San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
‘ Uglyfinders’? Coliseum balls are things of beauty
“Uglyfinder” is a baseball term for a ball that either hits you, or tries to.
Example: I barely ducked a screaming foul ball in the Giants’ press box a couple of years ago, sprawling onto the floor as Chronicle colleague Henry Schulman clucked sympathetically, “That was an uglyfinder.”
Now, thanks to the coronavirus and a kind heart, baseball has a new term for a ball: a joyfinder.
That’s any baseball hit into the fanless grandstands, collected by sportswriter Janie McCauley, and presented later to a paramedic, passerby, construction worker, friend or random stranger.
McCauley, who covers Bay Area sports for the Associated Press, was working the A’s fanfree Opening Night game, social distancing from other scribes in the stands, when a foul ball off Mark Canha’s bat clanged into the empty seats nearby.
McCauley ran over, picked up the ball, and later gave it to a friend who had been ill. He was delighted.
McCauley is a nextlevel thinker. So many balls land in the empty stands, why not collect a few and put ’ em to good use, spread some baseball cheer?
After each local game she covered, Giants and A’s, McCauley had herself a onewoman Easter egg hunt. She gathered between 10 and 20 balls, dumped them into the trunk of her car, then handed ’ em out randomly. To school teachers, firefighters, friendly bakery workers. To anyone who looked like they could use a good used baseball.
“People love them,” McCauley said. “Now that they can’t be at games, it’s almost like it gives them a piece of the game. Especially in a year like this, why not spread a little joy if we can? And be kind, and reach out to strangers, and to nonstrangers, who might need some care, or a little bit of a lift?”
Zero surprise that it was McCauley who hit on the idea. When fires swept Northern California two years ago, she set up a fund that produced $ 2,500 scholarships for two Paradise High students.
After the A’s big win Thursday, McCauley Easteregged a personal record 25 baseballs, each destined for a good home.
This has been a rough year, but there is some joy in Mudville.
Scott Ostler is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sostler@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ scottostler
A’s reliever said the A’s having to start their first three playoff games at noon was “horsepoop.” Or a word close to that. It’s a word unique to baseball. You never hear it used in basketball or football. Not even in horse racing or horseshoes.
Although Diekman and the A’s had a legit beef about those noon starts, this is 2020. Having to get up early for work doesn’t rise to the level of horsepoop.
I don’t know who started the movement, but I’m joining it, urging MLB to pull the World Series out of Texas unless the state governor reverses his blatant votersuppression tactics. Preventing Americans from from voting is horsepoop.
MLB is fortunate that the Giants won’t be in the World Series. Led by Gabe Kapler and Mike Yastrzemski, the Giants would be the team most likely to raise a stink about American voters getting hosed in Texas.
It’s nice to see Andre Iguodala’s younger brother, Andre, doing so well in the playoffs. The NBA’s short season has been perfect for Iguodala, 36, whose body can no longer withstand a sixmonth grind.