Baseball postscript

Ok, I'm a huge fan of the game.  I really am.  Plus, I'm a homer, so my mood swings with the Astros wins and losses.  But more significantly, I'm a fan of the game.  Not necessarily Major League baseball, but the game.  The crack/ping of the bat, the smell of the grass, the sun bearing down on the back of your neck while you're in the field, the pure majesty of the lines, angles, and millions and millions of variables that go into a game.  There's nothing quite like it.  It's evolved over time.  It lives and breathes with the people who play it.  The game grows deeper each year.  Each year another layer of history is laid down on top of layers and layers of history that has come before.  There is nothing quite like it.  It's as organic and timeless as the ground it's played on.  I believe that every child, everywhere, at some point on some level has dreamed "full count, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded...  and the pitch...   CRACK!!!  AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!"   I love the game.  I always will.

 

Thank you, "Uncle" Drayton, Bags, Bidge, Brad, Brad, Brandon, Morgan, WIllie T., Roger, Andy, Roy, Everett, Burk, Burke, Jason, Chris, and all the rest.  Ya'll gave us a great season.  Absolutely fantastic.

 

But I swear to all that is good, if someone gets on base, advances to second on a pass ball, and steals third with no outs in the inning, and the top 3 hitters fail to get him across the plate I will personally kick each of your asses myself.  Willie, you get 30 bunt hits this year and you can't drop a freakin' bunt?  Craig, you're paid to win games, not get hits, not get homers.  You can't lay down a squeeze bunt?  You did it the next day...  a perfect bunt for a suicide squeeze.  It was a day late.  There was nobody on.  It was stupid to even try it when you did it.  But in a situation where that would have been perfect you decide to flail away like someone with far more power than you have?  AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

 

But that's why I love the game.  The series could have been 4-0 in favor of the good guys.  It's a game of inches (except that Pujols blast, that would still be flying if the roof was open).  A grounder a little more to the left and the game gets busted open.  A fly ball a little higher and it's a homer, not a double.  I love this game.  Even with the frustration of watching your guys not advance A FREAKIN RUNNER PAST SECOND FOR 10 STRAIGHT FREAKIN' INNINGS!!!  ARRRGGGHHH!!!!  But that's why this game is so great.  At the end of nine innings everything starts over. 

 

Come May, spring will be here.  There will be new life all across the countryside.  The grass will be fresh again.  The wind not quite hot yet.  The bats will start swinging, the leather popping, and everyone will be World Series contenders again.

Thanks guys.  Seriously.  It was a fantastic ride.  One I'll never, ever, ever forget.