Why Baseball! (Rant)

There are few sports where a young boy growing up can legitimately dreaming of playing on a professional level, baseball is one of those sports. At 6 years old I began playing baseball with visions of playing some day in Yankee Stadium. In my dreams I was the all-star short-stop, pitcher or catcher that single handily won the world series. I watched the major league player and tried to emulate every move they made. The first moves I learned was at bat, I would pick-up some dirt in my hands and rub it in to my hands and into the wooden bat I was about to swing, then just before I would step into the batters box I would spit some juice from my double-bubble gum on the ground. Next I would take the bat and knock the dirt off of my tennis shoes, which later became metal spikes. When I would pitch, the catcher and I would come up with 3 signs (1 was the fastball, 2 the curve-ball and 3 the slider), just so I could shake them off for the only pitch I really knew how to throw, fastball down the middle. Well to me it was a fastball! I will say that pitching was not my strongest position, I was much better on the other side of the batter. I was small with quick hands and when I got to SR League ball, right on top of the bag at second base was the extent of my arm strength therefore, anyone trying to steal on me had very little chance if the ball came to me in a timely manner. I loved the game, it was one of few places where I felt like I was loved back. I loved it so much that when I finished playing, which in my home town was about 17, I started umpiring and coaching and did so from 1974 until 1998. Well, anyway I told you that to tell you this, I am crushed at what baseball has become today. There are very few player in the sport today that do it, for the love of the game. Greed, as with everything else has infected my sport to the point of destruction. The championships have been bought and sold for a price. The Yankee's whom I grew up loving, are a disgrace to the greats that played there before them. Oh I'm not saying that the Yankees of old were saints by any stretch but they loved the game and it wasn't all about the money for them. Today's players will change teams in a heartbeat if the price is right, just ask A-Rod. The good thing about what is happening now is that the players that truly love the game stick out above the rest, Derek Jeter and Micheal Young, just to name two. I was fortunate to grow up with baseball in the time that I did. Who do the youngster have to emulate today? Lord, before I got out of coaching that first thing I would have to do was break habits that the youngsters had learned by watching the players today. It was difficult to bat everybody through batting practise on that first practise because the kid would take a swing and want to back out of the batters box and adjust, EVERYTHING! When they realized that Coach Dale didn't stop throwing just because they needed to adjust, they would stay in the box and work on their hitting skills.

Well, in light of everything that is coming out now with the cheating of the game through performance enhancing drugs, and lying about your use until you get caught, you would think I would be through with the sport. The answer is NO, I loved this game from the first time I played catch with my brother to the last time I walked across the infield to congratulate the other team for a game well played. I love the smell of the leather glove on my had and the sound of the wooden bat cracking a leather baseball to deep center field. I will continue to love it to the day I play catcher for Saint Peter's Gatekeepers. There's a line in the movie "The Rookie" where Jim Morris comes up to another rookie and says, "Hey, Brooks, you know what we get to do today? .....we get to play baseball!" or another movie when Kevin Costner realized he wasn't what he used to be, he resigned from the game with a baseball to the GM that simply said "For the Love of the Game". That's what baseball used to be about. Oh yeah, my oldest grandson Dallas, starts Tee-Ball this year and guess what, I'm back in coaching, right along side my son! One because he is my grandson, and two because I want him to learn how great this game can be with hard work and determination. Baseball is special to me and I want it to be special for my grandchildren! Here's a poem my son wrote about his love of the game enjoy!


“A Day at the Ballpark”
By Jason E. Rowland

As Dad and I walked to the booth “tickets for sale”,
Programs! Programs! The man out front yelled.

As we walked through the gate my eyes opened wide,
I couldn’t wait to see inside.

We walked up the ramp and I was amazed,
When I saw the green grass and the batting cage.

I’ll never forget the sound as we sat,
It was Pudge Rodriguez and the crack of his bat.

Dad said, “here he comes the one we came for”,
The pitcher wore the number 34.

I was speechless and didn’t utter a sound,
As Nolan Ryan took the mound.

He pitched so fast the batters couldn’t see,
And they returned to the bench after strike 3.

He broke a record that hot summer day,
He had thrown 10 or more strikeouts in a consecutive game.

A new hero that day I found,
As Nolan Ryan left the mound.

My dad said, “ a hero what’s his name?”
I replied “ You dad thanks for the game”.