Kindred Blue
Baseball lore, columns, videos, comedy, poetry,
photos, history, a dab of Dodgers and more.
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Ron Sokol, longtime columnist, author, and baseball aficionado, tries to keep the hits coming every week. Follow Ron on Twitter at @kindredblue1.
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SOME VINTAGE VIN SCULLY, THE LYRICAL POET OF BASEBALL
KINDRED BLUE RECENT BLOGS
REALLY, YOU CAN PLAY AT NIGHT?
"Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." So said the poet Dylan Thomas. Well ok. There's also: "You know the night time, is the right time to be with the one you love..." Ray...
HISTORIC VIDEO
Well, first, I must not embarrass easily. You see, back a few years ago, I took some video tape of one Clayton Kershaw. You will hear my voice as I watch him warm up (the first two videos), and I don't know how or why but I must have had some sense something unique...
EXTINCTION BY NUMBERS
Extinction is a reality. It signifies the end of a creature. The last of that thing.... The sea mink, the passenger pigeon. Once so prevalent. Now, no longer. Kaput. No longer found on the planet earth. Of course there is an Endangered Species Act in the United...
A Baseball Poem
Just a damn game come on! A ball pitcher a hitter catcher come on get real it ain't life it ain't death it don't add up too much Fans come and go cheer boo eat exhort despair it's all silly It don't add up too much History is made you say? Ah come on Catching a ball?...
CUZ IT’S ONE TWO THREE K’S YER OUT AT THE OL’ BALLGAME
It troubles me that K is the nickname of the primary character in the famous Kafka novel The Trial. Kind of creepy, that one. And, for the record: K (pronounced "kay") is the 11th letter of the current English alphabet. It may interest you to know that in English...
WAR, What is it Good For?
Make love not war. But, what if they gave a war, and nobody came? Ok, this not the WAR of military combat, but the WAR that is referred to in baseball. I've studied this thing. I really have concentrated. I burned the midnight oil...read...
There IS Crying in Baseball
Forlorn: Pitifully sad and abandoned or lonely. "forlorn figures at bus stops" Woebegon; doleful. The definition of forlorn includes figures at bus stops? Woebegone? That sounds like the trade name for an anti-depressant. Well, have you seen how baseball...
AUTUMN
The poems that have been written, the sighs of admiration, the amazement, the admiration. Leaves turn colors. We know this signals that Fall is here, and in a little while Winter sits with us. During Autumn we experience the awe of the change of seasons, and the...
LET’S PLAY DIRTY
Whoever said cleanliness is next to godliness did not play baseball. Or wasn't a kid. Or a grown up who still thinks like a kid. In fact, just to be clear about it: The saying "cleanliness is next to godliness" is not (I repeat not) in the Bible. It was first...
SHE’S AN UNSUNG HERO
Baseball is full of lore. One reason why -- there are true stories that really do seem larger than life. Many of those stories are well known -- but not so much Toni Stone. Oh, sorry, I mean Toni "Tomboy" Stone. She just made history in 1953 as the first woman...
DRAMATIC
Walk off home runs are sure exciting. I some times feel for the other team, who must be crestfallen... But it comes with the turf. The dropped bat, the bat flip.... all makes for dramatic flourishes, although baseball, so many say, is too slow and just not all that...
CALLING OUT THE ANGELS
An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. In Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Humanity. - Wikipedia...
THE CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH
Ah, the ceremonial first pitch; one of the baseball's rituals... The ball originally was thrown from the grandstand, but that changed after President Reagan threw the first pitch from the field. Often today the pitch is done from in front of the pitcher's mound....
Baseball – Guys Only?
"Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." - Proverbs 31:25 Several million watched "The Pitch", a television show about the first woman to play for a major league team. In fact, this is recent, 2016, but the show did not make it...