The Toddfather And Me

On this Hall of Fame induction ceremony weekend for Major League Baseball, with the mighty Redlegs mired in their worst slump to date in the 2014 season and on the occasion of Reds killer Tom Glavine being immortalized in Cooperstown - these things must be related, here are a few baseball-related items from the past week.

Heavy Artillery Washington Bureau Director of Covert Operations, codenamed BIG STRICK, submitted two reconnaissance photos from his clandestine mission to the Bronx for last weekend's Reds-Yankees series.  BIG STRICK filed a report which characterized the Reds performance at New Yankee Stadium as "less than stellar."

BIG STRICK produced the best blurry, grainy aerial photo of the Cuban Missile since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.  Since concluding his report with "Headed to Boston tomorrow, more pics to follow" we here at HQ have lost all communication with BIG STRICK and fear that his cover has been compromised.  Or maybe he had one too many Cincinnati-sourced Sam Adams' at The Bell In Hand Tavern.

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You find information regarding the history of baseball in some of the oddest places.

The least odd place takes the form of a book, oft mentioned on the ol' web page, titled Baseball Before We Knew It authored by David Block.  Block's masterpiece is the authoritative reference source for the English genesis of the game that we know today as baseball.  You cannot speak about the origins of the game without having read this book.

Earlier this week, while slogging through the backlog of unread books on my bookshelf, I came across the following information on pages 103-104 of The High Middle Ages, 1200-1550 by author Trevor Rowley (this book is part of The Making of Britain series - you probably don't want to be a member of the Heavy Artillery Book of the Month Club) in the chapter "Medieval Agriculture":

Another important variation was the 'runrig' or 'infield-outfield' system which operated on poorer ground in northern and western England.  This consisted of the 'infield' which was closest to the vill or farmstead, and which was cultivated every year and a second field, the 'outfield,' which was divided into two, one part being cultivated for several years and then grassed for a few years, the other part being very largely uncultivated.  The 'infield-outfield' system itself operated in a wide variety of different ways and some scholars have argued that the 'infield-outfield' system was the foundation from which the two- and three-field system evolved.  In some cases the 'infield-outfield' system survived without substantial change throughout the Middle Ages.  At Carburton in the forest area of Nottinghamshire an 'infield-outfield' system survived into the early seventeenth century, when it was recorded in cartographic form. 

"Infield?"  "Outfield?"  The two terms used in conjunction with one another?  Infield closest to the farmstead; or "home?"  Infield cultivated; "dirt infield?"  Outfield split into sections; "left," "center" and "right?"  An outfield that is uncultivated and/or grassed?  Yup.  Sounds like a baseball field to me.  Now we know from whence the baseball terms of infield and outfield originate.

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This past Saturday LaRosa's [any excuse to link a clip of Tanya O'Rourke] sponsored a Mr Redlegs cap and moustache giveaway at the ballpark.  The Incomparable Joe Wilhelm had access to his company tickets and graciously invited me to go, as any true friend would do, but alas I could not commit as; a) I already had tickets to the game as part of my season ticket package and, b) It was my honor-bound duty to attend the Bahama-themed birthday party for one of my two Disney XD nieces.  Joe Joe submitted this picture (below) of himself and The Hit Doctor wearing the Mr Redlegs cap and 'stache:

At the Disney XD Bahama party, Uncle Mike was tasked with taking selfies with/of attendees and activities:

The decorative centerpiece at the party was this fearsome-looking watermelon shark that my Food Network aficionado sister-in-law Alison created:

Pretty Awesome! 

So committed was I to wringing every drop of fun out of the party that I arrived too late to the Great American Tilt Yard to receive that day's giveaway.  Doubly negative, I split the party before getting any birthday cake.  The Reds won a 1-0 good ol' good one on the strength of great defensive plays by Billy Hamilton, "The Savior" Jay Bruuuuuce and "The Toddfather" Todd Frazier.

Following Saturday's game I encountered the worst post-game traffic I've ever experienced in the GABP era. It took 45 minutes just to exit the ballpark parking garage.  Unbeknownst to me, concurrently with the Reds-Nationals game the PLARF Cincinnati Bengals were having a training camp session that was open to the public (yawn!) and the Kool Jazz Festival Macy's Music Festival was being held at Paul Brown Stadium.  And it was a Saturday night, to boot.  Serious gridlock on a Congressional scale.  The upside was that, parking as I do in the VIP area of the parking garage, I exit alongside the ballplayers.  As events unfolded at a glacial pace, I was stuck in traffic exiting the garage - and then stuck on Mehring Way - next to Todd Frazier for several interminable minutes.  Once onto Mehring Way, I put my intrepid crowd-evasive skillz to use and immediately signaled my desire/intention to merge into The Toddfather's lane of traffic.  Some jerkface directly in front of Frazier refused to permit me to change lanes.  Crawling along Mehring Way, with my signal on and monitoring my mirrors, once jerkface crept beyond me I observed The Toddfather swing his rather sizable land yacht into my lane, immediately behind my Jeep Main Battle Tank.  Seizing the opportunity, I navigated into the next lane and waved my arm appreciatively to Frazier.  In my mirror I saw that The Toddfather reciprocated.  We were teaming up to execute a simultaneous nearly negative-speed double lane change.  How cool was this?!  The Toddfather was then able to creep up alongside the Jeep Main Battle Tank.  As he did, I looked over to see that he was smiling at me.  Establishing eye contact with me, The Toddfather again waved and I waved back, saying "Thanks, Todd!"  Having solidified our friendship, we each left the extent of our interaction at that.

Roll the credits!