Sponsored by...

"More bad times, brought to you by Van Kampen Investments."

Photo courtesy KEJ. When he sent it to me, I couldn't help but immediately appreciate the irony in a rain delay—or at least the tarp—being sponsored by an investment firm. Of all the things to sponsor, there's nothing like getting your brand in front of a bunch of cold, wet, frustrated baseball fans who probably saw their 401k or IRA value halved in the offseason and just want to forget the financial crisis for a day—opening day.

In fairness, the Van Kampen Equity Growth Fund was the best performing "diversified U.S. stock fund" last quarter, as it rose over 8%. So if any investment companies actually have enough credibility to advertise, Van Kampen is probably among them. But I wouldn't have known that unless I looked it up.

Although, I looked it up, so maybe their ad just worked...

Spring Training Meanderings

Consensus among the faithful in Arizona last weekend is that the Cubs will win the National League Central division. This is because the Cubs have gotten a little bit better, while the rest of the division got worse. Of course, like every season, this one will be 162 games long—and we all know what that means: no one knows.

But putting analysis aside, one thing I noticed is that the fans seemed to feel much less urgency about this season. Last year, among the fans I talked with, there was the sense that the Cubs had to win in 2008. But the 101st season apparently brings less pressure than the one before. To me, this is a good thing. If there's one thing the collective mindset can use, it's less pressure. (continue...)

Editor's Note

Agony & Ivy has been dormant, but is not dead. Major disappointment last fall, followed by my third year of law school, had sapped my energy to post. But spring returns for baseball-watchers, too.

I'll be making some minor updates to the site soon, updating links and so on. I'll also be writing about Spring Training, which I'll attend in two weekends. And I have a few other things planned for this summer and fall.

In the meantime, if people are unaware, The Baseball Chronicle, an online magazine, now exists. I think this is a brilliant, timely, and valuable project. It has the potential to fill a major gap in the on-line baseball commentary world, focusing on the narratives that stay with us through time, which make sense of the game and ourselves as we grow older—the stories of the games, the players, the teams, and of course, the fans. This is necessary to balance the curt criticisms or opinions that seem to dominate the websites. Opinions are fine, especially when they are supported by arguments. But stories last. I hope to contribute a piece if I can make time later this season. Most of all, though, I hope it thrives, and I wish them the best.

Cheers,

JCB

How it Looks in the Mind's Eye

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

--A. Barlett Giamatti, former President of both Yale and the National League. This is the first paragraph of his 1977 essay The Green Fields of the Mind, recalling the Red Sox collapse of 1975.

* * *It happened again after the Cubs took a slim lead: as I watched Rich Harden pitch, I was not thinking about whether the Cubs would win the game; I was thinking about whether they will win the World Series. I can’t be the only one, right? We’ve reached that point now, haven’t we, where every game feels bigger than one game, at least at some point during the contest, as our mind drifts, searching for signals and signs, omens foreshadowing the future of our team, the 2008 Chicago Cubs?

Maybe it’s just me, anyway, but I can’t help myself. I can’t stay in the present. (continue...)

Friday Afternoon Meanderings

I haven't been able to watch the games this week. Today, though, I'm taking a break to watch the game and let my mind wander through everything Cubs. Here, then, is a collection of mid-April meanderings jotted as I watch.

Editor's Note: If you watch the games on DVR or something, and you subscribe to Agony & Ivy's RSS or Atom feed, don't read any more until later! There's spoilers.

On the offensive t-shirts
So, has everyone heard about the t-shirts being sold outside Wrigley Field by now? (continue...)

An Unprecedented New Yorker Cover

My jaw literally dropped when I picked up my weekend mail this evening, and saw the cover of the latest issue of the New Yorker. The title is "Lost and Found" by Mark Ulriksen. Here's the image (with its source pulling the image directly from the "About Us" page of the New Yorker website for this issue):
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