Category Archives: Baseball

Love Letter to My Royals

To My Beloved Royals,

I grew up with you. My first ever baseball game was to see Dennis Leonard lose to the brand new Seattle Mariners. The first four games I ever went to featured Dennis Leonard. He was 0-4. I thought he had to be your worst pitcher. Turns out, he was the “ace” of the staff.

But I had fallen in love. Those were the heady days of George Brett, John Mayberry, Frank White, Freddy Patek, Amos Otis… WOW.

I was in college when you won the World Series.

Then… it all hit rock bottom, and stayed there for so many years. I held on and held on. I thought I was the eternal optimist, until I started reading Joe Posnanski. Every year he would write why this was YOUR year… and every year you broke his heart. Finally, he had to leave town. (Granted it was for Sports Illustrated, but I’ve blamed you all these years.) Actually, it was a good thing Joe left. I love his writing, but he was from Cleveland. He brought all that bad karma.

Well, he’s gone, Dayton is here and now we have a core team we have hope in.

I confess I tried to swear off you guys for a couple of years. I grew so tired of all the empty promises.

But being a Royals fan is much like having leukemia. It’s blood-born. I was in remission those two years, but now the disease has returned. You have given me hope.

So, here I am at the beginning of Spring Training to say, “Go ahead, break my heart again!”

You’re in my heart… and my bloodstream. And there is no getting rid of you. I’m prepared to have my heart completely shattered once again. Please don’t do it… but in case you do… I can only say right here that I asked for it.

All my love…

Why Baseball is Better Than Football

As I watched part of the Lions/Bears debacle yesterday that some would call a “football game,” I reflected on why baseball is better than football.

Seeing the refs have to pile on to break up numerous fights in this game (which the typical Bears fan will now rage about the nastiness of the Lions, and the Lions fan in turn will predictably rage about, “HEY! That’s how you play the game!”), I am even more a fan of baseball. Refs in football need to train in the WWF to handle the pile ups on the football field these days. Plus, even in baseball they give the homeplate umpire protection.

But my favorite all time quote of why baseball is better than football comes from the great George Will:

Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

Let the football whiners now commence their HGH rages…

The Beauty of the Game

I am a baseball fan at the core. I love sports in general, and it is NOT that I hate football. I LOVE football. I got to watch the Gophers beat Iowa yesterday and it was glorious!

But I truly love the game of baseball. This World Series really restored a lot of that fun. I will not disagree that baseball has its problems. That’s a given. But all pro sports do.

Ben Witherington outlines some great thoughts on the beauty of baseball over and against pro football.

As much as I do love football, I still contend it is only a matter of time before someone is killed on the field. We are not coaching to tackle anymore. We are coaching to maim. Hopefully we learn to teach and coach better. But as long we have a bloodsport mentality, I doubt it.

Anyway, let the raging debate begin. I know I’m in the minority and know I’ll get lots of comments on steroids, etc. Baseball has issues. Football does as well. And we all like our sports.

 

WHAT a Game!

Game 6 of this World Series just may be the greatest Series game I’ll ever get to see. The Cardinals were down to their last strike… TWICE… and they carried it all the way to the 11th inning to WIN.

THIS is why I love this game.

FINALLY… A Decent World Series

The Series may end tonight with the Texas Rangers taking the game. But it has been a fun Series to watch. It’s been awhile since I could say that. If the Cardinals rally tonight and it goes seven, this will REALLY be a fun Series.

There are certainly the goof-ups. Tony Larussa making HUGE mistakes in bullpen calls is simply unprecedented. Is he ready to hang it up, or what?

That said, baseball NEEDS some changes. This column makes some great suggestions. I still don’t favor instant replay in the game, but at the beginning of this season, I said basically the same thing about the number of games. The schedule could be trimmed back to 154 or 148 games and the playoffs shortened. I’d still like a 7 game World Series, but 7 games in the League Championship Series is getting crazy.

The Series winner this year will be deserving. Far more than the typical Yankees/Red Sox juggernaut, these two teams were far more prepared for the run through the season and simply the best teams left on the field. I am pulling for the Cards because of the phenomenal way they pulled themselves up and stormed into the post season. But the Rangers are a GREAT story and irritating Democrats by having President Bush in the picture for a couple of games in Texas is always an added bonus. ;)