Reconnecting with America’s pastime

For those of you out there who read my first blog from mostly sunny Florida, you know this is my first trip to spring training.
For me, it has been about much more than just watching baseball. It has truly helped me reconnect with the game I loved so much as a kid.
Many of you know I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan, which has mostly been a good thing for me over the years (maybe not so much this year, I’m afraid. But we’ll see). As a kid, I loved baseball and the Cardinals so much I’d sit out in the car on summer nights listening to the Redbirds on KMOX from St. Louis, just because the car radio picked it up better than in the house. But there was one radio in the house that would pick it up pretty well, so I kept it by my bed so I could listen to games when I should have been sleeping.
I felt so close to the game back then.
But since the age of multi-million dollar contracts, labor disputes, strikes and steroids came rolling along, I’ve felt more distant from the game. Especially after baseball struck in 1994 and didn’t even play the World Series.
Being down here, though, has not only been fun, it’s been therapeutic. You get to watch major league players in minor league settings – small, intimate ball parks instead of the hulking big-league venues.
And usually, the folks that come to these spring training games are true baseball fans. Watching the Mets and Cardinals in Jupiter on Thursday, sports editor Sam Bundy and I discussed the game and certain teams and players at length with some Mets fans sitting around us. Same deal with some Indians fans Friday at Space Coast Stadium in Viera.
Just watching the best players the game has to offer in such close confines is truly something every true baseball fan would find highly valuable and rewarding.
Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’re a fan of the game, but not as much as you used to be. Maybe you have a desire to reconnect with America’s pastime, despite the troubles it’s going through.
If that’s the case, I highly recommend a trip to spring training. It’s well worth the effort.

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