Baseball brings out the kid in me
I love the game of baseball, so it should come as no surprise that I become a circus-comes-to-town kid on the eve of the playoffs. Throughout the decades that I’ve been both a sportswriter and fan, the game has always had this magical appeal.
Surprise heroes, spectacular feats
Players you never expect to become a hero defy the odds and spark a rally that leads to an improbable win, and it all becomes the stuff of baseball lore.
Love of the game traced to childhood
As a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I’ve been lucky to have witnessed World Series’ as far back as 1964. I can still remember Sister Rose Joseph wheeling a black and white TV into the sixth-grade classroom so we could witness the game between the Cardinals and Yankees. Yes, a World Series game during the day.
Imagination looms larger than life
My overactive imagination allowed me to push past the black and white screen to see the bright red cardinal atop a yellow bat. The players were larger than life. A home run by the locals made my heart swell.
I’ve been enamored with the game ever since. I pore over box scores the way day traders study the stock market. I anguish over righty versus lefty and on and on and on.
Oh, those curtain calls
This year offers something that not even I could have imagined. Albert Pujols, who has both feet firmly in baseball heaven, has accomplished at the age of 42 what only three other players have done in the game’s history, moving past the 700-home run threshold. Pujols has accomplished the feat in this his final season. With his 703rd home run, he ran his RBI total to 2,216. Only Hank Aaron has more RBI than Pujols.
He’s had more curtain calls than I’ve had curtains. His good friend, catcher Yadier Molina, is also calling it quits after a storied career in a Cardinal uniform. Molina and pitcher Adam Wainwright set the battery record with 325 starts together.
Greatest unscripted spectacle?
Whatever happens this year, I suspect there will be better drama than what’s on TV for the next few days. Perhaps the rest of the year.
What show could top the greatest unscripted spectacle in October? Can’t think of one.
Bill Heitland has authored three books: Adversity’s Early Light, Chance Evers and Two for the Seesaw.