Baseball

There is nothing like the open air of a windy stadium, the ketchup poured upon a “Nathan” hotdog, and a thirty two ounce of diet Pepsi to quench the thirst of a baseball game. With the temperature at eighty six degrees and the wind blowing at fifteen miles an hour, fifty six thousand fans are cheering for their favorite players, and of course a victory for the home team. Somehow we all have something in common, a national pastime, our friends, our families, and the love for baseball.

Baseball has always taken on a significant role in the cultural development of our society. I could remember growing up in the streets of Brooklyn living just six city blocks away from the famous “Ebbets Field Stadium”, where the Dodgers played. With my homework completed and a baloney sandwich in my right hand, I would run to my mother and beg her to permit me another chase at “taking a crack at the ball”. There, across the street from my house, also stood “Medger Evers Stadium”, a parched grassless field with graffiti stains all over its beautiful facades. Everywhere I turned there was a stadium, you see, locals from the area would send their kids to “play ball” in order to alleviate some of the stresses and harsh realities which plagued most of the families in our community. For some reason we were not welcomed in professional baseball stadiums. We were minorities, and the closest thing we had at participating in a baseball game was playing “stick ball” between the heavily parked cars inundating the Brooklyn city Streets.

Baseball was an opportunity, a dream, a desire that inspired us to rise above our limitations and nourish the imagination of becoming the next “Babe Ruth” or perhaps “Mickey Mantle”. It was not just the game, but what the game symbolized. For some reason there is something fascinating about watching an “underdog” team facing the monstrosity of wealthy, healthy, well trained professionals who smoked cigars in the bathrooms, and ate a five course meal at lunch time. Baseball spoke for the less fortunate masses, and gave us an opportunity to beat the giants who limited our lives and discouraged our potentials. It was not about the money, the fame, or the success, but about the legacy of overcoming the odds.

Who doesn’t want to be part of a winning team? The “Yankees” is the team I most admire, with their famous pinstripe uniforms and twenty six World Serious victories hanging from their executive office, being a Yankee fan means you’re part of a winning fraternity. It is amazing how a simple game of baseball could teach us the art of “teamwork” and the dynamics which fashion the spirit, heart, passion, and desires of a winning team. Baseball has many facets which exemplify the characteristics of the corporate world, by couching, teaching, managing, training, and preparing individuals to achieve their maximum potential, you find people like “Jackie Robinson” coloring the walls of the “Baseball Hall of Fame”, and Latino player “Juan Marichal” breaking the barriers of racism in the sport.

Baseball may have lost some of its candid personalities, its joy, or even the spirit of the game due to its globalization involvement, but one thing is for sure there is one tradition which still attracts kids, families, baseball lovers, and even visitors to the game, and that is the famous “Take me out to the Ball game” song. Just like music has melodies, you cannot go to a baseball game without participating in a seventh inning baseball ritual that goes like this; “Take me out to the ball game; take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks I don’t care if we never get back, let me root, root, root for the home team if they don’t win it’s a shame. For its one, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ball game.” I Love baseball!