ghost of miles

Dude, you don't have to tell me--two of the great love affairs of my youth were with actresses, so I know! Ironically enough, had a bit of discussion along these lines on Facebook earlier tonight, because I've spent most of my weekend--ostensibly free time--working, and I've enjoyed doing so. The next six months look pretty much to be the same way--working quite a lot past the regular 40 hours, in terms of evenings and weekends. I don't mind, because I'm very lucky to be doing something that I love (and something that I need to continually work at in order to get better, especially with new responsibilities that have now come my way). Love of work is indeed a good thing. I wasn't suggesting that there's no "work" involved in playing baseball. There's a ton of work, even in the off-season. I wasn't suggesting that work is a bad thing. I'm simply saying that the mechanics of certain kinds of work produce results that are much more meaningful to people on an emotional/intellectual/spiritual level than simply as acts of work. Anybody can appreciate any job well done, and whatever you do, you should try to do it as well as possible, whether it's cleaning hotel rooms, driving a taxi, managing a group of clerical employees, playing baseball, or playing Stanley Kowalksi or Blanche Dubois. But people are generally more interested, pleased, or what have you, when certain kinds of work are performed in ways that don't reveal the amount of work that went into whatever act it is the audience is witnessing. Watching a movie is perhaps an even better example. A movie is certainly the outcome of a great deal of work, but people go to see it not because they want to watch people working, but because they want to see, enjoy, and/or contemplate the spectacle that was created. As for success, I'd define that simply as doing something that you enjoy doing and doing it to the best of your ability (all the while pushing what you think of as the best of your ability to a new boundary), and hopefully making some other people's lives a little bit better in the process. And not letting the great grind of life or other people mess up the things that drive you on the inside, that make your experience in the world meaningful. Strength, character, and persistence, along with however much or however little talent you started out with. That makes great moments like Jeter's home run yesterday all the more meaningful. How often do things like that happen? What's amazing is how often the guy's shown up and put on the uniform (work!), how many days, weeks, months, years he played to get to that plateau of 3,000 hits. Hitting a home run to reach it was incredible theater, one of those seemingly magical events that lifts people out of the quotidian everyday for a little while. Did it permanently change anybody's life for the better? Almost certainly not, save maybe for the guy who caught the ball and then gave it back... I think he just cemented himself a nice, lifelong reputation as a very cool human being. But it was a nice little jolt of transcendence, which is one of the reasons why people come back to sports again and again. Hell, I wish more people came to jazz for the same reason! And you need to find and create your own jolts of transcendence... you can't rely on Derek Jeter, Josh Hamilton, or who-have-you to produce them for you. But there's nothing wrong with appreciating such moments nonetheless, whether it's Hamilton hitting a walkoff home-run, Paul Gonsalves blowing for 27 choruses, or Jsngry writing a great and illuminating post. All such things are the result of work, but they are so much more than that as well.

The new Smithsonian jazz anthology.

Word. And they fetishize the object because they have mythologized the sport. It's a great game and you have to have rare skills to excel, but when it's all over, it's men at work, period, and all that comes along with that. You, I, and the guy driving the jackhammer down the street might qualify simply as "men at work," but we don't have 50,000 people cheering us on as we go about our duties. Sports, like it or not, is more than just people at work. It's a kind of theater. Like anything else, people can get too hung up on it, and in this culture they surely do.

More about fan who gave ball back to Jeter ... great guy, and someone at a young age who already seems to know the real and relative value of things in life, whatever the passion of his Yankee fandom. Lopez news feature

Thanks much, ES--it's really good to hear that. Do you listen to fellow board member Lazaro Vega on Blue Lake Public Radio? Some of the best jazz programming in the country, in my not-so-humble opinion. (Full disclosure: they also carry Night Lights. )

"Jazz On the Side" on Blue Lake Public Radio.

