I must confuse that this time of the year is bittersweet for me, but really it is definitely more sweet than bitter. I don't think there is anything better in the world than the beginning of baseball season. Everybody is always so hopeful and it just seems like anything is possible. And my friends that is exactly what baseball is. It's that feeling that anything is possible.
As much as I love baseball and believe me I do, I really hadn't planned on writing about it. But then I was talking to a very good friend of mine and he asked if I would blog about the importance of baseball, because so many people were bad mouthing it lately. And so let me start off by addressing those people right this very instant. GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY COUNTRY YOU FUCKING TERRORIST!!! You have a bad thing to say about baseball? Well I just think that is unpatriotic, it is America's National Pastime for fucksake. So grow up all of you.
And I know what some of you idiots out there are thinking, "Football is what this country is all about. I love the NFL and there is just nothing like it. Baseball is just too slow for me." To that all I can say is that I just feel sorry for you and the fact that you just don't get it. I'm sure you also rather watch the Real World or The Bachelor rather than Seinfield or The Office because you just don't get it. And then there are of course some that have jumped onto that runaway Basketball bandwagon. "I love the Thunder, they're so exciting. Who wants to watch baseball when the Thunder are still playing." And I love basketball as much as the next guy, but as a wise man once said, (Edmond Hooks) "You can train circus seals to bounce a ball off there nose and make it into a hoop." I very seriously doubt you could teach him how to hit a 3-2 slider with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth.
It's just a shame too, because there just aren't enough people out there that love baseball, and I fear that we are all living in a society where we are not teaching our children to love baseball. Especially our black children. I mean seriously they are all looking up to LeBum James and Kevin Durant, those are the guys that are cool. Now granted I love Kevin Durant, but when are we going to sit our children down and go over the list of chicks that Derek Jeter has Slayed throughout his career and show these kids what cool really looks like?
But in all seriousness, baseball is the perfect game, and most of the things that I have in live I have because of baseball. I met some of my best friends on a baseball field. I went through one of the most grueling best worst years of my life on a baseball field with a coach that did things that would make this Rutgers coach look soft as baby shit. Baseball taught me how to never give up and no matter how bad things seem tomorrow is a new day and that's all you need to get hot and for a streak to begin.
Baseball is a sport of failure. You're gonna get knocked down, struck out and hit around a lot. That's just the nature of the game, but in the end just like in life you're gonna get the chance to get back up and take another swing at it. I've come to terms with the fact that life is very much about failure. And if it's not for you, well I'm glad to hear it and you can fuck off. But more than it is a sport of failure it's a sport of getting up and proving yourself, it's a sport of long shots and underdogs, and really who doesn't love an underdog.
Me and a friend of mine once got into a conversation about baseball and what really makes it so great. And we talked about a great number of things about it. We talked about just how difficult it is to hit a 92 mile an hour fastball, or hit a curveball that explodes out of someones hand a falls off of the table. We talked about just how many bang bang plays happen at first base and how the dimensions of the game seem to be just perfect for almost winning or almost losing. We talked about how the season starts right we spring blooms and everything seems to be getting revived from the winter, and the hotter it gets and the further into summer the season goes the more the races heat up. And just as the fall comes and the leaves begin to change, just before winter takes it's first bite, it's over.
There's a certain fill to baseball that coincides with life. After all unlike most games there is no time limit in baseball. There is not clock that you are going by. When the umpire says play ball the game starts and after nine innings if the score is 0-0 you keep playing, and you keep playing until somebody scores a run and then the stop the other team from scoring. I know this all my sound strange and maybe I am just some schmuck that loves baseball and none of this sounds like anything but nonsense to you, but I promise you it's not.
There's nothing like that feeling you get when you step out on a field that you've had to work on yourself and you play a game. Or the feeling of throwing a fastball right by the best hitter on the opposing team, or throwing a backdoor breaking ball a striking somebody out looking for the third out the inning and your catcher running off and rolling the ball to the mound because he knows it was strike three before the umpire had a chance to say a word. Or to hammer that hanging breaking ball and putting a game out of reach. Or hitting that walk off home run and seeing your whole team waiting at home plate to celebrate with you. Believe me there are very few things in life that can ever compare.
I know all these things sound crazy but they really aren't. The are things that have happened to me, or people just like me. They are things that are happening right now all over America. Baseball is a great sport and for me it is the greatest of sports. I mean where else can you see a guy who was all but out of baseball working all sorts of different odd jobs hit a home run off of one of the premiere pitcher of the game in his first major league at bat? Baseball is now and always will be this nations national pastime. And for all of you out there that don't recognize or respect that, well I just feel sorry for you.
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