Junto Boys

BASEBALL SEASON STARTS TONIGHT

I've heard the criticisms.
1) Baseball is too slow
2) The Baseball Season lasts too long
3) They televise too many games so they seem unimportant.

The culture of baseball just isn't understood by non-fans. Baseball has the perfect game. Do they have the equivalent in football or basketball? No. There is no perfect way to play football or basketball. Baseball doesn't attain perfection often (less than 20 times in the entire history of MLB) but every pitcher in every game can strive for it. I was at David Cone's perfect game in 1999. The cynical Yankee fans that spent the game complaining about the team's shortcomings (they eventually won the World Series that year) shut their mouths and cheered like kids. We all cheered for what seemed too short a time. I wish I were still there cheering. Soon thoughts ran across my mind like maybe I should stop attending baseball games, because I will never see perfection again. But we watch baseball to see men strive for perfection, knowing that they won't attain it.

We watch to see if Randy Johnson can break Nolan Ryan's strikeout records or if Barry Bonds old legs can keep him young enough to catch Hank Aaron. In baseball, every great player is playing the retired great players and their statistics as much as the game in front of them. I remember my father talking about Mickey Mantle when I grew up with Graig Nettles and later with Don Mattingly. Now, I can talk about Mattingly when the discussion becomes Bernie Williams. Baseball is one long dialogue that cannot be ruined by strikes or economics. I will get angry, but I will always return.