Idle Thoughts on the “Regular” Season
Despite the best efforts of the San Diego Baseball Padres, yesterday marked the end of the 2010 regular season. I’m not sure what that means for you, but, for Carson Cistulli, it presents a bright, shining opportunity to wax intellectual — which, that’s what I plan to do in what follows.
One thing about which I was — and, really, still am — curious is the word regular itself.
The most peculiar use of regular is the way it’s used by the employees and (ahem) regulars of Dunkin Donuts. I don’t know how wide this particular phenomenon reaches, but I can tell you with certainty that, in both Concord, NH and Newton, MA, to order a “regular” coffee at Dunkins is to order a coffee with cream and sugar. (Although, perhaps this makes sense: given the relative lack of racial diversity in both towns, there is, for sure, nothing “regular” about being black in either. One can only assume that the coffee is mimicking the most abundant local demographic.)
Per Etymonline, regular actually originates with the Proto-Indo-European root reg-, meaning “move in a straight line.” In Latin, the verb regere (“to rule, direct”) informs words like rex (“king” or “ruler”), regens (“ruler, governor”), and regula (“rule”). The last usage is the same as that in, for example, The Rule of St. Benedict (or St. Francis, St. Augustine, etc).
That the word regular has religious origins isn’t so surprising, on account of (a) basically every word has some kind of religious origin and also (b) the MLB calendar itself is similarly cyclical.
The Liturgical Year (the Catholic one, anyway) is, broadly speaking, broken into four parts: Advent, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. You could make any number of distinctions (i.e. separating Advent into Advent and Christmas, combining Lent and Easter), but these are the four periods that span at least one month.
The Baseball Year also — again, speaking broadly — also comes in four parts: Hot Stove, Spring Training, Regular Season, Postseason.
I’m not sure it’s an exact analogue. I mean, Ordinary Time and the Regular Season — they’re very obviously similar. But what’s more like Advent, the Hot Stove League or Spring Training? Hard to say.
The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following as one of the many definitions of regular:
Chiefly U.S. (colloq.). Of a person: ordinary, normal, unremarkable; (hence, as a general term of mild approbation) unpretentious, unassuming; decent, agreeable, esp. in regular guy.
That, in itself, isn’t particularly interesting or relevant. What is interesting and relevant is that the OED attributes the earliest instance of this usage to former Cub, Cardinal, and (in 1900) Orphan Roger Bresnahan, in an article from the December 21, 1912 edition of the Boston Globe.
I’ve reprinted the article below, in full. The relevant passage comes at the very end, but the whole thing is generally awesome.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
This is pretty bad filler (yes, I am aware the site does not charge for it’s content). What’s next, a discussion of the origin of “Major” in Major League Baseball (complete with a full listing of the various ranks within our armed forces, an aside on music theory, and a biography of Lee Majors, among other things)?
You were making real progress with your “One Night Only” features….I definitely enjoy those.
“Why don’t you sit this next one out, stop talking for a while.” – Brian Fantana
Deal with it
No no, this was pretty bad. I actually nodded off while reading this. Positively thinking, his REGULAR one night only posts leave me hoping they continue next year.
Wow Carson, you are just the worst. I mean not only the worst writer on this site by far, but also the worst writer I ever come across in daily perusing the Internet, books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Your writing makes me angry, it’s so bad.
Every once in a while I click on one of your stories to see if it’s gotten any better. I think, “He can’t possibly still be that bad, can he?” But he can. And occasionally (like today), I click on one by accident, not noticing your name, and two sentences in I realize OH MY GOD THIS IS HORRIBLE.
Also, coffee regular is commonly understood all over the East Coast — not just the particular towns you mention and certainly not just in Dunkin Donuts — to mean “milk and sugar.” As opposed to “black” or “sweet” or “light.” It has nothing to do with “the most abundant local demographic” and everything to do with “the way most people drink coffee.”
That’s really bold of you to make such a declaration while hiding behind the old “Fire Carson” moniker. If you are really going to call out people in such a manner on the internet you ought to at least have the stones to use your real name rather than hiding in anonymity. What a coward!
Carson is the 6th best writer on this site.
“but also the worst writer I ever come across in daily perusing the Internet”
Good God this is a terrible sentence.
“Every once in a while I click on one of your stories to see if it’s gotten any better.”
Stories is plural, and it’s describes one thing. Also, it’s means it is, not it has. You have to type that one out.
If you’re going to criticize someone’s writing, try to shore up your own first. Troll.
Can you actually read?
“Wow Carson, you are just the worst. I mean not only the worst writer on this site by far, but also the worst writer I ever come across in daily perusing the Internet, books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Your writing makes me angry, it’s so bad.”
===============
Looks someone’s never read anything by Dave Cameron.
Can’t say I’ve ever run across an article about baseball and linguistics. Great and enjoyable work as always, Carson. I can always count on you for something real interesting.
With no disrespect intended to the rest of the scribes at Fangraphs, but Carson Cistulli is the best pure writer of the group. A lot of the articles here suffer from lousy gramar/clunky sentences, and that’s fine, this isn’t english class. The content in those pieces more than makes up for their deficiencies.
