Baseball My Life

Ah, baseball!

The great American pastime.

I guess that's still true.  I don't hear baseball talked about as much.  It doesn't grab the watercooler conversation as much as football.  But it's still on the air, and there are 162 games a year to watch.  Ballparks are getting pricier and pricier, but I still think it's more accessible than most professional sports.

I liked baseball as a kid, but couldn't play it worth a lick.  I only remember hitting one ball past the infield, and that is immortalized in my story of third grade, Run, You Idiot, Run!  In neighborhood and school games, I used to be shunted off to deep right field, usually covered by a better, more agile player.

My deepest affection for baseball came in my love of the wealth of statistics the game created.  I joined a play-by-mail league centered around the board game Big League Manager.  Play-by-mail was as close as we came back then to online gaming. My assigned team was the Washington Senators. They were a horrible team, and I managed them horribly, but even the worst teams generated what I loved best - STATISTICS!

The league was managed by a Hispanic kid, around my age (about 13 or so), and he was fun to correspond with.  He was a real stereotype breaker, living in San Francisco and being a George Wallace fan. It takes a village, people.

1968 was a golden year for every Michigan resident and devout Detriot Tiger fan,  Their come from behind win in the World Series is the stuff of legends.  That glorious year (sports-wise, at least) is burned into my memory.  Little did I know at that time how rare those moments were, especially for Detriot sports fans.

I received my varsity letter for baseball.  What?  You said you couldn't hit or field, Tom!  How did you get a varsity letter?  Because my friend, my Freshman year, I was the statistician for the high school varsity baseball team.

As an adult, baseball has faded from my life.  I don't watch much sports on television, and baseball is very time-consuming.  I don't keep up with the stats anymore because I no longer get a daily paper, and the internet is too difficult to negotiate to find what I want.  If any of you know of a good stat site that is updated daily, please let me know.  Maybe I can bookmark it and try to keep up.

I have kept up enough to know that spring training is just around the corner.

Who knows?  Maybe I'll try to keep up this year.

At least enough to know how Al Kaline is doing this season.

Ok.  I may be further behind than I thought.

PLAY BALL!