Ah September. What a wonderful time of year…fall festivals, cooler days, walks at dusk. And the best part? Baseball fever, baby. September is the last month of baseball’s regular season, a time for biting fingernails, anxious anticipation, and consuming mass amounts of beer while you travel the road to the playoffs with your favorite team. It’s my third favorite month, with October and April taking the lead. For a baseball fan, these months define our seasons. I understand that some of you out there have no idea what I am talking about and may even be annoyed with the baseball frenzy that grips your friends and loved ones during these months. I am here to help.
Have you ever sat in a crowded bar filled with rowdy, cheering fans and felt alone? Do your eyes glaze over when an hour long debate is sparked between your significant other and their comrades when someone utters the phrase “’85 World Series”? Do you fail to understand the quiet desolation, intermingled with desperate pride, that is ever present in the eyes of your father…a lifelong Cubs fan? If you answered yes to any of those questions, chances are you despise baseball. But wouldn’t it be great if you could join in the cheering or impress your partner by saying “Worrell beat him to the bag”? And trust me, your father is going to need a loving hug when October rolls around.
This blog will be a variety of many topics baseball related. Some posts may have a more technical or statistical lean and undoubtedly many will have a passionate, biased tone. Read all or just one or two…it’s really just a way for me to vent some of my fiery passion. But one of the main things I hope to achieve is to create a forum where the non baseball fan will feel comfortable asking questions, thereby sparking stimulating conversations with others, learn more about the game, and maybe -just maybe- eventually feel a little spark of joy when they hear the beginning notes of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”.
I have a confession. Up until several years ago, I barely knew a sport called basketball existed. Sure, I had heard the names Jordan and Pippen (oh yeah, and that one guy who married Madonna and dyed his hair crazy colors) but they might as well have been members of the British parliament for all I cared. One day a co-worker asked me if I wanted to throw in five bucks on something called a bracket. Being a person who enjoys healthy competition (and winning money), I agreed. Now that didn’t necessarily make me a fan of the game, but it sure made the month of March fun each year. Flash forward years later to when I met the love of my life, an avid baseball fan to boot. We could drink beer, talk baseball, and debate the legacy of that one guy who left (sold out) St. Louis in order to play for that other team. Imagine my shock when he admitted early on in our relationship that baseball wasn’t even his favorite sport. I appreciated the confession, but I had to question if this relationship would work in the long run.
But you know what? It has and I find myself watching college basketball more than just in March, and even when the team of choice in our household has a horrendous year (ahem, Mizzou). I enjoy spending time with my partner watching games that I may know nothing about. It creates another facet to our relationship and in some weird way, brings us closer together. I bring you this little basketball interlude to show you that even though you may never see yourself as a die hard fan of the game of baseball, there are benefits to familiarizing yourself with the game, even if it’s just to understand the fanatical crazies around you. And if you never reach the point where you are weighing the options of which Cardinal tattoo to get and where to place it on your body, that’s ok.
I will save the breakdown of game basics and rules for another time. In order to have the motivation to learn those aspects of the game, you have to dig a little deeper and try to understand why a baseball fan feels the way they do and why they must have ten t-shirts, five pairs of socks, and fourteen baseball caps of varying shades of their team colors and mascot. Oh…and for the lady fans, at least two pairs of shoes bearing the team logo. There are many who are somewhat new to the game, rookies if you will. Maybe their interest was piqued when someone crushed a long standing record or maybe it came about when the hometown team brought home a World Series trophy. It doesn’t matter what brings them to the game; it just matters that they are here. For many of us, it began in childhood. Baseball has the longest running history in our country of any organized sport, perhaps explaining that deeply rooted sense of tradition that many of us enjoy in the sport. There is something about baseball that taps into the nostalgia of the long, lazy, humid evenings of a childhood past. In a world less connected than it is today, the voices of our favorite team’s announcers became like those of a trusted family friend, a good time buddy who swept you out of real life and into a world where real people were made into heroes with one swing of the bat. Baseball fans that share a common love for the same team become part of a group that doesn’t discriminate based on socioeconomic status, race, politics, or religion. For a little bit of time on game day, we are able to forget about the wearisome responsibilities of life and unite as one in cheering on our boys of summer.
So welcome to the clubhouse, my friend. Let’s pop open a beer, talk some baseball, and get ready for the roller coaster ride known as playoffs. Game on, baseball fans.
cardinal chick 