Baseball & a Pipe

[dctune]

I’m a lifelong Cubs fan. And I’m talking, like, a real one. I watch basically every game. I’ve endured the last place seasons. Many of them.

I don’t blame Bartman. I blame Gonzalez for not turning the double play to get us out of “that” inning.

I often think about Bryant smiling on that ground ball as he fielded it threw it to Rizzo for the final out, making history.

I still smile when I remember how Michael Barrett beat the snot out of AJ Pierzynski on the South Side.

I still don’t understand why Piniella took Zambrano in the 5th inning at around 70 pitches.

My all-time fave squad was the ‘89 team. I insisted on playing whatever Little League position with my Shawon Dunston glove.

I could go on.

I’m sitting here smoking MM965, watching the Cubs game from earlier today. We’re up 6-3 in the bottom of the 7th. And I’m nervous. The bad guys have no outs and 2 on.

There’s not two things that go better together than baseball and a pipe.

Eamus Catuli

 

[dctune]

Update: the good guys won!

 

[Servant King]

Lifelong Dodger fan here...until this offseason. Not specific to the team, though. I just completely lost the remaining shreds of interest I had in the sport, or rather the current facsimile thereof. I ruminated a bit more specifically on this thread. Hockey is the only sport I watch anymore, although I know that it will eventually follow suit too and completely lose me, as is the case with anything susceptible to corporate takeover and the resultant besmirching.

Thank God pipe smoking does not possess this susceptibility in the slightest! ?

But yes, to the OP, in its unsullied form, baseball and pipe smoking is a fantastic pairing.

 

[dctune]

Lifelong Dodger fan here...until this offseason. Not specific to the team, though. I just completely lost the remaining shreds of interest I had in the sport, or rather the current facsimile thereof. I ruminated a bit more specifically on this thread. Hockey is the only sport I watch anymore, although I know that it will eventually follow suit too and completely lose me, as is the case with anything susceptible to corporate takeover and the resultant besmirching.

Thank God pipe smoking does not possess this susceptibility in the slightest! ?

But yes, to the OP, in its unsullied form, baseball and pipe smoking is a fantastic pairing.

I too hate the DH in the NL. And nobody wants the robot umps. Just today I was looking at my set of 2016 World Series Cubs pint glasses and lamenting the Indians name change. Smh. I do hope baseball can survive all this nonsense.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Thank God pipe smoking does not possess this susceptibility in the slightest!

Did you read any of BROBS posts?

I can't follow Anerican sports anymore due to the travesty it's become. It's sad that with arthritis and a full joint replacement that I have better working knees than athletes.

 

[kcghost]

I just love baseball. I was a Dodger until they Brooklyn. Well actually I stayed with them until Koufax retired and then I moved on. Been a longtime Royals fan where we have had some real good years but mostly bad over the course of 53 years.

 

[BryLogan]

Ditto the disappointment on the universal DH, in spite of the fact that the players are applauding it. Baseball is a sport of tradition and should remain so. Which is why I was EXTREMELY disappointed with the culmination of the 2004 and 2016 seasons*. After all, curses are the most traditional of traditions. ???

*Hypocritically, I‘m glad I lived long enough to witness 2019.

 

[bullet08]

Used to be a sorta Mets fan. I mean, Shea Stadium wasn't too far away and it was easy to hate Yankees. But I can see how baseball will go well with pipe smoking. Sort of like golf and pipe.. Bass fishing and pipe.. SCUBA diving and pipe..

 

[pipecollector34]

I left the Chicago area in 1992 after almost 40 years and I do miss the ballgames, especially the time when you could smoke there and the doubleheaders, too. I sure had a good time there w/ my Dad and all of the pipe smoke. Both old Comiskey and Wrigley are etched in my memory. I saw Ken Holzman's no no and many Cub games in 1969. My 1st time to the ball park was in the summer of 1961 on Littlle League Day. If you wore your uniform you got in for free so, I wore my bright yellow Kraft Construction Wrens T Shirt there w/ the rest of the team. Someone dropped their Strawberry ice cream cone on our star player Bernie Brown from the upper deck. I liked Nellie Fox and Ernie Banks back then and I still do today.

Java3

 

[Streeper541]

My granddad used to smoke his pipe while we watched the Astros together. Those are very fond memories.

I don't watch professional baseball, or any other sports, too often anymore. Not that I don't love the game, I honestly have other priorities and just don't care that much.

About the most intense I get about sports these days is very loosely following the Cleveland Browns... and I do mean very loosely.

 

[mickeyg]

The smell of Sugar Barrel reminds me of watching Yankee games with my Dad puffing away in our "finished" basement back in the mid-late 60s...when they stunk. On the other hand, whenever I smell a drugstore cigar, it reminds me of him taking us to the old Yankee Stadium in the early 60s & sitting back in the right field General Admission seats, next to the Yankee bullpen. Always seemed someone there was smoking an El Ropo.

