Revisiting "On Baseball" from 2001

In 2001 I was living in Germany teaching at the University of Bamberg. My friend Mark was doing the same at the University of Stuttgart. In the summer of that year, Mark contacted me about writing a sports article for his colleague Wolfgang, who need two more contributions to complete a collection he was working on. The person who was supposed to have written that section backed out, and Wolfgang was desperate. Sure, I thought, why not. And it was a lot of fun.
Reading it today, I am mostly impressed with the work I completed in a little more than a week and without too much research. Nonetheless, it comes across as more of fan's take on the game he loves, and less as an academically rigorous article published by an important German press (which it was). And I loved me some counting stats, though I did mention Rob Neyer and Billy Bean [sic]. My favorite line has always been: "For every Adonis such as Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire, there is a Tony Gwynn or David Wells who, if you look closely enough, might still have gravy from lunch on his collar."
What do you think?
Note: if this is not large enough for you to read, please click here. (Thanks, Brad!)

Rush to Talk About the Braves' Demise

The other night on the twitter, I started using Rush album and song names to talk about the Braves. None of my followers got it, but it did lead me to getting a new follower, which made me happy.

Read in reverse chronological order

And the new follower

Dear Diary: My Braves Mentions During the Glorious 1993 Season

Last summer I commemorated baseball's last great pennant race with my recollection of the Braves amazing run to catch the Giants in the 1993 season. It was glorious. When the season started I was finishing up my senior year of college at Wofford and spent that summer always on the verge of a pre-life crisis that I kept in check by working for my Dad during the day, drinking through the night with college buddies, the aforementioned wonderful girlfriend from the article linked above and Braves baseball.

The last few days I have been reading through old journals I kept during college. I mostly wrote down what I did, but didn't really write about what I did. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun driving down a bumpy, not always paved memory lane.

I have been a Braves fan since the 1970s, and they often made an appearance in my journals. This was especially true during the improbable 1993 season. Below are the transcribed mentions of those wonderful six months that I will offer without commentary for the most part. I suspect there are some mistakes here and there as I wrote my thoughts down from memory. But it was fun to go through the boxscores at Baseball-Reference and relive the moments. I look forward to hearing your comments on what you remember. Also, I apparently LOVED pitcher wins.

April 6, 1993: "After language lab, I went home to get my mail and also watched some Braves. They won 1-0. Maddux 8 1/3 innings shutout ball. Stanton shut them down for his first save. You've heard of the four tops? How about the five aces? ...UNC won because of a bonehead Webber move. But it was a good game. Now it's time for baseball. Jawohl. Braves are 1-0 and there are 164 game left."

April 8, 1993: "I finished listening to the Braves, who won in extra innings and then watched "The Wonder Years."

April 8, 1993: "We watched "Indiana Jones" and the Braves. The Braves won in the 9th."

July 15, 1993: "The Braves are also back from the break. The NL lost Tuesday night, 9-3 by the way. Every Brave in the game screwed up. Justice an E. Blauser an E, Blauser and Grissom SO with men on. Avery got two quick outs and then people started getting hits. Smoltz followed and promptly threw 2 wild pitches."

July 25, 1993: "Tuesday night I watched the Braves game. It was Fred McGriff's first game after the Sunday trade. The Braves got down 5-0 but came back to win it. McGriff hit a dinger, as did Blauser. We got drunk."
(I am not sure why I didn't mention the pressbox fire because I vividly remember it.)

                        "The next day ...the Braves won 14-2. McGriff hit two and Cabrera hit a grand slam among some others. 5 Total."

                         "We then watched the Braves. They lost in the 9th after leading 7-4. Damn."

                         "The Braves won 6-2 on 6 runs in the 9th inning including a blast by Justice."

                          "We ate and were on the road listening to the Braves again. They won 11-6. We hit 4 dingers, Gant, Pendleton, McGriff and Sanders. It was great even though Stanton still sucks. That's okay, we are starting to hit and everybody's averages are going up. Cool, but they are still 9 games back."

July 26, 1993: "Well, the Braves continued their rampage and won 13-1 yesterday on 21 hits. Cool. I was pleased."

July 28, 1993: "They won big again and Deion hit an inside-the-park homer. The game ended and we all got drunk."

                         "I stayed home and watched the Braves. McGriff hit 2 homeruns, one of which was an inside the parker. He also hit a triple off the wall and a had a ball caught right before the wall. So with about 10 more feet he would have had 4 dingers. Crazy. Anyway, the Braves scored 4 in the 9th and put the game out of reach"

August 2, 1993: "The Braves won yesterday and finished 9-2 on the road trip but should've gone 10-1. It was good, but they are still 7.5 games back. It'll be tough, but they have the tools."

