Shortly after 1:10p today on the1st of April there truly was no joke as the 2021 Baseball season got under way for the Cleveland Indians. The beginning of the season for any sport is special on any level. Can you tell I had sons and daughters who played football, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, softball and rowed! Indeed I got goose bumps not only for the "lid lifters" for any sport but for each and every game. NONE WERE TEDIOUS and truly I feel the same for College and Pro sports of all makes and models. The beauty of baseball is I can attend, watch or listen to 162 games! The cliche is "it's a marathon not a sprint" and that is the beauty of the National Past Time. Even that moniker has been debated lately and please when you talk about the tedious pace of games remember we have 17-18 minutes of actual action from snap to whistle in an NFL game.
The overlap of seasons is something else I treasure as now we have the NBA and NHL teams jockeying for the playoffs, NCAA hoops coming to a close and hopefully with some normalcy attached to it The Masters and Kentucky Derby. If you need to harness your excitement as a fan for each and every on of these sports and fully enjoy give me a call! I will help you cut it loose like a Sudden Sam fast ball!
Still my thoughts turn back to baseball and after one game I know "so and so" will start hitting tomorrow and I will get to see some great ones ride off into the sunset. Players like Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols and more are rounding third and heading home in more than one way and the young fellas coming up are worth the price of admission. Have you see Tatis Jr. play, plus the "stand bys of greatness" names Trout, Betts and others? They are there for us. Yes you can tell I LOVE BASEBALL.
So it's root root root for the home team, unless you are in an opponents park and even then the hostility you may feel at an NFL or NHL game is just not there! Terms like "WAAAAAAY BACK," "Touch 'em all time" and the standards "can of corn" will always be there. Let's hope our game without robot umpires, hitting down the 3rd base line on a shift to right and going from first to third remain. We must have the Tito Francona's standing on the top step of the dugout and the relief pitched sprinting like an Olympian coming out of the pen and yes, we need to hear "BEER MAN" and "get your red hots" in the stands as well as some cheers for the Dad or Mom snabbing a foul ball or more so for a fan dressed in the other teams gear catching one and handing it to a young fan of the home team! Now you see what makes this game extra special. Without further ado let's hear PLAY BALL 161 more times this year (and more for the post season) and let's see the umpire point to the pitcher to "bring it" and start the game.
No doubt baseball is an old friend, warm and sweet sounding. It's putting a record on the turn table, not playing a download or a CD. By the way I will "hit 'em where they ain't"!