"In the beginning, there was no baseball. But ever since, there have been few beginnings as good as the start of a new baseball season. It is the most splendid time in sport." ~B.J. Phillips.
I'm sitting here watching opening day baseball games. This is, by far, my favorite day of the year. It is my own version of Christmas. I live and breathe this game. I love everything about it. I love reading about it, studying it, analyzing box scores, watching it and especially listening to it on the radio. I love my team, but I love the game more. Winning isn't everything. The game, to me, is about more than that. It is so beautiful. The gorgeous green grass. The beautiful brown dirt. The pristine white foul (fair?) lines
. I love the 12 to 6 curve ball, the perfectly executed relay from the outfield to throw out the runner at the plate, the sweet lefty swing, the 4-6-3 double play, keeping score at the games, the third baseman coming in and bare-handing the ball and throwing across the infield to get the runner at first, the brushback pitch and Baseball Tonight's web gems. This game is history to me. And relationships. My father and I share the love of this game. As do Billy and I. And we're passing it along to our children. Ashley's first major league game was on her one-month birthday. She's been keeping score at games for years now. Ryan is named after Nolan Ryan, the greatest power pitcher ever. His first major league game matched up Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens at Wrigley Field. And I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as a lullaby to them when they were babies. They both have known all the words to the song for as long as they can remember. I'm pretty serious about my love of this game. "The Void," as George Will refers to the off-season, is now over. Baseball is back. I can breathe again!
. I love the 12 to 6 curve ball, the perfectly executed relay from the outfield to throw out the runner at the plate, the sweet lefty swing, the 4-6-3 double play, keeping score at the games, the third baseman coming in and bare-handing the ball and throwing across the infield to get the runner at first, the brushback pitch and Baseball Tonight's web gems. This game is history to me. And relationships. My father and I share the love of this game. As do Billy and I. And we're passing it along to our children. Ashley's first major league game was on her one-month birthday. She's been keeping score at games for years now. Ryan is named after Nolan Ryan, the greatest power pitcher ever. His first major league game matched up Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens at Wrigley Field. And I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as a lullaby to them when they were babies. They both have known all the words to the song for as long as they can remember. I'm pretty serious about my love of this game. "The Void," as George Will refers to the off-season, is now over. Baseball is back. I can breathe again!
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." ~ Rogers Hornsby
OPENING DAY
For over a century, baseball has been hailed above all other sports as America's National Pastime. And no other game during the regular one-hundred sixty-two game season has been as eagerly anticipated as Opening Day. Just look at any die-hard baseball fan's calendar. Vacation? Holidays? Anniversaries? All are often forgotten and pale in comparison with the coveted first game of the season. Ask any fan what the "official" start of Spring is. Chances are their answer will be Opening Day.Regardless of the outcome, Opening Day still remains as the number one date in the hearts, minds (and on the calendars) of baseball fans everywhere. The official countdown begins after the last pitch of the World Series when we can't wait to hear those two magic words again, "Play Ball!"
"There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League." ~ George Vecsey
BASEBALL IS
by Greg Hall
Baseball is grass, chalk, and dirt displayed the same yet differently
In every park that has ever heard the words play ball.
In every park that has ever heard the words play ball.
Baseball is a passion that bonds and divides all those who know it.
Baseball is a pair of hands stained with newsprint,
A set of eyes squinting to read a boxscore,
A brow creased in an attempt to recreate a three-hour game
From an inch square block of type.
Baseball is the hat I wear to mow the lawn.
Baseball is a simple game of catchand the never-ending search for the perfect knuckleball.
Baseball is Willie vs Mickey, Gibson vs Koufax, and Buddy Biancalana vs the odds.
Baseball links Kansan and Missourian, American and Japanese,
But most of all father and son.
Baseball is the scent of spring,
The unmistakable sound of a double down the line,
And the face of a 10-year-old emerging from a pile of bodies
With a worthless yet priceless foul ball.
Baseball is a language of very simple words that tell unbelievably magic tales.
Baseball is three brothers in the same uniform on the same team for one brief summer
Captured forever in a black and white photo on a table by the couch.
Baseball is a glove on a shelf, oiled and tightly wrapped,
Slumbering through the stark winter months.
Baseball is a breast pocket bulging with a transistor radio.
Baseball is the reason there are transistor radios.
Baseball is a voice in a box describing men you've never met,
In a place you've never been,
Doing things you'll never have the chance to do.
Baseball is a dream that you never really give up on.
Baseball is precious.
Baseball is timeless.
Baseball is timeless.
Baseball is forever.
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." ~ Terence Mann (Field of Dreams)
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