GAME OF THE WEAK!

GAME OF THE WEAK!

(Frazer Chronicle)

I love sports, I swear.....even "pocket pool," baseball, football, basketball and even hockey, I do not however consider tennis, soccer, rugby, bowling, or any of those dart board games in the same league as the big "4." ESPN even has poker and pool on the airwaves, presumably to fill out their air time.

Talk, talk, talk, that's what has happened to my favorite games, I don't know about you, but I don't particularly care what a pitcher has to do to get a cutter to cut, a fastball to zip, or a curve ball to break, I just appreciate the fact that a major league pitcher can do those things with a baseball.

And hitting, wow, let me tell you, "and this is coming from a career .220 hitter on the amateur level," I am amassed at how far big league hitters can hit the old "horse hide." But hips flying open or inside out swings, or hitting behind the runner, like most fans, I don't care, as long as it's "my guy" with the flying hips.

There used to be announcers and the occasional "color" commentator, the old x ball player who was hanging on to the game up in the announcer’s booth. The Dizzy Deans, and Pee Wee Reeses, those fellas from the golden era of baseball, when the announcer AND the color guys were not as important as the game on the field.

I used to listen to the Chicago Cubs, the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers growing up in Northern Michigan, I'd watch the tape delayed Detroit Red Wing hockey games on Sunday nights back in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I marveled at the games that Ty Tyson, Van Patrick and Mel Ott would weave together during Tiger radio broadcasts.

I only wanted the score and the magic that these old time announcers filled the airwaves with, I was captivated and lived and died with their antics. By now I'm sure you've guessed that I'm a big baseball fan, I love the game for its simplistic, individual, yet teamwork play. In its simplest form, baseball is all about hitting the ball and running like hell.

Players of course have always been the biggest part of the game, romantic, super human, run like a deer, throw a ball through a brick wall and hit it a mile. Lost in all the commotion and noise of the offensive part of baseball is defense. Defense and pitching has always put "W's" in the win column, there have been all kinds of baseball teams that hit the ball all over the "yard," but couldn't field a grounder with both hands.

A close second in importance to the game of baseball is the announcers.....after all; we all can't get to the ball park and the games. Ranking right up there with announcers, and their importance to the game is us, the fans. We got our name from the old owner of the St. Louis Cardinals, back in the 1880's, who called the people that came to the ball park "fantastic." The name stuck, the word was shortened to "fan," and as they say, "the rest is history."

I think most baseball fans are like me, "they want to watch the game, or listen," and actually like the silence and dead air that accompanies a pitcher looking in for a sign, or a batter adjusting his batting gloves, or his "junk," before he (really) steps into the batter’s box to face the pitcher.

Do you get tired of the ticker tape thing at the bottom of the screen during a game, letting you know other scores, which NBA players are changing teams, who is winning a tennis match and which teams will be televised tomorrow night.....well I do.

I do like the balls, strikes, outs and at what speed a pitch is traveling, but the other stuff, well they can knock that crap off anytime. I'm a Detroit Tigers fan, but living in Wisconsin doesn't give me much of a chance to watch them, so I watch the Brewers. They aren't very good this year, "the Brewers neither are the Tigers for that matter," but I really don't care, not like I used to.

Baseball is a magic game; it's a game that everybody has played, at least once in their lives.....even girls. Short, tall, fat, or skinny, fast or slow, there seems to be a place for every body type and every athletic level. Go ahead, strike up a conversation during a game, chances are you won't miss much of the action, baseball moves a bit slower; the pace is part of the magic.

Nine out of ten people talk about baseball at some time during the year, whether at the beginning, or the middle, or the end of a season, it seems everybody takes a brief time out of their lives to talk with a friend, a brother, a son, father, girlfriend or wife about baseball.

I used to be involved heavily in baseball.....always on the fringes, but I treasured whatever association I had with the game, I valued every acquaintance that I made. I always knew it was just a game and really wasn't a building block for life. The events that were the games, the practices, the road trips, and the friendships made are jewels to be kept and remembered.....always.

Used to be a time when baseball was on television once a week, baseball was the game of the week, Saturdays, with the golden voiced announcers, and the expert color men, with common sense, done home humor, where ball players used to come from.

Now players are drafted out of high school or college, they have agents, ask and are given huge no cut million dollar contracts. Players go to spring training to "iron out the kinks in their games" instead of getting into shape like it used to be.

Don't get me wrong, I think that professional baseball players today are better fundamentally than ever. Today's players understand the game; have scouting reports, video, and all sorts of advanced information that helps them perform at the top of their game.

Everything today seems to be a "photo opportunity," a staged celebration, maybe not; I just feel that it is, it just looks that way to me. My old home town, Traverse City, Michigan has an independent minor league team for the baseball fans to come out and watch. Green Bay, my current residence has a collegian summer team for ball fans to come out and support.

I come from a long ago era when almost every town, village and in some cases, cross roads had baseball teams. Sure there might be only 10 or 11 players, but if they had a good pitcher, a guy who struck out 15 or so players every game he pitched, you always won more then you lost.

There wasn't much support, either from the business community, or whatever baseball fans there were. Mostly it wasn't the business communities fault, or the baseball fans either, it was the person running the team. And it usually was just one person, and he was stretched pretty damn thin with his time, and money.

We played because we loved the game, we loved the challenge, and we loved our teammates. My Traverse City teams were usually one of the top clubs to come out of northern Michigan. We played all comers, from Leland, Michigan, to Detroit, Grand Rapids and Green Bay, Wisconsin.....and we won more than are share of those games.

I am proud to have been affiliated with the Traverse City Capitals, and each and every player on the team. I also would like to tip my cap to those Northern Michigan teams that played us during the week to keep an 80 game schedule intact. You beat us sometimes, but not very often.

I suppose what we are going to have to do, now that we are well past our ball playing days, is to mentally block out those advertisements at the bottom the screen and watch with a little more intensity the game of the week, or the Fox Sports Network week-day games that you can subscribe to at your friendly cable company.

Yes the old days are gone, there is somebody telling you what happened with every pitch, how a hitter pulled the ball, how a fielder made a play that will be on "best plays of the week" video. Injuries have always been a part of the game, but "shutting a player down for the rest of the season" sounds so antiseptic.

I remember playing at Prick Park in one the neighborhoods back in Traverse City; the ground was un-mown, and bumpy as hell. The weeds and the bumps weren't the worst part, there were sand burrs growing all over the place, to dive for a ball was like taking your life in your own hands, and to slide into any base, well let’s just say the risk could be monumental.

I miss the old days.....for more than just playing ball, playing ball back then, in the late 50's to 1998 was my passion. And on an armature scale, I did a pretty good job, for a .220 hitter.

The new fangled way of doing things are here to stay, we older guys have better get used to that fact. We may support our individual teams as Will as the amateurs , both need us, some in high places within the organizations don't realize that yet.....but they'll come around.

And when they do, there won't be any more weak ball, it be week-end ball, or week day ball, but I doubt it will be quite the same......one thing will be sure, the game will better to watch and cheer for, at least that's my hope.

In the illustrious words of the old professor Casey Stenge said to his baseballers during an early spring training period, "alright everyone, line up alphabetically according to your height." Ain't baseball a great game?