Just a little off base

A few people have asked me why I didn’t say something about this or the other thing in last week’s article about baseball caps. Well, it was getting a little too long and a little too late as it was.

But I was tempted to say that, great American past time notwithstanding, the best thing to come out of baseball may be the baseball cap.
Of course, we don’t live in a city or even a state that has a team in either big league so we are probably a little too far removed from all the action if there is any.

My son who lives further east than we do follows big-league baseball, but he lives within a couple of hours traveling time of four teams’ home ball parks. In addition to that, there is the Toledo Mud Hens also within that range, which team I was lucky enough to watch play.

But as sports go, baseball is one of them. A couple of my kids played baseball, so I have been to the park a few hundred times to watch the games. At least the games are held in the summer, as opposed to football and soccer, which sports aren’t perfect either as their games are on one end or the other of winter.

If your kid is the pitcher, watching baseball is an okay activity, unless he walks nine in a row. If he’s the right fielder, you are better off bringing along a supplementary amusement like a history book or a math assignment for the bottom halves of the innings in case things get a little slow.

Since we don’t really have any geographical ties to baseball, my kids were all over the ballpark when it came to picking a major league team to cheer for. They tended to pick their own baseball team fan caps based on color more than anything else, i.e. “I like blue, and I look good in blue; I’ll root for Boston. Besides that, my name starts with ‘B’.”

“Well, I’ll get a Yankees hat, even though, thank goodness, my name doesn’t start with ‘Y.’ Their hats just look the best.”

Similarly, I think my friend’s son was playing baseball, and not soccer, because “the boys just look so cute in their baseball suits.” I think that Bertha has already written about the pros and cons of baseball uniforms versus soccer gear. Baseball requires way too much equipment.

I don’t know whether it is baseball that has changed or whether I have. I used to follow the sport and at least watch the World Series along with everybody else. And, truth to tell, I don’t know whether one can truly be an American patriot and not like baseball.

American culture and social history would have a huge holes in it without baseball, its Hall of Fame, and the stories, movies, music and food associated with it—not to mention the influence of baseball on the English language.

Do you realize how many baseball idioms there are? You might have noticed a couple already in this article. But I’ll bet you could think of at least twenty once you got out of the dugout and started swinging.

When was the last time you didn’t go through a day (that would be a Yogiism right there) without “striking out” or “dropping the ball?” We can certainly hope for a few more “homeruns and “grand slams” than instances of “being caught off base” in that day though.

And if you think that this particular column is a swing and a miss, how would you like to pinch hit sometime?

Thankfully, it’s over when it’s over.