Peanuts and Crackerjack

INSFB is an acronym in my written posts that stands for “I’m Not a Sports Fan, But…” I have a few relatives and friends who are glued to the TV for every contest that involves a ball or a puck, horses or wheels. Not me, I don’t care. But then, there is baseball. This doesn’t mean I watch regular-season games or go to the ball park without being invited. But the World Series always pulls me in somehow.

First of all, I grew up mostly in New York and was a child back when the city had three Major League teams. I went to all-boys schools, and when the fall rolled around, I simply did not have any friends unless I could talk baseball for at least five minutes at a time. So I started listening on the radio and occasionally watching TV. What was not to like? There was Mel Allen doing play-by-play, and there was Red Barber, too. I went to a game in Yankee Stadium when Mickey Mantle was in the Yankee lineup, with the untranslatable Casey Stengel managing. My brothers collected baseball cards that came with the bubblegum, and so did I. If I still owned those cards, I could buy and sell many of you reading this right now.

What is different about baseball? First, it’s the most American of our sports, and it seems the majority of us have a passing acquaintance with the rules of the game. Baseball metaphors pervade everything, even sex. And it’s one of  the few sports that have no time limit, as we discovered with this season’s World Series Game Three.

I like to watch it on TV because of the closeups on the players’ faces .There is no better definition of the word “focus” than what is on the pitcher’s face before the ball is thrown. The batter’s face isn’t far behind in that department.  And with 90-to-100-mile-per-hour pitches and the ease with which fielders make double-plays, it’s a wonder that anyone gets on base at all. The team managers have it down to a science about which pitcher to put in to face which opposing batter. It all seems to be under strict control. But the level of uncertainty injects just the right note of drama. The pitcher may throw a string of perfect innings, and then the circumstances arise where the next ball arrives at the bat just right, and it all changes instantly.

We’ve heard repeatedly that the upcoming election is a battle for the soul of America. I’m grateful that baseball, a significant part of that soul, is not involved. It will be there whichever party wins. And the way life is now, we will always need distractions like this iconic game.