It’s the little things in life..

They say “it’s the little things in life.”   I suppose that is a sentence, “it” being the subject and “is” being the verb. But what does the sentence mean? It’s the little things in life…. what?  What is the little things in life? Or, the little things in life is (are) what? Shouldn’t it be “They’re the little things in life…” and shouldn’t there be a clause identifying what those little things are?

In fact, many people DO slap clauses of their own design onto the end of the sentence.  “It’s the little things in life that:

• “make you happy.”
• “make the world go around.”
• “mean the most.”
• “make a big difference”
• “count.”

Here’s a test, a little thing, a study of what people mean by “it’s the little things in life”.  See whether it fits any of the five above tests:

To research “It’s the little things in life” I visited BrainyQuote.  Not a selective institution.  Joel Osteen leads off, describing little things as things that upset you. Victoria Osteen comes along to calls little things blessings. Matt Lauer utters praise of the little things that mean so much when you’re with your kids. Hayley Hasselhoff warns us not to dwell so much on little things, or let them hold us back. Queen Latifah advises us to take time enjoying little things, “like looking out into (your) backyard and seeing deer in the fields.”

I don’t know about you, but I found this little thing both inconclusive and inspiring.   In fact, right now I’m inspired to see if I could meet the entry requirements for BrainyQuote.

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Canberra: DNP,(-3) – 0.  (.125, .176, .125; no pitching).  I first recorded the score from Canberra’s non-game day as “3 – 0.”  Then I noticed a little thing: in 16 plate appearances, the ‘Roos had a combined OPS of .301.  There’s no way you could score three runs with that kind of input.  So I checked my math again. I had erred. The ‘Roos LOST three runs yesterday. And yet their lead has expanded by 0.2 games. Well, at least in this case we have a clear lesson about little things: little things can escape notice. You may have to look more carefully to see them.

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Brookland: W, 10 – 7. (.429, .467, 1.214; 0 pitching).  Only 3 Outs played Thursday. Three Outs.  Perfect.  Aaron Hicks went 0 for 4, but Jose Martinez and Gregory Polanco (sob!) combined to go 6 for 10 with two doubles and three homers. They OPSed a joint 2.316. That little thing, Outs coming in threes, resonated with the universe in a big way.  We have an expansion team in second place two weeks into the season.  Brrrrr.  It’s creeping me out a little.

Little things can resonate into big things. And they can creep us out. Two lessons for the price of one.

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D.C.: DNP, 1 – 0.  (.258, .281, .290; 1 ip, 0 er).  That batting line is very close to replacement level. But there were 32 plate appearances for the Balk on an off day.  I’m guessing, without looking,  the Balk replaced some replacements with players who could play defense. That isn’t much, but it was enough to nudge the Balk’s winning percentage not go down so much as to dump them out of 3rd place.  So: little things can save lives.

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Portland: DNP, 3 – 3. (.077, .167, .192; 7 ip, 0 er).  Jose Berrios pitched 7 scoreless innings, striking out 11 and walking none, to keep the Rosebuds from being felled by their truly puny offense.  Watch out! Little things can trip you up if you don’t have a dominant pitcher!

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Kaline: L, 4 – 9. (.231, .310, .308; 9.7 ip, 7 er).  Michael Fulmer chulked (3 ip, 6 er) and Trevor Williams couldn’t put all the pieces back together again despite 6 ip, 1 er.   But even here small things can give pleasure.  Take Jorge Soler’s 4 for 4 day — 4 strikeouts, that is. If you were an evil EFL owner who had just traded Soler away, you might take pleasure in Soler not looking like another embarrassing Jose Altuve situation. We don’t have any evil EFL owners — I am just using this as an illustration of the possibility of small things giving pleasure.  A more saintly EFL owner would take pleasure in having traded Steve Pearce to the Drive so they could benefit from Pearce’s .862 OPS on the season so far — another small thing.

