tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post1962195086475777417..comments2024-03-28T22:15:17.067-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/29/24: The Joys of Summer #7: BaseballNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-18333805845454515552019-07-17T16:39:52.655-05:002019-07-17T16:39:52.655-05:00I can remember going to White Sox games via 2 buse...I can remember going to White Sox games via 2 buses and the El. They were so bad you could get box seats right behind the dugout a few minutes before game time, and could actually afford them.heydavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15509102502417886790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-76967530215264405932019-07-17T16:38:19.765-05:002019-07-17T16:38:19.765-05:00I'm a die-hard White Sox fan but I have to adm...I'm a die-hard White Sox fan but I have to admit that, now living in downtown Des Moines, a walk to see a minor league game (even if it is the damn Iowa Cubs) is just a wonderful time.heydavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15509102502417886790noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-28359939227531822922019-07-17T13:25:04.412-05:002019-07-17T13:25:04.412-05:00We've been going to a lot of South Bend Cubs g...We've been going to a lot of South Bend Cubs games. Nice venue, easy parking, and tickets are $12 for bleachers. Never a bad time there. NikkiDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15226032148784322997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-49388136121112305632019-07-17T10:46:26.532-05:002019-07-17T10:46:26.532-05:00You ain't just a-woofin'...back in my Blea...You ain't just a-woofin'...back in my Bleacher Creature days (mid-Seventies to early Nineties), I often went to 30-40 Cub games every year. I saw 53 games in person when they won the NL East crown in '89. I would never be able to do that now. No way in hell.Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-38602783707528416882019-07-17T09:06:13.234-05:002019-07-17T09:06:13.234-05:00It's a shame that so many kids and families ar...It's a shame that so many kids and families are now priced out of seeing MLB in person.Zonkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17924587109596922187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-12481204121665659952019-07-17T01:05:36.946-05:002019-07-17T01:05:36.946-05:00What a great read. I already knew, from reading yo...What a great read. I already knew, from reading your book a few years ago, that you were never much of a fan. But you're actually more of a fan than I realized. I had the same affinity for the rare Jewish ballplayer. Chicago didn't have many of them when I was a kid, but I admired Sandy Koufax, for his refusal to pitch for the Dodgers on Yom Kippur. And then there was Moe Berg, who spied on both the Japanese and Nazis in the Thirties and Forties.<br /><br />Durocher was managing the Dodgers, not the Yankees, when the New York Giants lured Leo across town to manage their team in 1948. Which would be like Joe Maddon suddenly moving from the North Side to manage the Brewers, rather than switching to the South Side. Leo did PLAY for the Yankees, though, back in the Roaring Twenties. He and Babe Ruth were teammates, but not friends. An urban legend maintains that Ruth accused Leo of having sticky fingers, and stealing his watch. Nothing was ever proven, but the story lives on..<br /><br />I went with my old man, along the guy across the street and his son, to my first Cub game on the day after my thirteenth birthday. Walked up the ramp into the bleachers, saw the grass and the ivy, and (like so many before me and after me) was hooked for life. We sat in center field, in front of the scoreboard, and watched Willie Mays make his famed basket catches. The Cubs beat the Giants, 9 to 5. I've bled Cubbie Blue for almost sixty years now, and I will until I die. Even though I briefly worked in the Tribe ticket office in the mid-Nineties, and my wife is a die-hard Indians fan (we don't talk about 2016), I've had Ohio vanity plates, which display my continuing allegiance to the Cubs, for over 25 years. <br /><br />Unlike the other sports, the dailiness of baseball is part of its appeal...a game every day for six months. Like the weather, no two days are exactly alike. The season hums along like the TV in the next room. It's always there, waiting for you to rejoin it, whether you watch every pitch or ignore it and do something else for a while. Baseball allows you to perform other tasks while following a game's progress. That may explain why, after almost a century on the airwaves, radio baseball may actually be the next best thing to being at the ballpark in person.<br /> Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.com