There is crying in baseball
Writing by treason on Sunday, 26 of August , 2007 at 9:07 pm
Q: What does a female bear on the Pill and the World Series have in common?
A: No Cubs.
As I’ve said, T and I have pretty much written off watching baseball this year, so I was a little surprised to find him tuned into the Little League World Series. T and his brother had played in the League when they were kids, and their mother had been an umpire. Our beef with baseball isn’t with the game – it’s with the handful of miscreants who have contracts with the American and National Leagues.
I didn’t want to get involved with the games – I resisted — but once I saw the quality of these kids I was hooked. I came into the Series late: the team from Curacao was playing the team from Venezuela and the Curacao team was just one strike away from defeat. No crying in baseball? Tell that to the Venezuelan kids.
It was late on Thursday afternoon and I was watching another game when the sky opened up — not in Williamsport, but here in Albuquerque. Monsoon season had arrived and we had it all in a matter of hours. After scrambling outside to redirect water and keep our sandy backyard slope from sliding into the house, I ran inside so I could save the container plants in front of the house from the hail that had begun to slam into us. My mistake was pausing to look at the game, Taipei versus Japan. I was riveted once more, my knees frozen solid. Again, it was the bottom of the sixth, two outs, two strikes, and… I heard T off in the distance yelling something, but I couldn’t take my eyes off these Little Leaguers.
“Che the skawah!”
Huh?
“Che the skawah!!!”
Skawah? OH! Check the skylight! But it was too late. I’d just brought my new issue of National Review in from the mailbox that morning and set it on top of the previous three issues. Under the skylight. OH! My marigolds!
By the time I pulled myself away from the game and addressed the magazines and container plants, there’d been casualties. That’s it, I thought to myself. There are only a handful of games left, but I’m recording them. I’m not going to allow an act of God to disrupt baseball again.
The skill of these kids, the drama on and off the field! There were plenty of reasons for tears in this Series, but the tears made sense. I mean, as a Cubs fan I know all about crying in baseball, but this was different. For the first time, I think that I felt I knew what it must be like to shed tears of pride.
Congratulations to all the players, the coaches, and the parents. And thanks for the gentle reminder of what baseball should be. And, yes, Cubs or no Cubs, I’ll be tuned in this October.
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