("Baseball Is Dying. The Government Should Take It Over")
Shame on you. So baseball is a 19th century sport dressed up in 21st century garb. So it does not run on a clock. In fact since Rickey Henderson it does not run much at all. So it has overshifted, pitch counted and relieved itself (that doesn't sound right) into a game where straddling the Mendoza line has become almost acceptable, where K has become the most important letter of the alphabet, where manufacturing a run has seemingly gone the way of the Edsel. So what.
Don't tell me it is dying, not on the very day it is being born again. Don't tell me what it is not. I already know that. I will tell you what it is. Baseball is in my blood and has been since I first smelled the leather of the mitt in the mid 1950's. It is in my belly since Mickey Mantle smiled that Oklahoma smile and hit a ball farther than it was ever intended to travel. It is in my ears since I imagined what Red Barber was broadcasting on the radio. It is in my feet as I legged out a double in my first Little League game. It is in my father's eyes as we sat together in the Stadium. It is in my soul and will remain there until I am no more.
So do not report to me that baseball is but the walking dead. Not now, not when the first pitch is so near. It won't kill you to let my dream survive. Even if baseball is not America's game anymore, it is still mine.
2 comments:
Walther's take on baseball's fading popularity is not even in the ballpark of reality. He is forgetting that every fan becomes a Walter Mitty of sorts, transposing themselves into the batter's box. It is a sport that causes every fan to say "I can hit that pitch ". And that, Mr. Walther, is the American way.--RE
The joy of opening day for a Mets fan since my first game at the polo grounds in 1962: the Mets have not yet disappointed and are tied for first.
Given the nature of our multi tasking, multi screen lives, what a joy for a game that is not pressed against a clock, that sets it's own rhythm, and that it's opening day coincides with spring and renewal.
JO
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