We spent yesterday celebrating Mother’s Day early by watching the Phillies beat the Nationals at Citizen Bank Park with #1 daughter and her family. I have loved baseball since elementary school. No other sport (even my beloved Ohio State football) even comes close. There are 4 reasons why.
- Family. We trooped in, three generations, all wearing Phillies gear. Folks bring kids of all sizes, some in baseball hats, some wearing silly (and I do mean silly) Philly Phanatic hats. A highlight for me was the “Simba Tron,” folks all over the ballpark holding up babies on the jumbotron to the tune of “The Circle of Life.”
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1888 Philadelphia Baseball Team
History. Most Octobers I watch at least some of Ken Burns’s fabulous Baseball miniseries. Yes, I know Abner Doubleday didn’t invent the game, and I know it predates the Civil War. The Phllies date to 1883. That’s a lot of baseball! Somehow when I watch baseball it is never about just what happens in front of me. It is in part about what the team is doing this whole season, what they did in the last 20 games, how they’ve played against a particular opponent. I always check the numbers when I guy comes up to bat. How many games? How many hits? What’s his average? How many homers has he hit. Then I ask myself whether he’ll hit this time. Then I sit back and smile and watch it unfold.
3. Life. Baseball unfolds, game after game over months. If football teams play 16 games in a season, baseball teams play 162. There’s something about productivity over time that I find satisfying. It rewards consistency and dependability. Besides, baseball is a great metaphor for life. You only have to be perfect once in three at-bats, once in 10 or 12 pitches to be a highly successful player. When you do connect, it flies.
4. Customs. I can belt out Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with the best of them in the 7th Inning Stretch. I’ll take peanuts over cracker jacks, and please get me a hotdog with mustard and a beer!
Today it is back to work. While I’m typing this, I have two pieces of news. First, The Renegade Wife is a finalist for the RONE Award. It needs **VOTES** to get to the next round. Please vote for it! You have to register on InD’Tale, but that isn’t hard and you’ll be rewarded with a good magazine site. If you lose track of the link while registering it is in the upper right corner. (And be sure to check out my article in the May issue of the magazine while you’re there)
Now I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and finish my story for the 2017 Bluestocking Belle’s Holiday Anthology. But first, Coffee!