Mary Beth Ellis, Author at Redleg Nation

Baseball Is Life: What’s Inside Baseball?

05/12/2021

I don't mean: Explain this boring inside joke of a conversation. I mean: What is actually, physically inside a regulation Major League Baseball baseball? One of my favorite exhibits at the Reds Hall of Fame ... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: When to Clete Out

Mary Beth Ellis

05/05/2021

To Clete out is the process of abandoning a sporting event earlier than hoped for or expected. When is it morally acceptable to do so?

Baseball Is Life: Together Across the Yard

Mary Beth Ellis

04/28/2021

Today I tried this intriguing activity that keeps popping up on Instagram called "walking outside." I put on clothes and shoes, left my house, and walked. Here is what I saw: other people a teenage p... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: Back Through Town Someday

Mary Beth Ellis

04/23/2021

Former Cincinnati Reds Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier are taking different routes in their careers this week.

Baseball Is Life: The Shifting of the Pods

Mary Beth Ellis

04/14/2021

On a Zoom call on a weekend night, their faces appeared one by one. The women I met when we were eighteen were middle-aged now-- mothers, professionals, owners of vehicles. I did my best just after we parte... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: Milemarkers

Mary Beth Ellis

04/07/2021

Some major life events don't happen with a phone call or a positive pregnancy test, but unfold with the slowness of a river barge. They float through the middle of our lives, adjusting with the current, there b... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: Adventures in Ventilation

Mary Beth Ellis

03/31/2021

WIth the dawn of Opening Day comes the desire for new adventures. This year's Opening Day is hanging by a thread of sanity: Some have no hope for the team... some are avoiding the team... some want to attend th... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: The Rules

Mary Beth Ellis

03/24/2021

I am having to aunt as I have never aunted before. My entire clutch of nephews has forsaken baseball for lacrosse. This now means that I have been yanked from the solid West Side ground of crunchy parish backya... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: Under the Shadow

Mary Beth Ellis

03/17/2021

The shadow of the crucifix loomed over the altar and the steps leading to it. Last week, Fr. Mike Schmitz pointed to its origin, an image of Christ crucified suspended over the center of the building, and spoke... Read More...

Baseball Is Life: Buying The Farm

Mary Beth Ellis

07/24/2020

Changes in the neighborhood: On the West Side of Cincinnati, the Angel of Death comes not with a scythe, but an outdoor sign letter changing pole.

Baseball Is Life: Shut Up

Mary Beth Ellis

07/18/2020

We've got baseball again. Well, hopefully. But let's not try to make it something that it's not - let it be what it is. We're all aware of this.

Baseball is Life: The Defiance of Normal

Mary Beth Ellis

03/18/2020

With the Coronavius dominating headlines and upending our lives, we need sports the most--and we must go without for a while. Trevor Bauer tried to help.

Author Mary Beth Ellis