Memorial Day — 2022

Bald eagle on veteran's grave, Fort Snelling National Cemetery. Photo by Frank Gilk, Minneapolis Star Tribune. Stories by Jon Tevlin June 25 and August 10, 2011.

Memorial Day 2022

The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak

     Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them? 

     They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts. 

     They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us. 

     They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done. 

     They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave. 

     They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what you make them. 

     They say, Whether our lives and our deaths were for peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say, it is you who must say this. 

     They say, We leave you our deaths: Give them their meaning: give them an end to the war and a true peace: give them a victory that ends the war and a peace afterwards: give them their meaning.

     
     We were young, they say. We have died; Remember us. 

— Archibald MacLeish

Eighteen Games In; How Do the Durham Bulls Look

 The 2021 Durham Bulls are a very good baseball team. They stand in third place in the Triple-A East (Southeast). More about that weirdness later.

As a team, for the entire Triple-A East league, they rank 1st in hitting, 6th in ERA, and 2nd in WHIP (Walks/Hits per inning pitched). That's very, very good. 

And we can see it in the individual players. Six Bulls hitters have OPS's above .900. Granted the season is young, but that's still an exceptional number.

They have so many pitchers on the roster that I confess I can't keep track of them. There are, I think, 22 of 'em. Of those, 20 have made a mound appearance. 

So far Tampa Bay hasn't screwed with the team all that much, but that will surely change.

What about this Triple-A structure and schedule? I don't like it. How to count the ways? 

1. No Governors' Cup. I've got a drawer full of South Division Champions and Governors' Cup T-shirts. But what are we rooting for this year? 
2. What's this division structure and 6-game series all about? I'm guessing the idea is to save travel costs. But as much a fanatic as I am, I'm not gonna go to see 12 games in a row against just two teams.
3. And even in "our" division the Bulls have teams they play a lot and teams they play hardly at all. 
4. What would be wrong with a simple set of "grand rounds"? One home and away series for every team in the league? Why not? Then those of us who are not Tampa Bay Rays fans — that would be most of us — could see teams they are following. 20 x 12 = 240. OK, you'd have to trim it a bit. 
5. I get that they are trying to save travel money, but calling the games from the MiLB-TV broadcast? Really? Shades of Bull Durham movie broadcasts.
6. What are the players playing for? Only a few are on the Rays' 40-man roster, 5 pitchers and 4 position players. The salaries at Triple-A are OK. But, again, what are they playing for? Should be something — like a Triple-A championship ring.

What about the DBAP?

OK. Not great. Just OK.

1. The field seems to be in good condition.
2. All the between-inning stuff has been moved to extreme right field and out of view/earshot. Not sure why. 
3. Covid protocols seem to be OK
4. But you'd think they'd print a program since the visiting team will be here for 6 games. Can't tell the players without a smartphone ... and I don't like digging out my phone to try to figure out who's on first. Maybe with the crowd restrictions, they decided to save some money. At any rate, don't like it.
5. Radio/TV. Needs tech work. Odd echo last night (23 May). Pose/Kinas team in good form. Kinas doing a great job calling games even if in the TV broadcast he sounds like he's in a well (OK on radio).
6. Food beverage ordering is just plain awkward. I don't buy much at games, so not much impact.
7. Netting has been extended. Mostly a good thing since parents apparently don't like to look after their children.
8. 8. Still, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!!!

Tomorrow!

 

The Durham Bulls had a solid start to their season over in Memphis against the Cardinals' franchise, the Redbirds. They took 5 out of 6 in this new style season where six-game sessions are going to be the norm. They come home tied with Gwinnett for first place in the Triple-A East— Southeast.

While in Memphis, the Bulls scored an impressive 49 runs and only allowed 23. The team OPS was .973, the second-best in the "Triple-A East" (the new name for teams mostly from the old International League). 

14 Bulls came to bat over the six games, hit 16 home runs, and gathered up 128 total bases.

The pitching crew did just fine as well. The team ERA is now 3.46, 5th best in the league. The WHIP was 1.079, the second-best. And a bunch of them saw action. Sixteen different Bulls were on the mound.

Tuesday night we'll have our first home baseball since September 2019. It's been a long, long dry spell. 

The Bulls' opponents will be the Jacksonville (Florida) Jumbo Shrimp, which ranks right up there with the Gwinnett Stripers as a team name. They are the Miami Marlins AAA team that has roamed around the country in recent years (New Orleans and Wichita). This year they started the season at home and won 4 of 6 against the Norfolk Tides. They are in third place in the Southeast.

The DBAP has a ton of new rules for this season and they all seem to make sense. On the other hand, we can expect them to change as the COVID rules for North Carolina change. I'm gonna start with my mask on and see how it goes. 

Durham Bulls Off to Good Start

 Game 2, Durham Bulls 4; Memphis Redbirds o

Season: 2-0

Box

Here's a cut & paste from the Bulls report

FRANCO BLASTS FIRST TRIPLE-A HOMER, RYAN FANS NINE IN 4-0 SHUTOUT WIN

Consensus #1 prospect Wander Franco homers & drives in two; starter Joe Ryan earns 1st Triple-A victory

MEMPHIS, TN – Durham second baseman Wander Franco and center fielder Vidal Brujan both homered, while Bulls starter Joe Ryan struck out nine and yielded just two hits in five innings pitched in a 4-0 two-hit shutout win over the Memphis Redbirds on Wednesday night at AutoZone Park.

 

Brujan bashed the fifth pitch of the game for a leadoff longball off St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who was with Memphis on a Major League Rehab Assignment to start the scoring. Two innings later, Brujan would score on Franco’s run-scoring double to right.

 

Franco would later smash a solo shot to left in the fifth for his first career Triple-A home run. The 20-year-old, unanimously touted as the top overall prospect in baseball, has recorded five hits over his first nine at-bats through two games with Durham.

 

Ryan (5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 9 K) retired each of the first 12 batters he faced, which included five consecutive strikeouts at one point, before Memphis DH Austin Dean clubbed a double to left to start the fifth. Ryan earned the win while Mikolas (2.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, BB, 3 K) suffered the defeat. Bulls relievers Phoenix Sanders (1.0 IP, K), Ryan Sherriff (1.0 IP, BB, 2 K), Stetson Allie (1.0 IP, K) and Tyler Zombro (1.0 IP) combined for four hitless frames to preserve the shutout, with Redbirds RF Lane Thomas’ seventh-inning walk the lone blemish.

 

Durham and Memphis are slated to square off in the third game of their six-game series on Thursday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 7:45pm ET. Starting pitchers for both clubs have not yet been announced.

Some additional love for Wander Franco here.

Durham Bulls Begin Season With a Win

 Game 1: Durham Bulls 7; Memphis Redbirds 5

Wrap, Box

They had to wait almost 2 hours, but the Bulls got on a baseball field for the first time since 2019. In Memphis against the St Louis Cardinals AAA franchise. All is right with the world!

And they won with extra-base hits — a triple and 2 home runs. They used 6 of the 17 (!) pitchers on their roster. But only 1 of the 4 (!) catchers. (More about that someday soon). 

Meanwhile, the MiLB-TV worked OK. Plus Patrick Kinas was on the air at 99.9.