Linguistics and baseball

Two of my favorite armchair hobbies come together in Dan Shaughnessy's column in the Boston Globe today. He looks at the origin of the word walkoff.

If the game ends with the home team at bat, it's a walkoff win because the beaten visitors are forced to walk off the field in disgrace.

Few of today's major leaguers can remember when they first noticed the new terminology, but there's little doubt ESPN has put walkoff into the mainstream of American sports talk....

According to ''The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary," the first walkoff reference appeared July 30, 1988, in the Gannett News Service: ''In Dennis Eckersley's colorful vocabulary, a walkoff piece is a home run that wins the game and the pitcher walks off the mound."

My interest here? I took a couple of linguistics classes in college and might have majored in it except for the evil Professor Lieberman. And I was an all-star third baseman in the 9-year-olds' league before my career entered a tailspin. I remember my shining moment that year, a walkoff double driving in the winning run and resulting in a pigpile on me at second base. Three years later I hung up my cleats for good when I couldn't get a hit in batting practice.

A new name for my boy

My son, who has a classic Anglo name, declared yesterday that he wants to be called Björn. I told him we'll give it a try for a couple of days and see how it goes.

Last year he went through a "Chris" phase. Not quite sure how he got to Björn.

"I'm sorry for the fans who paid for this." - Mike Tyson

At least he's being honest after the fact, if not before. I bet he still cashes his paycheck, though.

Is there another sport in the world where once-great athletes embarrass themselves as much as in boxing? For every boxer who retired on top of their game--and stayed retired forevermore--there must be twenty who fought one or two or ten fights too many, desperately trying to prove they can defy the ravages of age and wear while getting one more paycheck for the only job they've ever known. Sad, yes, but it's also part of the mythic appeal of boxing. Even the mightiest eventually fall; invincibility is an illusion, which means all of us stand a chance against the powers that beat us down day after day.

P.S. Speaking of mythic appeal (or a lack thereof), I've been trying, really trying, to work my way through Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, but it's just too painful. Or too scholarly, I should say. I should have just gotten the Cliff's Notes.

Honey, I updated the router firmware!

When she heard the news, my wife didn't sound as thrilled as I'd hoped. But then I explained the significance.

Ever since we got the new Mac to replace the aging Compaq, we had internet problems. First, the browser would slow to a crawl after 3 pm. I figured out it had something to do with DNS lookup.

She said, "*&#%$# computer!"

I said, "*&#%$# Verizon!"

Following a tip I found somewhere, I put the DNS addresses in the Mac, bypassing the router. That problem seemed fixed.

But then we'd just seem to get bumped off the internet every now and then for no apparent reason. I'd go down to the basement and power the router and DSL modem off and on to get it back. Then I figured out that sometimes--not every time--I could avoid the basement by opening the router settings in my browser and reconnecting PPPoE, which somehow was disconnecting itself. But sometimes this didn't work either.

She said, "*&#%$# computer!"

I said, "*&#%$# Verizon!"

Then I read up on routers. I learned that firmware is something you can update. So I downloaded the update from Linksys. (Luckily the old Windows PC still works because it didn't have a Mac installer.) And it's been smooth browsing ever since.

My wife didn't notice. At least she stopped saying "*&#%$# computer!" And I don't have to cancel Verizon after all.

Glad to have Olerud at first

Enjoyed reading this in the Globe today:

John Olerud, who in the fourth inning bumped the lead to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly, followed Mueller with a softly lined single to right

Don't get me wrong--I like Kevin Millar, and I'm not down on him like many fans are this year because of his batting slump. I just like him better when someone is sharing the job with him. I hated to lose Mentkavicz (quick, call Spelling 911!) but now I'm feeling a lot better.

UPDATE (6/17): Since Olerud arrived May 27, Millar is hitting .400 (18 for 45) (source: Boston Globe)

Deal lets Milton Academy suspects avoid jail - AP via Boston.com

This makes a lot more sense than a life sentence. Two years of pretrial probation, plus the requisite counseling and community service.

Now let's keep our eyes open for civil filings.

Life in prison for a teenage b. job?

I read in the Boston Globe that charges were brought against the 3 boys over 16 in the school s_x case I wrote about recently. The charge? Statutory rape. The consequences? Life in prison at the most, being forced to register as a s_x offender at the least.

If it were my daughter, I'd be suing the school for dereliction of duty or whatever the legal term is. A boarding school plays the role of parents away from home. For allowing the situation to reach the point of repeated criminal behavior, Milton Academy must bear some responsibility. That girl was in their guardianship. I'm just dumbfounded that these boys, as wrong and stupid as they were to do what they did, are facing such serious consequences while the school gets away with sending letters to alums and donors showing how concerned they are.

More on this later.

(note: trying to avoid having my Sitemeter clogged with s_x searches)