Ballparks and More

Washington Ballpark

In today's Wall Street Journal, architecture critic Catesby Leigh hammered plans for the new Washington ballpark.  He writes:

What we get with the Nationals' current design is a ballpark bowl enclosed by banal buildings with limestone (or precast concrete, depending on budgetary factors) unimaginatively framing vast expanses of glass.

and:

The design goes from banal to pretentious at the ballpark's south end, where a triangular volume derived from I.M. Pei's National Gallery East Building is awkwardly appended to emphasize, and indeed exaggerate, the nonperpendicular intersection of South Capitol Street and Potomac Avenue.

I am no expert in contextual architecture, but I do know a good-looking ballpark from an ugly one.  In my opinion, the plans for the new Washington park definitely belong to the latter; these designs make it look like a converted office park.

Busch III

The new Busch Stadium in St. Louis was showcased last night in a game between the AAA club in Memphis, and the AA affiliate out of Springfield, MO.  The new Busch is stunning.  I still hate the fact that tickets are terribly expensive, you can't find any to buy, the average fan got priced out, the people that get to afford games now are the passively interested customers of some client who is in town on business.  I hate the fact that much of it was built with faux brick.  But from an aesthetic perspective, the new facility is stunning. 

Ryan Freel

Chewing tobacco notwithstanding, Ryan Freel is OK in my book.  I just saw him single-handedly make Dusty Baker concede third base as "stolen" because Baker didn't want his guys to move out of position, in an attempt to take out the hit-and-run.  He's a guy that will play a lot of positions for you, which leads me to question: Why don't we respect these guys like we respect the multi-faceted football player?  Wasn't Kordell Stewart nicknamed "Slash"?  Troy Brown of the Patriots and Neon Deion Sanders were great two-way threats.  To be fair, Jose Oquendo was nicknamed "The Secret Weapon," but that's about it, as far as clever nicknames for utility guys go. 

Tim Wallach

That being said, today we honor the legacy of Tim Wallach.  Tim Wallach is a guy who was not unlike Oquendo, in that he played every position (except catcher), but unlike Oquendo, Tim Wallach never had a great nickname (as far as I know).  Therefore, I propose Tim "Eli" Wallach after the actor that was in "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.  Eli Wallach was the Ugly.  Tim Wallach pitched a total of two innings over the course of his major-league career.  His ERA from the first game, in 1987 was 0.00, which is very GOOD.  His ERA from the second game, in 1989, was 9.00, which is very BAD.  His career ERA is 4.50...not good, not bad, but UGLY.