Thank You for Baseball

Thank you for baseball. Thank you for Derek Jeter, Derek Jeter's autobiography, the Yankees, Yankee Stadium, Robbie Cano, C.C. Sabathia, Mariano Rivera, our 28th World Series, Snoopy night, souvenir cups, and chicken tenders with french fries. Thank you for inviting me to Yankees Women's Mini Fantasy Camp in Florida. Thank you for sometimes showing your games on regular television and for the radio broadcasts that have taught me nothing about how the game of baseball is played.


Thank you for Joe Torre, Vin Scully, Matt Kemp's eyes, Casey Blake, Citi Field nachos, Mr. Met, Southpaw, Ozzie Guillen's Twitter account, Ichiro, Ichirolls, Ken Griffey Jr., Miggy Cabrera, the vanished Grady Sizemore and all other players that wear #24. Thank you for Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay, Clayton Kershaw, rookie pitchers, Buster Posey, big fat Pablo Sandoval, Jayson Heyward, Chase Utley's hair gel and for the Twinkies consistently falling apart in the first round of the playoffs. Thank you for the Phillie's blue hat uniforms. Thank you for Albert Pujols being a good human being. Thank you for that kid who dressed up like Ron Washington for Halloween and for Daisuke Matsuzaka's adorable Japanese children. Thank you for Torii Hunter's smile and Vladdy Guerrero's batting helmet. Thank you for Allen & Ginter baseball cards and ESPN Baseball Today with Peter Pascarelli and ESPN Fantasy Focus: Baseball.

Thank you for real sports, fantasy sports, my awful fantasy teams, the Mannings, celebrity quarterbacks, Drew Brees's babies, sports food, sports radio and Friday Night Lights.

Thank you for other things and people that have nothing to do with sports.

And that's it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

EAST ASIAN BASEBALL

It could just be that I'm anxious for the season to start, but good God, that was a fine game of baseball. Korea is a force to be reckoned with, but Japan has Ichiro, some amazing pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, and Prince Yu Darvish. Fresh off of post-victory high, I will report the highlights of the game via Yahoo! and Getty Images.

Iwakuma had perfect form, or at least he does in this photo, and a nice blue glove:

His pitching was pretty much impeccable. I was worried that Japan had used up Matsuzaka and Darvish in yesterday's game against the United States, but damn, this Iwakuma man threw his shit! So few pitches, so many innings, compared to Korean starter Jung Keun Bong.

This crash at second base was nuts. Mordecai noticed something had flown off to the side--it was a piece of the brim of Lee's helmet. Later on a reporter showed the helmet in more detail, with extra cracks on the front and side of the helmet's body. Nutso!

Shin Soo Choo, or S S Choo, of the Cleveland Indians, was not messing around. He had the first run for Korea, homering to left field.

Darvish almost messed it up but Ichiro saved everything. I cannot get over how consistent and reliable Ichiro is.

Here, Darvish has just sunk the S S Choo*. Darvish is also secretly thanking Ichiro for saving the game and Darvish's future contract with an MLB club from dipping into merely single-digit millions of dollars. Japan wins in 10 innings, 5-3.

You can browse Darvish's blog and his wife's blog here and here, respectively, though I'm not sure how often Darvish posts photos. Darvish's father runs a store at the Darvish Gallery, where you can purchase special Persian blue roses, among other things. Excuse me while I go search for Darvish jerseys on the Internets.

*Credits for this great lyrical phrase goes to Joe, spoken before we parted ways after watching the game. ETA: Apparently, the original credit for this metaphor/reference/item of literary genius goes to Nar, who was making jokes about the S S Choo going transatlantic much earlier in the evening. Naturally, everything went over my head until it was pointed out to me explicitly, as usual.