciting finish.

[Jeff in NC]

Yes, but not athletic. Hey, sexy times with Mrs. Jeff is damned exciting with a great finish but I dont know that I would any longer consider it athletic.

[ParkerStPete]

And Kaz, the best part was the commentary from Buck and McCarver.

[Kaz]

Yeah, I'm not contending that it's athletic, but you wandered down the road to "not exciting" from there...and I disagree. It doesn't have to be athletic to be exciting and I do think there has been some really exciting NASCAR at times.

[Jeff in NC]

Agreed. I was stuck on the athletic not a sport thing from da kine's earlier comment. No argument that car racing can be very exciting. But I often get into the debate with my Nascar friends that the drivrs are not athletes. For a real exciting nascar moment, I was about 13 in the pit area of a small 3/8mi oval after a good race when the second place guy walked over to the winner and kicked him square in the nuts. Dude had to go to the hospital. The kicker in that case might be considered an athlete :)

[soxinsix]

Jeff, do you openly bash NASCAR in NC like this? Seems like it could be hazardous to your health...

NASCAR, yawn. Change the channel.

[Jeff in NC]

Ya. It goes over like a fart in a spacesuit. When I Yankee bash they just dont seem to care. Gotta find my fun somewhere.

Back to cool baseball plays, of all the rare baseball events like inside the parkers, triple plays, unassisted triples, no nos, the one I have never actually witnessed live or live on TV is hitting for the cycle. Kinda wierd, but I always miss those.

[Bob]

Why does this very good Red Sox team go into these annoying mini-losing streaks so regularly? It's quite odd. I realize there are going to be losing streaks in the course of a season, but the Sox have had several; more than a really good team should have. Granted, they have also reeled off some impressive winning streaks, too. The playoffs are going to be interesting. On one hand, they can win every game. On the other hand, they could lose four in a row to Texas.

[Harwich Rich]

8 games up in the Wild Card hunt!! Only a 1/2 game in back of the Skankees!! These guys are on fiah,bring on the Royals!!