opening day

[Tom Watson]

This it is that transcends all dorking and all thinking and all being: it is opening day:

Well, beat the drum and hold the phone - the sun came out today! We?re born again, there?s new grass on the field. A-roundin? third, and headed for home, it?s a brown-eyed handsome man; Anyone can understand the way I feel.

Chorus: Oh, put me in, coach - I?m ready to play today; Put me in, coach - I?m ready to play today; Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Well, I spent some time in the mudville nine, watchin? it from the bench; You know I took some lumps when the mighty casey struck out. So say hey willie, tell ty cobb and joe dimaggio; Don?t say "it ain?t so", you know the time is now.

Chorus

Yeah! I got it, I got it!

Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes; You know I think it?s time to give this game a ride. Just to hit the ball and touch ?em all - a moment in the sun; (pop) it?s gone and you can tell that one goodbye!

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[charlieb]

Lost interest in baseball when the Dodgers left Brooklyn. Shortly thereafter it stopped being The Game of Baseball and became Corporate - sucked all the fun out of the game.

charlie b

(if my mother knew the value of my baseball cards she gave away when I went off to college she'd have died. Think of the Hall of Famers who had their rooky year between 1953 and 1956 and the greats who were nearing the end of their careers (Musial, Williams, ...)

[nailshooter41]

No one is more whimsical than you, charlie.

Hah! ;^)

Robert

[B A R R Y]

Actually, THE season ends this weekend.

Bring on the Cup!

[Roger Shoaf]

I had the same feeling but it was after the big strike when the ticket prices skyrocketed.

What sucked me back was minor league ball. I ended up buying season tickets for $225 and that included free parking and free beer before the game.

[Puckdropper]

"Roger Shoaf" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*trim*

*snip*

This is something I don't understand. Why have prices so high so the teams can only half-fill the ballpark? Lower the ticket and concession prices and more people will come. It's basic economics.

Puckdropper

[Lew Hodgett]

It's simple.

It is not the fan in the seat but the TV camera that controls the franchise, along with box loges that can be rented for thousands of dollars per season.

There is no better example than Art Modell and the old Cleveland Browns before they left Cleveland.

The Browns played in Municipal stadium, located right downtown, next to a freeway, with seating for over 80,000 when configured for football. (Also home to the Indians before Jacobs field was built)

Season tickets extended between the 30 yard lines.

IOW, at least 50,000 seats were sold for the season before the first game was played.

Don't think they missed a sell out crowd in at least 30 years.

The only way to obtain season tickets was to have them left to you in somebody's will when they died.

Talk about loyal fans. The Browns won the championship only once in Cleveland, with Modell at the helm.

Every season, I made a few $, betting against the Browns.

It was money in the bank.

So what happened?

Modell saw a way to improve the bottom line, and moved a team he had bought with other people's money, a team he had owned for almost 40 years, to Baltimore.

Baltimore had suckered the locals into paying for a new stadium a few years earlier, so Modell got what he wanted.

After the Browns left, they demolished Municipal stadium, and suckered the locals into paying for a new stadium, built on the site of the old one.

The new Browns owners, got a sweet lease deal, nice new loge boxes.

The fans got screwed.

Here in L/A, the Rams, formerly from Cleveland(they moved from Cleveland to L/A after the 1945 season), moved to St Louis almost 10 years ago.

The NFL is all bent out of shape.

L/A will not kiss their rear end to get a new team.

There is already more to do in L/A than time to do it.

Who the hell need a bunch of spoiled brats called a football team, especially on their terms.

Pro sports always had a money side to it, it is just more sleazy now.

Off the box.

Lew

[Bill in Detroit]

What season? Woodworking HAS no season. (From my point of view, it, and girl-watching, are the only games in town. And, in Detroit, girl-watching takes a break in the winter.)

;-)

Bill

[nailshooter41]

Wow... a lot of bitterness, jaded attitudes and hate here on the subject.

With all that has been expressed, I hope you guys never watch a game as it would probably make you ill drumming up all the bile you have collected over the years.

To me, baseball is timeless. For the most part, it transcends the big owners, the snotty overpaid players, and the bad attitudes of the unions.

Baseball it baseball. It was here before us, and will be here after us. The bitterness and rancour of fans has always been part of the game, just as much as the enthusiasm of others has been. Someone always thinks they were screwed, somewhere, somehow, someway.

As for me, I cannot wait to get out to our minor league team's first at home game. The field will look great, the uniforms will be clean, the little open stadium will be clean, and our announcer for the last

15 years will be there to open up the game. One of the elementary schools will parade their kiddos out to sing the Star Spangled Banner, and the crowd will be hushed and reverent (we ARE a military town) while this goes on. And the slate will be clean on wins and losses once more. An open field for everybody.

On the first day of the season I will see other season ticket holders that I haven't seen since last year. The hot dogs will look like hot dogs, not tubes of mystery meat in a soggy bun. The beer will be fresh and cold, and the night will be too.

So count me in with Tom. I don't care about the players, the owners, or their respective shenanigans.

It's baseball season! Time for BASEBALL!!