Carson’s posts on the other hand, while conventional, feature entertaining writing. They read more like an article and less like a script, and it is a feature I quite enjoy. Rock on Carson.
I’m wondering IF you say this only because as a writer, Carson’s writing (on this website) sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s different, sure, but I’ve never looked at being different as automatically being good (not saying you do either). When I read his articles I see a script, I see a lack of care for writing about something that may (or may not) increase my knowledge about baseball. In fact…. this article BARELY discusses baseball. So my question is that, Is he truly a great writer in your eyes or are the other writers on this site just bad in your eyes?
I wish he’d write like Albert Lyu or any writer I actually care about. I also wish he’d write with a brain looking for knowledge or some kind of warped sense of humor. Instead…. I get….. well….. black coffee….. bitter and tasteless. I’d like my regular green tea now.
Seems to be a lot about what you want, from a website that serves many? That all of a site’s content must be consumed by each reader (and that which is not to your liking complained about), well, I’m not sure where or why such a stance started appearing throughout the internet–and I’m not saying that applies to you necessarily (one comment sample size isn’t large enough for my liking).
If Carson’s writing were pulling FanGraphs off a path of providing great (and free!) statistics or keeping more analytic articles off the page, maybe I could understand the level of complaining. It isn’t, though. If anything, I think Carson’s writing can have a good effect on everyone, if only for being a different tone/style (and, of course, still [very] competent).
Point is, there are a lot of people that enjoy Carson’s articles and vastly different takes on what is interesting, no one has to read them and they aren’t keeping other articles off the site, and, seriously, save complaining for things like lies, logic errors, things that matter.
Welcome the Earth, home of people who primarily, perhaps solely, care about what they want.
Seroiusly, when it gets right down to it, that’s all people really care about … what you can do for them, and what they get out of it.
Very few selfless people are acts.
Personally, as a customer, I don’t really care if a business offers lots of products and services, only concerned about the one I need. That’s kinda hoiw it goes.
Now, i agree that the comments in this thread are out of whack. I don’t get or enjoy the article, but so be it. There’s others I do enjoy.
@CC11 I can’t tell whether you’re criticizing my comment or just using the first half of my first sentence as a jumping off point. I think anyone that has any interaction with others knows that people are out there for themselves, and I really don’t begrudge them of that in most cases. I’m not saying everyone’s actions should be guided by some kind of saintly goodness. What I’m talking about are the strange mental leaps required to make a post on a website important to one’s self. Just a little self-awareness should prevent these types of posts, because all the complaining about something like this goes against self-interest. It simply ends up looking foolish and whiny.
I agree, being different isn’t the same as being good. But I think Carson manages to entertain while doing so in an unconventional style. His articles don’t feature the usual cutting edge analysis that the other authors pieces offer, but I’m ok with it. Baseball writing shouldn’t be restricted to ‘player A is better than player B even though player A may have a good earned run average.’ Carson is a change of pace, and like some other people have mentioned in the comments here, if it’s not your kind of thing, it’s easy to scroll to another article.
As for whether I think Carson is a good writer or is just better than the rest of the crew: Tough to answer, because posts by guys like R.J. or JoePa tend to rely more on statistics, and it can be difficult to integrate the numbers into a smooth flowing article. That said, I think stylistically, Carson (and Dave Cameron) are very good writers.
I agree. In fact, I much prefer Carson’s tangential articles to his “One Night Only” posts.
I mean unconventional, not conventional in my comment above.
Indeed, I quite liked the article. As an English major/Religion minor who happens to love baseball, the liturgical year, and etymology this article was pretty much perfect. Filler? Sure. But fun? Absolutely. Keep it up, it’s fun to see baseball compared to other things in the real world.
Spring Training is definitely Advent. The Hot Stove season is Lent. I suffer through to much RUMINT. “X signed with Y.” “Z traded A.” Too, Lent precedes Easter and after the Hot Stove Season, I fully expect the ressurrection of Bert Blyleven, Robert Alomar, and maybe a few others.
That article is awesome. Well done, Carson!
As a fan of Carson’s, I disliked the first negative nancy’s comment. But part of me wants to bet paper money that “fire Carson” is actually Carson himself. If not, hope is likely lost for humanity.
What the F?
OMG INTERNET OPINIONS
What are/were you doing in my hometown, Newton, MA?
You didn’t go to North did you?
It seems like what you’re doing without quite getting there is arguing that the word “regular” serves no purpose here. What happens from April to October is the season; what comes after that is the postseason. Makes sense to me.
I refute your claim that regular coffee should refer to black coffee because black coffee can already be referenced by a single adjective (black), whereas coffee with milk and sugar cannot (‘regular’ notwithstanding).
The real confusion comes when decaf comes into play, as ‘regular’ is a common substitute for caffeinated. However, my preference is for caffeinated to be implied, unless decaf is explicitly requested, and for regular to refer to “with milk and sugar”.
Carson seems like such a polarizing figure on this site, it’s ridiculous.
You know what’s also ridiculous? How awesome Carson’s articles are.
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