stevenberlinjohnson.com: Gearing Up
Steven Berlin Johnson
SEPTEMBER 11, 2007
stevenberlinjohnson.com « September | Main | Clear Evidence That Apple Reads This Blog Religiously » Gearing Up Those of you who read the first pages of Everything Bad Is Good For You know that I was freakishly obsessed with baseball, and particularly baseball statistics, when I was a young kid. In the last few months, our just-turned-six-year-old has gotten equally obsessed with baseball, which of course is why I had children in the first place -- so I could shag fly balls and talk about the Yankees with someone. (I kid, but only slightly.) But theres a twist here, and the twist is that while our son is definitely intrigued by the stats side of baseball, the fact that he can only read about thirty words (among them, naturally: Jeter, A-Rod, Red Sox) has limited his stats obsession, though he devours the sports pages every morning. His big obsession right now turns out to be gear. It started innocently enough when we got him a glove and uniform for his Pee-Wee baseball team this spring. Five months later, things have gotten somewhat out of control. Every time we head out to Prospect Park for a quick game of catch before dinner, this is what we absolutely, positively MUST bring or else the whole trip is off: 1. Three gloves (one extra for his little brother) 2. Three bases and home plate. 3. Pitchers rubber. (God forbid whoever is pitching should just stand in between first and third base without actually standing on the rubber.) 4. One batters helmet. (I talked him down from two, arguing that with three players, no one was ever on deck, and besides were playing with a soft baseball so we dont even need helmets at all.) 5. Shin-guards for whoever is catching. 6. Soft baseball hats for all players. 7. Baseball. 8. Two differently weighted bats. He also insists on wearing his green and white baseball socks from his Pee-Wee uniform, pulled all the way up to his knees, which, when combined with normal clothes, has a distinctly lederhosen kind of look. I should say, though, that yesterday we got into a pickup game on the Meadow, and one of the other kids was not only in full uniform, but was also wearing batting gloves and cleats. What a freak, right? September 11, 2007 in Personal | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: [link] Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Gearing Up : Comments As a fellow baseball obsessive and the father of a six-year-old baseball player, I can make only two* recommendations here: 1. As early as possible, get him to lose the batting gloves. Show him clips of Vlad batting, if that helps. Say things he'll take years to grasp, like "Honus Wagner didn't need batting gloves, Jackie Robinson didn't need batting gloves, and you don't need batting gloves." I have a convoluted theory that the rise of batting gloves is somehow connected to the decline of civilization as a whole. (Like you, I'm kidding only slightly.) 2. By all means, get him to keep the high knee socks. Encourage horizontal stripes, if possible. In my dream world, no baseball player would wear full-length pants, much less the baggies favored by Manny et al. (* Leaving aside the obvious anti-Yankees jibes, since I don't usually attack others' articles of faith.) Posted by: Tim Walker | September 11, 2007 at 06:29 PM His big obsession right now turns out to be gear. It started innocently enough when we got him a glove and uniform for his Pee-Wee baseball team this spring. Posted by: buy viagra | February 16, 2010 at 07:46 AM Verify your Comment Previewing your Comment Posted by: | This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted. Your comment could not be posted. Error type: Your comment has been posted. Post another comment The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again. As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments. Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate. SBJ via Twitter follow me on Twitter The Basics Im a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of five books. In early 2007 I went and foolishly got myself a day job running the hyperlocal community site, outside.in that I co-founded the year before. We spend most of the year in Park Slope, Brooklyn, though Im on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbj6668 at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If youre interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.) Live SBJ Upcoming Events More of stevenberlinjohnsons events StoryMap Recent Essays The War On Error Discover column on the webs bottom-up response to Katrina. Air Purifiers For Data Smog Discover column on software that helps you focus. Why The Web Is Like A Rain Forest. Discover column on Web 2.0. Finding "Lost" London Times piece on the mysterious hit show "Lost." The Urban Long Tail Discover column on the diversity of cities. My Books The Ghost Map The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Todays Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile. Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life My first best-seller, and the only book Ive written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites. Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror. Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I havent read it in a while, so who knows whats in there! Recent Posts The Shanghai Surprise: Urban Planning Is Sexy! Introducing Appify More On The Shallows Where Good Ideas Come From Is Steve Jobs Repeating His Past Mistakes? A (Slightly Amended) History Of Webism The Glass Box And The Commonplace Book What Does "Generative" Mean Anyway? Does Apple Think Multitasking Is A Bug Not A Feature? And Other Questions. CNN Invests in Outside.In Archives July 2010 June 2010 April 2010 February 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 June 2009 April 2009 More. Subscribe to this blogs feed Blog powered by TypePad
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