What I Love About Baseball

Know what I love about baseball?  Well, besides double plays, pick-offs, pay-off pitches and watching the fellas digging in at the plate?

... I love how baseball fans who’ve never met before always find plenty to talk about.  I love how it can bring families together at the ballpark after a grueling work week.  I love that so many adults have treasured childhood memories of favorite baseball heroes or MLB game memories that they can recall in vivid detail. I love catching glimpses of Little Leaguers' imagined visions of grandeur as they attempt to emulate their favorite MLB stars.

My relatively young love of baseball has been fostered and encouraged by many people in my life.  Some of those closest to me, like my darling Hubby, support my new passion with a wink and a smile (and trips to Spring Training!)  My extended family and friends now keep closer tabs on the St. Louis Cardinals - and baseball in general.  I smile to see an email from them checking in about Pujols news.  It is just another reminder how baseball is a great way to casually reconnect.

I have been even more profoundly amazed by how baseball reaches out in other less direct relationships. For example, one day last year, Hubby showed up from work with a stack of baseball cards. His boss had been escorting his daughter around antique stores on a trip out East. While waiting for his daughter, he noticed baseball cards on the shelves and remembered hearing how passionate I was about the Cardinals.  I think he must have bought every Cardinal baseball card he could find that day!  It meant so much to me, knowing that he appreciated my interest and picked up those Cardinal cards for me!    Some of those cards are now personal treasures…

Another of Hubby’s business associates, Bob, lives in Canada.  Bob and I have chatted baseball at a few business dinners, and I have learned that Bob is not only a Blue Jays fan, but a true baseball fan.  He has collected cards since childhood and knows more about the sport than I could ever dream of! This past December Bob surprised me by bringing a portion of the Cardinals cards he had collected as a child.  He gave them to me, saying he knew I’d appreciate them.  He could not have been more right!  ;)

Baseball has enriched my life in so many ways.  It has brought me closer to family, uncles and brothers-in-law, who now banter with me about the Reds and the Brewers.  Baseball has connected me with a wonderful network of Cardinal fans through blogging and twitter, many of whom have become dear friends.  I am ever thankful for the game and what it has given me.  And I am looking forward to another season of the blessing that is baseball.

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Today’s Spring Training game is Cardinals vs. Twins at 12:05, central.  David Freese makes his Spring Training debut at third base and Jake Westbrook is on the mound.

Go Cards!!!  ;)