Chapter 76.8: Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjack

This is the type of helpful travel tip that even non-baseball fans can sink their teeth into. The New York Times has posted an interactive map of the culinary delights available at all the major league baseball stadiums throughout the United States (and Toronto).

While I feel bad for my friends who are fans of the White Sox (not one item on their menu is recommended; the Times says bring a six pack and barter for a dog outside), I can agree with the assessment that the dogs at Shea are edible but way too expensive. (I think everyone can buy a full pack of hot dogs and possibly also the buns for less than the price of one dog at the game.)

I've gone to enough games and eaten enough expensive hot dogs to have decided that I don't need to have a dog and a beer at every game I attend any more. At the prices these days, I'm hard-pressed to attend more than one or two games anyway. But it's nice to fantasize, and if you do go to a game, why not have a game plan about the stadium menu!

Chapter 71.5: Baines Motel in Cooperstown

I was poking around some blogs recently and found a good discussion about the Hall of Fame prospects of Harold Baines. While I never lived in Chicago or any of the cities where Baines starred, I'm enough of a baseball fan to know a pure hitter when I saw him.

Baines was a clutch performer and his RBI totals back me up. While he only topped 100 RBIs twice, he averaged more than 90 per year. That's not too shabby, especially when you're talking about a 22 year career. He nearly reached 2,900 hits, and I'm sure that if the work stoppages hadn't occurred he'd have hit at least another 125-130 knocks, which would have placed him close enough to 3,000 that the White Sox (or some AL team) would have brought him back for a season to garner the last remaining hits to reach the magic number.

I suppose the knock against Baines is that he was a designated hitter; his 1,652 games at DH remain the all-time high, I believe. But the DH has been around for 35 years now and even traditionalists like myself recognize that it's a part of the game. I believe it's time for the best DHs of all time -- Baines and Edgar Martinez -- to be shown the respect they deserve. Baines now, and Edgar in a couple years when he's eligible to be voted into Cooperstown.

Baines never got the accolades that many of his contemporaries received, and the White Sox were rarely very good during that era. He did play in a World Series for the A's (1990, in the loss to the Reds) and his lone hit was a two-run homer. And he was an all-star as late as 1999 -- two years before his retirement -- albeit for a mediocre Orioles club, before he was traded to the Indians for their successful playoff push (and eventual post-season loss). Baines was one of those guys that winning clubs liked to get in their clubhouse: a winner who led by example. His number was retired by the White Sox while he was still playing, and un-retired for his two returns.

While I don't think we'll see him inducted when the announcement is made on Tuesday, I hope to see his numbers increase. That only 5.3 percent of baseball writers voted for him last year is a crime; Harold Baines deserves better.

Chapter 59.2: Game Two

Crain's Business is reporting that the Mets' second game of the season garnered a 4.3 rating, which people are quoted as saying bodes well for the Mets and their SportsNet New York network. I must admit, I'm pretty excited about the season, and I hope my prediction of the Mets not getting to the World Series is wrong. Personally, I'd love to see a Mets/White Sox series, and I suspect much of the country would too. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, et al. versus Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, and Joe Crede and the other south-siders? Seems like a nice matchup to me.

Not only would it be excellent baseball, but it would have nice symbolism, in my opinion. The Yankees are considered the aristocracy in New York, and despite nearly a century of losing (and the White Sox 2005 championship), the Cubs are the favorite sons of Chicago. But to have these two teams from the country's top two cities compete in the World Series ... it would warm my middle-class heart.

Of course, both teams spend more money on salaries in a year than I'll see in my lifetime, and I can't afford to go to too many games. So having a decent broadcast is a nice plus as I root, root, root for the Metsies.