Baseball Season Doodling

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Larry Marshall

It’s baseball season and that means watching the Blue Jays, win or lose. But I confess that I’m not good at watching TV without doing something else at the same time. I’m writing this as I watch the Jays about to take on the San Francisco Giants in inter-league play..

Most of the time, however, while I’m watching the game, I’m doodling. Sometimes it’s from imagination, sometimes I’ll doodle from an image on my cell phone, sometimes I’ll find something around the house to draw, and sometimes I’ll just practice drawing ellipses, do hatching or shade odd forms. Anything to move a pointy device across paper.

I don’t normally scan those doodles as they never really amount to much but once in a while I like to share such doodles as a contrast to my more finished sketches. Here are a few I did while the Jays were losing to the Dodgers.

Book Highlight – Game 7: Deadball by Allen Schatz

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Larry Marshall

I love baseball. Here in Quebec most people are hockey fans but I prefer to more deliberate nature of baseball. The rhythm of the game is as relaxing as home runs and double plays are exciting. And, right now, it’s the baseball season. What better time to read a baseball book so when I came across Allen Schatz’s Game 7: Deadball, I had to click the ‘buy me’ button.

Author’s Book Description

Secrets, lies, and revenge provide the sparks that ignite a fiery collision between past and present…

A puzzle takes shape as baseball’s World Series unfolds, but the pieces don’t fit: a string of missing women, strange threats, gambling problems, kidnappings, and relationships long dormant are all somehow connected, but Marshall Connors–major league umpire–may run out of time before he can solve the mystery.

Marshall’s season has ended and he is looking forward to post-season plans that include time in Florida, first helping his mentor teach an umpire training class, followed by a lot of sun. Those plans are cut short when Marshall is given a surprise assignment to work the World Series as crew chief, but the real reason is not discovered until he is neck-deep in trouble.

The sudden change in plans rekindles a relationship with the O’Hara family–Terry, major league pitcher and Game 1 starter in the Series, Michael, Terry’s father and former major leaguer, and Samantha, Terry’s mother and Michael’s ex-wife–but Marshall quickly realizes some things truly are better left alone.

As the Series plays out, so does the truth behind long-buried O’Hara family secrets and Marshall is caught in a storm that threatens to destroy him and those he loves. With the help of his best friend, Thomas Hillsborough–ex-CIA spy–Marshall fights to solve the puzzle before the Series reaches its climax in GAME 7: DEAD BALL, the ultimate contest of survival.

My review

The author uses the 2008 World Series as the backdrop for a thriller that includes a history of friendship between several men, who go their separate ways but who share a particular incident. The lives of these friends converge at the World Series. Marshall Connors, the main character, is an umpire and without giving anything away, the story involves players on both teams, Connors , baseball security, the FBI and a high-tension situation that involves kidnapping, extortion and the need to prevent these nefarious actions from derailing the World Series and possibly jeopardizing its legitimacy.

Schatz does a remarkable job with a complex plot, involving a number of points of view. He’s taken some liberties with the real history of the 2008 World Series in that the real World Series was won by the Phillies four games to one. Schatz needs more time for his story to unfold, so it takes the Phillies until the 7th game to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays. Nevertheless, if you’re a baseball fan you’ll appreciate the realism Schatz injects into this side of the novel. If you’re not a baseball fan, that’s ok too as you’ll enjoy this thriller and Schatz’ stiletto-sharp writing style.

Baseball – Quebec Style

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Larry Marshall

One of my favorite things about living in Quebec City are the Quebec Capitales games I attend. Baseball and Quebec don’t seem natural, though when I looked into it there is a long history of Quebec baseball teams. But kids here play soccer more than baseball. And, for goodness sake, hockey is front page news, and followed with a passion that borders on the fanatical. The provincial Premier has a hard time getting a word in edgewise during hockey season.

Nevertheless, Quebec has a thriving team – part of a CAN/AM pro baseball league. While it may be a step down from the Toronto Blue Jays, the game experience is just as satisfying, maybe even more so. The team ownership understands well that it is providing entertainment and it treats ticket buyers as though we are all friends and most certainly that we are valued. Humor plays a big part and so foul balls that leave the stadium are followed by sound effects of glass breaking as though some car in the parking lot was taking part in the proceedings.

Kids are also a big deal to the Capitales and every game I’ve attended have short events for the kids between innings. They also honor kids who are part of the small contingent of young baseball players in Quebec City.

For me, as an American living in this French-speaking city, there are special feelings. I sit, with 4000+ other people. They all speak French, though crys of “bad call, ref” do crack the air on occasion. The umpire calls balles and prises. Home runs cause the announcer to yell a drawn out “CIRCUIT.” Vendors sell biere froide and players don’t have RBIs, they have PPs. I still don’t know what PP stands for but does it really matter?

The French creates a different ambiance, though the rhythms of baseball seem the same the world over. But the most striking thing comes during the 7th inning stretch, when all of these French souls stand, and reading from the big screen behind the right-field wall, they raise their voices in unison and sing “Take me out to the ball game…Take me out to the crowd…Buy me some peanuts….” It’s AMAZING!!

Oh…one last thing. The Quebec Capitales, MY team, is in first place by a considerable margin. At 26 and 18, they’re 5 games ahead of their nearest rival. And that’s better than the Blue Jays.