Should I Stay or Should I Go

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on March 23, 2020March 23, 2020

Florida Spring Training 2020 road trip:

These were the words that were rolling around in my head, leading up to our annual Florida Spring Training 2020 road trip:

“Well, come on and let me know

Should I stay or should I go?

Should I stay or should I go now?

If I go, there will be trouble

And if I stay it will be double

So come on and let me know“

We left for spring training on February 29th, with a return date of April 1st. I follow the news closely every day. The reports on the COVID-19 Virus did raise our concerns. After all, we would be living in hotels, eating in restaurants, and attending spring training baseball games.

The second night in South Carolina in the hotel elevator, I talked to a couple heading back to Canada, they express that they feared Canada would close the border due to the coronavirus. You could sense their apprehension. Back in our room, I told my wife of the encounter she became even more concerned. I checked the news, we talked and agreed to continue on.

Once in Florida on the east coast at New Smyrna Beach, a real beach town my parents had lived in. we realized they had very little knowledge or concerns about the ‘Virus.’ This same attitude would follow us to the west coast and the four spring training games we attended.

Once MLB canceled Spring Training 2020, follow the NBA, NHL, and significant sports organizations around the world, we started to hear some conversations and not always concerns over the coronavirus. It was now March, 13th, just arriving in Fort Myers, and we made the decision to cancel the rest of our trip and return home ASAP.

When we got back home, we had a lot of work to do. Luckily the painters had finished working in the bedroom, and the closet renovations were completed. All we had to do was put it all back together.

“Well, come on and let me know

Should I stay or should I go?

Should I stay or should I go now?

If I go, there will be trouble“

Tomorrow Atlanta Braves New Spring Training Ballpark Cool Today Park

The First Time I Met Yankees Legend Don Larsen

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on January 2, 2020January 2, 2020

Woke-up to the sad news Don Larsen passed away. October 8, 1956, was also the first time I would meet him in my aunt and uncle’s kitchen around 5:30. Back then, families lived within the same building, and my aunt and uncle lived a floor above us.

Aunt Anne come down while having dinner and ask if would okay for me to go upstairs and meet someone. Mom and dad knew and said okay. Leaving the dinner table back then was a big deal then. Sitting in there kitchen, having a beer with my uncle, was Don Larsen.

They had two season tickets to Yankee Stadium Section 5 club Lodge level. The seats were the first row seats1-2. They were directly behind Mel Allen and were all the sportswriters sat. Section 5 Lodge at the top of the stairs had a bar-clubhouse for the writers and the small group of ticketholders in that section. Back then, women were not allowed in any sports venue sportswriters bar/clubhouse.

My aunt often declined to attend games, sighting that Uncle Charlie would go up to bar for three or four innings, and she did not like sitting alone that long, and so I got to go to games. Many of the games I attended were Old Timers Day, Saturday and Sunday doubleheaders, and some World Series games. These games had a significant media presence. I did get to meet the writers in the beginning, and I was too young to realize the wow factor!

When my uncle died in1972 from cancer, Don Larsen sent my aunt a letter that she read I recall that he felt terrible that he could not make it to NYC for the funeral. Side note, my parents also knew him and never spoke of it.

Some years back, I went to Bryant Park to a Yankees event and spoke to Don Larsen and mentioned my Aunt Anne and Uncle Charles Shipp, and he stopped walking, and we exchanged a few words shook hand and parted our ways.

MLB Stop Picking on the Speed Of The Game

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on March 3, 2017March 3, 2017

Baseball needs to stop picking on its self! The game is fine! We do not play by a clock. Tweaking is okay.

By the way: An average professional football game lasts 3 hours and 12 minutes, but if you tally up the time when the ball is actually in play, the action amounts to a mere 11 minutes.

So much for, four 15 minute quarters with a 15 half-time break. If I do the math that comes out to one hour and 15 minutes. I forgot the 3-time outs per team, per half. That must be where the other one hour of time is used.

Again Major League Baseball stop picking on the game and its player and promote the game.

Brian Cashman MLB Hot Stove Two Views

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on December 30, 2016December 30, 2016

When it comes to Yankees News that I read along with all the teams, it is always interesting how the same interview, in this case, GM Cashman on MLB Hot Stove can be viewed.

