MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH BASEBALL

I LOVE this game. I have loved it my entire life. I love the St. Louis Cardinals. It is a bridge from my dad to me and to my son and daughters.  It has bridged three generations from Musial to Brock/Gibson to Ozzie to Big Mac to The Great Pujols.

Baseball has been a part of my personal and professional life for as long as I can remember.  At last count, I have met and/or interviewed 21 Baseball Hall of Famers. I met Willie Mays and Hank Aaron the SAME week!  That is pretty special for a kid from Bath, Illinois; a town of under 400 people.

I was 8 years old when I saw my first game in person at Busch Stadium I. I  was in Busch Stadium II when Bob Forsch pitched his first no-hitter. I was there when Glenn Brummer stole home.  I saw TWO inside the park home runs in the SAME game… one by the great Lou Brock and the other by Hector Cruz.  I was there in 1982 for the 7th game of the World Series when Bruce Sutter closed out the win for the Cardinals’ first title in 15 years!.  I was in the bleachers of Busch III with my son when Albert Pujols hit a walk-off home run that landed just a few feet from us. We were together again at Great American Ballpark when Pujols broke the record for homering off the most different pitchers in the history of the game, That opposite field home run also tied Alex Rodriguez for 4th place in MLB history. Yeah, I’ve seen some things!  

The romance of baseball is real.  As with any romance, there is also heartache.  I remember how crushed I was in 1968 when St. Louis blew a 3-1 game lead to lose the World Series to the Tigers.   I cried as a 12 year old when the Cardinals traded Orlando Cepeda to Atlanta for Joe Torre.  But love is fickle as I fell in love with the Cardinals’ next MVP.

But sometimes the game doesn’t love you back.  If desire and wishes were enough, I would be headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame myself.  Oh how I wanted to play pro baseball.  It was my biggest dream.   I was a great sandlot player but only a mediocre player when playing actual league games.  Perhaps it was lack of coaching or lack of talent but it was not in the plan of the baseball gods for me to reach that goal.

So, if not a player, I set my sights on being a Major League announcer.  Some folks claim to have a cup of coffee in the big leagues.  Well, I had a sip.  I was invited to Chicago in September of 1987  to call two White Sox games.  I called the middle three innings on Tuesday and Wednesday night games.  It was great!  But like the pretty girl that flirts with you at a party, that was all there was to it.  It was just a taste, a sip. Not even a fling.

After a few near misses with big league teams I ended up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island calling games for the Red Sox AAA team.  After two years there…I was out of baseball. And I was bitter. The game had betrayed me!  At that point I fell out of love with the game, like a scorned lover.  Not THE game, but the establishment, the politics and sometimes the arrogance of getting that golden ticket to a Major League broadcast booth.

Instead, that first year out of baseball I coached my daughter’s tee-ball team and later my son’s teams for many years.  I found I still loved baseball.  Baseball on any level.  I enjoyed watching my son play perhaps more than playing the game myself. I still love playing catch.  It is why Field of Dreams is my favorite movie. 

I fell back in love with Major League baseball when my kids were old enough to fall in love with it themselves. The season of ‘98 was a shared event for all of us and despite the steroid era there was a type of redemption there for me. It was fun again to watch and follow.

My love affair with baseball is, perhaps, stronger now than ever.  I am well past the time to play and have come to terms that I will only get that delicious sip in the big leagues. The romance of the game has come full circle...nevermore so than this season.  :Pujols' return to the Cardinals and his amazing finale has caused me to get goosebumps and to conjure up the emotions of my 12 year old self that saw the game as pure and simple and yes, romantic.  

It is a great day for the great game!

Thanks for reading!