Recently, I've found myself staying up late watching several classic baseball movies -- "The Natural," "Field of Dreams," "The Sandlot" -- and I've come to realize the 12-year-old inside of me just won't let my obsession with baseball go. And with the balmy days of spring becoming more frequent, I'm beginning to think that isn't such a bad thing. Most of all, this year I've found myself diving into baseball more than I can remember in years past -- something I'm finding suits me just fine.
My first divulgence back into our national pastime has been with my participation in two IM softball teams. In seasons' past, I've only been on one -- if any -- softball squad, but in my reconnection with the sport, I've found myself on two teams.
Some people might call me crazy, but the chance to get riled up about bad calls, swing at way too many slow pitches with all my weight on my front foot and slide into third while wearing shorts and knee-length socks on Sunday and Wednesday nights is quite enticing. Softball -- whether it's played poorly or exceptionally, as both my teams have done -- is always entertaining and worth my time.
My Sunday team frequently has to play short-handed, which makes the game all the more interesting. My Wednesday team has had as many lineup changes as games. The games are really what keep me going through two traditionally bad days of the week.
But the real beauty of IM softball is the moments when your beat-up, college-loving body makes a play that connects with your younger, athletic self. Batting in the lead-off spot on both teams, I've hit my fair share of infield pop-ups and grounders. Every once in a while, though, I'll make a solid short swing that puts a single to the opposite field gap and sparks a memory in my senses of what it's like to actually play this game. In high school, singles to the gaps were my M.O. as a hitter, and every now and again, when that feeling comes back -- well, it's what makes it all worth it. Even in the field, when you run down a long fly ball or turn a double play up the middle (which we did last week, somewhat remarkably), those senses can come flooding back. It's the connection to a former self, a former kid who played baseball three seasons out of the year that is the biggest appeal to IM softball for me. And it has also sparked my recent love affair with our national pastime.
The return of Major League Baseball has also helped nudge me back into my old baseball-following ways. I love the random hot starts by some teams and players that bring hope to baseball cities across the country. Like the Orioles' Brian Roberts last year, the Detroit Tigers' Chris Shelton has brought his A-game to national attention, hitting .536 so far this year with 5 homers and 10 RBI.
New stories make the season so compelling to watch, and while critics love to claim April baseball means nothing, I don't quite buy that. It's true a hot start doesn't guarantee the playoffs, and a slow start doesn't mean a team can't make a charge the rest of the season to stay in contention, but history shows that the trends set in April usually play out for the rest of the season.
Most of all, I've rekindled the flame as I've been hanging around more people who care about baseball. Growing up in Charlotte, I could count the number of serious baseball fans in my high school class on one hand. Everybody else mildly followed the Braves -- a team I still hate simply because everyone else "loved" them -- and finding good baseball conversation was tough. In the fantasy world that is college though, finding knowledgeable baseball fans is actually easier than I thought. I have friends who can name the 1997 Oakland Athletics lineup -- no problem, several drinks deep, without ever being an A's fan or living on the West Coast. I have friends who love remembering old school players like the Pirates' Doug Drabek and the Dodgers' Delino DeShields. Constantly keeping baseball in my everyday dialogue has helped me rediscover this game.
The realist in me knows baseball is a sport most 21st century fans don't have the patience to connect with. I know football, in its weekend scheduling glory, took baseball's spot in America's heart many years ago. And I've heard every argument there is to hear about how baseball isn't interesting until October -- or that it just plain sucks. But for those of us who love IM softball, the return of baseball and love talking the game, well, it sure is a fine time of the year.
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