Note: As spring training 2020 approaches, I offer this memory from the beginning of a season past.
“The location was Celtic and the season was spring.” Words a Boston judge wrote in declining to find Ulysses pornographic.
It is spring in Washington, DC. The Nationals have made their way home from spring training. They acquitted themselves admirably in Viera, Florida and fans await their return to the plate and the mound.
I love the way a batter addresses the plate: he may tap it with the top of the bat or just swing the bat to and fro several times or like Denard Span spin it around three times. Asdrubal Cabrera and Yunel Escobar would pull up the sleeve on their left arm before swinging. Bryce Harper addresses the four points of the plate. And when he comes to the plate we salivate over the almost expected home run — you can almost bet on a home run or, at least, some kind of drama. As wild as Harper is, the calm of Anthony Rendon and the patience of Jayson Werth are something to see. Werth will wear down a pitcher till they cave in frustration and throw a fast ball. Rendon has been known to nap in the dugout.
And the pitcher: Scherzer leaning forward on the mound staring down the batter with one eye blue, one eye brown. It can’t help but unnerve a green-as-grass batter to see him out there: Cy Young, $200 million+, and the owner of not one but two no-hitters in one season. (A season, incidentally, that saw him throw an almost-perfect game.) A pitcher so devoted and consecrated to baseball that he takes batting practice. His excitement in the game is ferocious.
The location is Nationals Park and the subject is baseball. In spring when all things are possible.
March 2017
Forced Perspective 