Baseball Been Berry, Berry Good to Me

Tonight, I went out to Nationals Park for the first time since Opening Night (and again I went with OSG). This was the first outing on tickets I scored at an auction that I attended last week. OSG and I have now attended two games in the new ballpark, seeing the Nationals win both games with walk off home runs in the bottom of the ninth.

With all the brouhaha that swirled about that other team in Washington, which is now playing golf, after finally removing their ice skates after an amazing series (and for the record I am very disappointed - it was very exciting to watch), I am prompted to answer the question (from no one in particular), what is my favorite sport? I will not (for now) pick a particular allegiance to any one team, although that is fairly evident to those who know me.

It's a valid question. Of the sports that are on my radar screen here they are (ranked according to height and popularity - and what's that from? - my favorite TV show) and please note this is but a very short list. There are certainly more sports out there and even some that I will watch. This just happens to be the list today and it conveniently gets me to the link I wanted to share with you (see the bottom of the post):

1. Baseball
2. Golf
3. Hockey
4. College Basketball (hey don't I get lunch because I won the pool?)
   
5. Football

So there you have it. I am not a big pro football fan of either New York team, which don't even play in New York anymore and I am too far removed from C in DCs beloved NY Team. I will usually watch the Super Bowl, but that is more about the food and the commercials than the game. But the Giants beating the Patriots last year was sweet. I will watch the occasional college game (I might tune into the bowl games around New Years and I'll always look at how Brown is doing for my mother).

When I lived in the Hudson Valley, I held season tickets for the Marist College Red Foxes. I liked the smaller intimate settings and you could really get involved in the games. I will watch (and did watch) most of the March Madness tournament and will usually root for the underdogs, because those are the teams I know. But I'm not stupid and usually do well in the pool, which is why my lunch table group is going out to lunch and I get to eat free!

I am a hockey fan by genetics. My mother was an only child and learned her love of the game from behind the chicken wire at Rhode Island Reds games. I won't even get into how my father nearly got killed when he came home one night and told my mother that someone had offered him New York Rangers tickets and he turned them down, not knowing the level of craziness exhibited by hockey fans (if you haven't seen the linked commercial, click it - it's worth it). When my mother died, my brother-in-law arranged for a floral display of carnations made into the New York Rangers logo. It was quite something.

The reason that golf sits atop hockey is that I can actually play golf (shut up, Ed). I can't skate worth a lick and I love watching hockey and will root for my Rangers until my last breath. But I can pick up a golf club and (occasionally) get a good ball down the fairway. Next weekend I will travel to a conference where a foursome of archival golfers will beat up on the little white ball. And of course we have just seen the Masters, which is the one golf tournament that I try to not miss on TV. Now if I can just get adopted by Archivalist's father and go with him on his tickets one year, I'll be all set.

So that leaves baseball. I grew up in New York, where that purple stadium was closer than the hallowed grounds of the House that Ruth Built. I went to my fair share of both Mets and Yankee games, but my heart went to the pinstripes. It's been said that's why the Yankees always win, "the other teams can't stop looking at those pinstripes." (Look a quiz question right here at the end - name that movie!). I played little league as a youngster, but didn't have what it took. Perhaps Little Brave Astronaut can do what his old dad could not - support his father in the lifestyle he would like to be accustomed to.

But I agree with the article posted here. Baseball is the best of all games. And here, from a 1961 conversation recounted in a letter (a letter, not an email, not on the phone, an actual letter) twenty years later, the American Philosopher, John Rawls, explains why he offers the six reasons why baseball is the greatest of all games.