Posted By:
Frank WakefieldGreat, Dave.
I heard someone talk once about how baseball is not a game. It isn't 9 innings. Not even a season. It is a continuum. I'm a Cardinal fan because my Dad listened to the games on the radio, and took me to St. Louis to see games, over 250 miles away. He was a Cardinal fan because his father was, having again listened on the radio.
I can close my eyes and see Dad hitting me a fly ball in the back yard, so I'd be ready for little league. I can smell the leather of that first glove. Can't we all? I think of those thoughts when tossing ball with my son, or with a kid when I coached. I hope to throw ball with my grandson one day, but he's just now 5 months old. And I like to think that he'll think of me when he's playing catch with a grandson of his.
I remember the sounds of the vendors selling scorecards when I went to my first game, the drabness of the steel girders and concrete in the back walkways, contrasting with the vivid green of the grass, brightness of the sky, the whiteness of the home uniforms... vibrant colors and sounds, as a BP ball would leave the bat and sail lazily out to a nonchalant fielder.
Baseball is a continuum that spans lifetimes, spans generations. Only at the ball park can the lawyer, the construction worker, the nun, the school teacher, the janitor, and other folks; folks who disagree about so much, only at the ball park can they all agree on cheering their team on to victory.