A ‘Strasburg Was Here’ Doubleheader

Game One Friday, August 27, 2010 Syracuse, N.Y. “The greatest powers of the physical environment slam into the resilient forces of life, and nothing much happens.” E.O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life              It’s the first day of the New York State Fair, and I’ve dropped my sister off for a concert by her favorite […]

Strasburg in Syracuse Ninth Start: Getting Lost

His ninth start is a Monday late in May. I leave early in order to make friends with Syracuse. ‘Making friends with the city’ means getting good and lost on my way to a bookstore, and then driving in circles on three different routes from the bookstore to the ballpark. I see De Witt and […]

Strasburg in Syracuse: Start Two: Dwarfing, Part I

Ballplayers, they say, are superstitious; which doesn’t mean that everyone else isn’t, too. After Saturday’s interruption at Alliance Bank Stadium, I simply do not have the heart to drive back to the scene five days later. Through no fault of its own, the park is now a cursed site for me. I am at my […]

Stephen in Syracuse

Beginning with a low rumble on draft day 2009, the Stephen Strasburg hype built gradually in the city of Syracuse, spiking after each successful start for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators and peaking gloriously Friday night, when The Phenom took the mound at Alliance Bank Stadium for his first Triple-A start.