Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Boy, am I full...


After the veritable baseball buffet that was the All-Star game I find that I have had my hunger for baseball satiated. This is not to say that I am no longer looking forward to the up coming pennant races, but I do not think that we will see a game of last nights quality again for a while. The All-Star game had it all drama, suspense, and Fox even did a fair job of reflecting on the history of Yankee Stadium as a nationwide audience said goodbye to one of Baseball’s most hallowed grounds for perhaps the last time.

Call me sentimental, but I am already morning the passing of “the house that Ruth built”. Yankee Stadium over the last 85 years has been the site of the most championships (26) of any American sport. Yankee Stadium has seen the best player who has ever played the game, and the luckiest man in the world. It has seen the good and the bad of George Steinbrenner, and it has seen 15 different presidents come to office. I am sorry that I have never had a chance to go there, and I am even sorrier that I never will get that chance.

But, now back to the game from last night. Even though the National League lost, I thoroughly enjoyed every second. I felt terrible for Dan Uggla who, in spite of how he looked last night, deserved to be an All-Star. I loved the strategy and the honor that both managers employed as they marshaled the players in and out. I loved the quality of the pitching and the battling and I love the level playing field that the teams met on.

Last night was everything that is right with baseball and made me feel like a little kid again. It was like watching Ryan Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and the Cubs play on the WGN super station in the middle of the afternoon after playing a hard game of baseball in the morning. I felt the pure joy of sport, the pure joy of the game.

Now if only we could do something about the All Star winners getting home field advantage in the World Series…

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