October baseball

The best thing about October is baseball.  I'm excited.

Baseball starts tonight...Phillies/Giants.  I kind of wish the Cardinals were in because I love to watch how Tony LaRusa manages a fall game.  You see all kinds of things in the fall that you don't see normally.  Last night, I watched the Rangers blow a huge lead to the Yankees.  I saw it coming.  I've seen it too many times before.  The Yankees, as much as I'm not a Yankee fan, are still one of the best late inning teams in baseball.  They just find a way to win.  I just knew they would win last night.  Sometimes, you just get that feeling.

You notice I said baseball starts tonight.  One thing I really dislike about baseball is the DH rule.  Real baseball teams make the pitchers hit.  It adds something to the game.  Back in the '90s, the Atlanta Braves had a pitching staff that could hit!  It makes the game fun to watch when pitchers can help themselves.

The two teams I dislike the most in baseball are playing this fall.  My beloved Dodgers, well, let's face it, they didn't have a good year.  I don't see how you can spend that kind of money and have a team be that bad year after year, and teams like the Twins and the Rays can be so consistently good.

Here's what I mean by seeing things you don't see every day.  Today's game featured a double steal, to include a steal of home ( I missed it, thankfully there'll be  SportsCenter highlights)  That's exciting baseball.  If the Cardinals or Angels were in the post-season, you'd see at least one suicide squeeze this fall.

I like the Angels, too.  They play "small ball".  Get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in.  It's a great way to manufacture runs and it's used mostly in the National League.  Not often do you see an AL team bunt.  It happens, but not as much as in the National League games.

Some of the best memories of my life surround baseball.  And some of the worst.

I was a terrible player.  Had no business ever putting on a uniform.  But I so loved the game.  I always have.  Those are the bad memories.  My mom used to watch baseball on Saturday mornings on TV.  They made me the catcher on my team sometimes, so my favorite player growing up was Johnny Bench.  We had great heroes back then, Bench, Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt,  Joe Morgan, Willie Stargill,  and Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.  .   Billy Martin was the most outrageous manager in the game and George Steinbrenner was in his Glory when he was fighting with Billy.  

Baseball players had great names like Rolly Fingers and Catfish Hunter.  We had the Big Red Machine. You just don't hear terms like that anymore!  Baseball cards came with that horrible stick of gum.  It was hard as a rock and always tasted bad, but we always chewed it.

When I was a kid, by friend Robert and I used to go to ball games at Derks Field.  We always had fun.  The teams were great, the Salt Lake Angels, then the Gulls, the Albuquerque Dukes, the Tuscon Toros.  The teams were a part of the Pacific Coast League.  I remember announcers talking about PCL teams saying you had to deduct a hundred points off a PCL batting average to figure what a guy would hit in the majors.  I had great memories as a fan, none as a player.

My kids have a few bad memories of me being "that dad", trying to make my childhood dreams come true.  Despite my best efforts, my middle boy Jake played a lot of baseball and had fun.  I wanted him to be an "all star".  He wanted to play because it was fun.  He was right and some of my best memories are of watching him play, getting a big hit (he had a few, and actually had the hit that won a baseball game for his team!).  He'll always have great memories of the game.  I'll always have great memories of teaching him how to pitch, how to hit off a tee.  He got mad at me one time in the backyard because I was telling him he was doing something wrong, so I went and got the video camera from the house and filmed him doing what I was telling him.  I had a lot of fun playing with my boys in the backyard. 

I took my kids to a Dodger game on a dream vacation we had.  We had field seats and were maybe 30 feet from Gary Sheffield playing in Left Field.  That was fun.  My boys got an education in baseball, because our seats were right next to the opposing team's bullpen.  My children learned some colorful language from some well-meaning, enthusiastic, and intoxicated Dodger fans.  It was a fun night.

I love Dodger Stadium.  What a great place to see a ball game.  I've been there four times. I have yet to see them win.  I have some good baseball memories.  I saw Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a home run in the KingDome.  I saw Tony Gwynn hit a base hit.  I saw Mike Piazza catch a game.  I saw the game on TV that he hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium, a feat less than 10 people have ever accomplished.  There's nothing better than a Dodger Dog, (they have a veggie version, which I think is a Travesty, but then again, it IS Los Angeles), a bag of peanuts, and a cold beer on a summer day.  One day, I'll see them get the W!

My best friend admired Jose Canseco.  I used to give him a bad time about it.  Two of my favorite memories of baseball are the time Canseco got hit in the head and the ball bounced over the fence, and the time he tried to pitch and wound up on the DL because he threw out his shoulder.  Those two things still make me laugh.

The highlight of my baseball memories, though, happened during a TDY to New York State.  Two friends of mine and I went to Cooperstown, to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  I had goosebumps, I was so excited.  I'll never forget going there.  I saw all the greats, read all the plaques, looked at all the history of the game.  There was a display about the announcers.  All the greats, Mel Allen, Curt Gowdy, Joe Garrigola, and my personal favorite...Vin Scully.  Listening to Vin Scully call a baseball game is like taking a step back in time to a simpler day and it's easy just to get lost in the game when he's talking.  He comes up with the most off-the-wall stuff sometimes!

Another memory I have is spending time with my friends on the deer hunt and listening to World Series games around the campfire.  As a boy, I'd listen to the Gulls and Angels games on an old tube radio I had.  The games were on 1230 a.m. KMOR.  There was always that static...and it made the games fun to listen to.  We never got a clear game during the hunt.  It was always a little staticky.  It never bothered me.

Baseball, like the rest of our society has changed.  Money changed the game.  Steroids wrecked the game.  Pete Rose broke the hearts of men around this country because we BELIEVED him!  As much as I don't like Barry Bonds, he still had to HIT the ball that many times.  As much as I don't like A-Rod, I wish he'd hit a home run every time he was at bat.  Why?  Because he's not Barry Bonds.

There is so much I could say about baseball, but I'll end it with this:  Football may be our passion, but Baseball is our pastime!  Always will be!

Oh, a quick p.s.   How could I forget to include Jack Buck in my list of great announcers?  Or Jon Miller, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year.  Only thing I don't like about Mr. Miller...while he may be the voice of Sunday Night Baseball, he's still the regular season announcer for the Giants!