Thursday, August 20, 2020

Thursday 13 - Ode to Baseball


Baseball...a game to love as a player and a fan.

I live in Michigan and I'm a Tiger's fan who has never been to a live game in Detroit.
Hey... I'd rather watch them on TV. Don't hate me for it.

Friends, Nick & Carol are HUGE Cubs fans. I love how they "go all out" for their team.

Our Police Chief played pro ball "back in the day" and is my son's pitching coach.
The stories he tells could be in Pippa Grant's books.

My middle son has played baseball when he was in school and my youngest since he was a wee one, travel teams and all. 2020 was the year of no baseball for him. I miss the games, the crowds, Twizzlers.

Hats off to the players and teams who are struggling through this messed up season.

 Inspired by those who love the game, today's list is dedicated to all those hard working ball players and those who love to watch them. 

I've taken liberty to borrow some phrases from Ernie Harwell's Definition of Baseball.

1. 

Photo M. Quast

Baseball is the tossing out the first ball of the season.

2. 
Baseball is a scrubby school boy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm.

3.
Photo M. Quast
So is the scout reporting on a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne.



4.
Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex.


5.
 A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.


6.
Baseball is a rookie.
 His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream.

7.
(Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

It a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. 


8. 

Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy


9.
 Baseball is the cool, clear eyes...and the flashing spikes.


10.  
Baseball is just a game, as simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes.


11.
GETTY IMAGES

 A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.


12. 
Photo M. Quast

Baseball is a tongue tied kid from Georgia.

13. 

Still a game for America, this baseball! 




CHECK OUT MORE AMAZING AUTHORS
THURSDAY 13 


Listen to Ernie Harwell's "Definition of Baseball", as recited at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

6 comments:

sandyland said...

pant pant

Mia Celeste said...

Grin. This is a baseball post I had fun studying. Thanks.

http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2014/05/hallie-ephron-writing-life-are-we.html

Anonymous said...

Girls play too. Some of us would like to see THOSE pictures....

CountryDew said...

Best baseball post I ever saw.

Colleen Looseleaf said...

Good eye! My son is full hearted Red Sox fan. It's hard for so many to have sport taken away.

CountryDew said...

Still a great baseball post. I don't watch, but my cousin is a Cubbies fan.