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I have tried to explain to friends and casual fans why I love, really love, baseball.<\/p>\nI have tried to explain to friends and casual fans why I love, really love, baseball.<\/p>\n
Yes, beer tastes better when it\u2019s a warm day or pleasant evening and you\u2019re sitting outside at Wrigley Field than when you\u2019re gathered around a coffee table stocked with paper buckets from Wing Stop in December. But that doesn\u2019t approach the essence of my love affair with the sport.<\/p>\n
I have fond memories of growing up around Chicago. Cubs games, broadcast on WGN, TV and radio, constituted the soundtrack for many summers. As a kid, I learned the home run calls of many announcers. Often imitated. Never duplicated.<\/p>\n
From \u201cWay back. Back\u2026.Back.\u201d to \u201cHey. Hey!\u201d I\u2019d scream these calls around my suburban split-level and yard.<\/p>\n
I might have fallen asleep listening to night games on the radio, originating from the west coast, starting around my bed time in Chicago. I found comfort in knowing that I shared a deep pain and yearning with other fans over not having a track record of post-season victories. I took to memorizing stats and nicknames of home town heroes. (How about Twiggy or The Vulture?)<\/p>\n
I got an incredible kick out going to my friend Laura\u2019s house after high school to witness her father\u2019s retirement ritual. Late afternoons, when the Cubs were in town (they didn\u2019t play night games back then), full of disgust, he\u2019d slam the power button off his faux walnut console, which took up half his living room.<\/p>\n
The Cubs were on the verge of losing another game where they once enjoyed a lead.<\/p>\n
Then, as if try to save the connection to the picture that was vanishing into a small white dot in the center of his screen, he\u2019d pull the button out and restore power. He had to watch!<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why they play the games, right?\u00a0 To see what happens.<\/p>\n
Not ruled by clocks, baseball operates on a different concept of time, and I love that!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that rules are abandoned and victors can be declared by allegiance. But the most important thing hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
Twenty-seven outs is twenty-seven outs.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve watched, live and on TV, games that barely approached two hours and games that were full of lead changes and extra innings that were over five hours. And isn\u2019t that like life? Isn\u2019t that a large part of why we watch?<\/p>\n
A life is as short or long as it needs to be. Maybe we watch \u2014 we need to watch \u2014 we choose to live \u2014 just to see what happens.<\/p>\n
I love that games are as long or short as they need to be. I\u2019m not expecting to become a super model in my seventies, or win the lottery, but I love that second or third or fourth acts are unknown. All sorts of things can happen in my life until I don\u2019t keep a scorecard any more.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s one phenomenon I especially love. Come from behind victories.<\/p>\n
Come from behind victories in baseball feel like an omen, a sign from heaven that can change the psychology, the beliefs, of the collective, the team and their fans.<\/p>\n
Such exuberance, such in-the-moment joy, from a come from behind win, is celebrated around home plate.<\/p>\n
Two such incredible finishes happened this past week. I cut the cord with cable over a year ago. and have resumed listening to some games on the radio and watch game highlights online.<\/p>\n
I might watch the last two-minutes of these highlight reels over and over again, relishing moments I never seem to tire of.<\/p>\n
The LA Dodgers were in town for their only scheduled visit for the season. On the first night we played each other, we found ourselves ahead seven to four after five innings. The Dodgers added a run then scored five more in the top of the seventh, but we chipped away, tying the game at ten apiece with a dramatic home run in the bottom of the ninth.<\/p>\n
In the tenth, outfielder Ian Happ hit a single, scoring the runner perched on second. The dug-out emptied and it seemed like the whole team, not just those involved in scoring the run, jumped and danced around home plate.<\/p>\n
Not in as dramatic fashion, my Cubbies came from behind again and beat the Dodgers the following evening. The players referred to their \u201cNot having any quit\u201d spirit.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so grateful I get to see such games and can replay such joyous celebrations.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how I envision heaven. Jumping and dancing and hugging everyone with whom I\u2019ve shared my journey around some kind of home plate.<\/p>\n
Believing it\u2019s not over until it\u2019s over, completely relishing the game, is no small thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have tried to explain to friends and casual fans why I love, really love,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,632],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-weekly-blog","grateful-dozen-winning-luck"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n