I Am Glad My Grandfather's Dead

The title of this may seem way out of line, but sadly, it's true.  First of all, I loved my grandfather immensely.  It's merely due to the actions of others that I am glad he's no longer with us.

You see, Joe Fisher loved the game of baseball.  Matter of fact, he'd been a semipro catcher for the team of Harris, Missouri.  JoJo once hit three home runs in a game during the deadball era, a time when a double was a feat and a triple a rarity.  Another time he caught a major league pitcher, which he said was the easiest game he ever had, as the man just put the ball wherever he placed his mitt.  So needless to say, JoJo had some great stories for us.

If you went to a baseball game with JoJo, you didn't talk.  The man knew his baseball.  He was an apt student of the sport, who knew as much about it as anyone on the field, if not more.  The man could tell you what pitch was coming--and why.  He'd let you know who was going to be positioned where for what batter--and why.  JoJo should have been a big league manager, I kid you not.

We lost JoJo in November of 1980.  I wept an amount the size of Niagara Falls that morning.  As a matter of fact, I owed him $2.50 in baseball bets.  I sent it to Baseball Chapel.

Now the sport he loved so much is in shambles.  Since he died, baseball has had a drug scandal, strikes (one costing us a World Series), steroids and now HGH.  The main player in the recent scandal isn't facing responsibility like a man should (JoJo would have told him to man up!), and we wonder what will hit baseball next.  As someone who's been a fan since 1975, I'm shattered. 

But my loss is nowhere near what JoJo's would have been.  Were he still alive, the situation today would devastate him.  So yes, I'm glad my grandfather's no longer with us.

And for that, I curse those of you who have made the game what it is.

It Ain't The Same Anymore

There was a time, and those who went to grade, junior, and high school will testify to this---this was my time of year.

"Son, the house is on fire!"

"Just a minute, Mom.  It's the bottom of the sixth and the bases are loaded."

Yes, I was quite a baseball addict, especially when it came to the playoffs and World Series.  I even was fortunate to go to two games of the Series in 1985.

But something changed.  Perhaps I did.  I dunno.  I know for a fact baseball did.  The playoffs are now longer than "War and Remembrance" in order to bring in more television revenue, and they're actually talking about lengthening them again.  In short, what they are saying is this:  "Okay, we're already letting a second-place team a la the wild card into the playoffs.  Let's do it again."  What they are really saying is it doesn't matter if you get first place or not. 

Look at the bats they use.  My stars.  They shatter like the glass in a shop that has a bull running through it.  Why?  They're light, as everyone wants a quick swing.  Go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and see the bats the great hitters used.  They aren't the toothpicks they players use today.  It should make today's hitters ashamed of themselves.  Most batters today use a bat in the low thirties weight.  Babe Ruth's bat weighed 54 ozs.  It didn't seem to hurt his hitting.

Yesteryear's players also played in flannel uniforms.  Enos Slaughter wrote of losing nine lbs in a doubleheader.  I cannot even fathom today's players attempting to do this.

They played through their aches and pains.  Carl Erksine popped his shoulder his first major league game and never said a word, not wanting to lose his job.  He pitched in pain his entire career, throwing two no-hitters along the way.  Lou Gehrig broke every finger in his hand during his streak.
Today's players would be on the disabled list.

Now it's labor unions, and are they on steroids.  I miss the days when the worse argument was a ball or strike or artificial turf or grass.

The players are fun to watch, but the innocence has been lost.

It just ain't the same.

Can Anyone Explain?

Currently, a fan of the San Francisco Giants is in the hospital, due to being attacked by someone who was a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Opening Day.  The man had texted to a friend just moments before that he was afraid.  The doctors have said the man has suffered from brain damage and faces a long road.

Here in Oklahoma, a man was wearing a University of Texas shirt in a bar.  As a result, he got into a fight, the other man tearing his private parts, and a lawsuit coming out of it.

A joke has been running around for years about a coach reminding his players about not shouting at the umps, not swearing, not fighting, etc.  When they say they remember, he tells them, "Good.  Now go in the stands and tell your parents."

What has happened to sportsmanship?  What has happened to fun among rival fans?  In 1985, I was visiting my cousin in St. Louis, wearing a Cubs t-shirt I'd purchased the day before (at Busch Stadium, nonetheless!).  The Cardinals were playing the Montreal Expos, and vendors were going throughout the stands.  I wanted something for my nephews, and purchaed an Expos cap.  The man in front of me heard me say "Expos" and turned around, saying, "Expos?  Expos?"  He then saw my shirt, and shouted, "Cubs?  Cubs!?!?!?!?"  I pointed out I was from Oklahoma, as my cousin merely shurgged, and said, "I don't know him.  He just slipped into my box."

Well, the rest of the game, the man kept giving me funny looks, but I knew it was part of his game.  I played along, and we both had fun.  When the game was over, he turned around, shook my hand, and said, "You know I was kidding."  I told him I enjoyed every minute of it, and I've rememered it for twenty-six years.

Today, I'd be put in the hospital.  Sportsmanship is looked upon as unmanly, for the weak.  In short, it's dead.  We have taught an entire generation not to get along with others, to kill them on the 'field of battle,' forgetting that all sports were originally intended to be games.  And while there are many definitions for the word 'game,' the first one is 'activity engaged in for diversion or amusement.'  We have forgotten that over the years as people fight under the stands or in bars over whose team is better.  If they're going to fight, let it be over something of more importance than a game, for pete's sake.

We need to grow up.