What is it about baseball and why do I love it? I shun ESPN. I detest Sundays that result in 6 hours of football games on television. I don't get the thrill of televised golf. I'm not even particularly a sports fan unless one of my kids is on the roster.
But baseball...that I love. Maybe because it starts in the spring and it's a sign summer is surely coming.
The weather has turned bearable (generally) which means lawn chairs are unzipped and set up along the baseline for the best seats in the house.
The action on the field is methodical and calculated as opposed to the pell mell drop and chase of a hockey puck is what I'm far more used to with three kids and a spouse that set up shop at the local hockey rink six months of the year.
But baseball? That means hot dogs and pretzels and cool drinks of your choice and sunflower seeds.
Which may be the reason I love it most of all. The world of the sunflower seed lover has become even more magical the last handful of years with flavored seeds making their appearance in gas station and grocery aisles. There are dill flavored and salt and pepper. There are spicy garlic (crowned the new favorite in the '09 season) and barbecue. There are jumbo sized and regular size. It's a big, wonderful world of cracking and de-seeding today for the sunflower seed connoisseur. During baseball season there is a perpetual remnant of a sunflower seed somewhere on my shirt.
Ah, baseball.
But already this year baseball is ending and the keen eye is starting to notice leaves are no longer as vibrantly green as they once were and for the handful of baseball games that remain fleece will be carried up into the stands with fans for the portion of the game played after the sun goes down. Already stores are offering pens and pencils at unheard of prices and bottles of glue for a quarter.
Alas! The summer is waning and already we have moved on to county fair season.
Thankfully professional teams play long after I've packed away my own son's cleats and uniforms for the seasons.
And with any luck if the team is good this year they just might play right up until the puck drops.
