Baseball Is the Perfect Sport

Growing up in southern California, my parents followed all the local sport teams. Dodgers, Angels, Rams, Lakers, USC football (mom), and UCLA football and basketball (dad). Track and field, horse racing, and the Olympics also drew our attention. But above all was baseball. Specifically Dodger baseball.

My first sports-related memory was my parents bringing me a Dodgers World Champions t-shirt from game 4 of the 1963 sweep of the Yankees (Sandy Koufax won 2-1). I was 6, but my love for baseball was set.

Baseball does not have the same level of popularity that it once did. Because of gambling, football garners more attention. Basketball attracts more inner-city youths than baseball now. Baseball is too slow, games last too long, has a steroids problem, blah blah blah.

I'm not having it. Attendance is as high as ever and you can catch a game on TV any night of the week. I have not caught a game in person this season yet, but that will change soon. My Dodgers have the best record in both leagues and my adopted Cardinals just beat the Cubs twice in a row. When baseball is going on, all is right with the world.

There are problems. The game must be rid of steroids and recent evidence suggests that the corner is being turned on that front. I would speed up the game just a little by forcing pitchers to throw a pitch within a certain time. The DH should go (or at least remain confined to the wimpy AL).

Every spring, some network plays "Field of Dreams" on TV. I almost always watch it at least once. My favorite scene is the speech that James Earl Jones gives about baseball. It sums up my feelings. Watch this clip and tell me if you don't get goosebumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__X7ybW9Ljg