Monday, October 29, 2007




Everything seems to change. I guess change is necessary for growth and survival. Medicine has radically changed in the past 50 years. Music, TV shows, and even religious services have changed. Some of the changes I like, others I hate.
One thing, which hasn’t changed a great deal through the years, is the game of baseball. I’m not a big sports fan until time for the playoffs and then I get a little interested. I have never been a year around fan of any of the sports because my team is never a winner. When you are a graduate of Baylor you become accustomed to losing and never get excited about sporting events. I did follow the Dallas Cowboys, at one time, when they were America’s team and before the players became drug crazed felons with an ego-manic for an owner.
Watching the World Series made me reflect on baseball of the past. It’s very similar to Babe Ruth’s day. There are some differences. Today, the players are more powerful and can hit more home runs than the Babe because they are filled with steroids. All the players in Babe’s time chewed tobacco and, as a result, developed cancer of the mouth and tongue. One good thing is that they have now all switched to bubble gum. It’s sort of funny watching grown men with a big wad of gum, blowing bubbles. They still spit a lot.
Another change is that many players wear long hair and look pretty scruffy. Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams looked pretty clean cut. Joe was good enough for Marilyn Monroe and Ted Williams was so good looking they froze his body. Babe was a little pudgy but he kept his haircut.
Much of the other stuff about baseball is the same. They still play that weird organ music, eat hot dogs and drink beer. The seventh inning stretch is about the same, except for singing stars who can’t carry a tune to sing some of the traditional songs. They need to masquerade behind their loud guitars and stage smoke.
The biggest change in baseball is that the players make millions of dollars a year. Even the worse players make millions. A single pitch is worth thousands of dollars. With all that added expense, I’m not sure the game is any better. I enjoyed seeing the little semipro team in my hometown as much as the Boston Red Soxs. To tell the truth, it is sort of a boring game unless you are the one doing the playing.
Anyway, I’m happy baseball is something that hasn’t changed much since my childhood. Even though it is a little boring, the lights were burning on the porch until the last pitch and they had wasted thousands of dollars for champagne to celebrate the victory. They don’t drink the stuff but just spew it all over each other. On the rare occasion of a Baylor win we would drink or spew Dr. Pepper. I think the part of the World Series I liked the most was the champagne spewing.

1 Comments:

Blogger jeff ludwick said...

Alas, I have not watched a World Series game in many years. Free agency and baseball salaries finally did me in as well as the strike years. Imagine going on strike when the poorest people in your profession are making over $100,000 a week for playing a game?

We will never see the days of Ruth, Dimaggio, Stan Musial, etc. again. Ted Williams cannot even rest in death. He is in a somewhat purgatory haunting people. He constantly shrieks at night "Someone attach my frozen head back to my frozen body so I can kick my son's #*&&!!!!!"

11:58 AM  

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