(I took a two-week trip across the country to visit friends in St. Louis, Des Moines, Ft. Collins, Denver, El Paso and Dallas, but thanks to the magic of TBS was able to watch many games!) 

August 16, 1993: "The Braves won for the 7th time in a row. Cool. Still 7.5 back."

August 18, 1993: "The Giants won, but so did the Braves. That's nine in a row and they are 6.5 back."

August 23, 1993: "I'm not sure what we will be doing tonight, but I'm sure beer and the Braves will be involved."

August 27, 1993: "Well, the Braves won Monday night. Avery went the distance and raised up when he had to."

                              "Then we headed back and watched Glavine struggle but through double plays pitch out of jams and get his 15th win. McMichael got the save. That's 2 in a row and makes it 5.5 games behind the Giants."

                              "Then we came back for the Braves. They were already up 3-0 after I put oil in my car. Gant grounded into a DP and a run scored. Then McGriff and Justice hit back-to-back dingers. Well they did it again in the 5th. Berryhill and TP also homered and the Braves won 9-1. Maddux got his 15th. Jawohl!! The Braves are 4.5 back. Sweep! Sweep!"

(Back in Spartanburg.)

September 1, 1993: "Then I watched the Braves rout the Giants 8-2. Maddux is now 16-9. Cool. Righetti threw at Justice's face, put him on his butt but 2 pitches later Justice sent one deep. He made contact, glanced at Righetti and then jogged around the bases. It was great. Tonight Smoltz goes."

                                  "I'm supposed to watch the Braves tonight ...at a bar. Should be fun. I hope they win. They are 3.5 games back with 30 games left. They are 82-50 and must go 18-12 to win 100 but still might not win the division. It'll be interesting."

September 3, 1993: "The Braves ended up losing when Wohlers gave up a HR to some minor league scrub. Oh well, that's the way it goes."
(The minor leaguer was John Patterson, who in four years in the majors accumulated a -0.4 fWAR.)

                                 "We came back and watched the Braves come from behind on a shaky start by Avery and win 5-3. It was great. They also beat the Padres tonight and are still 3.5 games back. Glavine got his 17th."

September 8, 1993: "We watched ...the Braves win. The Giants lost. 2.5 back!"

September 10, 1993: "I went home and watched the Braves win 9-2 (it was actually 8-2) against the Dodgers. Tommy G got his 18th win."

                                   "I watched the Braves win 1-0 on a 10th inning homer. Mercker, Wohlers and McMichael pitched a 1-hitter over 10. Cool."

September 15, 1993: "I left and watched the Cubs beat the Giants as they also did last night. The Braves are now up 2.5. Jawohl!"

September 16, 1993: " After class I went home and watched the Braves get down 6-2 going into the 9th. Someboy got on and Klesko crushed a ball to right field. 6-4. 2 more got on and Gant one handed a ball off Rob Dibble that hit off the left field wall before bouncing over for a homer. First pitch. 'You Gant stop us now.' The Braves are up 3.5 and have won 93. Not bah, huh? The Giants have lost 8 straight. The Cubs swept them at home, as did the Cards."

September 17, 1993: "By the way, the Braves won in 13 last night. (It was in 12). Another 1-run game. They have now won 94 games and have only lost 53. That puts them 4 games up. Magic #13. Jawohl!"

September 21, 1993: "I left, showered, went to Converse, picked up Amy, went to the clinic and we headed to Atlanta for the Braves. We drank a few on the way and parked in a shady area. The Braves won 11-2, but didn't hit any homers. Glavine won his 20th and the Braves their 95th. They are now 2.5 games up but start a road trip in Montreal today and then move on to Philadelphia. Scheisse. We got home a little after 2. I dropped her off and then went to bed."

September 23, 1993: "After typing class, I drove home and watched the Braves rout the Expos 18-5. It was great."

September 28, 1993: "The Braves have won 100, the Giants 99. Es wird Crunch Time."

September 30, 1993: "I watched the Braves last night at Longhorn's because Union Station was closed. Harnisch shut them down and the Giants won, so now they are both 100-57 with five to go. But last night Glavine won his 21st and the Rockies beat the Giants, so they are now up 1. Jawohl!"

October 4, 1993: "The next morning ...I went to pick up Chris. That was about 11, and we headed to Atlanta to see the Bravos. Maddux was on the hill and pitched well in winning his 20th. So now I have seen Glavine and Maddux win their 20th. The seats were great, right behind Ted Turner's box about 15 rows back. Twas cool except for the dorks around us. McGriff got his 100th RBI and the Braves won 10-1. I've seen 2 games and 21 runs by the Braves but no dingers. Komisch. After the game, we watched the Giants win, so both teams were 103-58 going into the last game. Amazing."

