Baseball musings

[Wes]

I was reading through JohnRushing's thread about his "Son the slugger" and it got me to thinking about baseball.

I was sitting in the stands last night watching my 12 year old son play a double-header. Feeling the cool breeze... enjoying the company of friends..... watching the camaraderie on the field..... it hit me when I realized that THIS is what it's all about. It's not very easy to put into words. There's something special about watching the game at its purest level. Baseball is the salve that society needs. Not the kind that's played in the major league stadiums where every aspect of the game is choreographed, the fields are manicured, and the players are in it just for the money. I'm talking about the kind of baseball that's played out on fields across America every night. Where the players are on the field because they love the game. Because they love the feel of connecting with a ball on the sweet spot of the bat. Because they love the feeling of turning that double-play. Because they love the smell of the grass and the dirt on their uniform after making that diving catch in left center field. It all reminded me of the words spoken by the character played by James Earl Jones at the end of the movie Field of Dreams....

They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children...
...longing for the past.

"Of course, we don't mind if you look around," you'll say. "It's only $ per person."

They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it.

For it is money they have and peace they like.

Then they'll walk off to the bleachers...
...and sit in their shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon.

They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines...

...where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes...

...and they'll watch the game...

...and it will be as if they were dipped themselves into magic waters.

The memories will be so thick...
...they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

People will come, Ray.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.

America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers.

It's 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 us of all that once was good...
...and it could be again.

(emphasis mine)

Last night I think I finally really understood the above narrative.

[byarger]

Well said, Wes. Baseball is a timeless game that integrates us with our "innocent" history. I can't say why it does this so well compared to any other sport, except that it's been played much longer.

[JohnRushing]

It's because we all remember playing it ourself as kids out in the backyards, empty lots or pastures. Even when we only had three players we had a game somehow. We used to stand there at the plate and pretend to be our favorite big league player as the sun shined down on us. It didn't matter if we dropped the ball or struck out, we still felt like we were the next big leaguer. I remember spending hours in the pasture behind my parents house with four or five kids that lived in the area and it only seeming like thirty minutes. It didn't matter that we made up of a team of lack, white and mexican, we were friends and enjoying the game. We would spend hours trying to mow the knee high grass with an old push mover and then mark off our field, no where near regulation size but it was out Wriggley Stadium. I think the reason games like soccer doesn't give use the same feeling is because we just didn't play it, at least for me way back in the stone ages. I played a little basketball and football but they just don't bring back those feelings for me. With football some of the smaller kids couldn't play with us, mainly because we would end up hurting them. Basketball was hard to play without some level hard packed ground, we didn't have a concrete drive on the farm. With baseball it didn't mater about you size and it could be played just about anywhere. I wish I had taken better care of my self and not done all the dumb things that has left me in pain and with not much energy. Even when I don't feel like I don't have the energy to get out of my chair I can still find the energy somewhere to go outside and pitch a ball with my son when he ask. I almost makes me feel 10 years old again. I love watching the kids out on the field or on the court having a ball but there really is something special about seeing those kids run out on the field with their clean uniforms and gloves. When I see one of the kids step up to the plate and point his bat to the far center field I can't help but remember me and my friends soing the same thing 33 years ago, some things just never change.
Thanks for posting this thread Wes, it just lets me know I'm not the only one who becomes a kid again whe they watch kids on the field. I jsut wish all the parents would get this feeling and not try to make some of the games so serious. The kids want to win, heck we all wanted to win when we were that age, but most of all they just want to have fun just like we did back then. Some of the parents at the games seem to have forgotten what having fun feels like. Maybe one day they will close their eyes and open their hearts and the sounds of the ball landing in a mit, the bat hitting the ball, the voices of the kids urging their team mates on and the laughter, along with the smell of the grass and the warmth of the sun will take them back in time and once again they will be a child also.