Thursday, April 15, 2010

My Heart Beats Baseball


It's April.... April is magic to me. April begins the season of baseball... Baseball, a beautiful soap opera complete with sunflower seeds and statistics. The poetry of 6-4-3 double play, watching the infield shift to the right or the left, depending on which way the batter pulls the ball and then the ultimate slap.. an intentional walk. When Barry Bonds used to play, the bases would be loaded and they would intentionally walk him. They would WALK IN A RUN, the manager's thinking was that one run is better than 4 if he hit a home run.. Which, he probably would. Bonds hit a lot of those. Enough about him and the stinking Giants. It's in my blood to despise them, so I do. No other explanation necessary. I don't remember when I fell in love with this sport, or how I came to have such a passion for it, or at what age I became so emotionally invested in this team that when they lose, my heart actually hurts. Last year when Broxton blew the save against Philly, I hit my knees in distress. "There's always next year" started running through my head. I love baseball, I love the crack of the bat, the heckling of umpires, the smell of the stadium and the fact that to me, there is no better place on Earth than Dodger Stadium when the boys are winning. When the crowd is roaring and a home run gets hit, the place goes off. Tonight was special, tonight was Jackie Robinson night and all the teams wore #42 in his honor. Jackie was a Dodger and they pulled out a win tonight and that's no coincidence. Sometimes I wish that I was a normal girl who didn't care about a team or sports or winning a series, I wish that because it hurts bad when they lose.. But it's all good when we win again. Tonight was good, the bottom of the 10th inning, Blake Dewitt gets a base hit, the D backs intentionally walk Rafael Furcal to get to Andre Ethier. .. Let me repeat this.. they intentionally walked Furcal to get to Andre Ethier. For anyone reading this, Dre is a notoriously good clutch hitter. He had 6b game winning hits last season.. Six. And they walked someone to get to him, with runners in scoring position. Due to a wild pitch, Dewitt & Furcal advanced. Right handed pitcher faces left handed Dre and Dre belts one over the head of Chris Young. Dewitt scores, Dodgers win and everybody's happy. Tomorrow we face the G-Men.. ughhhhh division rivals and they always have our number... But for tonight I am going to sit back, relax and enjoy the small victory that just came our way. At age 10 I was jumping on our couch cause they had just one the world series.. 22 years ago... Who knows, maybe this is our year! I bleed Dodger Blue, I always have and I forever will.