I love baseball.  I love playing it and watching it. It is a game that delights the senses and engages the mind. Everything about it is spectacular. The smell of a well-oiled glove. The smack when the leather ball hits the wood bat. The slight repositioning of the fielders in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage against a certain batter. The fire in the arm of a pitcher that explodes a 100-mile-per-hour fast ball. The combination of athletic prowess and mental fortitude is wonderful. It is a game of strategy, nuance, and power. I love all things baseball.

Baseball has been part of my life as long as I can remember. Growing up in the UP, I watched the Chicago Cubs on WGN every day that I could in the summer. I also loved the Detroit Tigers. At that time, there was no inter-league play – so I could freely root for both teams. And the idea of the Cubs ever going to the World Series was anathema to anything I understood about baseball in the 70s and 80s, so it was all okay to love both teams.

I also love playing baseball. You may not recognize it now, but as a child I played a lot of ball; both pick up neighborhood games and organized baseball. I played pee-wee league, little league, and then pony league. After the ninth grade, I started to play softball. But, to me, softball was a pale imitation of baseball.

Thinking about it, what I experienced playing ball shaped me. It taught me to be tough and smart. Working together on the field. Working solo in the batter’s box. It also gave me courage to face failure. Striking out was public failure. Getting back in the field or the box took a lot of something that I later identified as strength and courage. Baseball is good for those that play. These are strong lessons. Playing was a lovely thing.

I also miss watching baseball. I especially miss baseball in the summer. As the days are long and warm, I feel an ache for the game.  Listening to a Tiger’s game in the back yard on a warm night while drinking a cold beer and watching fireflies come alive is glorious. This week I would typically be thinking about the All-Star game. No game this year, though. I understand why there is no professional baseball right now. Stopping was the right thing to do – serious health concerns demanded it. I understand that. However, it does not mean that I don’t miss it none the less.

Now that baseball owners and players have figured out what an abbreviated season will look like – I am not sure this pause was all that bad. While it was necessary because of COVID-19, I think maybe American society needed this break. Sports in general is a distraction. Sports allows us to be absorbed in something besides what is right in front of us.  In some ways that removal of the distraction of sports has been good for our society. With nothing to divert our thoughts, what many Americans grapple with daily has been brought to the forefront. American now must wrestles with its original sin that it never shed.  Our continued maltreatment of African Americans. We now have collectively turned inward and are thinking about long-term societal transformation. Now might be the time to make a change. If this is the trade off, maybe it is about time.

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