The Beauty of Baseball

This past week, I watched the Ken Burns follow-up series on baseball called the “10th Inning”.  While the series covered things like the steroid scandal that cast a pall over the game, there is still so much beauty to the game of baseball.  As most people who know me know, I love playing baseball.  I re-started my baseball “career” at age 40 when Debsue sent me to Indians fantasy camp.  I always pinch myself that I can play this little boys game now at age 50. 

Baseball to people who have not really played it can be boring.  It appears to be a two person game as you have a pitcher and a batter.  However, you have so many unique attributes to baseball.  For example:

• The only team sport with no clock.  Any team can at any time come back.  Several years back, our team blew a 15-1 lead.  It can happen.
• The only team sport in which the defense always has the ball. 
• The only team sport where it doesn’t matter where the ball is, it is the man who scores.
• The sport is truly a team sport because at best a man can only come to bat once every nine at bats.  A game can rest on a middle infielder who is batting ".205. 
• It reminds you of life because if you fail 7 times out of 10, you are a .300 hitter and it you do that for 20 years, you are going to the Hall of Fame.
• The field has perfect symmetry with green grass shaped like a diamond rather than a rectangle. 
• Anything can happen at any time.  Crazy plays – in the playoffs we won a game because the second baseman dropped an easy pop fly allowing our leadoff hitter to score capping a come from behind rally. 
• I think one of the hardest things to do in sports is hit a 90 mile an hour fastball and have the .2 second reaction.  Of, in our league, it is a 70 mile an hour fastball, but it is still hard. 

This blog is dedicated to the Kent Mudhens, the team I play for that is the champions of the Masters division of the Roy Hobbs Adult Baseball League. 

Check out Debsue’s blog of the championship game.