Baseball, a timeless tradition for millions of us, is still America’s pastime.
Before the days of video games, x-boxes, cell phones, and I-pads with endless distractions, there was one sport — baseball – that represented America uniquely and collectively. Yes, football dominated the Fall, and basketball and hockey fans enjoyed their hometown heroes … but baseball was something else, something entirely different.
Baseball is what boys grew up playing in Little Leagues. If they were lucky, their dads helped coach the teams and were, therefore, at all of the games. Girls also played slow-pitch softball, and although it was never as popular as boys’ baseball, it also filled many a summer’s nights for families and friends.
My family lived in a six-floor apartment building in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, right across the street from two little league baseball fields. We could watch every game – either from our large window overlooking the fields or going to the games, whether we were cheering for a particular team or not. And days or nights spent at the field meant delicious, sweet hamburgers and vanilla milkshakes – all for less than $2. These were fun evenings out of the house, and warm summer breezes filled the air like the baseballs the boys were trying to hit.
Opening Day at baseball fields across the country were practically national holidays.
From its origins in the United States as early as the 1800s to the modern-day, baseball has weathered many national difficulties from the Depression to world wars. Baseball has been a good friend, like a well-worn glove, always there when you needed it.
Going to a baseball game to cheer for your hometown team also meant age-old traditions like the seventh-inning stretch, bags of peanuts, and hot dogs (or franks as we called them in New York) loaded with stadium mustard.
And most of us can still remember the words to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” even if we have not been to a game in years.
Therefore, imagine my childlike exultation when I recently had the joy of watching a baseball game of a dear friend’s son and baseball practice for another family friend. Instantly transported to the days of my youth, the images, sights, smells, and sounds all came back like a train running smoothly on its track, having never slowed down all these years.
Coaches instructing boys are batting stances and life lessons far greater than how to swing the bat or get under a fast-moving grounder. Lessons like….
Keep your cool even if you have a bad game.
Don’t let the other team get into your head even if they are twice your size and perhaps your age (!)
Follow-through every swing of the bat and every throw to first base.
Cover your position and not everyone else’s.
Follow the coaches’ signal to stop at third base even if you are sure you can get to home plate safely.
And, most of all, work together as a team and watch how far you can go.
Great movies have kept these traditions alive. he Sandlot – a coming of age baseball film complete with a backyard beast. Field of Dreams (if you build it, they will come). The Natural. A Mile in His Shoes. And many others.
It is good to know that baseball is still alive and well in small towns and big cities across America despite declining television ratings and rising professional league game costs.
Most things in America have changed since my childhood many more than 50 years ago (most not for good), But, thank God, there is one thing that has not.
Baseball, a timeless tradition for millions of us, is still America’s pastime.