http://www.lonestarball.com/photos/50-41-the-rangers-just-made-magic-happen/2039470 Now, can we leave the emo shit behind and get on with things? If you really want to get "non-emo" about it, why not talk about how f'd up it is that fans fetishize having an MLB baseball so much that they'll inadvertently risk their lives to catch one? Talk about "emo"! I'm not going to go there... but if you really want to go all Brave New Hardcore-And-In-The-Moment, that's sure as hell part of the problem. Human beings being what they are, I don't know that you'd get much in the way of results. People get attached to things, and to representations of things. Sometimes, often even, it can turn into an unhealthy thing. I don't see anything wrong with a guy wanting to catch an MLB baseball, especially if he thinks his kid will get a bang out of getting one. Accidents do indeed happen. People get upset about them in the aftermath. People need to get upset and talk about what happened in order to "move on." That's not "emo," that's part of being alive and TRULY moving towards getting on with life. I'm sure the Rangers will address or have already started to address any railing-safety issues. As Jsngry's pointed out, any such issues are hardly confined to the Rangers' ballpark. But--and I'll say this as a longtime, passionate (yay, even "emo," I suppose!) baseball fan--there is a LOT of f'd-up stuff about sports culture and sports fandom in this country. A lot of waaaaaayyyy overplaced priorities in the grand scheme of things. And in terms of "emo," the value placed upon MLB baseballs is surely up there on the "emo" list. Take Jeter's homerun ball/hit #3000 yesterday... one report said it might have fetched as much as $250,000-400,000. That's insane! And kudos again to the guy for simply giving it back to Jeter. It surely has meaning to Jeter, and I'm sure it had meaning to the guy who caught it. But a quarter of a million dollars, that's just ridiculous.

Ted Gioia's revised edition of THE HISTORY OF JAZZ.

A-Rod elects to have surgery The absolutely correct decision IMO. Although NY will certainly miss having him for the next month or so, it will also give A-Rod (soon to turn 36) a nice rest in the middle of the season. No doubt he'll take a few days to get back into the swing of things come mid-August, but he should be in good shape for the stretch drive in September. A bummer, though, that Eric Chavez is out with an injury as well right now.

On a lighter, everyday-baseball note, what a pitching duel today between Shields and CC! With the Yanks scoring the game's only run as a result of two Tampa Bay errors. And why, oh why have the Orioles not even played to their .400 level against the Bosox? Losing today as well, 7-6 in the 5th, which means in all likelihood we'll go into the All-Star break with Boston in first place. Still, at the beginning of the season I would not have predicted, not by a longshot, that NY would be anywhere near Boston in the standings at this point. But what with the road/home schedule remaining, A-Rod's either missing a month or playing with a power-crippling injury, and the uncertainty of how well Garcia and Colon will hold up through the brutal August/September stretch of games (though we at least now have a better-pitching Ivan Nova to step in if either Garcia or Colon goes down), I'm still guessing that the Yanks are ultimately competing for a wildcard spot. That they actually even have a chance to make a race of it in the division is a pleasant surprise.

Jsngry--I'd intended to respond to Dan's thoughts as well, but you already made, with more eloquent elaboration, some of the points I would have made. All I can add is that Hamilton seems to be genuinely invested in faith, recovery, or whatever you want to call his grounding philosophy, and that part of that philosophy is accepting that life will continue to present painful challenges to you (often unexpectedly) after you've gotten your big, positive changes underway, and that dealing with them is part of the game (so to speak). Also, Hamilton was making a gesture of spiritual/material generosity, and while it's a terrible irony that the father died as a result of attempting to receive it, it's ultimately the kind of random and tragic outcome that the universe tends to offer up. (I'm a "person of faith" too, much as I despise how that phrase is used in our media culture, but I don't believe this man's death was an "act of God" or that it had some profound, hidden meaning, the Creator moving in mysterious ways and all of that kind of talk.) If Josh Hamilton had relapsed, gone out driving, and slammed into this man's car, thereby killing him, Josh Hamilton would not now be "fine." But that's not what happened. I don't doubt that he feels not just bad about what happened, but disturbed that he was directly involved in the sequence of events. I don't doubt that it will linger with him for awhile; but I also don't doubt that he'll be able to "move on" (another phrase that gets used to the point of abuse, but so be it), in terms of accepting that painful, difficult, and almost-inexplicable moments and events are going to happen. And while pills, alcohol, or other methods of altering one's consciousness can perhaps chase that knowledge away for a little while, they ultimately bring on their painful difficulties that are even worse, at least for Josh Hamilton and a whole lot of other folks wired in similar ways.

I know, Dave--I just read the story myself, and it makes a great baseball moment even better: Fan simply gave Jeter back the ball ...but nice of the Yankees in return to give him all of that swag anyway.

Storybook moment: Jeter's 3-2 count home run for hit #3000 History with an exclamation point indeed! The entire at-bat, pitch-by-pitch. ...and Jeter ends up going 5-5 and knocking in the game-winning run in the bottom of the 8th.

