The kids of baseball
Aug. 10th, 2005 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susandennisLast night, Felix Hernandez pitched a wonderful game for the Seattle Mariners. Felix is 19 years old. There have not been many Mariner games this year (or last) that one could even come close to calling wonderful but last night was one and it was great.
I've been a baseball fan since Dizzy Dean and PeeWee Reece were announcers (not players... I'm old, but not that old) on TV and I used to watch on the back porch with my Grandpa.
But, the best baseball of my life, my baseball of choice is minor league baseball. I first got really hooked when I lived in Charlotte, NC. They had a double A team - the Charlotte O's that was part of the Baltimore fan club. They played in a park that was perfect. A 4,000 year old wooden park called Crockett field. It was in the middle of an old neighborhood and it was perfect - right down to the seat in section F, row 1, that had my name painted on it.
I never missed a game. I was there the night my husband won a Pulitzer prize. (He was part of a group that won and they won the only Pulitzer that does not net a money prize but still, he thought I should have been with him but... it was opening night at the ballpark... the first game of the season... Ok, now, someone want to start the list of reasons that marriage didn't make it?)
People wax poetic about baseball a lot. It is good poetic fodder. But, I'm here to tell you that minor league baseball is the heart and soul of what baseball is all about for the players, for the fans, for everybody. We have a single A team about 30 miles north of here where a pig delivers the balls to the umpire every game. In Charlotte, I routinely scored on Free Grocery Night.
I not only watched Cal Ripkin play for 3 Summers, I had him over to dinner with the rest of the team several times. Those boys can eat and they get paid squat so a free meal to them is manna from heaven.
They do not whine about having to play every day. They do not carry on about not getting any days off. They have one goal that everyone on the team shares and they work hard and it is oh so much fun to watch.
My favorite player of all times - all times - was a guy named ... wait for it - it's worth it - Drungo La Rue Hazewood. The announcers LOVED him... Dru un go la rue hazzzzzzzzzzze wood!!!! He was an outfielder who could hit. He was a sweet, fun guy, and boy could he hit a ball. He was so much fun to watch.
In 1980, he had a batting average over .500. He went to the big leagues and played in one maybe two games in September totally bombed and was never heard from again.
The fun part of about the Mariners sucking so much this year is that they are bringing kids up from the minor leagues right and left. These kids are such great fun to watch. I think Felix Hernandez will be heard from again.
I've been a baseball fan since Dizzy Dean and PeeWee Reece were announcers (not players... I'm old, but not that old) on TV and I used to watch on the back porch with my Grandpa.
But, the best baseball of my life, my baseball of choice is minor league baseball. I first got really hooked when I lived in Charlotte, NC. They had a double A team - the Charlotte O's that was part of the Baltimore fan club. They played in a park that was perfect. A 4,000 year old wooden park called Crockett field. It was in the middle of an old neighborhood and it was perfect - right down to the seat in section F, row 1, that had my name painted on it.
I never missed a game. I was there the night my husband won a Pulitzer prize. (He was part of a group that won and they won the only Pulitzer that does not net a money prize but still, he thought I should have been with him but... it was opening night at the ballpark... the first game of the season... Ok, now, someone want to start the list of reasons that marriage didn't make it?)
People wax poetic about baseball a lot. It is good poetic fodder. But, I'm here to tell you that minor league baseball is the heart and soul of what baseball is all about for the players, for the fans, for everybody. We have a single A team about 30 miles north of here where a pig delivers the balls to the umpire every game. In Charlotte, I routinely scored on Free Grocery Night.
I not only watched Cal Ripkin play for 3 Summers, I had him over to dinner with the rest of the team several times. Those boys can eat and they get paid squat so a free meal to them is manna from heaven.
They do not whine about having to play every day. They do not carry on about not getting any days off. They have one goal that everyone on the team shares and they work hard and it is oh so much fun to watch.
My favorite player of all times - all times - was a guy named ... wait for it - it's worth it - Drungo La Rue Hazewood. The announcers LOVED him... Dru un go la rue hazzzzzzzzzzze wood!!!! He was an outfielder who could hit. He was a sweet, fun guy, and boy could he hit a ball. He was so much fun to watch.
In 1980, he had a batting average over .500. He went to the big leagues and played in one maybe two games in September totally bombed and was never heard from again.
The fun part of about the Mariners sucking so much this year is that they are bringing kids up from the minor leagues right and left. These kids are such great fun to watch. I think Felix Hernandez will be heard from again.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-10 04:28 pm (UTC)I know I'm not a whole lot older than you, but maybe just enough; I remember Pee Wee Reese as a player perfectly well. (Not Dizzy Dean, however.)¹
Ok, now, someone want to start the list of reasons that marriage didn't make it?
I think you just did.
You remind me that we haven't been to Pawtucket this year. Gotta fix that (although it's a hell of a drive from Gloucester). I'd really like to go to Lowell to see the (single-A) Spinners, but that's said to be at least as tough a ticket as Fenway.
¹The only other player I know of named Reese (although there are probably others) is the current Mariner Pokey Reese. What is it about the name "Reese" that generates these slightly demeaning nicknames?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-10 04:45 pm (UTC)That is strange about the Reese names...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-10 06:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-10 07:43 pm (UTC)one of the single most perfect afternoons of my life.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-10 07:58 pm (UTC)I think my Crockett Park was likely a WPA project as well. Sadly, it burned to the ground several years after I moved away (I think it missed me) and then they went to the suburbs and built a big old very new and large stadium where the White Sox have their AAA team now.
Days gone by...
Minor league all the way, baybee!
Date: 2005-08-11 01:30 am (UTC)Swag, swag, swag, sports trivia contests, bat spinning, "run the bases" and "tackle the taco" (The taco in question was the mascot wearing a taco suit over his mascot suit) for the kids. Somewhere in storage I have several autographed photo-balls from people who were big back when I was a kid. Knowing that they were "old timers" by the time I hit my late 20's made me feel really old.
Hockey has really ruined me for baseball, but I still say there is no better place to spend a Fourth of July than at a minor league baseball game with fireworks afterward.
Re: Minor league all the way, baybee!
Date: 2005-08-11 01:33 am (UTC)I'm so used to anonymous posting being disabled that I didn't realize I wasn't signed in!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-11 02:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-11 03:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-11 06:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-11 06:51 pm (UTC)But, aren't we happy about this cool?