Robert

[Roger Shoaf]

Green Bay comes to mind, when the owners were talking about a sale of the team the fans formed a buyers group and purchased the team with stockholders getting first crack at the tickets.

The NFL saw this as a threat to their manipulation of one city against the next, and voted to ban sales of franchises to fan based groups.

[jo4hn]

[snip]>

I wrote a letter to the sports page of the times extolling the virtues of NOT having a team here. Your line about there being enough to do in LA is spot on. In addition, you have to know that local and state governments are going to subsidize a billionaire owner and the NFL in some way (sweetheart land deal, infrastructure, etc.). Plus TV coverage will take a dump. You have a crummy team, the stadium will not sell out, and there will be no TV coverage of your local team or any other game. NFL stay away from LA. grumble, jo4hn

[Patriarch]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I agree with you both!

At headquarters this week, in more meetings I didn't need, there was more talk about football than I thought would be possible on Opening Day. Depressed me seriously.

That, and my teams got clobbered.

Made the looooong flight home just peachy.

Gametime tonight is 7:05!

Patriarch

[Tom Watson]

There is no substitute for the sound of cleats on concrete, walking out towards the field out of the tunnel.

There is no substitute for the smell of Neatsfoot oil and leather.

There is no substitute for the sound of an ash bat cracking a sphere of horsehide and twine.

O'Doul stands tall on the ten inch mountain of pride and shame, waving off the heavily armored troll that waves a single finger, pointed to the right on the left handed singles hitter that burned O'Doul three and a half chances out of ten last year.

He similarly waves off the curveball inside indicated by the two down fingers, most urgently showing an inside path.

O'Doul shakes his shaggy head again and nods towards the troll. It is to be a challenge from the first. A piper - hard and fast and smearing the edge of the black - ...on the outside.

O'Doul had been dreaming of this pitch to this batsman for four months. He did not care much for the statistics (although his catcher did, and understood them, too)

O'Doul reared back. At his full extension his knuckles seemed to drag the ground behind him.

He windmilled forward in what can only be described as a balletic recovery from sure embarrasment - and delivered the hardened globe to the vulvic confines of the troll's mitt.

"Steeeeeerike One", screamed the umpire.

The catcher, and the batter - were amazed.

O'Doul thought this to be a fine way to start the day, the game, the season.

...

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Lew Hodgett]

A totally different experience than the major league(pick the sport).

Minor league baseball, Div III, college, high school, you pick it, they are a joy.

Anything but the Majors.

Lew

[Tom Watson]

Except for those days when you are fortunate enough to see Koufax pitch.

Except for those days when you are fortunate enough to see Ted Williams bat.

Except for those days when you are fortunate enough to see Willy Mays haul one in.

Except for those days when you are fortunate enough to see whatever the current equivalent of "Tinker to Evers to Chance" is, and watch them turn the double play.

Because, on those days - there is poetry and meaning and ability that transcends all the bullshit - and that's why they call it the "Bigs".

(for those who are not mindful of Tinker, et al:

"These are the saddest of possible words: "Tinker to Evers to Chance." Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds, Tinker and Evers and Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,* Making a Giant hit into a double-- Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble: "Tinker to Evers to Chance."

In 1910, New York newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams immortalized the Cubs double play team Joe Tinker (SS), Johnny Evers (2B), and Frank Chance (1B) in verse, cementing their legend and helping them gain election to the Hall of Fame as a trio 36 years later.

What a great game.

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Robatoy]

How can it be? Makes no sense! Defence has the ball!!!

Naaaaa "The Season" started March 18, Albert Park, Melbourne, Oz. Kimi won...what a day! Even Ralphie got a point.

If it doesn't smell and scream, it ain't no 'sport'.

...but that's just my humble opinion.

r

[Markem]

Left field bleachers Wrigley Field when they were less than $5. Watching Ernie who played both Tinker's and Chance's position for the lovable losers, and if you have half a billion lying around the Tribune company has Da Cubs for sale.

Mark

[todd]

I don't think half a billion is going to quite get you there. Probably have to add another $100-500 million on top of that.

todd

[Puckdropper]

"todd" wrote in news:y9CdnWvbavwZcYnbnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I figure it's probably on the order of billions. There's likely to be a rich billionaire out there that's going to outbid all the others.

Puckdropper

[Roger Shoaf]

While at a minor league game on one fine Fourth of July The opposing team had a pitcher suceed in pulling off a no hitter. While my team was the one that lost, seeing this actually pulled off was a joy.

Actually the fun part is to see the fear he would instill in the pitcher that really needed an out somewhere around the 6th or 7th inning.

Willy Mays was good. As someone that did see him haul in a few the long ball was not really the most impressive skill he possesed. I would really like the times he would have all the fielders playing deep, and pull off the perfect bunt, and then proceed to steal a couple of bases. That would usually demoralize the opposing team.

Double plays are great things to watch regardless of the league they occur.

Sure, but I can say from personal experience that the same experience happens in the minors. The kids in the minors get things together often.

Seeing someone get to first on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the

9th with two out and no one on is almost as good as the first time a girl let you get to home plate. Seeing something like this happen and going on to win is probably better.