For the most part spectator sports are of no interest to me, the exceptions being Baseball and Bike Racing. Many participatory sports interest me, however, including biking, hiking, and inline skating.
My political views are strongly liberal. I am active in a variety of political causes.
No, that's what you can never do in baseball. You can't just sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the goddamn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all.Earl Weaver, October, 1969
I'm a baseball fanatic. Yet I can't hit a ball to save my life. (Then, again, neither could Michael Jordan.)
I keep score whenever I attend a game. I've designed my own score sheet, which has evolved over time as I refine my scoring system. This is the third version, which provides a place to record the pitches, as well as the hits and runs. You're welcome to use it, and I'd be glad to hear suggestions for improvement. (If you don't keep score, you should.)
The best living baseball writer is Roger Angell. He's the fiction editor of The New Yorker, and a lifelong baseball fan. His essays on the game appear about twice per season in The New Yorker, and have been collected into several anthologies. I particularly enjoyed his story about Steve Blass's mysterious, and ultimately incurable, inability to throw strikes after winning the 1970 World Series.
I'm a religious reader of the Baseball Prospectus, the latest incarnation of the inimitable original, Bill James's long-defunct Baseball Abstract.
There are several good books on baseball techniques, strategies, and tactics. One of the best is Keith Hernandez's Pure Baseball, a pitch-by-pitch analysis of two complete games by one of the best hitters ever to play the game. Another is Tim McCarver's Baseball for Brain Surgeons, by the former catcher and baseball announcer. I also enjoyed Oh Holy Cow by the editors of the Paris Review, who realized that Phil "The Scooter" Rizzuto's radio ruminations scan!
Oddly enough, I was a Pirates fan even as a kid growing up in Connecticut! I used to watch the Waterbury Pirates, the AA farm team at the time. One of their players, Richie Zisk, made it to the majors to play in the 1971 World Series.
The only sport that interests me as much as baseball is professional bike racing.
In July, 2005 for the seventh (and last) time, Lance won the Tour de France. In 1996 and 1997 Lance was completely out of racing, recovering from testicular cancer that had metastasized to his lungs and brain. After surgery and extensive chemotherapy, he came back to win the Tour de France seven consecutive times, eclipsing the other five-time winners, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Miguel Indurain (the only one to do it consecutively).
Armstrong's autobiography, It's Not About The Bike, is an inspiring account of his journey as a bicycle racer and human being.
VeloNews and Cycling News are good sources for year-round racing news as well as excellent on-line coverage of the Tour as it happens.
Inline skating is a fun way to keep fit and meet people. The Three Rivers Inline Club sponsors group skates every night of the week in season, and organizes indoor skating in the off-season. For beginners they provide a free start-stop clinic at the Liberty School on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside on Wednesday nights at 6:30 during the summer.
I co-host Left Out with Danny Sleator.
I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, as well as a contributor and participant in a wide variety of liberal political organizations.
I am a signatory on an amici curiae brief filed in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act case.
I am also a signatory on an amici curiae brief filed in the Grokster case.
I'm also (sort of) maintaining a politics page.
Last modified: Tue Jul 26 13:53:57 EDT 2005