A to Z, The Orioles' Legacy: Elam Vangilder

Player: Elam Vangilder
Years of Service: 9 (1919-27)
Position: Pitcher


Image via Waatp

Elam Vangilder may not be the best player on my A to Z list but I would argue that he has the best name. His career stats, including two years with the Detroit Tigers: 99-102, 4.28 ERA and 474 strikeouts.

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For each letter of the A to Z Challenge, I will feature one player from Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns history. I hope you will join me. I hope you'll also check out the other 1200+ blogs participating. See the full list at Tossing It Out.

My Baseball Fantasy: Braun

Private League: won, 7-3 (24-6 overall, first place, 5 games ahead)
Public League: 5th out of 12
My Player of the Week: Ryan Braun (Left Fielder, Brewers) with 3 home runs, 9 RBI, 9 runs, 1 stolen base and a .480 batting average


Photo via Behind Blondie Park

Energy has settled a bit in the private league with Mock & Co. There was a lot of online banter during the first two weeks of the season but the past week was pretty quiet. Of course, it was also school vacation week in Vermont last week which might have been a factor. In theory, I would think that a head-to-head format would encourage a more social atmosphere in general. It definitely worked in the early going. We shall see about the impact over the course of the long season.

Braun was my top draft pick in the public league, delightfully still available to me with the last pick of the first round. This past week, he was the best player in fantasy baseball and a major factor in my surge from 7th place to 5th. Braun was the first Jewish player to be named Rookie of the Year, winning the National League award in 2007.

A to Z, The Orioles' Legacy: Koji Uehara

Player: Koji Uehara
Years of Service: 3 (2009-present)
Position: Pitcher


Photo via The Orange County Register

Uehara is the second current Oriole player in my A to Z list, the third international player and the first Japanese player. Uehara has a history of bouncing around with pitching assignments, serving as starter and reliever for the Orioles, for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan and in international competition. He is currently the set-up man for the club. However, there is much clamoring for him to get the closer role in favor of the struggling Kevin Gregg. The job was thought to be Uehara's heading into spring training but injuries in March prevented his promotion. One can't complain about his regular season performance thus far: 1.35 ERA over 6 2/3 innings.

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For each letter of the A to Z Challenge, I will feature one player from Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns history. I hope you will join me. I hope you'll also check out the other 1200+ blogs participating. See the full list at Tossing It Out.

My Tennis Fantasy: Almagro, Part 3

Current Standing: 26th
My MVP for the Week: Nicolas Almagro (Spain) with $99,404, losing to David Ferrer (Spain) in the semifinals of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell


Photo via Tennis Perspective

This is Almagro's best result yet on this year's European swing. He will enter the top 10 for the first time in his career tomorrow. That will make for three Spaniards in the top 10, which seems perfectly normal in the current era.

On the Road: The Elusive Spanish Steps

Our Girl and I made our annual April DC trip this past week. Late April is a wonderful time to be in Washington. One misses the cherry blossoms, but one does get to see the second round of blooming trees, the dogwoods being the stars of the show. And, truth be told, the weather is usually better than it is during cherry blossom time. Springtime in the south is every bit as spectacular as autumn in New England and DC is definitely a southern city by botanical standards.


Photo via markdroberts.com

Our week was filled with the usual activities: swimming, sightseeing and urban strolls. The swimming highlight for Our Girl was learning to swim underwater. She had a lot of fun with that. We devoted our sightseeing time to art museums. We hit the Freer, where Grandma volunteers as a docent, the Sackler, the carousel and the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, all old family favorites. We also introduced Our Girl to the National Gallery, the East Wing and the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. There is only one National Mall museum I've never visited: The African Art Museum. I meant to go this time but we ran out of time. Our Girl has visited all but the African Art Museum and the American Indian Museum. We'll save those for another time.

I did go for an Embassy Row walk, following the walking tour outlined in the Lonely Planet Washington, DC City Guide, 4th Edition. The walk is shorter than in previous editions: 1 mile (1.6 km), as opposed to 2.5 km in the 3rd Edition. The walk no longer includes my three favorite stops: the Japanese embassy, the Islamic Center and the French ambassador's residence. However, it does still include the Spanish Steps, which I've never been able to find. As it turns out, Lonely Planet is one block off. They've always had the Steps on 23rd Street whereas they're actually on 22nd Street. I finally found them and dutifully climbed them.


