Rock Theory and Appreciation 103 - the Mitt
Is baseball The Game Of The People? Gerry Tsutakawa's 'The Mitt' burns the idea down the pipe with a rather heavy, er, hand. Fans are welcome to sit in it, lean on it, and generally do any damage they feel they can manage against a gigantic bronze sculpture that could, if it wished, topple over on them and wreak its vengeance.
Dr. D actually finds this sculpture to be annoying. On several different levels. But I'll give it this: there can be no question as to the Mariners' sincerity about extending Safeco Field's reach to as diverse a group of people as it possibly can. On that, er, score The Mitt is an, er, pitch-perfect capture of the Mariners' vision for Safeco as pivot point of the entire city.
What is Dr. D's quibble, you ask? Thought you would. For one thing, what's the hole in the middle? According to Tsutakawa, it can be either a ball in the pocket, or a fastball that tore through the mitt. This genre of pointedly ambiguous art is not to Dr. D's taste. Who really was Right or Wrong when the nasties were booming us, Adolf Hitler or Winston Churchill? Just depends on your perspective, don'cha know.
How about our hobby, sabermetrics? Neither are they in the spirit of this entire "Blake Beavan or Taijuan Walker? Well, your preference just depends on your cultural bias" shtick. Real things -- landing an airplane, taking out an appendix, selecting the right pitcher in March -- don't encourage the academic indulgence of "believe as thou wilt."
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You could argue that the grossly small fingers point to the old-style mitts which looked better suited to taking a meat loaf out of the oven - hey, my dad had one of those, from the 1950's. The leather was nearly black, the level of pocket padding was preposterous, and the mitt was cool. But here, we add the concept of gaps between the fingers and now the entire monstrosity smacks of an effete, enfeebled version of "hardball." Let's have a catch, sis. Let's toss the ball but be sure not to throw it very hard. I didn't bring my tricycle helmet.
The subconscious belief that the mitt is powerless creates a clash with the conscious, nodding acquaintance with the fact that Randy Johnson can throw a snowball through a garage door. This speaks to an insincerity of the piece, in my view.
You could say that the fingers are impressionistic, abstracted. Dr. D turns one thumb (ha!) down on the impression intended.
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Plus the thing don' look good.
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Finally: are the Mariners really Seattle's team? In Boston and Chicago, the baseball communities are more democratic. Pressure from the people who are watching the game - that actually affects the people who are putting on the game. The Mariners are ultimately controlled from Japan, and notoriously impervious to the clamoring of the populace for real live fights for the World Series.
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... Like we sez earlier: big points for the populist theme. The art basically works. ::shrug:: Like Brandon League saving games at 5 strikeouts per nine innings, it does what it's supposed to do.
My $0.01,
Art Critic Poser Jeff