Some will understand, others won’t. And obviously it’s not about words or concepts. Those are simple. It’s just that in certain things you have to get into it. There are those who just need to look at a diamond to feel their heart slowing down, and those who don’t have the slightest idea of what I’m saying.
The former know that today is Christmas, it’s New Year’s Eve, it’s Ferragosto, it’s Easter and Carnival, all on the same day. It’s a family celebration, the one we chose. It is a new beginning, with all its hopes, aspirations, good intentions. It’s redemption from all the crap around us. It’s also a bit of a crazy party. And it will be a binge.
E’ l’Opening Day
It’s nature’s way of imitating our Game. The rebirth of the earth and the end of winter. Then there are those who prefer winter eh: their business.
We prefer spring and summer. Their certainties. Tom La Sorda once said: “Baseball is like driving, it’s the friend who gets you home safe when it counts.”
And no, it’s no coincidence that the goal in baseball is not to “breach” a door. One must not dominate the opponent with a metaphor of violated territory (lest we imagine worse). In baseball, what matters is coming home. If you grasp the image and its scope.
And in fact Bill Veeck was sure of it: “Jesus takes care of those who work in baseball.” And in the end “Heaven will be a stadium full of people”.
Of beautiful people.
“Some will tell you it’s just a game. It’s true, yes, and the Grand Canyon is just a hole in Arizona,” Bill Veeck always said.
Here, “don’t let them say it’s just in the Game”. Today, before 9 tonight, listen to “All The Way” by Eddie Vedder once. “Don’t let anyone say that it’s just a game…”, precisely. And then also “My Oh My” by Macklemore. And “Centerfield” by John Fogerty.
There is a feeling of relief today, on Opening Day. I don’t know about you but I have the impression that more and more things are working the opposite of how they should. And so knowing that from today, and until October, it will be enough to turn on the I-Pad to At Bat, or some days even put on Sky, to get back the feeling of things in their place, of the world as it should be, is a sense of safety.
Also because, it is always Bill Veeck who speaks: “At the end of the 9 innings we know who won and who lost, but above all we know that the next day we will play again.” This is what baseball also teaches: to relativize. Say what the hell you want, but no other sport does it. Not like that. Others pretend to play many games and instead play a quarter of them. Baseball, with its statistics, its rotating pitchers, plays all nine innings. Every single day. Until the end. Everyday. And the next day we start again. You give everything, right up to the end, but then there’s everything else. There is another day. There is life.
That is, other sports, many, not all, tend to create the event. IN NFL every Sunday is a final, and it’s exhilarating, I’m serious. The NBA invents the IN-Season. Rugby sips matches like bottles of fine whiskey. Baseball is day after day, after day, after day: if you are able to understand both the epic and the ethics of it – in no other sport so similar to the work ethic – if you perceive the greatness of the everyday, good . If not, patience.
In baseball you give the ball to your opponent, flashing it in front of him. And he can score you with that ball that you threw him. If you understand this passage, if you understand that you have to give your enemy the chance – it’s just a matter of giving it as small and difficult as possible – then he has grasped greatness. If not, peace.
If you have realized that the diamond is the only type of field where defensive actions are more spectacular than attacking ones, you will also have understood that it is a way of overturning everyone else’s thinking. Read Chad Harbach, read John Irving.
Do it. Because here there are plenty of people who fill television programs and newspaper articles about America and don’t know a damn thing about America. “Anyone who wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” Jacques Barzun, philosopher, historian and music critic, said it. He was French.
It begins. From today he is ideally on the pitch. For one game a day. Sometimes two. “I love doubleheaders – said Tom La Sorda – because they allow me to keep my uniform on longer”.
We will look at the programs, the lineups, the situation. There will be no more Miguel Cabrera, Adam Wainwright, Nelson Cruz.
There will be no more Terry “Tito” Francona.
I talked to him about it a few months ago. He told me: “The most important thing I learned – he told me – is that you must always treat your players with respect, make them all feel important, talk to each of them. If you ask them for the best, they will give you the best.” It’s baseball, it’s life.
Justin Verlander, on the other hand, is on the injured list, although destined to return to the Houston Astros roster. Verlander played against Julio Franco. Julio Franco once had an intentional base by Jim Kaat. Jim Kaat took two hits from Ted Williams one day. When Ted Williams made his MLB debut in the other dugout was Lou Gehrig. Lou Gehrig in one day also told by a film with Gary Cooper hit 4 home runs in the same game against Walter Johnson. Walter Johnson dueled Cy Young. Cy Young made his MLB debut on August 6, 1890 and in Cleveland’s opposing lineup was Deacon White.
Deacon White was with the Cleveland Forest Citys when he hit the first hit in MLB history. It was May 4, 1871. Seven months after the breach of Porta Pia.
Here, in three hours, when Corbin Burnes of the Baltimore Orioles throws the first ball of the 2024 championship it will be a ball that comes from over there. And we too, here, on the outskirts on this other side of the Atlantic, will be part of this wonderful story.
2024-03-28 20:26:42
#Opening #Day #balls
