Josh Q. Public: Boy, the way Glenn Miller played. Songs that made the Hit Parade. Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days. -Archie Bunker
Public Service Announcement: Ok, here we go! Whatsamatta Binky? Life got you down? Down on the ground? You long for the glory days? The wink of young girl’s eye? Glory days?
You’re a traditionalist. A purist. Your glass is always half emptiest. You curse the day Ron Blomberg was ever born. You say the Wildcard should never have reared its ugly head. Steroids have ruined the game? Lighten up Francis. The sky is not falling.
I revere the game of baseball as much you do. Paul Revere the game as much as you do. Just me and my horsy and a quart of beer the game as much as you do. Probably more so. I live in a field of dreams. I watch the game as if I dipped myself in magic waters. My memories are so thick you have to brush them away from my face.
I used to watch This Week In Baseball each and every Saturday. Joe Garagiola too. I remember Pudge waving it fair. “There it goes! It’s a long drive…if it stays fair…home run!” I remember when Larcenous Lou Brock touched Ty Cobb’s untouchable stolen base record. I remember Reggie owning October. I remember all those things. Your memories may go back even farther. Go back to Bullet Bob Gibson. Go back to the Say Hey Kid. Stan the Man and Rocky Colavito. Or maybe not that far. Maybe only as far as Cal. As Rhino. As Dave Stewart. God love you.
Cherish those memories. Hold them dear. I do. You’re allowed to be a sentimentalist. But, be a sentimentalist without being a defeatist. You’re allowed to embrace your memories. But, embrace your memories while still forging new ones. In these days of instant information and TMZ, we lose sight of the forest beyond the trees. We lose sight of the Ichiros. We lose sight of the Orlando Hudsons, the Adrian Gonzalezes. And that’s a shame. My tears fell like rain. Those guys are good. Real good. We should be paying attention.
While we focus on the minutia and try to outsnark one another, we miss stories. Miss the Brad Ziegler story. Miss stuff like that there. As we click and reclick the refresh button on Deadspin waiting with hope upon hope to see who has gotten tasered today, we forget we still have some pretty damn good ballplayers in today’s game if I do damn say so my own damn self.
We still have guys like Hanley Ramirez. We still have guys like Chase Utley. Like Carl Crawford. Dustin Pedroia. Guys who play the game hard. Guys who play the game right. Like it should be played. We have Hall of Fame guys too. For every Robin Roberts there is a Roy Halladay. For every Josh Gibson there is a Big Papi. For every Rollie Fingers a Mariano Rivera. So cheer up. Gray skies are gonna clear up. Put on a happy face. All is right with the world. All is right with baseball. These are the good old days.
Public Spectacle:
Peace out homies. Six Two and even!
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