686. Baseball

The American Past Time. Baseball has been so wrapped up in my life that it’s hard to tell sometimes where the baseball leaves off and life begins. Isn’t it all intertwined? Think about something you have loved passionately, something that draws from so many memories. Fathers and sons, mothers, coaches you have loved, coaches not so much, friends you know today and the moments between the lines and more important the moments outside the lines. Baseball.

Will the real Koufax please stand up, please stand up, please stand up.

Joy and Pain. Pump it up. Pump it up. Sunshine and rain. Yep, all that can be found in baseball.

And I hate to even bring it up. It’s better to repress this memory and pretend it never happened. But I can’t think of a sadder time in baseball. Baseball pain. That kind that sticks and can make you have a certain level of disdain for a storied American franchise that includes the likes of Lou Brock and Bob Gibson. … and pain.

I sunk into a month long funk after that one. 2011 World Series. Will the beloved Rangers ever be back?? Now, listen to some Nelly to get your mind off it.

Damn, even Nelly is from the ST-L, Batter Up

I mean baseball is more beloved here even though it struggles with really young kids compared to soccer. We are a country that can’t abide by a 1-1 tie and be okay with it. We are a country that in most states (Arkansas excepted) that we just can’t be okay with kissing your sister.

I mean would you rather have this?

Or this?

I grew up with my father as coach. Sure he didn’t naturally know his way around a baseball field but he had an ex-college player assistant coach that did. And it pains me today that the team I can remember most were the Yankees. Green & Yellow so I guess that makes it okay. No!! No it doesn’t!! We were still the damn Yankees.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so these pictures may communicate to you my love of the game so much more than my words. It’s not the love of the game really… at the heart of things… it’s more so the love of the people in the game, and those around the game… all around me., throughout life. That’s what sticks. So tell me if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words are these pictures below worth? 16K that’s how many words. And ain’t nobody got time for that!!