Starting with the headline – “The Baseball Codes: Attention Baseball Fans, This Book Will Eat Your Life” – NPR’s Web site review, which came out this morning, is, frankly, stunning.
Glenn McDonald, editor of the “Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me” daily news quiz at NPR.org, and a film critic at the Raleigh News & Observer, is appreciative of our endeavors. As are we of his. Sentiments such as:
Authors get a small number of books to give away — most go to family, obviously.
Today, in Scottsdale, I gave away a book to someone who is decidedly not family, but who asked for a copy.
Unwritten rule: You do not refuse a request from the Commissioner of Baseball.
-Michael
Any coverage is nice, but did AP have to wait until the last sentence of the story?
Still, one can hardly fault somebody for giving us attention: “Michael Duca, co-author of the just-released book ‘The Baseball Codes’ is an official scorer for the A’s.”
Take that, official scorers with no books.
– Jason
The verdict is in from the Associated Press. They like it.
Mike Householder’s assessment hit the wires this morning, and could serve as a one-review blurb factory. To wit:
(The San Francisco Examiner gets extra points for its headline, “Review: Kudos to code breaker Turbow for chronicling unwritten rules of America’s pastime.”)
It’s nice to be appreciated.
– Jason
The book went on sale today, pretty prominently in some places. Never one to take hearsay at face value, I trotted down to the local bookstore to find out for myself.
And there it was.
I even signed a few copies, which were subsequently tagged with “Autographed copy” stickers; it struck me as just a little odd to consider that my autograph might have any degree of value. (Sure, the books don’t cost any more than they otherwise would have, but somebody had to buy those stickers.)
Word on the street says that some pretty major coverage will be coming our way soon. We’ll fill you in as events warrant.
– Jason
Plus, you know, a few hours after that before bookstores open. As of tomorrow, however, you can officially find The Baseball Codes at a bookseller near you.
– Jason
The latest to offer an opinion (or in this case a “take”) bout the Prince Fielder-vs.-the-Giants affair: Jim Rome.
I get that baseball’s code is arcane, vague and indecipherable. And that only the guys who actually play the game understand it. But you don’t need to be a major leaguer to know Fielder was way out of line with that celebration and that there’d be some retaliation. Of course, Fielder thought it was unjustified: “If that’s what they gotta do, let them hit me once, if it makes them feel better.” Actually, Prince, it pretty much made everyone in baseball feel better.
To the first part of that sentiment, I offer the rebuttal that while baseball’s code may have arcane elements, it’s hardly indecipherable. Hell, there’s a whole book dedicated to the very notion of describing it in detail. (It drops Tuesday, for those of you scoring at home.)
As for the rest of it, though, Rome pretty much nails it, quoting Fielder’s answer to a question about whether it was worth it. “Hell yeah,” he said. “That’s something I did with me and my teammates. It has nothing to do with them. You’re damn right it was worth it.”
It’s the sentiment of a lesson un-learned. Prince is a smart guy, and was raised amid big league clubhouses by an All-Star father, Cecil Fielder. He knows the game, he knows the Code, and he knows that there’s a price to pay for such a blatant violation.
Which makes it all the more curious. Perhaps this is the latest salvo from a member of the me-first generation, whose embrace of individual expression trumps tradition in nearly every circumstance. For personal reasons, Prince has repudiated his father; perhaps he’s also out to repudiate a system in which his father believed.
– Jason
Today’s ball boy for the Kansas City Royals in their game against the Rangers was Olukorede Aiyegbusi, the second-round draft pick of Major League Soccer’s Kansas City Wizards. Aiyegbusi, from England by way of North Carolina University, was victimized by a pair of classic rookie hazes.
First, he was asked for the key to the batter’s box, which, to judge by those watching him look for it, was apparently left in the bullpen behind the left-field fence.
Once the game was under way, home plate umpire Chris Tiller told Aiyegbusi, “These guys can’t seem to throw a curveball today; would you please go get a box of curveballs?” Where Aiyegbusi went to look for it is still unclear.
– Michael
Michael ran into KNBR’s morning guys, Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey, today at Scottsdale Stadium, and went on the air to discuss the Prince Fielder incident. Hear Michael’s silver tongue here.
Well, there you have it. Barry Zito‘s first pitch to Prince Fielder got it done.
Fielder reacted entirely appropriately, flipping the ball to Zito and trotting to first, despite the clear intention behind the pitch, as response to Fielder’s antics last September. (The fact that Zito only throws 85 mph didn’t hurt; watch the video here). ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick cited Torii Hunter‘s statement after Fielder’s original display: “If I was a pitcher, I’d be [ticked] off. My mouth would be wide open. I’d be shocked. Baseball is not like the NFL, where you can celebrate in the end zone. You’ve got to keep your cool, play the game. You can’t do that.”
It seems that Fielder understands that, now. After the game, he went so far as to tell media members, “If that’s what they’ve gotta do, that’s what they’ve gotta do. Let them hit me once, and if that makes them feel better, that’s awesome. Now we can just play baseball.”
Which is exactly the point of the Code. Zito stood up for his guys and earned some love in his home clubhouse. Fielder knew that he was a likely target today. And now everybody can move on.
Are we really only one day into the spring schedule?
– Jason
The Baseball Codes 