                            "I was able to watch the 8th and 9th innings after I finished [playing tennis]. The Braves won 5-3, Glavine got his 22nd and Justice hit his 40th HR. The only thing left was to see how the Giants would do. They got creamed 12-1 by Piazza and Co. Jawohl!"

October 7, 1993: "The Braves came on at 8:15 and ended up losing 4-3 in 10. F!"

Ocotber 12, 1993: "I watched the Braves lose 2-1 (2-2). It sucked."

                               "We watched the Braves lose 4-3 even after they tied 3-3 in the ninth. F! (2-3)."

October 16, 1993: "I came home and watched the Braves lose and not go to the series. They got robbed by the umps and had some bad breaks."

You can talk Braves, Baking and Beer with Harris on Twitter @ohkiv. 

Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalt's-both in Germany and the USA

FanGraphs writer and BeerGraphs founder Eno Sarris broached a subject in his latest post Upsetting My Forefathers that is near and dear to my heart: German beer and its importance to him, and by extension, me. Whereas Eno was born in Germany and moved to the US as a child, I first went to Germany as a high school exchange student in 1988 and subsequently have spent twelve years of my adult life living in the home of beer.

Before moving to Germany when I was 17, I did not drink at all. This quickly changed among my new found German friends and host brother Klaus. As a result, I am a German beer drinker. My tastes were formed in Germany, and I regard the country and its brewing tradition with reverence. My Untappd profile reads "A German Bier palate in an IPA world," which refers to me moving back to the US seven years ago and having to get used to the new and exciting beer landscape I encountered upon returning home to South Carolina.

Today, however, I rarely drink German beer for different reasons:

1) The German beer that is sold in the US invariably comes from the largest German breweries who have brewed neutral tasting beers for a national and international clientele. These are the breweries that sponsor the UEFA Champions League or the German National Soccer team. And as Eno and BeerGraphs contributor Alex Fossi  recently covered, some of the breweries that were recently caught in a price-fixing scheme. Beck's, Warsteiner, Radeberger, Krombacher, Veltins and Bitburger come to mind. They are fine tasting, solid beers but really nothing special. That is, they aren't "craft."

2) When I can get some of my favorite German beers such as Bamberg's Mahr's "U" or nearby Buttenheim's St. Georgen Bräu Kellerbier, I have discovered that they just don't travel well. They aren't necessarily completely "off", but one is left with an extra malty beer that has been out of its comfort zone, both geographically and temporally, for some time.

3) There are very few reasons to look beyond the borders of this country, and increasingly one's own state or region, to find beers that are world class.

I live in upstate South Carolina. My hometown, Spartanburg, SC, has an outstanding brewery in RJ Rockers, new breweries have recently opened up in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston, Charlotte is booming with craft beer, and the beer mecca Asheville is only 90 minutes away from my front door. This is not to mention the tasty offerings right down I-85 at Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens and SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta.

Returning then to Eno, who writes "my passport says I'm German, but my beer fridge says I'm American ...I'd rather try new stuff." Exactly! It's exciting times hierzulande, and there is no reason to look beyond the borders of this vast country to satisfy your desire for great tasting beer. Yes, I have more than warmed up to the IPAs despite my "German Bier palate," (Cigar City's Jai Alai and Lagunitas Sucks are my current two favorites), but I am even seeing outstanding pilsners in the US. I am always in search of domestic craft pilsners, and my favorites are Prima Pils from Victory Brewing, Torch Pilsner from Foothills Brewing, Captain Jack Pilsner from Olde Mecklenburg Brewery, Bohemian Pilsner from Brevard Brewing Company and Cascade Pilsner from Full Sail Brewing.
The nine years I spent living in Bamberg, the German town and county with the highest brewery density, population that consumes the most beer per capita (280 liters/year) and frankly the best beer in Germany, saw me become an avid beer trekker. While I can't get on my bike here and hit several breweries on a day spent cycling through the countryside, it is still nonetheless becoming increasingly possible to visit new breweries, craft beer stores with growler stations and find like-minded craft beer lovers in areas, especially here in the South, that were once dominated by big beer. 

Eno shouldn't feel guilty about disappointing his German family (and I don't really think he does), and I don't have to worry about creating a little Germany in my home in order to enjoy good beer. The best beer in the world is being brewed right here in the US of A, so let's enjoy it without hangups. Prost!