Libertarian Librarian

Technically speaking, Major League Baseball started last night-- but it was the White Sox and Indians, so nobody really cared. Well, nobody important. Today, the rest of the league plays-- opening day of the 2006 season! Indeed, as I write this, the Nationals and the Mets are in the top of the first.

As I've mentioned before, I came to my appreciation of the nation's pasttime somewhat late in my life (relatively speaking-- I am only 36 after all). But while it will never come close to suplanting football as the premier sport, it has its own certain something. The pace is more relaxed, and the season is much, much longer (too much longer, really. The regular season should be around 120 games-- let's start in early May and end it by mid-August), but there is a grace and feel to it that not even football can match. A thinking, chess-like aspect, I suppose, because it is not so fast-paced and there is far more time for analysis, strategy and momentum changes.

I suppose it pretty much comes down to this:

And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.

Spoken in the resonant tones of James Earl Jones, of course.

Labels: Sports