On Baseball and Opera

 

April 30, 2024

 

As a reward for doing a stellar job at something or other, my department is going to a baseball game.

 

That’s right—a baseball game.

 

It’s a fine sport, but when people say “baseball”, I get the same look that other people get when they hear “opera”—a glazed, yet hunted look, as if to say, “Don’t make me go there!”

 

So, they’re all excited and I’m thinking, “If you’re trying to reward me, get me opera tickets!” That made me start thinking about other ways baseball and opera are similar. I really only came up with one:

 

You can take a brief nap at either one and barely miss anything.

 

But opera has better outfits.

 

I thought maybe somebody should write an opera about baseball. I looked online to see if there already was one, and found “The Summer King”, an opera about Josh Gibson, “the Black Babe Ruth.”

 

There’s also Opera Orlando’s “Baseball: A Musical Love Letter”.

 

Who knew?

 

June 2, 2024: 

Speaking of Josh Gibson, MLB said on May 25th that it has incorporated records for more than 2,300 Negro League players. Josh Gibson topped Ty Cobb in Career Batting Average, and Babe Ruth in Career Slugging Percentage. He was also tops in Season records of those categories.