Monday, February 4, 2008

With the Superbowl over, we can move on to better things.

There is no question that yesterday's superbowl was a very good game. The defense was spot on and the two teams really played their heart's out. But, I can't help but think that it is only football. I know, I know, football has a lot of strategy and physicality. Some people have even gone so far as to start compiling some history, but it pales in comparison with the real national pasttime.

While channel surfing tonight, I happened upon an old baseball game where Red's pitcher Tom Seaver pitched a no-hitter to the St. Louis Cardinals. There is an elegance to baseball that is so wondrous, it fails comparison.

Let us take the history for example. People talk about the history of different American sports, but baseball occupies a unique place. We Americans actually feel that it could be possible for the baseball players of today to play against the ghosts of yesterday. Or take statistics, baseball is rife with statistics. The game is practically mathematical theorems facing off against one another. Not only do the statistics of today fight with one another, they vie for dominance with the statistics of players long dead.

Baseball is usually hard to grasp because it requires patience. It is a game of mental stress alleviated by bursts of pure energy and will. One cannot use brute force to compensate for a lack of planning, intelligence, or what have you. Yet, the body is constantly be asked to do things that defy what it should be able to accomplish. (I do not know of one week where the highlights of baseball do not far over-shadow the highlights all other sports.)

As I watched the re-run of just one, seemingly insignificant, game of baseball, I turned to my dad and said, "I will die loving this game." This was not said while I watched the superbowl, just a simple game of baseball.

1 comment:

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