It's a family thing

I love hearing why people love baseball. We all love the sport for different reasons; however, a common theme among many who love the game is that the sport some how connects them to their families in some way; usually their dad.

Here's one of those stories:

I think baseball's a family thing. When I was growing up my parents were baseball fanatics and to be honest, I never understood it. Oh sure, I liked baseball when I was a kid; I collected cards, idolized Mickey Mantle… the usual stuff.

When I became an adult my family and I would visit my folks and my dad always had that dang TV on with baseball playing 24/7 and heaven help you if you "talked" during an important play (and most of them were exactly that). I vowed I'd never neglect anything or anyone in favor of baseball and so it was.

Then the kids got older, left home and went off to college, got married… the usual stuff.

I don't know how or when it happened, but when my dad died awhile back, I began watching baseball again.

It was during the Barry Bonds era. All of sudden I was back and hooked on baseball! Now I live for the baseball season. When October comes and goes and I actually find myself a little depressed.

What’s a guy to do? Well, I started collecting baseball cards and now have over 185,000 cards that keep me busy.

Last summer I went on a 7 day baseball tour back East and decided to blog about it. We started in Baltimore and ended up in Chicago, hitting 4 games in between. The tour also took us to Cooperstown and Mickey Mantle's Restaurant in New York City. It was quite a trip.

People were reading my blog and after seeing the responses I received from my 7 day blog, I decided to just keep on blogging.

So now I'm an avid baseball card collector and of all things - an amateur baseball blogger. I don’t blog about a specific team, but rather about baseball in general.

There is so much information on every aspect of baseball on the internet that I find myself surfing at midnight more times than I'd like to mention! I have to tell you there aren't enough hours in the day! I love the game, the players, umpires, coaches and the fans.

Blogging has been great. It allows me to interact with fans from all over the world and I never run out of things to blog about.

Baseball's the greatest sport in the world and has the greatest fans in the world. No matter where you go you can talk about baseball and people get it.

My Giants made the playoffs this year. I feel like I know all the players personally and I get emotional during every game; just like I would if they were my own kids.

I wish my dad could see me now. There are so many things I'd like to talk with him about. I miss him. The good part? My kids love baseball and their kids love baseball! It's a family thing and it just doesn't get any better than this!

Submitted by:
Ronni Redmond, Santa Cruz CA
Garlic Fries and Baseball Blog

Thanks Ronni. More stories to come.

In the mean time - please keep sending in your stories about why you love baseball.