I feel like I’ve been in the house too much lately. Indeed, I realized on Saturday morning that I hadn’t left the house once in the previous five days. I’m a hermit by nature, but this was extreme, so I made a point to go out into the world on Saturday, mix with people and generally act like a social human being.
I really enjoy interacting with people on the Internet, but it turns out that people are rather overrated in person. After some moderate socializing which kind of gave me the heebie jeebies, I ended up getting a yogurt and going to a book store and reading all three bound volumes of the Batman “Knightfall” series in those cushy chairs that seem to invite freeloaders like me. I’m back in my fortified compound on the outskirts of town now, happy to retreat again into the little virtual reality I’ve created for myself, and happy to be catching up on what I missed during my ill-advised social adventure:
- Jayson Werth expressed remorse for yelling at that fan who got in his way. Which, contrary to what some of you commenters were saying, doesn’t change the fact that the fan should have gotten the hell out of the way. The fan screwed up and Werth overreacted. These are not mutually-exclusive occurrences;
- When most players call out their teammates in the press they are critcized for it. When Kevin Youkilis does it, he’s a leader. If you’re confused, the Boston media has these rules all written down down someplace. Here’s Ellsbury’s side of the story, by the way.
- Dodgers’ reliever Ronald Bellisario is on the restricted list for a drug problem. He was originally referred to as suffering from “anxiety” issues. Many around baseball suspect that “anxiety” is trotted out as a cover for problems such as a player’s ineffectiveness. I hope using the term to cover for a drug problem is unique to Bellisario’s case.
- Beltran’s back, baby, and he’s batting cleanup. No pressure.
- In the future, everyone will be an All-Star for fifteen minutes. Except Kevin Youkilis, that is.
- In the future, every Red Sox player will be on the disabled list for 15 days.
- And speaking of the future, here’s some stuff about the Futures Game. And more stuff.
- Travis Wood and Roy Halladay would like to thank their teammates for all of the support they received on Saturday night.
- There’s a new PA announcer in the Halls of Valhalla.
- Jeff Bagwell takes over as the Astros’ hitting coach. Because clearly, this team sucks because Sean Berry was ineffective, not because the owner has steadfastly refused to rebuild for the past five years.
- Buck Showalter has to be excited about being this close to landing one of the least desirable jobs in all of baseball.
- HBT’s own Bob Harkins is in Anaheim this week, grokking the All-Star Game Zeitgeist. I just woke up and haven’t read his first post yet, but it has Erin Andrews and bacon listed in the headline, so it’s probably the best post in the history of the Internet.
- And while we all kind of hate the Home Run Derby, that doesn’t mean we can’t gamble on it.
In the absence of real baseball, I’ll be spending some time and some posts over the next couple of days trying to figure out what, exactly, the All-Star Game is all about these days, whether it means anything anymore and, frankly, whether it really ever did.
And if you think that no baseball means that there will be no “And That Happened” recaps to greet you when you wake up tomorrow, well, then you don’t know me very well, do you.