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A rookie pitcher

One day while preparing to close our donut shop for the day, my oldest daughter told me she wanted to send a thank you to Jimmy Wynn for the autographed baseball he had given her.

It is getting closer to baseball season, I can feel it. Every day now there is some baseball related story in the newspaper.

Have you ever heard of Charles O. Finley? Unless you are an old baseball fan, probably you do not. He was the owner of the Kansas City A’s, which moved to Oakland, and he was quite a proponent of innovation and showmanship. I knew he was primarily responsible for the introduction of the designated hitter into the game, and for white shoes on the ball players of the 70’s. He instigated bright colors for his uniforms and came up with the idea of variations on the uniforms for day games, weekends, and holidays.

Every trip to the ball park makes the day a good one. A couple of weeks ago my family attended the Thursday night game at Minute Maid Park in Houston, despite the fact that Hurricane Ike would be slamming into our area.

These days I am not much of a daydreamer, I think that it is because I almost always have something going to occupy my mind. When I was a little guy I used to daydream about playing baseball. I would see myself playing second base for the Brooklyn Dodgers the way Junior Gilliam did. I would home runs against Robin Roberts and steal bases like Maury Wills.

I grew up in a time when baseball was dominated by pitching and defense. I still love to watch a 1-0, 2-1, or 3-2 game more than a 10-7 home run hitting contest. I got to see one last night at Minute Maid Park. Ian Snell of the Pirates and Alberto Arias were the starters. Snell had command of his slider and was throwing his fastball as high as 96 miles per hour. He really handcuffed the Astros for most of the night. Alberto Arias was making his first Major League appearance for Houston and was really hot for the first few innnings. He struck out five of the first six hitters and had another K in the third.

The start of April marks the start of the Major League Baseball season in the United States. For the Chicago Cubs this season marks 100 years since they have won the World Series. While in contrast the New York Yankees have won 26 World Series during the last 100 years.

Baseball is the national sport in the United States. However American rules Football is by far the most popular spectator sport in America. In fact Football is so popular that Super Bowl Sunday is an unofficial holiday with everyone glued to their TV sets watching the game. Even non-sports fans watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and half-time show. With many people attending Super Bowl parties.

Fine, St. Louis. You're awesome. You took us out in 5 games...and you did it in your home stadium. You're better than us. But do you have to be better than us in everything??