January 28, 2011 The Baseball Docent Tour continues

It's been a while. I could bore you with why, but rather than do that, let's just get back at it, shall we?

Today's tour takes us to a great blog called "The Henry Wiggen Blog" - and a post from January 3, 2011. It's about a baseball story and one that I'm sure you'll enjoy. It's about Mickey Mantle and who doesn't love a good Mickey Mantle story?

This one has a long title; it's called: Lure of the ball field... is it lost on the modern player? An inviting conundrum from Jane Leavy's new biography of the Mick. Enjoy....

Next up is the work of one of my favorite wrtiers and someone who will no doubt be mentioned on this site a lot over time. He's Joe Posnanski and he did an interesing piece about the Hall of Fame.

Who's really good enough to get in? Let's start with Willie Mays; in fact, Joe would like to use Willie May as the criteria for such an esteemed honor. How so? Read "The Willie Mays Hall of Fame" for some entertaining insight.

Okay... so we have a link to something about Mickey Mantle and one to something about Willie Mays. Not a bad day's work eh?

I really can't top that - but I will leave you with something that's about another Hall of Famer... This is a tribute to Dave Niehaus, the legendary voice of the Seattle Mariners who passed away in 2010.

Enjoy...



Special thanks to Sam Miller of the OC Register who brought this video to our attention.

There are many reasons to love baseball

Every day is kind of like Christmas for me lately. Seems like every time I check my email, there's another story from a baseball fan who wants to answer my question "Why do you love baseball?"

The following post is from Matt Kelsey, who got wind of this blog from his I-70 Baseball colleague Bill Ivie and wanted to take part in the project as well. I'm glad he did....

I love baseball because my dad and my mom took me to games, back in the days when the Royals played respectable ball and you could take a family of four to a big-league ballpark for less than twenty-five bucks - parking and food included.

I love baseball because after the games, my brother and I would go stand around next to the visiting team bus and the home team parking lot, asking for autographs. More players said no than yes, but the ones who said yes - regardless of how they performed on the field - became our favorites.

I love baseball because of my grandmother. A first-generation American, she was born and raised in the small central Missouri town of Loose Creek, and grew up in the days of Ruth and Gehrig. She became a fan of the Kansas City Royals out of spite, for the exact same reason she voted Republican: her husband, the jovial town barber, told her she ought vote Democrat and root for the St. Louis Cardinals. My grandmother did the opposite. Our family friend Ralph Lynch took my grandmother to a playoff game in 1985, and bought her a Royals jacket. The jacket and a commemorative Dwight Eisenhower plate were her prized possessions. She wore that jacket every spring and fall until the day she died.

I love baseball because of that jacket.

I love baseball because of Ralph Lynch. Ralph was the kind of guy who would throw away caps when they became too worn out. Once, when he was over at our house, shucking corn and drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon out of the can with my father, he decided his old Royals hat was too worn out and chucked it in a garbage barrel. I dug that sucker out of the trash and wore it the rest of my childhood.

I love baseball because of Bret Saberhagen. He was the kid pitcher on the Royals in 1985, and he went on to win a Cy Young Award and the World Series MVP. He was my favorite player, and still is, even though he sprayed bleach on reporters while playing for the Mets and wore his hair in a ridiculous perm.

I love baseball because of Game 7 of the 1985 World Series. A Cardinals fan tried to tell me recently that the Royals would have lost the series if Don Denkinger, the guy who blew a call in Game 6, hadn't been behind the plate for Game 7. The Royals won Game 7 by a score of 11-0. Cardinals fans are delusional if they think a different umpire would have changed the outcome of Saberhagen's complete-game shutout or the Royals' offensive explosion. But I digress...

I love baseball because I was six years old during the 1985 World Series. My family watched the game from our living room, in the house where my parents still live. Ralph Lynch was there, too. My brother and I watched from the living room carpet, laid out on our stomachs, our heads cradled in our hands. When Darryl Motley caught the ball for the final out and Saberhagen leaped into George Brett's arms, we pounded on the carpet and screamed until our fists were sore and our throats were raw.

I love baseball because I love hating the Cardinals, and I love hating the Yankees.

I love baseball because of George Brett, the greatest player I ever saw. Years after he retired I witnessed him at an exhibition game. He was joking around with the crowd, signing a few autographs, and then he took batting practice and his expression became deadly serious. He whacked the ball all over the park, with that wonderfully ridiculous back-to-the-pitcher stance of his. I'll bet money George Brett could still hit .275 in the big leagues.

I love baseball because of birthday money. On my birthday, I would get $15 from my parents to spend anyway I liked, and my brother would get $10. On his birthday, we'd reverse it. One year on my birthday, I blew my entire wad on baseball cards. My brother had always had more cards than me, and it was sort of a sore subject. That night I came home and opened all my cards (probably 30 packs - they were a lot cheaper back then), and shoved all the gum in my mouth. Then, with a mouth full of sugary sweetness, I took my cards and stacked them up in a skyscraper. My brother stacked his cards up too. My stack, for once, was taller.

I love baseball because of the gum. My brother's friend once built a small box out of baseball-card gum and stored his valuables inside, because he swore the gum was fireproof.

I love baseball because of Buck O'Neil.

I love baseball because there's an old family rumor, largely propagated by my brother, that we're distantly related to Mickey Mantle.

I love baseball because my wife lets me teach her about the game, and she's come to love it, too, in a way only a perfect wife can, the kind of wife who doesn't just suffer her husband's obsessions, but shares in them.

I love baseball because it's the only game that matters. It's the only game I'll ever truly love. It's a game that belongs to me in the same way it belongs to all fans, and I belong to it as well.

Submitted by
Matt Kelsey
Content Director
I-70 Baseball

Be sure to check out Matt's blog:
The Henry Wiggen Blog

By the way Matt, I too love baseball because of Buck O'Neil

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.