By The Way...

Monday, September 25, 2006
4:08:00 PM EDT
Hearing Centerfield -- John Fogerty


For the Weekend Assignment, Athena (above, in the dugout), asked folks to write about baseball, her favorite sport. Here is some of what people said:

"I love baseball! I love the White Sox! Go Sox! Yes! Wait till next year! (I hate to give it up this early, but I guess the writing is on the wall.)"

"As a kid, I loved going out to the ballpark! The fresh air, grass and open spaces were so great! And then there was the fun of getting assigned a position and waiting for the other team to go to bat! It was awesome!"

"Alan and I would go to baseball games all during the two years we officially dated. It was the bleacher seats for me! I loved sitting in the open, with the sun so bright, and besides, it is as close to nature as this city girl was willing to get!"

"When I was a kid, girls only played softball. They weren't even allowed in Little League. It didn't matter to me, though. I wasn't any good at softball in school. I just stood around in the outfield until it was time to come back to the fence behind home plate, and wait for my turn to swing at the ball and miss. At least, that's how I remember it. It was a long time ago. Forty years!"

"When I was in fourth grade, I signed up to play softball. It was fun, but I was definitely NOT the most valuable player. I was always out in left field. Literally and figuratively."

"I'm sort of partial to baseball. We played it a lot when I was a kid, my brothers and I, along with the rest of the kids on the farm. We played in the pasture across from the calf barn and used cow chips for bases! Not much fun sliding into one of them, but it kept the dirty clothes complaints from Mom down to a dull roar."

"My dad used to take me to Fenway Park quite a bit. My bro and sisters are younger and were not as into it as I,  so it was just me and my dad. I ate, slept and breathed the Boston Red Sox. I cut out every newspaper article, every magazine article and every picture I could find about them and made scrapbooks. I went through every high and every low the Red Sox can give you and there are plenty of them. I love the Red Sox.  They can break your heart….but I love ‘em!"

"I was standing at the tee, trying to balance the batting helmet, so it didn't fall into my eyes, and hoist the bat high enough to get it on my shoulder at the same time, when the coach came out. He bent down and whispered in my ear, "hit it down the third base line, and run to first. I swung as hard as I could, hit a blistering shot down the first base line, and ran to third..."

"I remember that I wanted to play mostly because my dad would come to watch. He would always make the games if  he could. I was one of the worst softball players out in the field, but I still had that love for the game that was instilled in me since I was a little girl. I remember my dad coaching me from the stands and how the sport would unite us as a family."

"My love of the game started very early for me, during the early fifties, of course my team was the good old Brooklyn Dodgers...this was a team that most New Yorkers felt very passionate about.  I can remember the feeling of being betrayed when they pulled up stakes and headed out to seek gold in them thar hills.  Pfft...they have never commanded the respect, admiration and love that they had in Brooklyn....it was a poor move."

What great stories. Athena thanks you for your answers... and so do I!



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This entry has 2 comments: (Add your own)

• #2 Comment from monponsett 
  9/25/06 9:56 PM | Permalink

  Be careful where you step at Hocker's Service Station. Avoid the deli, too.... "don't want no hockin' on my bread."
  
  Here's what I know about baseball, kid...
  
  There's two different games. There's the one your grandfather remembers, and there's the era where people were into getting Big.
  
  You need not concern yourself with steroids, Athena... you're just a kid, and you don't want to go through high school with a big broad Chinese swimmer back. Leave that s*** for the people who need it (the football team).
  
  Steroids help you hit further, run faster, etc... They basically allow you to post stats like they used to post in baseball before they let black guys play. Those kids behind you  on the bench look pretty Caucasian, so there's no need to worry about jabbing androstenodine into your posterior.
  
  Basically, baseball is a game with two shameful pasts- the Steroid Era, and the All White Era. To be honest with you, there's only a brief era between the two periods- roughly 1950 through the late 1970s- where everyone was basically clean and integrated... depending on how you feel about cocaine/clealiness. Everyone who played outside that era was either juiced or part of a racist system.
  
  It all boils down to you really being able to repsect only Hank Aaron, Yaz, Bob Gibson, Mickey Mantle, and George Foster. It's actually easier that way... too many heroes spoil the comic book.
  
  I could never play baseball myself. I have bad vision (or "the ball is too small," as I like to say), and baseball basically involves me cringing and going "EEEEEEEEEEEEK" a lot.
  
  I'm French, though... people set the bar pretty low for me when the bats come out.
  
• #1 Comment from redonionsauce 
  9/25/06 5:06 PM | Permalink

  Little League is the best.