 

[cigrmaster]

I grew up 2.5 miles from Fenway Park. My dad had season tickets for all the night games he split with his two partners and since my sister hated baseball and my mother would go to some games, I got my share.
Me and my friends also went to day games by ourselves starting around 11 years old. We would jump on the T for ten cents and then 2 two stops later we would get off and walk the rest of the way. We bought tickets to the right field stands at 2.50 a ticket and then sneak into the good seats.

I was at the game in 1967 when they won the pennant. My mom and dad were at game 6 of the 1975 World Series which was considered one of the greatest games ever.
My father died in 1997 and never saw them win a W.S. I have seen them win 4. I feel bad that my dad never got the chance as he was a real fan.

 

[n_irwin]

To the OP, a pipe and a ballgame are a great combination. I’m a Pirates fan and catch a game on TV when I can, but living overseas now, that means it has to be a day game in then US. I’ve been to a couple of games at Wrigley. It’s a wonderful experience—just feels more nostalgic than other stadiums. And good fans.

 

[Derby]

Great memories of my Granddad taking me to Ebbets Field to watch the Dodgers. When a Dodger hit a flyball the fans would wave white handkerchiefs to mess up the “ enemy “ outfielders trying to track the ball. ?

 

[dctune]

To the OP, a pipe and a ballgame are a great combination. I’m a Pirates fan and catch a game on TV when I can, but living overseas now, that means it has to be a day game in then US. I’ve been to a couple of games at Wrigley. It’s a wonderful experience—just feels more nostalgic than other stadiums. And good fans.

I went to a game a few years ago at PNC. That’s a great stadium. Not a bad seat in the house. Feels like you’re right on top the action. One of my favorite views in all the world is driving into Pittsburgh from the east. You’re surrounded by what looks like wild mountains (and traffic of course), and then when you go through that tunnel and come out the other side, seeing the city below and the wide of west… breathtaking.

 

[DanWil84]

I like baseball (Red Sox) , but I can't watch as games are usually overnight for me. I have visited a large baseball tournament overhere, the World Port Tournament, a few times with various national teams playing. I like we have some Dutchman from the Antilles playing in the league and do so consistently (Bogaerts, Albies, Schoop, Profar, Kenley Jansen), to bad they are generally not allowed to play international, only during the world baseball classic where we did well the last 2 editions. If we only would deliver some decent pitching except Jansen we would have a better shot international.

 

[n_irwin]

I went to a game a few years ago at PNC. That’s a great stadium. Not a bad seat in the house. Feels like you’re right on top the action. One of my favorite views in all the world is driving into Pittsburgh from the east. You’re surrounded by what looks like wild mountains (and traffic of course), and then when you go through that tunnel and come out the other side, seeing the city below and the wide of west… breathtaking.

I totally agree with you. Driving through the Fort Pitt tunnel and seeing Pittsburgh out in front of you is a beautiful site, especially at night with all the lights reflecting off the rivers.

I’m with you on PNC, too. It’s my favorite place to watch a game, but I might be a bit biased. It’s a shame the product on the field isn’t of the same quality. It’s like tin a tobacco with beautiful art and a wonderful presentation of tobacco, but the smoke falls flat.

 

[ssjones]

NHL playoff's start tonight. My Capitals are sure to get blown out by the #1 Panthers (if we make it to five games, that will be a miracle).
It's too nice to sit inside watching TV - so I'll stream the games on my laptop, out on the patio, which gives me a opportunity to smoke my pipe at the same time. Well, at least for a few evenings.

 

[dctune]

I totally agree with you. Driving through the Fort Pitt tunnel and seeing Pittsburgh out in front of you is a beautiful site, especially at night with all the lights reflecting off the rivers.

I’m with you on PNC, too. It’s my favorite place to watch a game, but I might be a bit biased. It’s a shame the product on the field isn’t of the same quality. It’s like tin a tobacco with beautiful art and a wonderful presentation of tobacco, but the smoke falls flat.

I’m all too familiar with a picturesque ballpark and an on-field disaster.
LIFE. LONG. CUBS. FAN. ?

 

[n_irwin]

I like baseball (Red Sox) , but I can't watch as games are usually overnight for me. I have visited a large baseball tournament overhere, the World Port Tournament, a few times with various national teams playing. I like we have some Dutchman from the Antilles playing in the league and do so consistently (Bogaerts, Albies, Schoop, Profar, Kenley Jansen), to bad they are generally not allowed to play international, only during the world baseball classic where we did well the last 2 editions. If we only would deliver some decent pitching except Jansen we would have a better shot international.

Curaçao has been turning out some great infield talent