more baseball

the owner of the club here in chattanooga, michael alfono, and i were talking baseball last night and he brought up a good point: that baseball is shooting itself in the foot and is going to cost itself it's fan base over the years by putting all the world series games on at night. everything is done for tv and the real fans, those who buy the tickets and go to the parks, be damned. i remember when teachers would bring radios or small tv's to school and would give all of us updates on the scores and sometimes would let us watch or listen instead of doing "school" work. this was in amarillo, not a major league town.

when i was in l.a. for the playoff game i spoke to several young men in their 20's and 30's about how lucky they were to grow up in a major league city and to be able to go to the games. they all said that it was harder to bring their kids to the park because there are hardly any day games anymore. rigley field in chicago had only day games for what? a century or so and everyone loved it and the place was full. a baseball game takes over 3 hours to play and what with getting back to your car, fighting the traffic out and then driving home you and your kids get in bed after midnight. as a result of this fewer and fewer kids are growing up as bb fans.

that, and the lack of playing fields in the cities. in vegas we have several really nice soccer fields but i have seen only one really nice little league bb field. the kids in innercities don't play baseball any more because of lack of facilities and because basketball and to some degree football are more "glamorous".

if you don't know the game, baseball looks dull on tv when, in reality, most baseball games are very intense and have well over 200 different plays each game. every pitch is a play, every shift of the defense, every throw to first to hold the runner, every signal from catcher, every signal to a base runner all of those and dozens more are part of the game. i grew up with baseball so i see all those things but if you didn't.....

another well pitched game last night and the issue was in doubt until the very last batter. this kid, price, for the rays, had ice water in his veins. i think he is 23 and started the season in the minors and here he is pitching in the 9th in the world series. how cool is that?

i have made rhonda into not only a baseball fan but a college basketball fan as well. while she had some rudimentary knowledge of both games she now is a FAN and sees the game properly. of course, she had no choice. lol.

rock and roll and peace to us all