March 27, 2007
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1 Some weather, huh?2 Don't be a bit fooled, any more than you were fooled by the beginning of this month.
3 Baseball season begins on Sunday, and all is well.
4 Yeah, so Barry Bonds has to drag us all through more horse manure. If he had stayed out of the horse manure, we all would be breathing a lot easier.
5 But there's everything else that goes with baseball, the hope, the Spring, the long days of doing nothing but looking forward to another game, John Miller telling us stories and somehow never missing a pitch, and Barry Zito.
6 Sorry A's fans. I hope the A's have an awesome season too. Just because I'm a Giants' fan doesn't mean I don't like the A's. I just wasn't really raised with them, and I was raised with the Giants. As a kid I loved talking with my grandfather about the Giants. During my Junior year in high school, I became a seat vendor at Candlestick Park, and practically lived there every summer until they left the old place.7 Oh, I worked A's games too, but the Giants were my family then as now.
8 It isn't just that. It's that baseball is the greatest of all the sports. Yeah I just say that to piss people off, but personally, I think it's an amazing sport. It's boring, at least that's what everyone says. That's because they don't get it.
9 It's an investment. It's like a Grateful Dead concert. Jerry Garcia once compared the Grateful Dead to baseball, and it was a darned tootin' good analogy. You go, you kick back, lie in the sun, enjoy the scenery and the fun, and soon you tune into what's happening.
10 Before you know it, you're completely hooked into a rhythm and paying close attention to every pitch, or swinging to every note. Suddenly the entire thing is magnified and your entire being is engaged. A great thunderous moment brings you out of your senses and has you shouting, jumping, and acting like an imbecile.11 Then there's a moment that is poignant and sweet, sometimes dare I say it, sentimental as well. You think of different times, and of all you've been through, and somehow you, and this thing you do and enjoy is still there, like a nice friend.
12 It takes you through life on a gentle breeze of hope and always delivers, sometimes just there, other times making sense every time that life becomes senseless.13 Sometimes it just delivers a smile and a doff of the hat.
14 Steal your base.
15 Anyway this might be making a little sense if you're into one or the other, but one thing is clear: they both give tremendous hope and good times to all. I watch a game in the context of a season, and it could just be a mellow afternoon, or it could be a pennant race where every agnonizing pitch takes an eternity. Or it could be winning on the last pitch of a tight game.
16 But there are 161 more, each filled with great defensive plays, amazing pitches, tremendous feats of strength, and picture perfect nostalgia. Sometimes I'll look out at a ballyard and pretend it's the 1930's. Easy to do.
17 I'm looking forward to that first pitch. I hope I can somehow be out there.
18 Because no matter what else is happening, baseball is almost here, and life is good.
19 Lately it occurs to me.
20 I'm another year older and another year blessed.
21 I think I'm going to sit down now and patch my bones.
22 And get back truckin' on.
23 Peace.
~H~
