Anybody else sick of MLB?

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I have read all the posts blasting the game and its' players and appreciate everyone's opinions.

I was also impressed by the posters notes of his own physical prowess, it puts my 57 year old body to shame. I have read nine books on Babe Ruth and I can assure you that he was one of the prime physical specimens of his day, some actually said a freak of nature.

When the Marines tested Ted Williams he broke every record they had for vision and reflexes. Both Mantle and Maris were considered athletic marvels in their regions.

As far as testing goes, MLB's program has some holes but it is so far ahead of the other pro sports leagues it is embarassing. The NFL refuses to test for anything that it thinks it will find. Look at the size of the players and their DEATH rate before the age of 50, it is like watching the ancient gladiators when you watch a game. The NHL basically does not test for anything, period. The NBA would be down to a dozen players if they just tested for grass!

I enjoy the history of the game and while I love reading about the great players I am not blind to their warts. Through a several decade involvement with SABR there are few days that pass when I am not researching the game and its' past.

My collecting interests parallel my love for the history of the game.

Much of how I respect and enjoy it is best expressed in a poem by Ernie Harwell that I think and hope encompasses the scope of the game;

"Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball. And so is big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running out one of his 714 home runs.

There's a man in Mobile who remebers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh (then) 46 years ago. That's baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered or booed. And then it becomes a statistic.

In baseball democracy shines its' clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another.

Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fullfillment of his dream. It's a veteran too, a tired old man of 35 hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb and an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

Baseball is just a game, as simple as a ball and bat, yet as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, "Down in front", Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the Star Spangled Banner.

Baseball is a tongue-tied kid from Georgia growing up to be an announcer and praising the Lord for showing him the way to Cooperstown. This is a game for America. Still a game for America, this baseball!"

I stop by to see my 93 year old Dad everyday after work and we watch the news and talk baseball. Here in the south you grow up playing football and both Dad and I did that into college. We seldom talk about the game other than a score or what is on TV. Even now in December he talks about baseball trades, awards and other "Hot Stove" items including Ryan Braun.

Baseball has its' flaws but it is still the best thing going. Very few players are crippled for life when they leave the game. Very few baseball players wind up beating their wives or physically hurting others away from the game. Not perfect but still ok with me!