1. Hot Dogs: Hot Dogs never taste as good as when you eat them at a ball park.
2. Girls: I have noticed that there often a surprising number of good looking girls at ball games. By the middle innings of a game on a hot summer afternoon, they are often barefoot, scantily clad, and sweaty. This is where sex and baseball come together, an unbeatable combination.
3. Camaraderie: Sitting in a pub with a ball game on, striking up a conversation with the guy sitting next to you. You’ve never met before, but you form an instant bond over the fact that you both think Johnny Damon looks like a hairless monkey and throws like a girl.
4. Strategy: Sitting (I do too much sitting) along the third base line, or on my couch at home, explaining to my son why the shortstop is cheating over towards second base with a runner on first. Or why the sacrifice bunt is for losers.
5. Babe Ruth: Only baseball could have produced the Sultan of Swat. Hercules, P.T. Barnum and a scruffy, profane street kid all rolled up in one. If he’d never actually existed, we would have had to pay Studs Terkel big bucks to invent him.
6. Countdown to Opening Day: My kids have the twelve days of Christmas (actually more like 45) to build up the anticipation of their favorite holiday. My countdown to Opening Day begins as soon as the first snow hits the ground. Then, as Rogers Hornsby said, I just stare out the window and wait for spring.
7. Baseball Cards: I don’t buy as many as I used to, but I still get the same rush of anticipation every time I open a new pack. The contents of most packs are pretty standard and predictable (Derek Lowe, Astros Team Checklist, Joe Girardi manager card,) but once in a while, you find a real gem.
8. Baseball Movies: I wait for those hot July summer nights, crack open a beer, and watch The Natural, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, or whatever baseball movie I’m in the mood for. They’re all more than a little corny (and I don’t think the definitive baseball movie has yet been made) but they help top off the baseball rapture in my soul.
9. Box Scores: I love those little bastards. They say so much by saying so little. An entire game reduced to little rows of numbers about the size of a paragraph. Halladay: 9 IP – 2 H – O ER – 0 BB – 7 K’s. Just beautiful.
10. Playing Catch: Tossing the ball around, hitting fungoes, watching my kid rope a vicious line drive into the parking lot for a ground rule double. This is as good as it gets for a middle-aged American male.
Bill,
Great list! What other game can make you always feel like the boy who use to spend his summers playing sandlot ball until the Sun went down each day? What sport can create endless arguments that can never be settled and where no one is ever wrong?
What a great list!! Super job and I agree completely!
Thanks Vinnie and David, I could have added more, but you have to stop somewhere. Thanks for reading, and for the kind words. Regards, Bill
Hello. Excellent job. I didn’t anticipate this on a Wednesday. This is a good story. Thanks!
Ruthie, Thank you so much for the kind words. If you like my writing, I am over at mlbblogbuzz.com
Thanks, Bill Miller
Very good list. I really enjoy taking a day off of work and lying on the couch watching an afternoon game at Wrigley on TV. Listening to the Twins games on the radio. Listening to the Royals games on the radio.
Douglas, Thanks for the kind words. I seldom get a chance to take a day off to watch a ballgame, but I love early evenings at a ballpark when the sun is just starting to set. I appreciate your comments, Bill
I was listening to a Royals-Indians game last year and Denny Matthews was at his best, here is what I remember of what he said as the Royals were taking a beating: “Jason Kendal is going out to the mound for the 44th time this evening. Pitching coach Bob McClure is hanging in the dugout, I mean, hanging on the top rail on the dugout, but he might be looking for a noose by now.”
That’s good stuff, Douglas! I guess it helps to have a sense of humor if you are broadcasting for K.C.
Cheers, Bill