Take Me Out to the Ball Game

     It has been a long hard winter!  Time to put away snow shovels, winter coats and mittens, and bring out the bats, baseball cap and mit.  I feel the national anthem should be Take Me Out to the Ball Game.

     I love this time of year!  Baseball has always been my favorite sport; the only one I ever came close to excelling at in school.  There is something about walking into a stadium like Wrigley Field and absorbing the whole atmosphere, the smell of hot dogs and the natural grass.  The feel of the electricity of the excitement and anticipation of a possible Cub win.

     There is just something about sitting up in the cheap seats or the bleachers and looking down on the field trying to spot your favorite player.  You can also look around the outside of the stadium and take in the breath taking view and beauty of Lake Michigan and the skyline surrounding Wrigleyville.  It's always great to see the flags in center field flapping outward toward Sheffield Ave.  When you see that you know there are going to be some homers hit that day.  That always gets the crowd roaring.

     Finally, the actual National Anthem is sung and the symbolic first pitch is thrown.  The umpire shouts "Play Ball".  And the real fun begins.  It's a great sight to see the crowd get into the game.  It's exciting to see what strategies will be taken by each manager in each situation on the field.  What makes it more exciting for me and what keeps my interest the most is keeping score and marking down every advance of every runner that ever gets on during the whole game.  Then as predicted, due to the flags flapping in the wind, the first homerun is hit onto Sheffield and the crowd goes wild as if the Cubs have won their first World Series since before World WarII.

     One more important part of going to a major league game for me is having a hot dog and a beer.  There is something special about that stadium dog.  And you have to have a beer to wash it down.  It must be special, like lined with gold, for as expensive they are.  Oh well this is like a vacation day and money can't be an object while your on vacation.  Then they play what I feel should be the National Anthem, but this time in the Seventh Inning Stretch, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".  This is the world's largest group Kareoke.  Everyone joins in.  It's ok if you're off key because the conductor is too.

     Finally the game is over.  The maintenance crew can climb out of the scoreboard now and hoist up the "W" flag after a Cub win.  Another end to another great day.  Now you have a few options.  You can either rush out of the stands and sit in a traffic jam for what feels like an eternity, or you can wander around the stadium to see if you can pick up any last minute souveniers.  Then you can either make your way down to the Addison St. Station to catch the train or if you did drive go out and get into a hopefully shorter version of the same traffic jam you would have sat in if you left earlier.

      To me, baseball is baseball.  So it really doesn't matter to me whether I'm lying on the couch watching Sunday Night baseball being described to me by Jon Miller and Joe Morgan on ESPN, or if I go to a Major League game in Chicago, a Lumber Kings game in Clinton, IA or if I go to Kiwanis Park in Fulton, IL to watch Sam play in the "Majors" there.  I just love to watch the game.  I miss my playing days.  I think I may have the distiction for being San Jose Grade School's most consistant bunter.  I miss skipping out of Miss Price's English class to go to a very impromptu baseball practice before a big game in the middle of the afternoon in high school.  I miss being able to take batting practice and running the bases.  I miss shagging flys in the outfield as we would watch a stray ball bounce out onto Route 136 as it just missed a semi or maybe even get caught richocheting in its wheel base as it rolled down the highway.  What ever the case may be, I am glad that the long winter is over and we can all take in a game or two at any of the afore mentioned parks.  As the great Cub Ernie Banks once said, it's always "a great day to play two."    

     Take MeOut to the Ball Game and Play Ball!!