How Big of A fan Are You?

[Archive]

Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I love baseball. Every single thing about it. I almost never miss a Yankee game, and it's been that way since I'm 7 years old. Every other sport is something to keep me busy inbetween baseball seasons.

I love today's major league players. I can watch minor league games, little league games, reruns of games, whatever. I like to coach it, play it, read about it, watch it on TV, listen to it on the radio, and talk about it with friends.

I love the fact that my team can get shut out by Kenny Rogers in the playoffs, and my reaction is "WOW, that guy brought his GAME!"

I get goose bumps when I think of some of the great moments in the game. I think Jackie Robinson was one of the greatest figures in American history. I think Rube Waddell was one of the most fun. I think watching Bernie Williams, circa 1996, catch up to a line drive in the gap is one of the most beautiful things in sports. I have looked forward to very few things more than I looked forward to Jimmy Key vs. Greg Maddux. I think the 6-4-3 double play is one of the most beautiful things there is, and I think the only thing more exciting than a triple is a suicide squeeze.

I love how little the game and the players have changed over the past 100 years, and at the same time, how much. I love how the game has evolved and stayed the same. I love how it's like one big novel with each season being a chapter.

I love arguing about baseball. I love trying to convince someone who dislikes baseball why they should love it. I love explaining to my sons how every player who steps on the field owes a debt to Jackie, Babe, Matty, and McGraw. I use baseball players and stories to make examples when I'm trying to teach kids.

And during the 1996 playoffs, I wore the same clothes every night from opening game of the ALDS until the Yankees won, and then I danced around my living room like an idiot in front of my mother in law.

It's a sickness with me, I know it. I'm cool with it.

-Al