Derek Jeter gets hit #3000 with a home run? Beautiful! Only the second player ever to do so... Wade Boggs did it that way as well.

Happy birthday, Jack, with much appreciation for all you've given jazz lovers to explore for many years.

Best birthday wishes to you, Barak.

I'm guessing that's why Tom put "birthday" in quotes. I still dig the continuing ceremonial association between Louis and the 4th of July, even though his actual date of birth turned out to be different.

Malone really nailed these and offered some good comments as well: Russell Malone's before-and-after BFT with JazzTimes

It's a beautiful album, Chuck--I've listened to it twice since picking it up yesterday at my local record store, and I'll be listening to it again in the coming week. Planning to feature it on our weekday afternoon jazz show at some point in the next month or so; thanks for recording it in the first place and putting all of the effort into reissuing it 30 years later.

I'd also rather see Nunez get a shot at replacing Jeter. He's been rather error-prone this year, but that's not unusual for a young infielder getting some dirt on his spikes at the MLB level. Certainly much easier on the payroll, too, then whatever Reyes will end up commanding. Speaking of homegrown Yankee talent, a nice write-up on David Robertson as a potential All-Star pick. If he can sustain anything near the level of performance he's been at for the first half of his season, then I think he'll also make a great case for succeeding Mo as NY's closer, should Mo end up retiring after his contract runs out next season.

Once Disney reanimates him, Sam Rice WILL be the moment. The NEW Moment! Thus will the 20th Century continue to exercise its domination of the 21st, at least until the 21st grows a pair and moves away from home. I hope I live to see it... Besides, I can't wait to see Derek Jeter toss Sam Rice his keys, then watch Sam Rice stumble into the bushes out of sight for a few seconds, only to return with the keys intact, then toss them back to Jeter saying "here ya' go Jeets", to which Jeets will reply, "Hey Ricey, how do I know you didn't make copies or hack the chip while you were in the bushes?" to which Ricey will say "You'll just have to trust me on that one, Jeets", and then everybody laughs and everything goes on as usual, another piece of baseball lore added for the ages to enjoy. In the meantime, Cap Anson will be looking on, taking notes, and wondering things to himself that only his friends will hear about. See how much fun the past can bring us if we just keep it alive? Reanimation seems to be alive and well, so to speak, right here in this very thread! But plenty of fun to be had, with or without the past, as long as you don't get all hung up one way or another about it. Still: He's dead, Jim.

Not New York, unless the Yankees are prepared to move Jeter elsewhere--and where would they move him? The infield's set (Tex at first, Cano at second, A-Rod at third), you've got Gardner in left, Granderson in center, and most likely Swisher again in right... and I can't see putting a .260-hitting-with-no-power Jeter at DH on a regular basis. Happy to see Bartolo Colon in the rotation again for the Yanks today. What will they do when Phil Hughes comes back? Right now everybody's pitching reasonably well; I'm not sure who gets dropped or moved into the bullpen. Maybe NY should warm Hughes up with a few long-relief appearances first. As far as Sam Rice, hey, whatever happened to not-rehashing-the-past/moving-on/living-in-the-freaking-MOMENT, eh? Roberto's dignity is quite intact anyway, and by lights of the posted information, Mr. Rice would have been 913 hits short of the magic number. ("Error, charged to poster Jsngry!" ) Anyway, seeing as how he did actually fall only 13 hits short, maybe better off as an angry-bouncer type?

This week's Night Lights program, an indirect jazz celebration of the 4th of July, is up for online listening: Freedom Jazz! A couple of the featured recordings are included as well in the post/playlist I did for this week's NPR Take Five column: Five Platters For Your 4th Of July Picnic Special note of thanks to Chuck Nessa, who turned me on to the Ellington recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" years ago.

Cole Hamels out of today's game against the Bosox after only 4 IP--took an Adrian Gonzalez line-drive off his right (non-pitching) hand.

Great players often bring great egos along as part of their baggage. The Orioles had similar problems with Cal Ripken in his declining years. When Gardner got off to a slow start this year, it was easy for Girardi to justify keeping Jeter at leadoff; that's no longer the case. Unfortunately, I don't have too much faith that Girardi will do what needs to be done--this year, anyway. Dave, Nick Swisher's really come around, eh? Posada, too... quite a June NY managed to put together, especially considering that Colon's been out and two of the primary relievers have been out of commission as well. Dave Robertson's looking All-Star worthy right now. Colon back on Saturday against the Mets, though I actually hope he doesn't get on base in any of his at-bats.