Soccer Out of Context: the AL Central

Indulge me for just a second.

Jake glanced out at the mound. Ricky looked a little shell-shocked, but the moment was undeniably his now. The shadow of Haywood’s hulking frame flickered off to the left of Jake’s peripheral vision, every little chopping check-swing designed to intimidate. And why wouldn’t it? The Yankees had been here before. The Indians hadn’t. Jake returned the last warmup pitch, shook out a few quick, involuntary hop-stretches as he always did before settling into his crouch, and prepared himself to talk Haywood’s ear off the second he stepped into the box.

Sixty-odd feet away, Ricky toed the rubber, as ready as he’d ever be. He tried to lock in as the stadium tensed up around him. This was it; this was the whole dream, strung out on a line. One of those excruciating, salivating, only-in-baseball confrontations had been laid at his feet. 2–2 game, ninth inning, bases loaded, slugger up, loser goes home. No matter what else Ricky had done, or would do, he’d always have this.

It was impossible not to sense the moment; everyone in the stadium - hell, the state - could feel it. And during that brief, hanging hesitation between the last warmup toss and a hardy “play ball” from behind the plate, Roger Dorn did too. He bolted from his spot at third towards the mound. Ricky looked over in surprise, and then briefly off into the distance, hoping something would save him. Now? Really? Ah, shit, Jake muttered to himself. Of course Dorn would do this now.

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Friday Music

“My Number” by Foals. The track is sharp; the video pushes it over the edge. Ever feel that urgency to be out at a club show, any show?  Where you throw a dart at the listings in the back of the street paper, show up at the door, get your hand stamped, and hope something good is happening inside?  In a perfect world, this is the set you walk in on.  Preferably a few songs before this one.  

Soccer Out of Context: the NL West

Postcard:

Made the West Coast. Women, wine, baseball weather… might have to hang here for a bit. Send money and/or Cactus League schedule.

Best, — M.

With this week’s Soccer Out of Context piece, a nice arc to the project should begin to emerge. We started with the Red Sox and friends, indulging my favorite team (and as any good Bostonian will suffer from, a healthy amount of my east coast bias). We then switched leagues, moving on to the heartland and some of baseball’s oldest clubs in the N.L. Central, then kept carpetbagging out to the Pacific (via Texas) on our way to the American League’s wild collection of western teams. Now, we start the journey back. Today, the National League West gets a soccer makeover.

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Friday Music

“Truth” by Alexander. To listen to if you enjoy: The Beta Band, Wes Anderson, Ennio Morricone, The Avalanches. To avoid if you dislike: whistling, jangling, sixth-grade level saxophone. It appears this track was in a Breaking Bad episode - I’m one of those dummies who haven’t started that yet, but I’ll look forward to hearing this behind the scene it soundtracks.

Identity Sketches for the Texas Rangers

The Soccer Out of Context project has led me to some very interesting places.  It will continue - with the NL West up next - but I want to take a moment to explore something that one of the recent designs brought up. This is a quick aside about the Texas Rangers, their visual identity, and a few design sketches that expand on the idea of what the Rangers could represent. 

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Soccer Out of Context: the AL West

This piece, the third in the Soccer Out of Context series, gets us halfway around Major League Baseball. (Yup, that’s me, digging into second, looking to pick up the third base coach, and probably missing the frantic “hold up!” sign.) I’ll likely say this every time I publish one of these, but I’m thrilled to get to do this for an audience like those of you who have been dropping by - it’s really gratifying to get your reactions to these designs. Today we’ll be hopping over to the A.L. West - sometimes wild, sometimes mild, sometimes… uh, other stuff that rhymes with “wild”, the Western Division has always been visually interesting. Maybe it’s the history of big personalities; maybe, it’s a vestigial Napoleonic complex. I prefer to think that any time you get, say, a couple hombres from Texas, a dude from SoCal, a typical Bay Area guy, and somebody from the Pacific Northwest into a room together, you’re bound to see some interesting things go down.

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Soccer Out of Context: the NL Central

There’s no doubt about it - there’s an appetite for more Soccer Out of Context work. I am thrilled to keep designing. Last time we tackled baseball’s A.L. East; today, we’ll change leagues and locales to see what National League Central division teams would look like if they played soccer for a day.

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