Ya Know What's Really Un-American?

in #baseball8 years ago

“If you don't think too good, don't think too much.”
― Ted Williams

I'll tell you what's really UN-American. It's not that some athletes refuse to stand and pay homage to an old song while gazing at a piece of cloth. It's not that some authoritarian nominee for president says he wants to get along with our "adversary" Russia. What's really UN-American is that just because my town's baseball team didn't make it into the playoffs, I don't get to follow baseball through the rest of the season unless I watch television.
That's right. The baseball playoffs are not on the freaking radio.
I listen to baseball on the radio. I know the players are a bunch of overpaid kids. I know they are playing a kids game and it really doesn't seem important. I know it's a diversion from the critical issues of life. But I still like it. But not enough to devote my entire attention to it. So I like to listen on the radio instead of planting my ass in front of the tube. I don't watch television at all. But I like radio.
Maybe it's that I played baseball in junior high school. I actually batted 500 the year I played. (I only got up to bat twice. Got one hit and struck out once).
But I still have this love for the game that may not be completely rational. I still have this belief that even though those guys are paid ridiculous amounts of money to play a game that they love, that there is still a purity to the sport. I believe that those guys try their hardest. They give it their all. I still think that there is something real about the game.
The playoffs should be on the radio. As long as I remember they have been on the radio.
What has happened to this country?

“How can I play baseball when I'm worried about foreign policy?”
― Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 6: 1961-1962

I'm just pissed that I can't listen to the historic games between my Ray's ex-manager Joe Maddon and my original favorite team the Giants.
Baseball is supposed to be on the damn radio. Usually AM.
To be deprived of baseball just because I don't watch television is just plain UN-American dammit.

“No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference.”
― Tommy Lasorda