- Groucho, Chico and Harpo with Lou Gehrig
Baseball season is finally here!
I consider it one of the best times of the year, when my routine starts to include reading boxscores and checking the standings. There is nothing like the rhythm of baseball for me and the way it weaves together with the daily lives of people who follow the game.
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One of the most vivid visual images of my youth are coming up the steps of Shea Stadium at night and suddenly having the bright green grass of the diamond emerge before you. Everything was rich and deeply colored. The greens were dark, the dirt of the infield a warm clay red and the whites of the lines shining like lasers. It felt like that moment in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy opens the door and everything changes from a bland, colorless scene to one filled with powerful, vibrant colors. I still get that same stir of familiar excitement when I see scenes of a ballpark at night, ablaze in color.
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So my marathon season begins and, as a fan, I am filled with optimism because my team has won its first game. Everything is rosy until that inevitable first loss which tastes bitter going down. Losing and failure, a subject I’ve discussed this week, is all part of the game and it’s how a team or player responds to failure that determines the direction of a season. That is where the drama lays in baseball. Can’t wait for the game today!
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Here’s one of my favorite things, one that I showed here two years ago. It’s Harpo Marx’s wonderful rendition, from his appearance on I Love Lucy, of Take Me Out to the Ballpark, one that strikes that ethereal chord I feel for the game. Have a great Saturday! Batter up!
Redtree Times 