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inappropriatecontent  Nihil Concierge  6mo ago (houseofstrauss.com)   1073 thread views

World Series 2023 Megathread

houseofstrauss.com

Hey. My dad was born in 1945, so I've probably only got two or three decades left to talk with him, and I'm trying to develop some shared interests.

He liked this mornings Ethan Strauss newsletter defending Nate Silver and wrote a funny, passionate response, so I want to try following this year's World Series with him.

Does anyone know of other good resources to help me prepare? Not, like, deep dive books, but maybe a good primer to just have a basic knowledge of baseball. My dad grew up in the 50s, so he was really into the sport with his friends—but I don't know what he'd have chosen if he'd grown up in a decade with more than one sport. In the 90s, he signed me up for soccer and didn't lose any interest at all when I switched to stage crew and mock trial. So I know he knows a fair amount about baseball and I just want to learn enough to bond a little—maybe one or two thin books, no big tomes.

Also, how many weeks do I have before the first game? I think it's pretty soon.

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I like "Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders". I was never much of a sports fan, but I saw this in the store and liked his writing style. Sort of approaching the subject from the back, so to speak.

I've put a hold on this at my local library and am looking forward to it! It turns out my father is more into the futbol these days, so we're not talking as much about the world series as I expected, but I think he'll appreciate this book. Thanks for the suggestion! I would say that when you recommended it ... it was not an error.

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For a quick prep on just this series, Urinatingtree is a YouTube sports coverage guy that always makes a haters guide to the MLB playoffs and generally the world series which will give you a short overview of the successes and challenges of the remaining teams.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33291/33291-h/33291-h.htm

Pitching in a Pinch by Christy Mathewson, old timey hall of famer of the Tungsten Arm O'Doyle era. It's a quick, easy read. In my mind, it does a great job of getting inside what is happening from the player's perspective during a game. Baseball is all about the anticipation, sudden acts of incredible athleticism punctuated by periods of standing around. The pitcher is picking his pitch, where to throw it, a fastball or a curveball. The batter is anticipating that choice, trying to guess correctly. The fielders are all prepared for the ball to come to them, and what they need to do in a split second after they catch it.

Don't get into Sabermetrics, I think they're fun and fascinating, but they have nothing to do with one series. Get into the drama of the game. The storylines. Learn about the Rangers losing two world series in a row a decade ago, and how that heartbreak has fans ready to finally taste victory. Learn about how the Diamondbacks have been a mostly bad to terrible franchise, except for being the team that ended the Dynasty Yankees in 2001, and this is their first real shot back at the big time.

If next year you want to watch more baseball with him and learn more about the sport, consider watching Ken Burns' Baseball (which is also the single greatest document encapsulating the beliefs of End-Of-History Washington Consensus Clintonite Liberalism), and reading Michael Lewis' Moneyball. One is the history and the romance of the game, the other is the statistics and strategy underlying team construction. Understanding both is key to an in depth understanding of the game.

Getting into a sport is more difficult than one would think. It really requires spending time consuming games, highlights, articles, podcasts, and talk radio. The age of my life where I was most into sports (especially baseball) was in college when I lived with three other guys who were also very into baseball. The TV stayed on MLB network or ESPN all day everyday.

For your purposes, I would start with watching the World Series on TV and getting an idea of who the biggest names are. If you want to take a deeper dive, you can listen to MLB podcasts or sports radio. If you’re really wed to literature (which I think is a poor way to learn about a sport), Michael Lewis’s Moneyball is a good, easy read.

You don't really have time to do any reading, but here's the explanation of baseball I've heard.

It's a game of growing tension. Everything is about waiting to see if the pitcher screws up.

If you want to bond, why not ask him to teach you about the game while you watch together?

Because that's what someone with much more well-adjusted family relationships and emotional communication skills than either of us would do.

My family was about...other things. Like reading at a 11th grade level before you turned 9, or not talking about your feelings, or winning state debate tournaments, or not talking about your feelings. Sometimes, for a break, we didn't talk about our feelings.

Y'all sound like a bunch of hyperlexic autists...

I don't like baseball, but I do like well crafted videos, and the you tube channel "baseball doesn't exist" has a lots of good videos that just so happen to be about baseball. So that might make a good entry point!

https://youtube.com/@BaseballDoesntExist

Also, how many weeks do I have before the first game? I think it's pretty soon.

The World Series starts tomorrow, 27 October 2023.

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