Tag Archives: Sports

MLB offers Star Wars fun and bobbleheads

Posted on by

r2 bobbleheadMajor League Baseball gets into celebrating Star Wars each year with Star Wars nights at selected ballparks.  This year, Cincinnati Reds fans can get this R2-D2 bobblehead with a view level ticket for $25.  The night also features Star Wars music and firework show, character visits, and (usually) an appearance from the Ohio Garrison of the 501st.

Star Wars nights at MLB ballparks also help support the charity StandUp2Cancer.  Other teams hosting Star Wars night during the 2015 season include the Mets, Dodgers, and Cardinals.  Keep an eye on your team’s schedule to see if they’ll be hosting a similar Star Wars night (and ticket deal).

Baseball Writer Realizes Sports and Geek Fandom are the Same Frakking Thing

Posted on by

You might know that I’m a baseball fan. An unfortunate one that chose the hapless Seattle Mariners as his team. In my defense, I blame the fact that I grew up here and it was only logical to pick the Mariners as my team. If I seem testy lately, it’s because they inexplicably traded three cost-controlled years of a good player for one expensive year of a bad player. Argh Mike Morse.

A little while back I wrote about how it was kind of weird that sports fandom is considered culturally acceptable while being a part of more traditional geek fandoms will get you a lot of awkward side glances while you’re on the MARTA to the Peachtree center in Atlanta for Dragon*Con. And I was just wearing a generic Star Wars shirt, you should have seen the looks given to the person next to me in a TARDIS dress.

I’m not the only one that came to the realization that sports fandom and geek fandom are one and the same. Noted Seattle Mariners and baseball blogger Jeff Sullivan came to the same conclusion yesterday while trying to make sense of Star Trek fans arguing over whether the “i” in “into” in “Star Trek Into Darkness” should be capitalized or not.

If they’re odd, we’re odd. If we’re normal, they’re normal. For the sake of another comparison, what’s the difference between debating a capital letter and debating a team logo or uniform? The “i” won’t change anything about the entertainment value of the movie. A logo won’t meaningfully change anything about the entertainment value of a sports team. How is Uni-Watch a thing? People like to share and debate. Their chosen interests determine the things they will share and debate about.

Even if you’re not a Mariners or baseball fan, you should give the whole article a read. Sullivan is one of the best writers in all of sports and baseball and his thoughts pretty much mirror what Ashley Eckstein wrote for CNN’s Geek Out blog a while back and what she said when we interviewed her on the podcast.

Sports fandom and geek fandom? Pretty much the same frakking thing.

Sports and Geek Fandom: The Bizarre Double Standard

Posted on by

Here at Tosche Station, we mean it when we say we’ll talk about anything and everything that has to do with geek culture.

I’m a sports fan. Gridiron football, soccer, basketball (though we’re not on speaking terms until the Sonics come back to Seattle). My first love, though, was baseball. I grew up watching the Seattle Mariners and listening to Dave Niehaus* weave together a daily narrative of America’s grand pass time. Even as my enjoyment of gridiron and basketball waned and my passion for soccer rose, baseball always stayed at the top of my list. But why? Why a game that’s admittedly slow-paced, is crammed full of breaks in the action, whose popularity always seems to be waning? A simple answer, really. Baseball lends itself beautifully to geek culture.

*And to give this a bit more of a science fiction feel, one of the greatest Niehaus calls ever occurred when outfielder Ichiro Suzuki threw a ball on a line from right field to third to gun down Terrance Long. In his words, “Ichiro threw something out of Star Wars.” 

Continue reading →