It's Time to...Play Ball!

Pitchers and catchers report to spring training today.  This is one of my favorite days of the year.  It means baseball is just around the corner.  And I love baseball.  I love getting in my car after a long day at work, turning on the radio and listening to the sounds of the national past time.  In those moments I feel content.  Those moments take me right back to my childhood.

I remember my dad listening to games on the radio, and I would listen along.  Sometimes it played while we ate dinner.  Sometimes it played while my dad did yard work.  Sometimes it played while my dad took a nap.  In the beginning I had no idea what was going on, I was too young.  But I knew my dad loved it, so I did too.  Some of my earliest memories are of sitting with my dad and watching the game on TV.  In those days there was only one game a week on TV and it was on Saturday afternoon.  It was especially exciting if the Indians were playing.  That was my dad's team.  Those were the afternoons when I first learned what baseball was all about.  My dad explained the game and answered questions and created a lover of baseball. 

As I got older I continued to love the game and wanted to know everything about it.  I would read the sports page and devour the box scores.  By the time I was in sixth grade I was a baseball aficionado.  I changed my team to the Reds because John Fertman (yes that was his name, and despite it, I still had a crush on him) liked the Reds.  And then I fell in love with Johnny Bench.  I was all about catchers after that.  I became infatuated with my best friends brother, mostly because he was a catcher on our high school baseball team.  He became interested in me through our mutual love of baseball and Johnny Bench.  I eventually married him and now we love the Diamondbacks and Kirk Gibson. 

I love everything about baseball.  The fact that there's no time limit and you play until there's a winner...I LOVE that.  The back and forth strategy of opposing managers, the death stare of a pitcher, that there are as many ways to hit a baseball as there are hitters, the quirkiness of a closer.  I love it all.  So, yes, I am excited for the season to start, and I only have one more thing to say....

Play Ball!!

Quote for the Day:

Baseball is like church.  Many attend, few understand. 

~Leo Durocher~