5/14/2001

The Beauty of Baseball

Why I love baseball...

A child can appreciate the roar of the crowd and a mouthful of cotton candy. A casual fan enjoys seeing their 'favorite' player come to bat and hopefully a victory by the home team. The fanatic can pore over statistics and argue ad infinitum about the value of OPS versus BA versus OBP.

Baseball is ideal in its dimensions and rules. How else to explain that a runner and the ball both reach first base within but a second or two of each other on virtually any cleanly fielded ground ball. Or that a pitched ball has time to curve before reaching home plate, but not so much to make it consistently un-hittable or un-catchable. Or that a team may lose 11-2 one day, then turn around and beat the same opponent 10-3 the next (or 1-0).

Beauty can be found in the infield fly rule.

My father can love baseball for its history, I can love it for its intracacies, my wife can love it for its outdoor summer setting and my four year-old can enjoy it for ice cream and the chance to yell 'Griffey Junior!', (even if he's not playing).

What a game. Play Ball!