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Pittsburgh: W, 4 – 4. (.308, .308, .385; 1 ip, 0 er). It’s good to see Michael Brantley, struggling to resume his career at age 31, have a good day: 2 for 4 with a double. Now that the topic of saintly owners has come up, I discover a small vial of saintliness within me, not yet entirely dried up, to root for a player who was never a Wolverine. And even worse, IS an Allegheny. Playing alongside that mutter mutter Altuve.

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Old Detroit: W, 3 – (-1). (.132, .195, .263; 7 ip, 0 er).  The Giants’ Chris Stratton pitched 7 brilliant innings against the Padres Thursday: 7 ip, 4 so, 3 walks.  And one teeny little hit.  By a pinch hitter for the Padres’ shellacked pitcher. The pinch hitter was himself a pitcher:  Clayton Richard.  So in his last two games, Richard has blasted a three run homer and  pinched hit to break up a no-hitter.  (Dave: for some reason BP doesn’t list Richard as both a hitter and a pitcher.  It does list Ohtani both ways. Unfair! Andy Green can bat him. The Wolverines are as worthy as the Padres. How can I get access to Richard’s hitting stats, since he’s a two-way player? He’s OPSing 1.000 this season — which would lead my team, if I could bat him.) (Yes, yes, I know his 7 PA are only a small thing, but as Madhuri Dixit so famously put it, “Looking beautiful isn’t just about what you apply on your face. It’s the little things you do that matter.” ) (No, no,  Dave, calm down.  I am definitely not saying you are just a beautiful face…)

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Cottage: “W”, 5 – 6. (.333, .412, .600 — Happy Edgar Day! No pitching). True, it was an Edgar Day at the Cottage. But thoroughly enjoyable even if it was only a little one: just four batters taking 17 plate appearances. Also there were two double plays.  But the real news was Mike Trout, and his 3 for 4 with a homer and a walk. That’s a 2.300 OPS — just a little less than the OPS Jose Martinez and Gregory Polanco averaged for Brookland.

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Flint Hill: L, 4 – 11. (.200, .333, .300;  6 ip 6 er).  Sonny Gray got shelled by the Bosox (who were enjoying Porcello’s 7 ip, 0 er performance).  I hope Tornado fans enjoyed Jackie Bradley, Jr’s third inning double down the left field line in Fenway.  Giancarlo Stanton drifted to the foul line, but the ball landed several feet fair, at a spot Stanton had just crossed.  Then it bounced into the stands. You can see it all here: https://www.mlb.com/news/rick-porcello-stymies-yanks-flirts-with-no-no/c-271935238. Just a little present to the Tornados from non-EFLer Giancarlo Stanton.  He hopes you enjoyed it.

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Haviland: L, 3 – 8. (.182, .182, .409; no pitching).  Bryce Harper went 0 for 4.  He’s now batting for the season .286, .467, .714.  That’s not bad!  In the midst of a dismal start to the season, the Dragons are no doubt taking solace in Harper’s heroism.  Manny Machado is doing “just” .321, .419, .547.  Wolverine fans are still disgruntled Garden City didn’t grab one of those two.  The third superstar, Mike Trout, has a healthy .273, .388, .474 — great for normal players, but not yet back up to Troutian standards. So the Dragons are in first place in the superstar race!

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Peshastin: W, 2 – 0. (  It is possible to have something smaller than what Peshastin had yesterday, only just barely.  They had two players in action, total.  They combined to go 0 for 7.  Nothing so far. Oh, but Jose Iglesias got hit by a pitch.  Aha! Some offense!  But then Javier Baez hit into a double play.  Which completely erased the HBP.  With only two batters, the GDP had to be immediately after the HBP.  So what the Pears had yesterday was 1 baserunner for one at bat.  It was a subatomic particle of offense, flashing into existence and then immediately annihilating.

What could be smaller?  Your only player to appear that day is a pinch runner who steals a base and then gets picked off before the next pitch.

Eureka!  It gives me great pleasure to announce the smallest possible particle of baseball offense: the stolen base erased by a pickoff. We could even call it the Mock Particle.

 

 

 

Peshastin:    .