Play Ball
Us baseball fans have been waiting a long time to hear those words again. But, now it’s time.
High school baseball started a few weeks ago, and opening day for recreation ball is Saturday, April 12. But, the pros….the Atlanta Braves in particular…began this week, finally.
A short perusal of Facebook over the weekend saw someone refer to it as basebore season. Oh, how wrong he is. For us baseball fans, no game is boring. If it is a pitching duel with no scoring…then it’s fascinating to watch those great pitchers work. If it’s high-scoring event, that’s always exciting.
Most of them are a mix. And, yes, they play 162 games a year. Watching these athletes in the heat of August, realizing they play almost every day for six months out of the year, you have to be impressed.
They don’t get weekends, holidays, days off. They generally play six games a week…occasionally more, occasionally less.
If I don’t sound as excited as I should, it’s because even though the season has begun, at this writing I haven’t seen a game yet. And, I may not have seen one by the time you read this. The Braves started Monday….with a day game while I was at work. Ugh.
The second game was scheduled for Tuesday. I plan to be able to watch part of it, but I typically work late on Tuesday, so I don’t know if I’ll get to see it. The third game is another day game….but oh, yea, we close early on Wednesday so I can go home and watch it. Now I’m getting excited.
My youngest daughter momentarily forgot I work late every Tuesday, and called Monday evening to see if I was going to opening day at the Ted. I’m not. I have to work. But, I hate it. They’re planning to honor Hank Aaron in pre-game ceremonies. I hope it will be on TV, so I can DVR it. Hank is my hero. I was there when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974.
I have a photo of him with my father and my father’s best friend. I don’t know the occasion, but they were all young.
I want to share my photo with him. I want him to autograph it. I want to know if he knows what the occasion was or when the photo was taken.
Then, after the ceremony, there will be the home opener ball game which is always fun.
Part of my love of the Braves dates back to my childhood when going to the Braves game was a relatively inexpensive endeavor for a family. My father took us frequently. (Of course, we lived in Atlanta then so it was not quite the drive it is now.)
I can tell you stories of sitting in the cheap seats, and stories of sitting in the dugout level. I can tell you about opening day, closing day, playoffs. It’s always fun.
And, now there’s something good to watch on TV almost every day. Yahoo! And it’s even rated “G.” Welcome boys of summer!