Photo via Que sera, Sarah

Another embassy has been lost to Wisconsin Avenue. Cameroon has abandoned its digs at 2349 Mass Ave. It is sad to watch all of the old mansions fall into disrepair. Hopefully, someone with money and energy will devote some effort to restoring them and putting them to good use.

As I've previously written, I'm at a point of redefining my relationship with Washington, in theory, at least, the city I know best in the world. I hope that part of that will involve rekindling old friendships. The last several years, most of our family time in DC has been devoted to time with my parents and exploring the city in which they live. That is as it should be. But in truth, I know quite a lot of people in the DC area, people with whom I have shared some of the most meaningful friendships of my life. It has been years since I have seen some of my best friends from high school. I have not been intentionally avoiding anyone, of course. Life just gets complicated: my parents moved away from our house in Maryland making it more of an effort to see folks plus we all get involved with the goings-on of our own families.

But with my 20-year high school reunion coming up, I am reminded of the importance of old friends. My chore for the week was going through boxes of my old stuff which my parents have faithfully stored for me over the years. I unearthed quite a lot of old photos, including class pictures from elementary school which I posted on facebook. One friend, noting my presence in town, suggested we get together. She was, years ago, one of my best friends though I'd not seen her in ten years. She had, in fact, never met our daughter, though she has been very generous in sharing her Hello Kitty collection with her. She took us out to lunch and showed us around her office. Our Girl got more HK loot in the deal so she was happy. Plans to get together with another friend - Best Man at my wedding, in fact - fell through but I'm confident we'll find the time on another visit.

It's always nice to visit DC but it is doubly nice to get home. I am very grateful that we have decided to settle in a place like Vermont rather than in a big city. The fresh, if brisk, air when we got off the train was invigorating indeed. We're all happy to have the weekend together before we all head back to work and school on Monday.

Happy Passover and Easter to all.

On the Coffee Table: Joe Posnanski

Since 1950, the Japanese government has funded what are popularly known as Living National Treasures, masters of various traditional art forms: pottery, kabuki theatre, origami, etc. These practitioners receive government subsidies with the understanding that they will continue their work and pass on their knowledge to others. In the United States, I believe that Buck O'Neil would have qualified as a Living National Treasure. I am very envious of Joe Posnanski for the year he spent with Buck, collecting material for what would eventually become The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America.


Image via Rocky Mountain News

Buck O'Neil was not the best of the Negro League baseball players. Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson vie for that title. But in the decades following the decline of those leagues, O'Neil was their greatest champion, and one could hardly have chosen a more suitable emissary. Baseball is a folklorist's paradise and Buck O'Neil was the game's master storyteller. Anyone who has watched Ken Burns's Baseball knows the magic to be heard in that rich baritone delivery. Written records of the vast majority of Negro League games are lacking, so the oral history provided by former players has been essential to the preservation of the legacy. I, for one, could listen to Buck O'Neil all day.


Photo via Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum

Storytelling is largely a lost art form in the age of mass media. But anyone who has known a great storyteller, and I am very lucky to have known a few, understands that neither television nor Internet will ever be able to replicate the joy of hearing a great yarn spun over shared food and beverage. It is one thing to know what a word means. It is quite another to know how to use it. O'Neil does occasionally offer insights into his art in Posnanski's book and Posnanski presents Buck's most eloquent utterances as italicized verse. Hearing O'Neil tell a tale is much how I imagine it would have been to hear Mark Twain.


Photo via Sons of Steve Garvey

The book has inspired a few road trip ideas of my own: the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and other baseball-themed adventures. At a minimum, a trip or two to the ballpark are in order for this summer. I am also now curious about O'Neil's autobiography, I Was Right on Time.

I will go further than recommending this book. If you love baseball, good stories or people with joie de vivre, you owe it to yourself to read it. I may even convince My Wife to give it a go.

A to Z, The Orioles' Legacy: Jack Tobin

Player: Jack Tobin
Years of Service: 10 (1916-25)
Position: Outfielder


Photo via Find A Grave

Tobin finished his career with a .309 batting average. He led the American League in triples in 1921 with 18.

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For each letter of the A to Z Challenge, I will feature one player from Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns history. I hope you will join me. I hope you'll also check out the other 1200+ blogs participating. See the full list at Tossing It Out.