things I learned about in baseball this week/how i learned to stop worrying and love baseball

Surprise win today with a patchwork lineup. Have I mentioned that on all three days that we were sitting in seats that we ended up realising were the wrong ones on two separate occasions and having to move? I have not.

Today Wilyer Abreu went 3-5 and drove in two runs; as someone who’s a nl Abreu truther based on his eye and his arm (both great), this was incredible for me. Ceddanne playing shortstop was great too; it remains to be seen if he’ll be as good there as at CF but I definitely felt good about him fielding the position and he made some plays.

Connor Wong was catching today and he was fine. He played well too.

Reese McGuire pinch hit and drove in two runs; did this prevent us from making fun of him? Reader, it did not.

Oh yeah, Aroldis Chapman came on to pitch and I booed him. I could not have told you I had that in me.

Various pictures that are mainly zoomed the fuck in or moving closer to the field when the game ended/before it started, so sorry for the mostly poor quality. I regret not being able to get a video of Bello dancing in the dugout:

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Bello! I love him so much and I was glad I was there to see him pitch well. Today he was in the dugout wearing his hoodie up and dancing to music played between innings. He’s adorable.

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The man himself on the right.

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Our view before we realised we were sitting in the wrong section (!) and had to move.

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Kutter Crawford after his first win of the year (his ERA over five starts is like 0.77).

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Alex Cora today. He was out throwing batting practice earlier and will sometimes join in with the infielders as well.

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Andrew Bailey and Jason Varitek going to the bullpen before the game.

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Connor Wong.

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Chris Martin, ???, Kenley Jansen. Possibly the middle guy is Bailey, I know all the relievers on this roster and I can see Joely Rodriguez and Bernie in the background. Everyone else was used.

Fun photos. Always love being able to see the bridge in the outfield.

Trip to Clemente museum

Went to the Clemente museum a few days back, felt like a necessary visit. Had a great time. It’s basically set across two floors with exhibits laid out across the floors and you can just walk around and explore within your time slot. They limit the number of people in there in every given hour so there’s a chance for everyone to see everything.

One of the first things we saw was this very morbid exhibit: a wing from the small plane that Clemente died in.

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They had shirts and bats and other expected memorabilia:

https://i.postimg.cc/bvcXhvy1/IMG-9621.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/c4rPt36Q/IMG-9632.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/RVyy70n2/IMG-9635.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/tRmMbgD7/IMG-9636.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/ZqcwMYCb/IMG-9654.jpg

But also some less expected stuff, like his custom golf clubs, his fashion suit(!) and my favourite of all, a pot he made for his wife after he got into throwing pottery while suffering from insomnia:

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https://i.postimg.cc/0QPLzHJQ/IMG-9630.jpg
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I didn’t get a picture of it, but he messed up the side of the pot and drew a little heart with his name on it there instead.

There were guides who were very helpful; they were mainly people who’d seen him play and one man told us that he and his brother overheard Clemente give his number to a reporter and they’d ring him after games. He said Clemente always answered and was kind to them.

One of the guides told us that Clemente would rent buses in his earliest days for the black and Latin players because often they couldn’t go to the same places as their white counterparts and he tried to help them out whenever he could. I’d seen a RETIRE 21 sign at PNC so I asked about it; his number is obviously retired by the Pirates but they are pushing for league wide recognition to have the number retired like Jackie Robinson’s.



Some signed shirts belonging to visiting players; the Giants one is Posey.

There’s a picture of Javy Baez wearing the Clemente suit jacket in the museum which you can see in my photo, more on this here: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/javy-baez-wore-a-jacket-from-the-roberto-clemente-museum-at-the-home-run-derby-c

I love Javy Baez. I asked my hometown Cubs friend the other day his favorite player from the 2016 Cubs team and we agreed it's Javy Baez. That suit looks perfect on him, so styling ~~

Yes! His bat is terrible now but I don’t think that man will ever need to pay for a drink in Chicago for the rest of his life. Truly a blessed team

My last few pictures didn’t load, think I messed up bb code. Player shirts:

https://i.postimg.cc/XvcP6cD0/IMG-9647.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/5yjKvc9x/IMG-9648.jpg

Other pics:
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xp Folks in Detroit keep hoping he'll get his groove back. He's still a great fielder and base runner. He did have an RBI yesterday.

He is! I’ve been following him.