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A. Bartlett Giamatti "It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come out, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2nd, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone." |
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I have always loved baseball. It has always broken my heart. It has gotten me in trouble like the time I whacked Craig Lynch in the head with a bat when I was 5. I created this page a couple of years ago after some discussions about baseball and why I like it. The folks involved are not baseball fans. They find it boring and slow. I don't. There is nothing like a game. There is always something going on. It is not always about the dramatic throw to home or a well turned double play or the big hit. There is strategy, movement, action that comes in the form of inaction. The crowds, the sky, the weather, that little ball and the crack of the bat. There's no sound like it, certainly not the ping of aluminium. Baseball does not have to hit you in the face to get your attention. Last but not least the subject of baseball has produced some great works of literature. Read Roger Angell, Lawrence Ritter, Roger Kahn and Pete Gammons. I admit that Halberstam's "The Breaks of the Game" is a good book but that's it for basketball. His "October 1964" is wonderful, a combination of sports and social history. My interest in the game died several years ago and the strike and reorganization and a tad self absorption were among the reasons. The fun was gone. I am now a Red Sox fan and that in itself is a reason to run away. One may say that I'm stuck in the sixties and seventies when it comes to the game. I remember my father's enthusiasm for the Yankees (he was a far from perfect man) and the Giants. The Giants were one of the first teams to practice in the Cactus League and Arizonans were big fans. The Giants were my team. I adored Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid, and still do. He was my first real life hero. Wyatt Earp was really the first but he wasn't real and that's a whole different story. Willie McCovey, the Alous, Juan Marichal, Stu Miller and even Jimmy Davenport. The first game I went to was at Candlestick in 1963 and Mays hit a home run over the center field fence on his first at bat. It was a 3-2 pitch and I was sure he did it for me! The Giants broke my heart many times but I kept coming back for more. In spite of my allegience to the Giants I really liked Sandy Koufax, he was a gentleman and a helluva pitcher. Clemente, Palmer, The Brothers Robinson, Brett, Molitor have also been favorites through the years. I followed the Giants until I found the Red Sox. Oh, I knew about 1967 and all of that but I was still a National League fan. At some point in college my east coast friends introduced to me to the Sox. I remember where I was when Barnett failed to call interference on Armbrister, when Carbo hit his pinch hit home run and when Fisk performed for the cameras. I came to live in Boston not long after that and a love affair with Fenway and the Sox took off(more like love for Fenway and an affair with the Red Sox). In those days we'd leave work and take the T to Fenway and buy bleacher seats for $4.50. It was cheap and it was fun. I was there when John Kiley tried for the record for the fastest playing of the National Anthem on organ. It was during a Yankees series. There was nothing better than sitting in the bleachers in those days. I sat in the bleachers my first game this year (April 2001) and the crowd hasn't changed much. I have. My friend Marvin had season tickets in section 27 behind third base and he'd often give me his ticket. Hot and humid summer nights when air just hung still. There was nothing better. One of my favorite moments in life is to walk through the darkness and grime inside of Fenway and then up the ramp to the seats and be greeted by the light and the beauty of the green and the red. It is glorious and it is comforting! If you ever get the chance go to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. You will not be sorry. The love I have for Fenway just grows stronger and the affair with the Sox continues. There are good times and there are bad times and there are okay times. I do really like Pedro and Manny. This is my 4th year playing online fantasy baseball. My friend dick.mac organized a league last year, the Northeast Big Babies, and I came in 3rd. This year I drafted Pedro but I am stuck in 8th place. |
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