By Jim Vallet and Robert Perea
Major League Baseball is trying to keep its fans with what seems to me a nostalgia campaign. My personal experience with MLB is that the next time any program I am associated with gets a dime from them will be the first. The next representative or “good will ambassador” they send to help will be the first. The next free tickets to any MLB event, like UNLV gave us, will be my first in over 60 years. The next piece of equipment or training video…You get the idea. MLB has not been helpful at all to any program I’ve been associated with.
Yet, the nostalgia campaign still works with me. Baseball has been an integral part of my life since I was 6, and, in spite of “the Show” ignoring me, I can’t help but love the sport.
One commercial that Baseball is showing has a little kid putting a ball in his mitt and tying it to form just right, as well as putting the tied glove in the oven and having a parent drive over the tied mitt with a ball in it.
I did all those things, and, most of the time, they helped me break in my new mitt just right so I could drop fly balls right to me and let grounders go right through my legs.
But, not with my first mitt.
Technically, (to show how unathletic my parents were) my first mitt was right-handed and I am left-handed. My parents didn’t know it then, and when I said I needed a glove to play with the neighborhood kids (we actually used to do that) my mom bought me a right-handed mitt. When I complained that I couldn’t use it, she suggested that I go practice more and I would “get used” to it.
But, since it wasn’t the correct glove for me, I don’t consider it my first baseball glove.
My first baseball glove was an old Wilson model that I believe had to be made of iron, because no matter how hard I tried, I could not bend it. Like the commercial, I tried tying it, putting it in the oven and under my bed, and having my mom drive our old Chevrolet station wagon over it, but unlike the commercial, nothing worked. It never bent and was as flat as a you-know-what.
When I played with some of the older kids on the block and they observed me trying valiantly to catch with my leather paddle, they dubbed my mitt “the pancake”.
I gotta say, having a mitt shaped like a pancake had certain advantages. It taught me to use two hands when catching because I guarantee you even Hulk Hogan could not bend it. It taught me to get down on ground balls because NOTHING stuck in it. It was great when players would toss me my glove because they could frisbee it WAY farther than the underhand toss normally used for baseball glove tosses. You could step on it by the bench and it didn’t harm it at all. It was easy to store.
But, there were disadvantages as well. Because of its shape, it did not hang from my bike’s handlebars the way other gloves did, and that bugged me as I rode my baseball card in the spokes equipped bicycle. It always drew hoots of derision from opponents. And, it bugged me to have a glove that looked like Ty Cobb had worn it out.
Still, it was my first real baseball glove and I think of it fondly today as I watch my grandson try to work oil into his way too big new baseball mitt. What happened to it, I wonder. Did it get thrown out, or lost in one of our family’s moves? I remember I found it in our basement when I was in high school and when I tried it on I still could not bend it. I laughed and threw it back where I found it, still a space saver because of its shape. I remember my first car (a ‘66 Mustang) my first kiss (Peggy) my first date (Jane) my first goal and many other firsts, but my first glove with all of its flaws, still has a treasured place in my heart.
And there’s more.
Years later, when I was coaching baseball and could not figure out how to get kids to get down on ground balls, I remembered “the pancake” and ordered strap on paddles as a training aid. My wife said I did that so that I could watch my players go through the same pain that I did while attempting to use my pancake.
The results were mixed. Although some players got much better at fielding ground balls after using only paddles to field fungoed hot ground balls, other players quit baseball altogether rather than go through the ordeal of “that stupid drill” again.
I guess everyone is not as nostalgic as I. Oh well.
Speaking of nostalgia, I yearn for the days of an NFL I could understand. Days when the Ravens and Bengals were good, and even days when the Lions were bad and NEVER on Sunday Night Football messing up my bets. When kickers didn’t attempt anything over 50 yards and even 40-yard field goals were hit and miss. When you could do well with a below-average QB and there were two running backs in the game at the same time. When coaches didn’t wear headsets and the referees wore white pants.
Yes, those days are gone and we must adjust, just like I learned to catch with a pancake.
My job now is to adjust and make accurate predictions, which I will attempt to do now. Lines are from espn.com on Wednesday, Oct 15.
Los Angeles Rams (-2 ½) at Jacksonville Jaguars: The Rams are good.
Las Vegas Raiders (+12 ½) at Kansas City Chiefs: Too many points.
Green Bay Packers (-6 ½) at Arizona Cardinals: The Cardinals are beat up, and I keep wondering when (and if) the Packers will show us how good they are.
Washington Commanders (-1 ½) at Dallas Cowboys: I picked Chicago last week because I believed the Commanders might be looking ahead to this game.
Atlanta Falcons (+2 ½) at SF 49ers: The 49ers are so beat up and the Falcons are pretty good.
Seattle Seahawks (-3 ½) vs Houston Texans: I wish the Seahawks were only giving 3, but… Besides, I needed to pick another game because I can’t pick against the Lions (and I would).
Last week 5-2
Season 21-16
Robert’s picks
Clemson (-5) over SMU: As I wrote last week, I’m not that high on Clemson in comparison to their preseason expectations and predictions. Clemson isn’t one of the best teams in the country like they were predicted to be, but like I was last week, I’m comfortable with them in this situation. SMU’s pass defense ranks 135th out of 136 teams, allowing 315.8 yards per game. Against the two best teams they’ve played, they gave up 440 yards passing to Baylor and 379 to TCU. Clemson’s defense is the best TCU has faced, and at home, I trust Clemson to be able to win by at least a touchdown.
LSU (+2 ½) at Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt is a great story, the perennial bottom-feeder that came out of nowhere with a great season last year and is 5-1 now. What that means is that the LSU’s of the world will take them seriously now. But look at the schedule LSU has played, and the only time they’ve allowed more than 10 points is 24 at Ole Miss. This defense with the athletes LSU has should not be an underdog to Vanderbilt.
UCLA (-3) against Maryland: I was sure enough that beating Penn St. wouldn’t be a one-off effort for UCLA that I bet them last week at Michigan St., but not confident enough to write it here because of the potential embarrassment. But now they are playing with a lot more enthusiasm and they catch Maryland off two consecutive heartbreaking losses. Maryland’s story under Mike Locksley has been hot starts and bad finishes, and in the past I chalked that up to the schedule getting tougher, but it might jut be a program with no staying power, I’m willing enough this time to look foolish if I’m wrong.
Eagles (-2) at Vikings: Everyone down-talking the Eagles now must have forgot they went through a stretch like this last year right before they won 10 consecutive games. I’m not calling for a 10-game winning streak, but I am expecting a bounce back.
Chargers (-1 ½) over Colts: I would have had a pretty sweet weekend last week if the Chargers hadn’t given away a 23-13 lead in the fourth quarter and had to kick a last-second field goal to win and not cover. Maybe the Colts just are this good, but they’ve only committed four turnovers in six games, three of which came in one game. That’s not sustainable.
49ers (-2) over Falcons: Like I said a couple weeks ago, the 49ers are like one of the zombies in a horror movie that keeps having arms and legs fall off. I’ve also taken my shots against them with wins on the Jaguars and Bucs. But the last time the Falcons were on the road, they got shut out at Carolina. If George Kittle comes back, I actually think that affects the 49ers' run game more than the passing game, because he’s such a great edge blocker. Christian McCaffrey hasn’t been able to get outside partly because Kittle hasn’t been there to seal the edge, but I'm predicting a couple big runs out of him this week and the 49ers squeak this one out.
Last week
College 3-0
NFL 1-2
Season
College 13-9
NFL 10-9
Comment
Comments