The New York Daily News posted this (link) article 16 hours ago

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankees-unwilling-give-key-prospects-short-term-gain-article-1.2927974

NJ.com posted this article one hour ago

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2016/12/mlb_hot_stove_yankees_hint_willingness_to_trade_pr.html

My real take away from this is the baseball off-season never stops entertaining the fan while waiting for Spring Training to begin in 44 days from today December 30.

My Non Prediction Prediction For the 2016 Baseball Season

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on April 3, 2016December 18, 2016

The first pitch of 2016 Baseball Season is a few short hours away. Every year for more years than I will admit to I have studied and followed the teams that play in my opinion “The Greatest Game” ever created.

Unlike the 2016 season picks, the usual safe bets; I feel this season will be full of surprises. That will make this one of those “Miracle Seasons” like the 1914 Braves, 1967 Red Sox, and the 1969 Mets.

Let the games begin! David Wright Lorenzo Cain after scoring for the Royals

Yadier Molina

That Other Rite of Spring Training

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on January 18, 2016January 18, 2016

February 19th Baseball Spring Training camps official open for most MLB teams, with full squads reporting the following week between 23rd and 25th. Today team equipment managers are going over their list checking off items and packing up trunks getting ready for some time around February 10th, when those big 18 wheelers will be pulling away from the ballparks on their way to the Florida and Arizona, for that other annual rite of Spring Training “Truck Day”.

2015 NY Yankees truck leaving for Spring Training

I’m A Yankee Fan Rooting For the Mets To Win The World Series

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on October 27, 2015October 28, 2015 1 Comment

I am a New York Yankees fan and have been for 60 years, and I’m rooting for the Mets, to win the World Series.
I grew up in Bronx section known as Highbridge between the Polo Grounds and Yankee Stadium.

My father and grandmother were big Dodger fans. Except for my uncle taking me to Yankee games, (my first was Old Timers Day 1952) the Dodgers were the team on our television.

Sixty years ago on October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Yankees 2-0 to win their only Championship.

I remember it clearly I came home from school and watched the end of the game I was both happy and sad. October 4, 1955, was also my 9th birthday. That night my father and grandmother were very excited and my birthday took a back seat.

After the Dodgers had moved to Los Angles, my father and grandmother lost interest in baseball.

Then 1962 along came the Mets.

New York Mets Spring Training March 1963, the early years

Those early years were rough, but my grandmother and I would talk baseball and about the Mets. She loved the Mets would watch or listen to every game on the radio. When they played, on the west coast she would stay up until the game was over. My grandmother went to mass every day, and the only thing that would cause her to swear was when the Mets lost a close game. Something they did a lot in 1960’s. She lived to be 92 and passed away in 1980 just before the start of the baseball season

So of course I will be rooting for the Mets tonight. Every year we go to Queens and see a few games. We have been to Citi Field more than many Mets I know.

The Yankees will always be my main team, but I will also continue to root for the Mets.

Lets Go Mets!

These Are The Fun Days Watching Baseball

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on August 16, 2015August 16, 2015

Some say the Baseball season is too long, no way. Look at the current changes that have taken place in the Standings from first place to the wildcard. It just doesn’t happen in the NFL or the NBA.
For me, it is the fun days, and not the dog days of August. It is scoreboard watching at its best.

Original Yankee Stadium Scoreboard October 1937 www.ballparkprints.com — Original Yankee Stadium Scoreboard October 1937
http://www.ballparkprints.com

Cleveland Indians and Attendance

By Paul Plaine www.ballparkprints.com on August 15, 2015August 15, 2015

Having a winning team will help the Cleveland Indians and next year should be their turn-around year. But, it may not help them in attendance, Cleveland schools opened August 10th this year the second week in August. That’s about the standard time every year. One could argue they get out early in May. But, those of us who live in the northern part of the USA know most years the weather in May is, iffy. Ballpark attendance for the cold weather teams does not rise until June.
As for it still being August and, sunset in Cleveland after 8 p.m even into September it’s still a school night, parents do not want to take their kids to weeknight games.