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The first edition of Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge by H. Anthony Medley was the fastest selling beginning bridge book, going through more than 10 printings. This updated Second Edition includes some modern advanced bidding systems and conventions, like Two over One, a system used by many modern tournament players, Roman Key Card Blackwood, New Minor Forcing, Reverse Drury, Forcing No Trump, and others. Also included is a detailed Guide to Bids and Responses, along with the most detailed, 12-page Glossary ever published, as well as examples to make learning the game even easier. | |
| Stupid baseball by Tony Medley I just saw another example of how baseball players today just don’t know how to play the game. In the top of the 8th inning of the Red Sox-Indians game, Boston, leading 4-1, had runners on first and second with one out. Cleveland had a left hander, Perez, pitching. The batter laid down a bunt down the third baseline, easily fielded by Perez. But the third baseman had charged the bunt, even though it was clear that Perez could field it. Perez, being left handed, had an easy play at third for the force play. He fielded the bunt when the runner was barely halfway to third. But since the third baseman hadn’t held at the base for a throw for a force play, Perez, who looked to third first, had to wheel around and throw to first, which he did far too late. When I was growing up, the third baseman would have stayed on third and they would have had the force play. In the 1953 World Series, Yankee catcher Yogi Berra twice in one inning threw to third in similar situations to kill a Brooklyn Dodgers rally because his third baseman held at the bag, key plays in the Yankees winning a game that helped them win the Series in six games. The result today was that Cleveland pulled the pitcher (why not? The third baseman screwed up. Blame the pitcher!). So the new pitcher, Mastny, threw one in the dirt, although it was called a passed ball, but the result was a run scored that wouldn’t have been scored had the third baseman known how to play the game. The sox went on to score two more more runs. If the third baseman holds for the throw, the Sox have runners on first and scond with two out, they leave Perez in and Cleveland probably gets out of the inning unscathed. But not in today’s baseball. Exacerbating the lousy play, neither of Fox’s TV announcers even mentioned it, and one was the esteemed Tim McCarver. October 18, 2007
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