So Fast It's Slow

I really miss baseball. It's that sport that you either love or you hate - you either get it or you don't. It took me a while to figure out, but I really do love it. I got it from my dad - he was never really a solid Mets or Yankees fan, just followed whichever team was doing better in a season, and that meant that we grew up begging him to change the radio from the monotonous baseball coverage to ANYTHING more interesting. Yet here I am, years later, wishing that I could just somehow get access to hearing the voices of those broadcasters, calling each play and filling in the time with small details and facts that we never really needed to know about the players.

Someone once told me that the people who complain that baseball is too slow aren't able to see how fast of a game it really is. Every pitch can change the game - it's so mental in some respects that the slightest error can throw off the concentration of the players and determine the winner. It can be so suspenseful - bases loaded, the 3-2 count, one more pitch to the game winning run... and then there's the way the players have to know so much about when to run, where to throw, and how to hit that will be best for the team. There are ways of sliding, running and catching that make all the difference - being a good player is being able to make that decision in a split second, maybe even before the ball has touched your glove.

There's the stardom of it too, the way it's classy and professional. I think that's one of the things I really love about the Yankees (also, coincidentally, one of the things that pisses people off about them). It's hard to get bloody and dirty in baseball, so when a player comes off the field with stains on his uniform, you know he's really been playing and not just standing around looking pretty. And then there's the excitement when your favorite player gets up to bat, negotiating his way around impossible pitches at impossible speeds and manages to launch one into a brilliant spot that has you out of your seat, watching it fly into a deep corner that could mean anything from a single to an in-the-park home run, depending on how good the fielder is.

There's one more thing, too, about the Yankees - if you're lucky enough to catch a good game at the stadium, one where Mariano Rivera comes in to save the win, you're lucky enough to feel that 9th inning magic that I've only ever felt at Yankee Stadium. Sometimes you can even feel it through the TV. It's just that things change then - you know, really know, that this is going to be it - they're going to pull it off, no matter how unlikely it seems. Then every batter is more exciting, and you just can't wait to see what he's going to come up with, because you know it's going to be big. It just doesn't get much better than that, as a spectator sport...