{"id":6585,"date":"2010-10-21T16:47:41","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T20:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=6585"},"modified":"2010-10-27T11:04:24","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T15:04:24","slug":"of-playoffs-and-boston-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/21\/of-playoffs-and-boston-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Playoffs and Boston Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/20\/october-baseball-and-the-meaning-of-hurt\/\">Will<\/a>, <\/p>\n<p>It seems we\u2019re going to have lots to talk about over the next few weeks, from haircuts to hurt. For starters, an answer your question: A fielder\u2019s choice is recorded when the batter reaches base or a runner advances while another runner is put out. The infield fly rule prevents a trick double play on a pop-up. It\u2019s important to note that <em>The Paris Review<\/em> team does not play with the infield fly rule in effect.<\/p>\n<p>I became a fan the old-fashioned way: My father took me to a baseball game. Dad cut work, I cut school, and the Orioles beat the Indians, 2\u20130. Around that time (I was ten years old), my father also bought me a baseball glove. (OK, it was a softball glove, but I insisted on breaking it in with a baseball.) My little sister got one too, but after I showed off my arm by throwing at her head a few times, she went inside for good. <\/p>\n<p>A few years later, when I was beginning my mornings with box scores, my dad started giving me books: David Halberstam\u2019s <em>Summer of \u201949<\/em>, Doris Kearns Goodwin\u2019s <em>Wait Till Next Year<\/em>, a copy of <em>Out of My League<\/em> inscribed by one George Plimpton. In high school, I worked summers and Friday nights in the <em>Washington Post<\/em> sports section; in my interview for the job, I discussed the relative merits of Roger Angell and Roger Kahn, the Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio of baseball scribes. <\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The day my parents took me to college was a beautiful September Sunday. My dad had a few hours to kill before leaving, and the Red Sox were playing the Yankees. We headed to Fenway\u2014only to find that standing tickets were sold out. \u201cTry Gate D,\u201d the ticket man mysteriously said. We tried Gate D. The guard directed us to Gate H. At Gate H, the guard answered our inquiry with silence. My dad turned to me. \u201cFirst lesson in Boston politics,\u201d he said, and pulled out a twenty. \u201cDon\u2019t be so obvious next time,\u201d the guard said as we jumped the gate. When we walked into the stands, I felt like I was walking onto the field; I\u2019d never been in a park so intimate. (I\u2019ve actually always thought that American League parks look smaller than those in the NL) The game was already in the seventh inning and the Sox were down, but I didn\u2019t care. It was baseball. <\/p>\n<p>But in truth, my enthusiasm for the sport had already been waning. I\u2019d discovered the newspaper had a front page, not just a sports section. I\u2019d figured out that boys tended to like girls who knew a little about sports but not those who knew a lot. It had become harder to do homework while listening to baseball\u2014until one day I realized I didn\u2019t want to listen, anyway. <\/p>\n<p>Another problem turned out to be the Red Sox. I tried rooting for them when I first got to college\u2014home team, Yankees-haters\u2014but I was distracted, and my heart wasn\u2019t in it. And when they made it to the ALCS in 2003, and then, the next year, won the World Series, I felt I\u2019d done something wrong. I hadn\u2019t earned the joy, because I hadn\u2019t had the years of pain. By the time I was through college, I\u2019d stopped following baseball altogether.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s good to be a fan again. I\u2019ll be cheering for the Giants this year. I like their pitching. (Of course, I could say that about the Phillies or Rangers too, but I dig Tim Lincecum\u2019s Gumby style.) Plus, I can\u2019t root against Buster Posey. Which brings me to a question for you: Is it legit to adopt a team in the postseason? And can a girl return to the game after a decade away? It\u2019s my sense that baseball isn\u2019t hospitable to second chances (just ask Pete Rose). Finally, does Chase Utley have the best hair in the baseball? I have friends who think so. I\u2019ve got a lot to catch up on.<\/p>\n<p>Yours, \u2028<\/p>\n<p>Louisa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Will, It seems we\u2019re going to have lots to talk about over the next few weeks, from haircuts to hurt. For starters, an answer your question: A fielder\u2019s choice is recorded when the batter reaches base or a runner advances while another runner is put out. The infield fly rule prevents a trick double [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[931],"tags":[375,1136,1115,1119,1137,1138,1117,1118],"class_list":["post-6585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-sports","tag-baseball","tag-buster-posey","tag-playoffs","tag-red-sox","tag-roger-angell","tag-roger-kahn","tag-tim-lincecum","tag-yankees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Of Playoffs and Boston Politics by Louisa Thomas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 21, 2010 \u2013 Dear Will, It seems we\u2019re going to have lots to talk about over the next few weeks, from haircuts to hurt. 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