This week, I’m working my way through Joe Posnanski’s The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America. Posnanski, a renowned sportswriter and biographer, chronicles his time spent with one of the Negro League’s legends in an attempt to reignite his own love for baseball. On one of many car rides to one of many speaking events Buck attends in the book, the former ballplayer poses this question to Joe: “What was your best day in baseball?”
As Joe takes up several pages recounting all his favorite moments, from Little League to the World Series, I started thinking about my own answer to that question. Granted, it’s only been 7 months since baseball even entered my world, but it’s also been 7 months full of exciting games, odd moments, and historical events.
Today’s question:
To blatantly steal from Buck O’Neil, what was your “best day” in baseball? What moment changed the way you watched the game? When did you first fall in love with America’s favorite pastime?
Leave your answer in the comments below!
It’s hard to pick just one best day and that’s a good thing – the day my sister was a Dodgers Bat Girl (that I wrote about on my blog), the first Angels game I went to with my husband, the day game match up between Weaver and Lee that so phenomenal it may be the best game I have ever attended, and many more, all are so good, it would be tough to pick one
When did I fall in love with the game? That happened twice. The first Dodgers game my parents took us to, I was expecting to be bored because, back then, I hated watching baseball on TV. But I was absolutely entranced by just how good the players were. I was a youth softball player and, really, whatever level you’re at a lot of the plays are the same. But professional baseball players obviously play on a bigger field and do it all infinitely better. So just watching guys fly around the bases quick as lightening, pitch the ball so hard you could hear it snap in the catcher’s glove from the stands near right field and making throws from center to home plate without a cutoff man seemed like wonderful magic to me and I fell in love on the spot. The second time was as an adult and with the Angels. As a reward, our department went to see a day game from the company box – pretty swanky! My colleague who knew a lot about basketball and soccer but next to nothing about baseball sat with me because he made the correct assumption that I would not give him grief for asking questions. Somewhere between enjoying what turned out to be a very good game and explaining everything from balls and strikes to hit and run plays, the fine art of bunting, the infield fly rule and the like to my coworker, I realized I was getting that old literal goose bumped excitement over every crack of an Angels bat and I fell in love all over again.
Thanks for the excuse to think of such good memories today!
- Kristen
http://blithescribe.mlblogs.com/
I used to spend my Saturdays pumping gasoline for the cars that drove into my Dad’s station located at a triangle the went to the communities of St. Pete, Beach and Treasure Island. Back then Stan Musial and Don Zimmer used to live in those two respective communities, with Zimmer making his home full-time in the T I area.
They both casually came in for fuel one Saturday and I began to talk baseball with the both of them as they waited for me to pump their gas and go. My eyes were the size of saucers as both laughed about teammates antics, talked about the oddities of the game and generally liked each other”s company.
It was a brotherhood at that moment that I wanted to gain a lifetime membershipto…..complete with ups and downs, in and outs and a flurry of round and rounds.
From that moment on, I was hooked on the game, and had the bruised knees and grass stains to prove it.
All becuase a Brooklyn Bum, and a St. Louis slugger just needed a little petrol.
Rays Renegade
http://raysrenegade.mlblogs.com
I would have to say it was my first trip to the park… I had my little dark-brown glove and a hat. I think I was about nine(?) at AT&T with my dad, my two uncles, one who lived in San Francisco, and my grandfather. felt like mid-night wen the game ended. We sate right behind the plate in the lower deck, thought we would be able to rip the ump for making the wrong call, didn’t get a chance. The Giants lost by a small margin as the other team blasted a HR to center, the fan threw the ball back on the field and from then i felt like you were suppose to do that…. (DON’T, your will get kicked out by the staff at baseball stadiums) But what was so great was the pregame walk around the park, taking pictures, eating a dog in the setting sun. Perfection.
I know this post is pretty old, but I just saw it, so…
I think what really changed me from a casual fan into a rabid fan was going to a Giants game on May 12th, 2009 vs. the Nationals. As I recall, it was one of the lowest attended games ever at AT&T Park and by the time the Giants were losing in the bottom of the ninth it was basically empty. Then Pablo Sandoval hit a walk-off homer; the first of his career. In that moment, there was an incredible connection between all the people who were still there and it was just a magical moment. The rest is history, I guess
Diamond Girl
http://sfdiamondgirl.mlblogs.com/
I’m also pretty late to this party but I had to add my own moment of ‘Giant epiphany’.
When I was 10, my dad took me to Shea stadium because in his mind, it was essential that I see Willie Mays play in person. He said, “If you live to be a hundred, you’ll always be able to say that you saw the best player ever while he was still between the lines.”
I was fond of the game after that and always had an eye on the Giants but then one September day in 1997, 52,000 fans watched the entire game on their feet and couldn’t stop chanting “Beat LA!” It was the birth of the cheer and on that day, it was more of a ‘demand’. The huge crowd was commanding the team to win, no matter the cost. In the 10th inning the score was tied 5-5 and Rod Beck was facing Todd Ziele with with the bases loaded and nobody out and for the first time all afternoon, you could hear a pin drop. All 52,000 were holding their collective breaths. The shooter struck him out looking and just as everyone was about to feel better, (the eventual hall of famer) Eddie Murray strides to the plate and again, the otherwise defining and ruckus crowd went silent. Murray then grounded into an inning-ending double play and the place went ballistic. The “Beat LA” chant (command) was loud and in unison for the next 2 innings until Brian Johnson stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the 12th.
We all know what happened next and I was hooked. I have been like a deer in the head lights ever since, waiting for a moment like that. Don’t get me wrong… The division clinchers… The Penant winning calls…. and that amazing 2010 World Championship… They’ll all have their place. But NOTHING has hit home like the intensity of those 2 days in September, 1997.
Thanks for letting me share!
Lynn (giantsgirl24)
http://giantsgirl24.mlblogs.com/