whynot | Entries tagged with baseball!!!

Meanwhile, in Marchand/Pastrnak news:

ping pong all night long oh yea is that what the kids are calling it these days. Don't worry, Brad's gonna give it to him a lot more frequently now amirite ladiez

On another note, sports fandom has gotten me thinking again about how to write stories where the characters have language barriers. What's the best way to do that? In SPN fandom, I dealt with it a few times by racebending characters into Indonesians, specifically Sundanese Indonesians because that's the cadence I'm most familiar with. (BANDUNG REPRESENT.) But like, take baseball - I don't know Japanese or Spanish. Hockey, I don't know Russian or any of the northern and eastern European languages. I don't really know how to do the broken English in fic and be confident that I can pull it off.

I was thinking, then, maybe write a fic from say David Pastrnak's POV and narrate his thoughts and try to cheat around dialogue. English is not my first language either, but it's become the language I'm most comfortable in, whereas my grasp of Indonesian kinda stalled at around the age I was when my family emigrated. I know there's an English-language novel out there about a POC family in which when they're speaking in their native language, the dialogue is still written in English with us understanding it's not, but when other people are speaking in English, their dialogue is italicized, and maybe not in quotations, or something? There has to be a way I can do this without learning Japanese/Spanish/Czech/Finnish/Russian/Swedish.

I'm fascinated by the intersections though. I have this scene I want to work into baseball fic at some point where Christian Vazquez is, like, idk, eating a sandwich while Xander Bogaerts is nattering away on the phone next to him. Vazquez and Bogaerts, BFFs extraordinaire, usually talk to each other in Spanish, but Bogaerts is on the phone with his brother and they're talking in Papiamento. Vazquez doesn't know Papiamento, but he recognizes some words simply because he's been hanging around Bogaerts for so long. Stuff like that. But I'd be writing all this in English 'cos that's the language I know, so how do I balance that!

Like check out Ichiro Suzuki and Munenori Kawasaki, who have picked up the obscene variety of Spanish from their teammates. Another thing I want is a scene where Koji Uehara, David Ortiz, and Mike Napoli are hanging out shit-faced enough that Koji speaks Japanese more often than not, and Ortiz speaks Spanish more often than not, and Nap's just blabbering along in English, and they all get along merrily and understand each other just enough in this grand adventure. basball frans

Crossposts: http://twoskeletons.livejournal.com/222585.html

Gratuitous icon post! Holy hell, it has been ten centuries since I typed that specific sequence of words. Anyway, left to right, that's Rubby de la Rosa and Christian Vazquez, who are only wee babies, and Vazquez is the babbiest of them all. At first it wasn't clear to me whether everyone fell in drastic love with Vazquez because of his skills and disposition, or just because he's not Pierzynski. As it turns out, it's both. The reasons are synonymous. Vazquez gets on base, he guns down would-be base-stealers, he picks off guys on first, AND HE IS LIKE. SO HANDSY. Encouraging pats and hugs everywhere! For everyone!

Seriously, for everyone. I've seen him pat the butts of guys on the opposing team, like "hey man keep up the good work" like peace on earth, dudes. BABE. He doesn't let his lack of command of the English language prevent him from being a communicative, supportive guy. He reaches out, always. He'll go up to the mound no matter who it is, rookie or veteran, and pull him in close and speak his mind, talk the guy down, herd some cats, another pat on the butt. You can do it.

Look in the mirror. Look into your soul. Are you being the person Christian Vazquez believes you can be?

Clay Buchholz, who has been a complete wreck all season, was quick to fall in love. Here's a catcher who can save him from himself. Buchholz is years away from that no-hitter against Baltimore, and on the mound he always looks vaguely shut down the way people do when they know they've fucked up but have nowhere else to go. What Buchholz needs now is - well, a lot of things, but let's focus on actionable plans. He needs strikes. Vazquez will steal strikes for him. Everyone talks about Vazquez's soft hands, and their strength, how he keeps low to the ground. He trained with the Molina brothers back in Puerto Rico and now his name is up in lights. Suddenly, the boundaries of the strike zone are established not by home plate, but by sleight of hand. The opposing team was pummeled into submission, and yes, fine, it was just the Astros, but for a deteriorating team and a pitcher in the midst of accelerated decay, it was the kind of morale boost we needed in a season that has given us so little to cheer for. Buchholz was effusive in his praise for Christian Vazquez, and the beat writers wrote it all down.

And as for the rest of the rotation, hell. First of all, what rotation? Ahahahaha. But secondly, yeah, I mean there's a reason why we've been calling the team the Boston Paw Sox all season. The Red Sox is, like, half rookies? It's a revolving door between Boston and the Pawtucket Red Sox. It's a rebuilding year. It's throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's a lot of excuses. BUT THE POINT IS Rubby de la Rosa, Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo, and I guess half the bullpen, they all came up with Vazquez. They already know they can trust him. And in this way, Christian Vazquez came to hold the Red Sox pitching staff in the palm of his hand.

DON'T GET TRADED, BOO.

Crossposts: http://twoskeletons.livejournal.com/222223.html

I have so many conflicting about these signings, idek! The Giants and the Red Sox are my teams, but I kind of rather Pablo stay with the Giants. And now I hear the Giants are trying to go after Lester? I RATHER LESTER RETURN TO THE RED SOX. Apparently I fear change.

God, San Francisco just loves Pablo though. Don't leave all that behind, guy! If you say you wanna go somewhere where you're gonna be respected, idk, I think San Francisco might give you more leeway than Boston because we are all a bunch of crankypants here. It's all that chowder and snow. It gives us imbalanced humors. I love you, Pablo, but I feel like a mother sending her child off to college. ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE GOING TO BE OKAY, I HEAR SOME COLLEGE BATHROOMS HAVE MOLD SO HERE IS A CRATE OF MOLD-B-GONE AND YOU CAN COME HOME ANYTIME oh god i should have home-schooled you MY SWEET BABY. IF YOUR ROOMMATE IS MEAN, JUST TELL ME AND I WILL INFORM THEIR PARENTS AND CALL THE NATIONAL GUARD!!!

What if Lester to the Giants, what if Lester nudges the Giants to sign Peavy again, because bros. Boston bros in San Francisco. LEAVE ME ALONE. COME HOME, LESTER. YOU CAN BUY A NICER HOUSE IN WELLESLEY.

My quest to follow Ike Davis around the league like a lost puppy continues. I am, until further notice, an A's fan.

I am so wary and so excited.