The Detroit Tiger's recent run in the baseball playoffs has reminded of something that I had forgotten.
I used to really like baseball.
Don't get me wrong. I couldn't play at all. I may be the single worst ball player you've ever seen. I'm not sure that I've ever had a successful base hit. For the closest I ever came, see the blog story Run, You Idiot, Run about my third grade hit and furtive run around the base paths.
On the other hand, I loved the simulation baseball games of the seventies, even participated in a play by mail league. I received my high school varsity letter for being the statistician of the baseball team. The Detroit Tiger championship of 1968 is still the biggest sports spectator moment of my life. And I do have a lifetime pass to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (story for another day). I spent hours going over and analyzing baseball stats.
Now, I barely know that they play. I no longer follow stats or standings, except for an occasional interest in where the Tigers stand, or learn enough about the Atlanta Braves so that when my son, Doug, or my boss at work talk about them, I am not completely blown away.
How did baseball lose it's place in my life? I'm not quite sure. I know Alison doesn't follow it all, but I have retained other interests she doesn't participate in. It hurts that I no longer get a daily newspaper that has standings or stats. The Internet, although vastly informative, is not the same as having the numbers in your hand. I suppose it hurts that since I'm in a numbers profession, having a hobby where my primary interest was statistical, made it a little too close as to what I do at work. And the steroid scandal made me wonder how much the numbers had been warped and manipulated.
Then the Tigers do well, and I think, I can reignite this passion! I can become a baseball fan again! But then the fever fades.
Maybe not this time, though!
Go Tigers!
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