There are three images of the
2011 baseball season that are indelibly etched in my mind. The most obvious is
that of Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard crumpling to the ground as he blew
out his left Achilles tendon while making the final out in the five-game series
against the St. Louis Cardinals.
While that picture seems to
typify how badly the Phillies played in that series, it’s not the most
significant image to me.
Two others are far more
significant because they deal with the importance of the game itself, not a
game or even a series of games, but THE game. They go to the heart of baseball.
During the last game of the
season as the Phils were beating the Atlanta Braves and crushing Atlanta’s hope
to get into the playoffs, the TV camera found the face of a young fan, maybe
8-10 years old, forlorn and ready to cry because his team was losing. Even a
diehard Phillies fan couldn’t help but feel for the kid. He was experiencing
what so many of us had felt for so many years.
The yang to that yin was the
image of a young Phillies fan, in the same age range, smiling and dancing with
his arms raised as the Phils won a home game earlier in the season.
Those two kids truly represent
the yin and yang of fandom, of a boy’s love for his team and a special game.
It’s a game that beckons us to
wake up to the promise of spring, to warming temperatures that bake off
winter’s chill. The game travels with us through the summer to the shore, to
picnics and backyard barbecues and it leaves us as autumn brings chillier air
and the crunch of fallen leaves. With luck, it lasts a few extra weeks into the
autumn, as we fans always want it to. It means our guys are going to the World
Series.
Not so this year. There’s no
joy in this Mudville, not in 2011.
But baseball is a game of
failure for players as well as fans. A good hitter fails 70 percent of the time
and a great fails at a 65 percent rate. To consistently hit a sphere moving at
90 mph with a cylinder is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.
When the Phillies won the World
Series in 2008, the winter didn’t feel as cold or last as long. Fans were
talking baseball well into the spring of ’09. We were all happy.
But just as disappointed as we
were last week when the Phils faltered, that’s how eager with anticipation we
will be come the middle of February when that big truck loaded with bats, ball,
sunflower seeds and bubble gum pulls out of Citizens Bank Park and heads to
Florida right before pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
All of the major sports are
good, football, basketball, hockey and soccer. But baseball is magic. Just like
a girlfriend, it can give all the joy possible, or break your heart. But,
there’s always next season.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...
Comments