baseball | Mostly Bright Ideas

Browsing All posts tagged under »baseball«

Extra Parts

September 3, 2014

I watch a lot of movies. There was a time when I thought I’d be in movies, but I’m past that now, just as I’m pretty sure I’m never going to walk on the Moon or play centerfield for the Yankees. Acting looks like fun, and pays well, too, but then I found out that […]

When Men Were Boys

June 2, 2014

I can remember exact moments. It’s early afternoon on a Saturday, and we’re getting into our pale blue Chevrolet, a two-door Impala coupe. I turn sideways to squeeze into the back seat, then step onto the hump in the middle of the floor and drop next to the window on the far side. My father […]

Say Hey! How Did You Get This Number?

August 15, 2013

Here’s the whole story about Willie Mays. But be prepared, because it’s a tale filled with drama and suspense. Okay, no it isn’t. Actually, it’s filled with stupidity and hurt feelings. And a sense of relief that caller-ID wasn’t yet available. Willie was a baseball player, if you didn’t know. One of the greatest, in […]

Gone, and Pretty Much Forgotten

August 7, 2013

236

We’re losing things. We may not even realize it’s happening, because they’re the kinds of things we don’t pay a lot of attention to, so we fail to notice when they disappear. It’s something like when a casual acquaintance moves to Paraguay without telling us, and twelve years later we wake up and say, “Hey, […]

Probable Cause (Part 2)

May 14, 2013

I just wasted about an hour and a half. I was trying to determine how many customers Disney World had last year. It’s getting harder to find official facts about anything these days. Encyclopedias are gone, and nobody reads almanacs anymore. Those massive and thoroughly researched reference materials have all but disappeared, replaced by open […]

Tipping Points

March 6, 2013

127

I live in one of those places where tourism is a significant part of the economy. At this very moment, people all over the world are booking flights and reserving hotel rooms so they can devote a fraction of their summer to experiencing life in this exotic location. Not that this location is all that […]

The Land Before Hype

February 1, 2013

139

It’s that time again: Super Bowl week. I know this, not because I follow football in even the slightest way, but because I’ve noticed the potato chip and Coca-Cola displays at the grocery store. Built like shrines to the gods, these stockpiles of snacks will be inhaled by a hundred million people in six hours. […]

Live and Learn

October 21, 2012

108

When I was in kindergarten, I found out that you could mix red and yellow to make orange. It was a magical moment for me, as if the universe had just pulled back the curtain and let me in on a prime example of life’s most vital secrets. But the feeling didn’t last. I soon […]

Confection and Crucifixion

April 4, 2012

102

Easter approaches once again, and as usual, it arrives at the far edge of a forty-six day cloud of confusion. At least for me. Thinking back on it now, I’m not surprised that I found the entire season incomprehensible. I was baffled by far simpler things — carbon paper, reversible shirts, and those tiny cereal […]

Hard to Grasp

November 10, 2011

170

On the day of my birth, I was the youngest person in my family. I know this is true for everyone who has ever been born, but I wanted to claim some special distinction, even if just for the briefest moment it took you to realize that there wasn’t anything remarkable about it. The year […]