Why I Love Baseball
Saturday, June 2, 2012 at 10:58PM I am watching the game right now. It's going to give me high blood pressure. The Rangers started out as one of the two or three hottest teams in either League. They had an amazing month in April, and a great first half of May. Then, it seems, they hit some kind of wall. So, tonight I'm feeling frustrated because one of the best defenses in the game is making errors left and right. Those errors have been costly.
I mean, they are losing games that they should be winning. When your goal is to win as many games as you can so that you can make the playoffs and win the whole shebang (That looks really crazy...is that how you spell that word?) (It's right. Also, hash-exclam is a word. I like that one a lot, and may have to add it to my regular vocabulary.), then errors that lose games are costly. I certainly know there are bigger problems in the world.
What was I saying? I love baseball? Why? Why do I love this game that makes me insane at times?!
Well...it's because I can relate. Don't get me wrong. I cannot (I repeat, I CANNOT) relate to the athletic aspect of the game. I have just about zero coordination (although that is improving as I exercise...my balance has definitely improved). You can ask Mike and any of the kids (even Eliana, the little stinker) how well I pitch. (The answer will be,"Not well. Not well, at all.") But I relate to the aspects of the game that are so universally, well, relateable that they have become ubiquitous in our culture. Hitting into double plays, bobbling easy infield ground balls, striking out...when my team does any of those things, I want to stand up and scream,"What is wrong with you?! That is a play you practice making every day!" I rage when they let batter after batter on base, with two outs! I get so mad when they get men on base, but can't end up getting a run across. I roll my eyes when they swing at a pitch that is so clearly a ball, I wonder if the batter might need to see an eye doctor immediately.
Do you know that the hardest thing to do in professional sports is to hit a ball thrown by a major league pitcher? I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it.
I promise I have a point. Here's the thing. Right when I start to get all riled up about the stupid mistakes or bad breaks, it slaps me hard, like a hit-by-pitch, that that is just the way life is. Especially my life. How often do I swing and miss? Actually, how often do I just stand there with the bat in my hand, staring the pitch down as it whizzes past me into the catcher's mitt? For a called strike. A called strike three. That's right...you're out! How often do I bobble the ball? Look, there are times that I don't even show up for the game. What else? Out in left field? Oh, I live there!
And yet, the guys don't give up. They can't. They will have another game tomorrow night (or maybe in two nights, when they get a break every couple of weeks or so). The season is long; they can't let one game, even one really terrible outing (when they get spanked 21-8), get them down or so frustrated that it affects the next time they play. They battle. They keep swinging the bats. They go back out and pitch.
They don't give up. (Even in the 21-8 game.) (I mean, I would have started crying and gone home at 17-0.) (Yes, those are actual numbers from a recent game.)
All right. Maybe I don't have a point. I just love this game. I love it that the players on the opposing teams chat on the field. And then they get right back to the business of baseball. I love the team dynamic, particularly the Rangers'. They seem to be very supportive of their teammates, no matter what has happened on the field; they don't throw one another under the bus. I really love when everything is clicking, when they make the plays that you know are going to end up on the highlight reel, when they pull off the amazing catch, or strike out the key batter.
What I'm trying to say is, I'm so glad I discovered that I love baseball. And they better win tonight.
Reader Comments (2)
football´s better. just sayin...
;)
Enjoy your team!
Baseball is awesome. And I, too, can relate!