‘Trying to Dig like Tony Gywnn’

Running time: Two Minutes and Ten Seconds

You know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at-bats is 50 points, OK? There’s six months in a season. That’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week, just one, a gork, a ground ball — a ground ball with eyes! — you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium. You still don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?

— Crash Davis, Bull Durham 1988

Thoughts about digging, the unknown, what you can’t see, the negative space. An opportunity for discovery and at the same time a moment to get lost. Trying not to miss the hidden layers within the drawing beneath the Alluvium. I learned a few new things this past week…

Alluvium (from Latin alluvius, from alluere ‘to wash against’) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings.

I feel like I’ve always been a digger, more comfortable within the playful mess of subtraction, searching for the positive within the void, the shadow adjacent to the light. What’s the difference between hitting 250 and 300 in a dig? I think it requires you to get into the pit and search for that moment when the wind travels between the dust. To hit 300 within the trench still means you’re going to fail, you’ll just get more opportunities to get your hands and boots dirty. Thanks Crash🥂