Empyreal Environs

Dale Sveum signed with the Milwaukee Brewers to be their third base coach today. Sveum will probably appreciate a place that cares more about which sausage will win a race than his name or performance. The Red Sox will now consult with Don Quixote about which windmill to hire next. The thing that most fascinated me about Sveum after his incredibly bad judgment, lack of depth perception, and inability to gauge the speed of moving objects was his nearly unpronounceable surname.

I looked up “Sveum” at ancestry.com and found that it is Norwegian in origin, which explains his height of 6'3", which might be shorter than the average Norwegian. The name is dervied from “Sveen,” which in turn has its origins from the Old Norse word “svið” (land cleared by burning) and “sviða” (to burn). That is fairly descriptive of his tenure here. He took the fans’ criticism with a good sense of humor, however. I will always remember him in the rolling rally pretending to wave in runners in response to fans who recognized him and honored him with that trademark motion.